Re: software or techniques for gathering use statistics Joanne Romano 20 May 2008 12:28 UTC
Hi, Birdie, Our library recently implemented the Scholarly Stats portal as of last January. I find it very convenient as far as being able to populate one spreadsheet with multiple vendor statistics. However, this same venue means you have to cut and paste onto other worksheets when you want to have a single vendor's stats broken out. The only drawback is waiting for vendors to supply stats. A drawback: even though COUNTER compliant, sometimes, vendors may not be able to provide stats in time for the next month's report. According to COUNTER, they have 30 days from the last day of the month to supply the stats for that month. Scholarly Stats releases reports by the 5th day of each month, so if a vendor misses the deadline, you have to wait to get the stats on the next reporting period. We've had issues with having stats for multiple title collections on one vendor platform not being reported, and are still trying to determine if it is because Scholalry Stats can only report one collection per vendor, or if it has to do with how the vendor is presenting the data to them, but, generally speaking, it does save you time and energy by collecting the data for you. I hope that info gives a bit of insight....we are still "tinkering" with the portal; it gets put on the back burner when daily life at the office gets busy, and it's always busy! But, I am glad we purchased it, given the alternative of collecting usage stats... Joanne Joanne V. Romano, MLS Serials and Electronic Resources Librarian Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library 1133 John Freeman Blvd. Houston, TX 77030 713-799-7144 fx: 713-799-7180 joanne.romano@exch.library.tmc.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Karen Tschanz Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 4:14 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] software or techniques for gathering use statistics Hi, Birdie: This interests us too, please do summarize to the list. Thanks! kst Karen S. Tschanz, M.L.S., M.B.A., M.S.O.D. Asst. Prof./Chair, Content Management Robert B. Greenblatt, M.D., Library, AB-241 Medical College of Georgia 1451 Laney-Walker Boulevard Augusta, GA 30912 Phone: (706) 721-9912 Fax: (706) 721-6006 E-mail: ktschanz@mail.mcg.edu >>> Birdie MacLennan <bmaclenn@UVM.EDU> 05/19/2008 5:08 PM >>> Hi there, We are interested in software to help us consolidate and make more efficient the process of gathering use statistics for our electronic resources. I am aware of Scholarly Stats and have read here and there about the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) (are there places that have implemented this??). I am just wondering what libraries are doing to gather usage data? And if you have any tips or tricks or software or technology tools that you especially like, that harvests statistical data so you don't have to do this one resource or package at a time. Any help or insights will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to reply directly to the list. I'll be happy to summarize responses, if I get enough of them. Thanks! -- Birdie MacLennan Bailey/Howe Library E-mail: bmaclenn@uvm.edu University of Vermont AIM/IM: birdieatbailey 538 Main Street Phone: 802-656-2016 Burlington, VT 05405, USA Fax: 802-656-4038 Library Associate Professor ; Coordinator, Serials & Cataloging Interim Head, Collection Management Services