Feedback from one ARL Library

[#1]

From: awhite@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

Date: March 11, 2011 9:37:01 AM EST

To: "ARL Directors Discussion List" <ARL-DIRECTORS@arl.org>

Subject: [ARL-DIRECTORS] Use of bibliometrics in collection development?

As we grapple with the complex environment of annual inflation with subscriptions costs tied together with title bundles, consortial licenses, and multi-year agreements, I'm curious to know how many of you have come to rely on usage statistics or bibliometrics at any point in your library's decision making process in collection development.

To me, there are several challenges associated with the use of such metrics (like COUNTER). To my experience, there is still a question of metric standards, i.e. are all vendor COUNTER-compliant reports truly the same?

How does one determine the value of a resource on the basis of number of downloads or searches in such usage reports? Do you use a cost-per-use model? Are impact factors included as metric along with the usage numbers?  Also, it would be nice to have some sense of population categories, to see if a given resource is used by multiple disciplines and/or strata (faculty, staff, undergrads, grads) to help determine value.  Along the lines of the annual ARL stats, how much does number of website visits tell us about our respective libraries?

Do folks use these statistics for more than just collection development?

Feedback, comments, etc. are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Andrew White, PhD

At X University we, like others, have struggled with some of the same questions Andrew White mentioned in his note.  We have tried to take an approach that relies to some degree on statistics while also recognizing that other factors are also important, and at times possibly more important, than hard data alone.

Last year, in reviewing our e-resource packages for possible cancellation, we looked at usage data, costs per use, and faculty perceptions of value (as indicated by a survey).  We also used subject librarians' assessment of various resources in our analysis.  In doing so, we recognized the limitations of each of these methods and have tried to balance the various data sources, hard and soft, to reach a result.  We remain open to a dialogue with users on how best to fulfill their information needs within the limits of our materials budgets.

We are currently recruiting a new e-resources support librarian who will have significant bibliometric data gathering and analysis duties.  Our hope is that this person will help keep track of developments in standards like COUNTER (and, ideally, influencing them where possible) and other measures that will assist in a process of continuous, and continuously improving, assessment of our collection.