when there is no vendor: statistics for free clickthroughs via the online catalog
DESCRIPTION
When there is no Vendor: Statistics for Free Clickthroughs via the Online CatalogTRANSCRIPT
WHEN THERE IS NO VENDOR: STATISTICS FOR FREE CLICKTHROUGHS VIA THE ONLINE CATALOG
Christopher C. Brown: Reference Librarian / Government Documents Librarian, University of Denver, Penrose [email protected]
ABSTRACT
We know about COUNTER; we're familiar with SUSHI. But who has statistics for patron access to free resources? [crickets chirping here]. Learn how to track clickthroughs and make use of these statistics in decision-making. Instructions will be provided so that anyone can implement this in their online catalog.
The University of Denver has been tracking clickthrough statistics to free resources for over eight years. First we implemented it for US federal documents, then for all other free resources including Colorado State publications, Rand publications, National Academies Press, Google Scholar, Hathi Trust, and many others. I will describe the technology (a URL prepend in the 856 field of the catalog records), show statistical patterns over the years, and point to collection and space-allocation decisions coming out of these statistics. Rather than providing exact code, I will provide a list of specifications that can be given to those write the code so that other libraries can benefit from these statistics.
THE PROBLEM
Vendor stats as apples and oranges reports
Catalogs increasingly including “free” Internet resources, such as US government documents and other free resources
AN ERM CAN PROVIDE FURTHER ANALYSIS
50% OF OUR CATALOG RECORDS CONTAIN LINKS TO ONLINE CONTENT
50.0%
37.1%
12.9%
DU catalog records with no Internet link
DU catalog records with Internet link
Records with no vender – these are the records we are tracking!
Non-docs
Govdocs
URL GROWTH IN GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
URLs in the OPAC: Docs and non-docs
CURRENT DOCS – ALL ONLINEOLDER DOCS – MANY ONLINE
STATISTICS WE NOW KNOW
Documents Received Circulation Statistics (from our ILS reports)
GPO PURL Referral Statistics (see http://www.fdlp.gov/component/docman/cat_view/178-collection-management/249-purl-referrals for individual library statistics; see also http://fdlp.gov/collections/building-collections/618-purl-referrals-reporting for discussion of recent issues)
STATISTICS WE DON’T KNOW
Visits to online docs URLs by our users – we are clueless!
How many times URLs are visited by our users
What titles are visited by our users What agencies are most popular with
our users We don’t know the whole picture
WE ARE TRACKING:
U.S. Government Documents Colorado State Documents ERIC Documents Other Free Items, such as RAND, United
Nations, Human Rights Watch, Making of America, National Academies Press, and Wright American Fiction
WHY WE NEED URL STATISTICS
Justify our depository status to administrators
Assist with item selections GPO cannot provide them URL maintenance “Knowing where they’re going” is
always helpful
WHY STATISTICS ARE DIFFICULT TO GATHER
Not all government URLs are PURLed In 2004 I counted over 1,400 servers
hosting government documents to which our catalog pointed. We can’t expect 1,400 sites to provide us statistics.
GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS ON MULTIPLE SERVERS
Over 1,400 servers (Web sites) deliver US federal government e-content. They don’t provide usage statistics.
87.2%
4.1%
2.9%
2.4% 2.0%1.2% 0.2%
0.1%
gov
edu
org
com
net
mil
us
numeric
Data from: Brown, Christopher C. 2004. “Knowing Where They’re Going: Statistics for Online Government Document Access through the OPAC.”Online Information Review 28 (6), 396-409. DOI: 10.1108/14684520410570526
OUR SOLUTION: A LOCAL TRACKING SYSTEM
THE URL PREFIX IS APPENDED BEFORE THE URL/PURLOLD SYSTEM: COLDFUSION
STATS ARE LOGGED, AND USER IS REDIRECTED TO DESIRED URL
WE HAD TO STOP USING COLDFUSION SERVER IN 2010 – HAD TO REDO OUR PROCESSNEW SYSTEM: PHP
http://library.du.edu/clickthrough/index.php/clicks/?type=gov&url=
NEW PHP SYSTEM
AN ACCESS DATABASE IS USED TO MANAGE THE PROJECT STATS
TRACKING CLICKTHROUGHS SINCE 2003
CLICKTHROUGHS IN RELATION TO NUMBER OF RECORDS
Fiscal Year Total Docs Bib Recs Bib Recs with URLs Clickthroughs to
Docs
FY2004 358,215 43,307 3,809
FY2005 373,200 55,508 4,504
FY2006 388,610 62,374 4,686
FY2007 401,454 103,021 5,217
FY2008 429,122 159,543 6,342
FY2009 711,315 463,121 7,660
FY2010 860,346 594,431 7,921
FY2011 898,092 626,570 7,442
BENEFITS OF CLICKTHROUGH PROJECT
1. We can provide meaningful stats to the library director
2. We can see high-use and low-use areas
3. We can tell if users benefit from our special projects
4. We can do reactive URL maintenance5. We can see turnaways and other
problems6. We can see search engine attacks
1. PROVIDING MEANINGFUL STATS
1. PROVIDING MEANINGFUL STATS
Older Docs Content Gets Visits
FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09
Total Clicks 3809 4504 4686 5217 6342 7660
Up to 10 years 3542 4155 4170 4369 4996 5600
percent 93.0% 92.3% 89.0% 83.7% 78.8% 73.1%
Over 10 years 267 349 516 848 1346 2060
percent 7.0% 7.7% 11.0% 16.3% 21.2% 26.9%
1. PROVIDING MEANINGFUL STATS
Comparison of Online Access with Physical Circulation of Documents
2. HIGH-USE AREAS BY AGENCY
2. HIGH-USE AREAS BY SUDOCS
3. SPECIAL PROJECT USAGE
Project URL Count Coverage Dates Tracking Time Span URL Clicks
Unique URL
Clicks
% Unique Accessed
Topographic Maps 456 1991 – 2001 Sept. 2003 – June 2009 101 76 16.6%
NASA Technical Reports 24,825 1976 – 2001 April 2007 – June 2009 310 263 1.06%
GAO Reports (older) 9,559 1976 – 1999 Aug. 2007 – June 2009 184 161 1.68%
LexisNexis Digital Hearings/Committee Prints
57,200 1850 – 1995 July 2007 – June 2009 1027 851 1.49%
Readex Digital Serial Set 248,134 1817 – 1948 Sept. 2008 – June 2009 239 205 0.08%
OSTI Reports 19,901 2002 – 2006 July 2008 – June 2009 476 375 1.88%
4. REACTIVE URL MAINTENANCE
Two approaches: Proactive approach My approach: Reactive approach – with
nearly half-a-million docs URLs in our OPAC, we can’t afford to be proactive.
FY Clicks Errors Rate
FY04 3809 202 5.30%
FY05 4504 231 5.13%
FY06 4686 299 6.38%
FY07 5217 217 4.16%
FY08 6342 179 2.82%
FY09 7660 177 2.31%
FY10 1542 38 2.46%
Error rate
IT IS IMPORTANT TO REPORT BROKEN PURLS TO GPO. THEY ARE REPAIRED VERY QUICKLY.
4. Reactive URL Maintenance
5. TURNAWAY PROBLEMSSTOPGAP: PURL RECORD AMENDED
“Direct access to online version”
6. SEARCH ENGINE ATTACKS CUIL (http://www.cuil.com/) CUIL attacked many OPACs – at least Millennium OPACs. We were
attacked two times. Our project uncovered the attacks! August, 2007 and February, 2008 The CUIL clickthroughs were subsequently omitted from the project stats
A BIT OF ANALYSIS – US GOVERNMENT DOCS
ANALYSIS, CONT.
ANALYSIS, CONT.
SPECS FOR THE NEW DU CLICKTHROUGH SYSTEM
Project hosted on stable server (such as library Web server). Should be able to handle long URLs – up to 700 characters. Prepended URL sends request to library server. Included in prepended URL is cataloger-supplied 3-letter
code of URL type (ex: gov, cou, ran – any 3-letter combination that may be needed in future).
Server records date/time, IP address of requestor, 3-letter code of URL type, and URL requested.
Server redirects user to desired URL. Reporting mechanism available to gather clickthroughs. Archiving function available to archive stats. Ability to view archived records. Secure login for authorized users.
Give these specs to a systems person, and see if you can make this happen!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:“Adding URLs in Bulk at the University of Denver.” Presentation given at the Spring 2002 Depository Library Council Meeting, 24 April 2002, Mobile, AL. View PoierPoint presentation: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/proceedings/02spc.html
“Statistics for Online Document Use.” Presentation given at the Fall 2003 Depository Library Conference, 22 October 2003, Arlington, VA. Published in the Proceedings of the 12th Annual Depository Library Conference, Oct. 19-22, 2003.
Brown, Christopher C. 2004. “Knowing Where They're Going: Statistics for Online Government Document Access through the OPAC”. Online Information Review 28 (6), 396-409. DOI: 10.1108/14684520410570526
“Local Access Statistics for Federal Documents: Tracking Web Page and Online Catalog Usage.” Presentation given with Susan Xue at the Fall 2004 Depository Library Conference, 20 October 2004, Washington, DC. Published in the Proceedings of the 13th Annual Depository Library Conference, Oct. 17-20, 2004. [view]
“Enhancing NASA Fiche Records with Links to Online Content.” Presentation given at the Fall 2007 Depository Library Conference, 17 October 2007, Arlington, VA. [view]
“Tracking Online Document Usage from the Catalog: Experiences from the Field.” Presentation given with Stephanie Braunstein, Susan Kendall, Liza Weisbrod, Jennifer Gerke, and Shane Cole at the Fall 2009 Depository Library Conference, 19 October 2009, Arlington, VA [view].
Brown, Christopher C. 2011. “Knowing Where They Went: Six Years of Online Statistics via the OPAC for Federal Government Information.”College & Research Libraries 72 (1), 43-61.
http://sites.google.com/site/librariancorner/url-clickthrough-project
