Changes to the Online Resources Usage Statistics

What’s changing

• SCLS has new data dashboards for Online Resource usage statistics:
  https://www.scls.info/online-resources-stats
• SCLS is now providing better vendor-provided and, where available, COUNTER-compliant statistics like those DPI wants on the annual reports. (In short, how much people actually used a resource.)
• SCLS is discontinuing statistics pulled from script log files. (The log files were “gate counts” of how many people requested access to a resource and not actual usage.)
• SCLS is proposing changes to the update frequency for the BadgerLink and Locally-Subscribed Resources data dashboards.

Background

Last year, SCLS made changes to the authentication system to:

• Authenticate LINKcat users against live Koha for OverDrive and Online Resources
• Improve availability of library-specific COUNTER-compliant statistics by updating vendor setups and our authentication system
• Send BadgerLink database links on SCLS webpages straight to BadgerLink for authentication

Plan for 2019 and forward

This year, we are changing how we provide usage statistics for Online Resources.  However, due to the increased work required to obtain and process the numbers from multiple vendors and formats, we are looking at changing the update frequency for some of the dashboards.

• Data dashboards with vendor statistics
  • Focus on COUNTER-compliant statistics like those reported on the DPI annual reports
  • Include graphs to show trends over time
  • Provide the option to download the associated data files in a spreadsheet format.
• The data dashboards won’t include all resources. The three dashboards will include:
  • Locally-subscribed resources
    • Includes dashboard tabs for databases where a large number of libraries subscribe and the statistics are easy to obtain by library
    • Proposed update frequency: Twice a year (January & July)  Monthly
  • OverDrive
    • Includes dashboard tabs for checkouts by format, checkouts by month, and costs
    • Proposed update frequency: Monthly
  • BadgerLink
    • Includes dashboard tabs for resources reported on the DPI annual report
    • Proposed update frequency: Twice a year (January & July)

Feedback appreciated!

Please take a look at the new dashboards and give us your feedback by filling out the form at https://goo.gl/forms/HhojBeL4nGThooGQ2

Reminders

• There’s a new scls-databases email list that staff can subscribe to for news and information regarding online resources.
• Also, if you haven’t done so yet, please update links to BadgerLink resources on your library’s website. See https://scls.typepad.com/scls_technology/2018/10/update-your-links-to-certain-online-resources.html for more information.