Going All-Electronic and Keeping Track of It: Clickthrough Statistics for Online Document Usage
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The document discusses the challenges library administrators face in assessing the usage of online government documents, highlighting the lack of tracking capabilities for online content clickthroughs in library systems. It emphasizes the need for meaningful statistics to justify depository collections, improve item selection, and maintain URL access, as well as the necessity of a reliable tracking system for online document usage. Overall, it showcases the need for proactive management of online document URLs and the importance of gathering and analyzing usage data to better serve library users.
![“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), 396409. 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.
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Going All-Electronic and Keeping Track of It: Clickthrough Statistics for Online Document Usage
- 1. Christopher C. Brown, University of Denver cbrown@du.edu 2011 Missouri Government Documents Conference
- 2. URLs in the OPAC: Docs and non-docs
- 3. 97% of current GPO catalog records contain links to online content Library ILS systems provide circulation stats for books, but have no ability to provide stats for online clickthroughs Library directors increasingly believe depository collections are not used, because we cannot provide them the most relevant stats
- 4. Documents Received Circulation Statistics (from our ILS reports) GPO PURL Referral Statistics (see http://www.fdlp.gov/component/docman/cat_view/178-collectionmanagement/249-purl-referrals for individual library statistics; see also http://fdlp.gov/collections/building-collections/618-purl-referralsreporting for discussion of recent issues)
- 5. 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
- 6. To track online government document clickthroughs when accessed via the online catalog oNot possible to capture every use of government info by our users oBut is possible to capture all clickthroughs via the OPAC
- 7. Justify our depository status to administrators Assist with item selections GPO cannot provide them URL maintenance “Knowing where they’re going” is always helpful
- 8. 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.
- 9. Nearly 600,000 documents URLs in our catalog Many of these not in CGP “Aggressively” added URLs
- 17. 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
- 18. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. We can provide meaningful stats to the library director We can see high-use and low-use areas We can tell if users benefit from our special projects We can do reactive URL maintenance We can see turnaways and other problems We can see search engine attacks
- 20. 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%
- 21. Comparison of Online Access with Physical Circulation of Documents
- 24. Project Topographic Maps NASA Technical Reports GAO Reports (older) LexisNexis Digital Hearings/Committee Prints Readex Digital Serial Set OSTI Reports URL Count Coverage Dates Tracking Time Span URL Clicks Unique URL Clicks % Unique Accessed 456 1991 – 2001 Sept. 2003 – June 2009 101 76 16.6% 24,825 1976 – 2001 April 2007 – June 2009 310 263 1.06% 9,559 1976 – 1999 Aug. 2007 – June 2009 184 161 1.68% 57,200 1850 – 1995 July 2007 – June 2009 1027 851 1.49% 248,134 1817 – 1948 Sept. 2008 – June 2009 239 205 0.08% 19,901 2002 – 2006 July 2008 – June 2009 476 375 1.88%
- 25. 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. Error rate 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%
- 27. From August 24 through September 7, 2009 the PURL server was down. We were able to track each of the turnaways from government information and amend our records as needed. Access Denied!
- 28. “Direct access to online version”
- 29. 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
- 30. 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.
- 31. “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), 396409. 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