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Effective and Meaningful Statistics to Argue For Digital Services,

Funds and Outcomes

Sue HenczelCathie Jilovsky

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The Value of Statistics• Why do we count and

measure?• What can we count and

measure?• How can we count and

measure?• Who do we count and

measure for?

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Why count and measure?

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• To plan

e.g. space, staffing, technology

• To prioritise

e.g. collection development

• To budget

• To benchmark

Internet hosts 1993-2003Numbers in Millions

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Transition from print to digital

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Increasing digital content impacts on

• space, technology, budget, staffing levels and staffing type

• collection development and management

• user expectations and behaviours

Growth of Digital

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0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

04 06 08 10 12

Information Delivered into Library

Web

Digital

Print

Impact on statistics collection

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• Incorporate remote usage

• Identify those in library who are not using collections

• Development of new measures

• Include both print and digital

• Mixture of data gathering processes

Median Growth in Expenditures on E-resources

http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/snapshot.html C A V A L

Effective Statistics

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• Demonstrate value and relevance of a government library which is under threat of closing

• Show that building an Information Commons will be good for the library

• Justify the expenditure on print and electronic to achieve balance

What to count and measure?

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1. Physical things

2. Collections

3. Usage

4. User populations

5. Income and expenditur

What - Physical things

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• Number of desks, PCs, printers, …• Linear meters of shelving• Staff hours, staff levels, staff numbers• Opening hours

What - Collections

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Print Collections

• Volumes, titles, subscriptions …

Electronic Collections

• Databases, titles, issues ..

• Subscriptions

• Digitised materials

Percent of Expenditures on E-serials

C A V A L http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/snapshot.html

What - Usage

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• Loans / in-house use

• Inter-library loans and document delivery

• Website hits

• Database usage

• Reference enquiries

• User education sessions …

What - User Population

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• Potential users (total population)

• Actual users

•In-house users

•Virtual users

• Non-users

What - Income and Expenditure

Income

Expenditure

• Facilities (building, power … )

• Staffing

• Materials / collections

• Equipment (incl. networks)C A V A L

How - Physical

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• Manual

• Person counting / measuring

• Incremental

• Automated

• ILMS

• Asset registers

• Turnstile counters

How - Collections

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• Mostly automated – ILMS, accession listings

• Print – MARC records (per title)

• Electronic – MARC record (per title, per collection, per part of title)

Median Expenditures on E-serials

C A V A L http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/snapshot.html

CAUL Statistics – Deemed List

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How - Usage

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• Loans – ILMS - automatic

• In-library usage – manual

• ILLs – auto system (maybe!)

• Website hits – automatic

• Database usage – automatic

How – User Population

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• Potential Users – institution / funding body/ census data

• Actual Users – ILMS

• Surveys

• Website/Database hits

How – Income & Expenditure

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• Library expenditure – library accounts system, ILMS, institutional accounts system

• Library income – library accounts system, ILMS, institutional accounts system

Issues

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• Transition from print to digital – creation of hybrid environments

• Standardization and consistency

• Non-persistence of digital

• Pressures on libraries

•From owners/funders

•From users

CAVAL’s Online Statistics Prototype

C A V A L http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/test/caul/

CAVAL Collaborative Solutions

http://www.caval.edu.au

sueh@caval.edu.au

cathiej@caval.edu.au

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