Group items tagged

"Project objectives:\n\nThe project's major objective is enriching the toolkit used for the assessment of the impact of scholarly communication items, and hence of scholars, with metrics that derive from usage data. The project has created a semantic model of the scholarly communication process, and an associated large-scale semantic store that relates a range of bibliographic, citation and usage data obtained from a variety of sources. After mapping the structure of the scholarly community on the basis of the established reference data set, MESUR will conduct an investigation into the definition and validation of a range of usage-based metrics. The defined metrics will be cross-validated, resulting in the formulation of guidelines and recommendations." Van De Sompel, et al

Standards for stats evaluating eresource usage. "The use of online information resources is growing rapidly. It is widely agreed by producers and purchasers of information that the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they buy from a variety of sources is being used; publishers want to know how the information products they disseminate are being accessed. An essential requirement to meet these objectives is an agreed international set of standards and protocols governing the recording and exchange of online usage data. The COUNTER Codes of Practice provide these standards and protocols and are published in full on this website."

Abstract from the Website: "This paper is the third in a series of studies emanating from the UK JISC-funded RoMEO Project (Rights Metadata for Open-archiving). It considers previous studies of the usage of electronic journal articles through a literature survey. It then reports on the results of a survey of 542 academic authors as to how they expected to use open-access research papers. This data is compared with results from the second of the RoMEO Studies series as to how academics wished to protect their open-access research papers. The ways in which academics expect to use open-access works (including activities, restrictions and conditions) are described. It concludes that academics-as-users do not expect to perform all the activities with open-access research papers that academics-as-authors would allow. Thus the rights metadata proposed by the RoMEO Project would appear to meet the usage requirements of most academics."

Traditional journals, even those available electronically, are changing slowly. However, there is rapid evolution in scholarly communication. Usage is moving to electronic formats. In some areas, it appears that electronic versions of papers are being read about as often as the printed journal versions. Although there are serious difficulties in comparing figures from different media, the growth rates in usage of electronic scholarly information are sufficiently high that if they continue for a few years, there will be no doubt that print versions will be eclipsed. Further, much of the electronic information that is accessed is outside the formal scholarly publication process. There is also vigorous growth in forms of electronic communication that take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Web, and which simply do not fit into the traditional journal publishing format.

This article is a status report of the usage of eBooks on college campuses. Here is a quote in the article, "John Barnes of Cengage (formerly Gale) told the Charleston audience that, while his company still sells more print than electronic reference, users prefer electronic. He believes libraries should "move faster away from print reference" to meet user needs and increase usage. He cited a study done by Wright State University's Sue Polanka that found much greater use of an electronic collection than a print one, even though the electronic collection was only a fraction of the size of the print one. Further, the cost per use for the electronic collection was less than one-fifth of the cost per use of the print collection." We may want to find that Wright State University study. From the above quote, it seems to point to the feasibility of an all-digital library.

Springer's digital STM collection: "* More than 3,500 New eBooks and eReference Works Every Year * Ownership Business Model * Unlimited Simultaneous Use * Over 27,000 eBooks Available " Claims to provide full integration into catalog and usage stats

stats on usage of eresources

In this article we present the methodology and initial results from qualitative research into the usage and communication of digital information. It considers the motivation for the research and the methodologies adopted, including Contextual Design and Cultural Probes. The article describes the preliminary studies conducted to test the approach, highlighting the strengths and limitations of the techniques applied. Finally, it outlines proposals for refinement in subsequent iterations and the future research activities planned. The research is carried out as part of the Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access through NETworked Services) project.

I don't think this paper points to the feasibility of a digital library. It details the methodology of how to study users of digital libraries.

This is also saved under another bookmark. We will have to find a print version of this article for review. North Texas does not carry this journal.

Link to PLANETS "Report of Usage models for Libraries, Archives, and Data Centres." This report is a .pdf document that discusses the results of a study or user requirements for digital documents. The study discusses the following topics as they relate to digital documents: access, trustworthiness, retrieval, and flexibility.

CIBER projects Live projects Digital Lives for the Arts & Humanities Research Council (September 2007 to April 2009). Evaluating the Usage and Impact of E-Journals in the UK for the Research Information Network (January to November 2008). UK National E-Books Observatory for JISC Collections (January 2008 to April 2009). Recently completed projects MaxData for the US Institute of Museum & Library Studies. Completed December 2007. SuperBook for a consortium of publishers. Completed December 2007. The Impact of Open Access Journal Publishing II for Oxford University Press. Completed November 2007. The Researcher of the Future for the British Library and JISC. Completed November 2007.

Lots of ebook uptake in UK increasing library usage

This article is only available for purchase. North Texas does not carry this journal.