Messages from MARS: February 2012

“Messages from MARS,” the Newsletter of the RUSA-MARS Emerging Technologies in Reference Section, Melissa J. Clapp, Editor

February 2012

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From the Chair

MARS had a very productive Midwinter Meeting.  This was the first Midwinter Meeting at which MARS largely participated virtually.  Committees, other than the Executive Committee, had the option of meeting in-person or meeting virtually prior to Midwinter and sending in a report that would be discussed during the Executive Committee meetings, which were held in-person.  This seemed to work well for committees. Two committees opted to meet in-person during Midwinter, while other committees chose to meet virtually.  Of course, committees that presented discussion forums did send committee representatives to conduct the forums.

In total, three MARS discussion forums were held during Midwinter.  Hot Topics presented a wonderful discussion forum entitled “Reaching out to Patrons in Virtual Ways: Old School Successes and New Initiatives.”  The Virtual Reference Discussion Group held an engaging discussion forum entitled “UX + VR FTW,” which explored user experience as it pertains to virtual reference.  Local Systems and Services presented a stimulating discussion forum entitled “The Learning Commons and the Academic Library: Using Emerging Technologies and New Partnerships to Build Student Success.”

In addition to the MARS gatherings, RUSA held its Annual Membership Social.  The RUSA Social was very well attended.  It provided a wonderful opportunity to chat with RUSA friends as well as meet and welcome new RUSA members.  The Midwinter Meeting proved to be very informative, and MARS is looking forward to an equally engaging Annual Conference.

Warm Regards,

Dianna McKellar
MARS Chair, 2011-2012

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General MARS News

The MARS Chair’s Program Planning Committee has been steadfastly working towards organizing a program that will be presented at the Annual ALA Conference.  The program, which has been selected to serve as the 2012 RUSA President’s Program, is entitled “Library in Your Hand: Mobile Technologies for Exchanging Information with Patrons.”  This program will explore the importance of libraries supporting mobile technologies for the dissemination and acquisition of information.  Joan Lippincott, Associate Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, will speak about why libraries should embrace communicating with patrons through mobile devices.  Kristin Antelman, Associate Director for the Digital Library at NCSU Libraries, will speak about mobile initiatives at NCSU including WolfWalk, a photographic guide to the history of NCSU optimized for mobile devices.  David Lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka Public Library, will discuss the library app and social media used to communicate with patrons at the Topeka Public Library.

Dianna McKellar, MARS Chair

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RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Planning Committee Update
Conference report for 2012 ALA Midwinter Meeting, Dallas, TX
Discussion topic: “UX + VR FTW”

Courtney Greene, Head of Digital User Experience at Indiana University Libraries Bloomington, opened the Virtual Reference Discussion Forum by describing general principles of designing for user experience and examining how those might apply to virtual reference. She emphasized the need to go beyond supposition and assumptions by gathering information from patrons through a variety of means including usability testing, focus groups, and web analytics.  She also illustrated how her library used UX principles to create multiple IM widget access points for users and corresponding queues for library operators. Her presentation slides are available on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/xocg/ux-vr-ftw-mars-vrdg-alamw12. Following Courtney’s presentation, there was a lengthy question and answer session that involved sharing of ideas and best practices.

A total of 52 people attended the session. Twenty-three of the attendees completed an evaluation form. The feedback was extremely positive, with many respondents expressing appreciation for Courtney’s enthusiasm and expertise. They expressed a strong desire to continue learning more about UX and its implications for VR.

Committee News:

The Virtual Reference Discussion Group Planning Committee is currently discussing topic ideas for its Discussion Forum at ALA Annual. After the committee finalizes a topic and identifies a kick-off speaker, it will begin work on the following two projects:

• Update the committee’s public page on the ALA website. The page will include lists of past members as well as lists of past topics for the Discussion Fora at MidWinter and Annual. When possible, the list of topics will include links to notes and presentation materials.
• Establish and promote a public page on ALA connect for soliciting suggestions for future topics for Discussion Fora.

Jason Coleman, VRD Planning Committee

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From the Outreach Committee

The MARS Happy Hour at ALA Annual will be held on Saturday, June 23, 5 – 7 pm.  This is our chance to relax, network and welcome new and potential members and others interested in the work of MARS.  Location and other details to be announced soon!

Arlie Sims, Chair, MARS Outreach

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Statistics and Analytics: Ways to Record Library Interactions

How do we know if our library community is using the programs or services that our library offers? How do we know if our time is well spent in staffing these services? What products are put there that can help us record and use all of this information to help improve or develop new resources or services to engage our library patrons? RUSA MARS’ Products & Services committee has put together reviews of different options for libraries to track all sorts of stats. Find them on the MARS blog: http://etmars.wordpress.com.

If there are questions about a specific product/service, please contact the reviewer directly. If there are suggestions for other products to review, please contact the Chair of the Products & Services committee, Ngoc-Yen Tran at nttran[at]callutheran.edu.

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Professional Development Committee News

The new MARS Professional Development Committee is off and running!  The newly formed committee, consisting of both the Education, Support and Training (ETS) and Professional Development (PD) committee members, has been meeting virtually on a monthly basis since last fall.  The purpose in joining the two committees is to eliminate duplicative efforts, strengthen the potential for more activity, and launch new initiatives for MARS members.  In addition, the work of the joint preconference planning committee (MARS/RSS) now belongs to a subcommittee of MARS PD.  The chair of this new subcommittee is Stephanie Alexander.  The focus of the committee’s work so far has been the deployment of webinars.  Two webinars, “Introduction to Screencasting for Online Tutorials and Reference,” were organized and sponsored by MARS PD and presented in August and December 2011.  Both webinars had approximately 60 attendees and received very positive feedback.  In the upcoming months, the committee will again launch a repeat of “Introduction to Screencasting” and develop a robust FAQ list to help all MARS members present and deploy professional development webinars with the support and assistance of the committee.   Look forward to new and exciting professional development and training webinars from MARS PD!

Nancy A. Cunningham

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From the Virtual Reference Services Committee

The MARS/RSS Virtual Reference Services Committee held its virtual midwinter meeting on Friday, December 16, 2011. Minutes of the meeting are available at http://connect.ala.org/node/150606 and a recording at http://connect.ala.org/node/161596.

The Committee is hosting a program at ALA Annual 2012 entitled “Are virtual reference services worth the effort? What ROI Analysis and User Evaluations Tell Us”. Panelists are confirmed and a high profile moderator has given tentative confirmation to serve as moderator. Stay tuned to ALA Connect for more details.

The committee will be discussing ideas for the 2013 ALA Annual via email and other means. The focus currently under consideration is to do something with gadgets or technology since the last several Annual programs have focused on other “soft” aspects of virtual reference service.

In keeping with its goals, the Committee has created the “RUSA MARS/RSS VR Committee Survey Ad Hoc Group”. Jason Coleman, an active member of the Virtual Reference Tutorial Subcommittee as well as Undergraduate & Community Services Librarian at Kansas State University, has volunteered to lead the new group. They are charged with conducting an online survey to assess the distribution and logistics of virtual reference services in libraries. Jason has asked individuals interested in working on the project to contact him at coleman@k-state.edu as soon as possible.

The Committee members are also exploring ways to update existing virtual reference content in online venues like Wikipedia, LISWiki, LibSuccess, etc. Options under consideration include sponsoring a Wikipedia “Edit-a-thon” at Annual Conference, creating a Twitter hashtag, inaugurating a Google Group, etc.

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MARS Happy Hour 2012

Join the RUSA Emerging Technologies in Reference Section (MARS) for our annual Happy Hour! The MARS social event of the year, the Happy Hour is ideal for anyone interested in meeting “Martians” and learning about the work of MARS in a relaxed, festive environment.  All are welcome.  Eat, drink, and mingle just steps from the Convention Center.

MARS HAPPY HOUR
Saturday, June 23, 2012
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Tangerine Grill and Patio at the Anabella Hotel (Magnolia Room & Quiet Pool area reserved for MARS)
1030 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim, CA 92802
(adjacent to the Convention Center)

Complimentary appetizers and cash bar.

The 2012 MARS Happy Hour is generously sponsored by EBSCO Publishing.

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Spring Election 2012

The slate of candidates up for election for MARS offices this Spring are:

For Vice Chair/Chair Elect (Vote for One):
Marilyn N. Ochoa

Samuel R. Stormont

For Member-at-Large (Three year Term: Vote for One):
Bryna R. Coonin
Courtney Greene

For Secretary (Two Year Term: Vote for One)
Colleen Seale
Kelley Ann Lawton

We are also pleased to have two former MARS Chairs running for RUSA office.  Anne Houston is running for RUSA Division Councilor and Kathleen Kern, for President of RUSA. Full information on the nominees for RUSA and its Sections is available in Connect at http://connect.ala.org/node/151782.

Voting will run from mid-March to mid-April. Be looking for announcements soon with the specific dates, and please vote!

MARS Nominating Committee 2011-2012
Carolyn Larson, Chair
Mary Mintz
Linda Keiter
Kimberley Vassiliadis

Reviews: Tracking Stats with Reference Analytics

Title: Tracking stats with Reference Analytics
Contact information for product/service: http://www.springshare.com/libanswers/analytics.html
Reviewer’s name & contact information:
Marissa Ball
Emerging Technologies Librarian, Florida International University
ballm@fiu.edu 
Date of Review:  January 30, 2012

Reference Analytics is a web-based statistics module from Springshare, the same company who brought us LibGuides & LibAnswers.  Promoted as a one-stop-shop for the recording, tracking, and analyzing of “all reference transactions,” it allows libraries to build a customizable knowledgebase for all the various reference services offered, while detailing as little or as much information as you choose to input about each of the transactions.

The hardest part about using this straightforward system is setting it up.  And the hardest part of setting it up is determining what questions or metadata you want to be tracking, how you want that data to be categorized, and what kind of detail you want to track for each of your transactions.  Seeing the blank knowledgebase template was overwhelming at first, so at our library we started by looking at our paper statistics sheet and translating the metadata that “worked” and that we wanted to continue to track into the Reference Analytics system.  We then added categories and breakdowns for questions we had not been able to previously track on an 8.5” X 11” sheet of paper.  Finally, we took the opportunity to get rid of data that did not work well or that we felt did not provide enough added benefit/detail.  For example, is it really helpful to know we had 15 “Level 3” interactions with a patron, or would it actually be more helpful to know 5 of those “Level 3s” were actually in-depth research consultations, while 3 were Course Reserve issues, and the rest were troubleshooting database access?  With the Reference Analytics system, you can be that granular and detailed.  And if more detail is what you want, they also offer the option to create an unlimited set of “predefined questions” (frequently asked questions) that you can use to add yet another layer of specificity to your statistics tracking.

The beauty part of the system comes into play when you are actually using it to generate reports and want to explore the analytics in-depth.  Any of the specified metadata you are capturing can be extracted and even cross-analyzed.  Reports, transactions, and statistics can be exported as an Excel file, printed, or downloaded as raster or vector images.  Viewing the reports and stats is also a helpful way to refine your metadata and improve the ways you are trying to capture transactions.  It is worth noting that the flexibility of the system allows the individual entering their transactions to leave a field blank if it does not apply or they simply do not have the information.  You may find that the data is not one hundred percent reflective of your actual transactions as it is dependent on staff entering as much data about each transaction as possible.

Reference Analytics is offered as one of the add-on modules to the Springshare LibAnswers reference system.  Out of the box, the module comes with one “analytics instance” but you have the option to add more instances to your subscription if, for example, you also wanted separate tracking for instruction or circulation statistics.  However, Springshare also has a more robust stand-alone statistics tracker, LibAnalytics.  While Reference Analytics is ideally suited to tracking various types of patron transactions, LibAnalytics is also capable of tracking website feedback, building and study room use, circulation stats, foot traffic, internal workflow, professional development, and product trials- to name a few.  We found the possibilities with Reference Analytics to be endless, however, and have been really pleased with how it has helped us track our various types of patron interactions and helped us as we’ve moved towards exploring different models of reference services.  Even for larger institutions that have a librarian or team dedicated to assessment and reporting, I think the detail, flexibility, and customization of analytics tracking offered in Reference Analytics is more than sufficient.

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Statistics and Analytics: Ways to Record Library Interactions

How do we know if our library community is using the programs or services that our library offers? How do we know if our time is well spent in staffing these services? What products are put there that can help us record and use all of this information to help improve or develop new resources or services to engage our library patrons? RUSA MARS’ Products & Services committee has put together reviews of different options for libraries to track all sorts of stats.

If there are questions about a specific product/service, please contact the reviewer directly. If there are suggestions for other products to review, please contact the Chair of the Products & Services committee, Ngoc-Yen Tran at nttran[at]callutheran.edu.

Reviews: Keeping track of interactions with Desk Tracker

Title: Keeping track of interactions with Desk Tracker
Contact information for product/service: http://www.desktracker.com/
Reviewer’s name and contact information:
Tanya Prokrym
ER Librarian, University of Notre Dame
NC Cardinal Data Librarian, NCDCR (as of 1/1/12)
tanya.prokrym@ncdcr.gov
Date of Review:  December 23, 2011

Desk Tracker is a web-based library statistics system offered by Compendium Library Services LLC.  The program enables library staff to record general reference activities, utilize a system-wide READ scale to standardize the reporting process, generate reports, and customize Desk Tracker windows to capture both individual and group/branch information.  One of Desk Tracker’s greatest strengths is that it is customizable, enabling you to create different logins at the individual or group level.  It enables you to standardize, within reason, how reference information is being recorded and tracked.  One of the greatest weaknesses of Desk Tracker is that reports are only as good as what is recorded.  Like any system, there is subjectivity in selecting the “right” option.  Everyone records events differently.  Since Desk Tracker is very customizable, you can create a customized system that provides library staff with too many choices.

Our Library uses Desk Tracker for a variety of purposes.  We record individual, reference desk, branch, and department events.  Some examples at the group/organizational level include recording the type and frequency of reference questions, email activity, patron types, and contact medium (walk-in, email, etc.) for the reference desk, branches, and our electronic resources group.  Individual events include recording the number of research consultations and training sessions conducted by a specific library staff member.  We run reports that let us track the best level and times for staff allocation.   Library staff also use individual reports for workload analysis.

Desk Tracker is easy to use and set up.  Accounts come standard with common data-entry fields that address the basic questions of where a question came in, how the question came in, and why the question was asked.  Beyond that, you can build detailed forms and add supplementary fields you wish to collect or remove the ones you don’t.  Reports are easy to read and can be loaded into SPSS.  Best of all, Desk Tracker is not a high cost investment, running our library around $4000.

There are a few features that are a little frustrating within Desk Tracker.  It is hard to see statistics for the current day or if you make a mistake upon input, it is hard to edit that mistake.  The custom timestamp that is offered within Desk Tracker has a mind of its own and some statistics have gone “missing”.

In summary, Desk Tracker is pretty simple to use.  It offers a system that provides flexibility – you can customize it as little or as much as you wish.  It provides a READ scale that can be used to standardize the recording of events.  For a little bit of money investment, you can obtain a tool that will make you think about your reference activities and how to record them, set up the framework to work within the context of your library, and then use it.

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Statistics and Analytics: Ways to Record Library Interactions

How do we know if our library community is using the programs or services that our library offers? How do we know if our time is well spent in staffing these services? What products are put there that can help us record and use all of this information to help improve or develop new resources or services to engage our library patrons? RUSA MARS’ Products & Services committee has put together reviews of different options for libraries to track all sorts of stats.

If there are questions about a specific product/service, please contact the reviewer directly. If there are suggestions for other products to review, please contact the Chair of the Products & Services committee, Ngoc-Yen Tran at nttran[at]callutheran.edu.

Reviews: Gimlet – Staff your desk wisely

Title: Gimlet – Staff your desk wisely
Contact information for product/service: http://gimlet.us/
Reviewer’s name and contact information:
Jaclyn Bedoya
Electronic Resources Librarian
CSU Fullerton
jbedoya@fullerton.edu
Date of Review: 01/08/2012

OK, let’s be honest here: there isn’t all that much to keeping reference statistics for the average library. You want to keep track of where/when/what type of question each encounter is, and maybe even the answers. You’d like it to give you statistics so that you can plan your reference staffing with more than gut feelings. And you want it to be easy to use, and not too expensive. In fact, some libraries are using online shared documents to do them at little to no cost. On the other end of the cost spectrum, there is vendor-supplied software, which includes a lot more bells and whistles. Gimlet, which the Pollak Library here at CSU Fullerton subscribed to long before I started, costs $10/month/branch, and since it’s supported, we won’t ever have to figure out what happened to the server or where the data disappeared. Count me in.

Made by the same people who created Libstats, Gimlet is a hosted library encounter statistics collection program. It allows desk staff to categorize questions by duration, type, patron type, format (email, in person, etc), and location, and automatically records the time the questions were added. Additionally, staff can add tags (some libraries choose to use controlled vocabulary for this), put the question and answer in free response fields, “star” particularly important questions, use the READ scale, and email questions to other staff. On the back end, managers can create statistical reports, including pivot tables, and export their data to other programs (Excel, etc) for further analysis.

We used to use more features of Gimlet, but found that staff found it difficult to keep up with data collection, and were not using controlled vocabulary consistently enough to make the tagging feature useful. Obviously, your mileage may vary. In terms of ease of use, as a reference tracker I find it appealing and intuitive. I can’t speak to the reports side personally, but our head of Instruction & Information Services calls them “awesome.”

We used to host Libstats ourselves, but found that $10 a month is a reasonable amount to have it hosted and supported by Sidecar. (Do I sense a trend?) Systems staff time and server upkeep are not insignificant costs, so economies of scale make the hosted option the best for us. Again, your mileage may vary.

As I’ve mentioned, we don’t use every feature, because we found that some of them didn’t work for our library. Be aware that there will need to be a balance between lots of bells and whistles and how much time staff are willing to take to record each question. And if you’re not going to use a lot of the features, are you better off doing it yourself? For us, the answer is no. At our large academic library, we love Gimlet, and encourage you to check it out if you’re looking to use this type of software.

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Statistics and Analytics: Ways to Record Library Interactions

How do we know if our library community is using the programs or services that our library offers? How do we know if our time is well spent in staffing these services? What products are put there that can help us record and use all of this information to help improve or develop new resources or services to engage our library patrons? RUSA MARS’ Products & Services committee has put together reviews of different options for libraries to track all sorts of stats.

If there are questions about a specific product/service, please contact the reviewer directly. If there are suggestions for other products to review, please contact the Chair of the Products & Services committee, Ngoc-Yen Tran at nttran[at]callutheran.edu.

Reviews: Collecting customizable stats with an Access database

Title: Collecting customizable stats with an Access database
Contact Information for Product/Service: Microsoft® Corporation http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access
Reviewer’s Name and Contact Info (email):
Janie L. Rager
Librarian for Instruction and Information Services, Associate
Saint Francis University
Loretto, PA
jrager@francis.edu
Date of Review:  1/16/2012

Tic, tic, tic. Seeking a technology that would allow us to move tabulation of reference statistics into an accessible form, I sought out our Instructional Technologist to help identify the best tool for the job. Access database software allows you to create complex tables to track reference interactions, then summarize and report large quantities of data with just a few clicks. Once built to your particular specifications, multiple points of service are easily tallied from large quantities of data. Some of the points of service we track are activity or type of interaction, librarian, and media form (IM, e-mail, phone).

Quick entry of data can be achieved through a table or a form, which clears with each new record added. It has expanded our tallies to multiple and new points of service, with less confusion for staff in the decision of where any one interaction should be categorized. Customizable fields, drop down menus and auto fills save time in documenting reference interactions. It promises easy data cleanup through the use of sorting by multiple fields, is compatible with mail merge operations, provides an avenue for the user to attach files to any record i.e. an assignment file, through a specialized field. However, it’s true power lies in the ability to build queries that modify the original data and then can be set to summarize large quantities of data and assist in creating reports.

Data usability is achieved through the use of filters, sorts or queries that gather, modify and calculate large amounts of data with relative ease. My library uses the Make Table Query to begin the process of reporting statistics. This particular query pulls the data out of the original table based on set parameter values and builds a new Month Table containing only the data specified through the query.  Our statistics are reported monthly in a year-end report, so the dates of the current month serve as the parameters for our Make Table Query. Other queries are then designed to run using the Month Table to gather and count interactions for specific points of service.

Its features are numerous and require a little training to be able to utilize it to its maximum potential. Secondly, the database file can be open for use by only one librarian at a time.  This issue is easily handled through the creation of a database file for each librarian to track their individual statistics. Then each month, the statistics are copied and pasted into a separate Access database created to maintain all stats as well as run the queries that tabulate the points of service reported.

Those wishing to organize and search through large amounts of data as well as, seeking a budget friendly alternative to tic sheets, will find this tool to be the right one for the job. In conclusion, this tool was a natural first step for my library toward converting those age old tic sheets into accessible and usable data. Time spent discussing the points of service to be tracked and the planning of the data fields is essential to creating a usable database. The learning curve is worth the effort given the amount of data it lets you manage, modify and report. Find your nearest Instructional Technologist, attend a community class, or teach yourself through the many publications available on how to make your own customizable Access database.

Disclaimer: This posting is an independent review and is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.

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Statistics and Analytics: Ways to Record Library Interactions

How do we know if our library community is using the programs or services that our library offers? How do we know if our time is well spent in staffing these services? What products are put there that can help us record and use all of this information to help improve or develop new resources or services to engage our library patrons? RUSA MARS’ Products & Services committee has put together reviews of different options for libraries to track all sorts of stats.

If there are questions about a specific product/service, please contact the reviewer directly. If there are suggestions for other products to review, please contact the Chair of the Products & Services committee, Ngoc-Yen Tran at nttran[at]callutheran.edu.

Reviews: Who visits your website? Find out with Google Analytics

Title: Who visits your website? Find out with Google Analytics
Contact Information for Product/Service: http://www.google.com/analytics
Reviewer’s Name and Contact Info (email):
Sarah Bankston
School of Information & Library Science
UNC Chapel Hill
sbanksto@live.unc.edu
Date of Review: January 15, 2012

Google Analytics, a web analytics tool produced by Google, is optimized for e-commerce sites, but it can be leveraged for use within libraries. Using a process called page tagging, Google Analytics tracks visitor activity on websites. Despite some limitations, Google Analytics can be used most effectively to strengthen library websites and identify user trends for follow-up assessment.

Released in 2005 as a free product, Google Analytics employs JavaScript to write and track first-party cookies. Google presents the data gathered to website owners via reports in Google Analytics. Anyone with a Google account and access to a website’s code can get started. Once an account is created, Google provides users with a piece of JavaScript tracking code to insert in their website’s code.  For best performance, the JavaScript snippet will need to be inserted on all pages of the website before the closing </head> tag.  It generally takes about 24 hours after adding the JavaScript for data to start appearing in your Google Analytics reports.

Google Analytics presents reports on the data gathered in 5 main categories: Audience, Advertising, Traffic Sources, Content, and Conversions. The Advertising category is linked to AdWords and, while heavily used in e-commerce, is not very useful for libraries. In addition to these reports, there is a customizable dashboard in Google Analytics where users can display their most frequently used reports.

To generate reports, the user sets the desired date range or, in the case of comparison, two date ranges. The reports in Google Analytics offer a variety of visualization options, including charts and map overlays. The data can be exported in CSV, TSV, and CSV for Excel formats. In the old version of Google Analytics, users could export to PDF and schedule reports to be emailed; though Google says these two features are forthcoming, they are not yet available in the new version.

The most common use of Google Analytics is to analyze visitor behavior to make informed decisions when editing a library’s website. Articles can be found in the literature that detail how particular libraries have utilized Google Analytics to redesign or update their websites.  At least one library has made use of the ability to insert JavaScript into screencasting programs in order to track use of library tutorials. In-page Analytics, a feature in Google Analytics that allows users to see the percentage of clicks each link on a page receives, can be useful in determining how visitors are interacting with a page. Goals can be set up with an accompanying funnel to track how visitors proceed through a set group of pages to get to a particular goal page.

Although the possibilities of Google Analytics are exciting, there are some important considerations. First, although the data in the reports is anonymous, it is necessary to have a privacy policy in place that lets visitors know your website uses cookies to track visitor traffic. In addition to being good practice, this is required by the Google Analytics Terms of Service. Second, since the information is gathered through the use of first-party cookies, the data can be skewed somewhat if users delete their cookies. For example, someone who visits the site, deletes her cookies and then visits again will be counted as two unique visitors (rather than two visits by one unique visitor). Also, it is possible to block Google Analytics, so the data won’t capture visitors who have chosen to do so. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that what is represented in the reports is the general trend of website activity, but this activity is presented without context. You can see that visitors tend to behave a certain way, but you don’t know why they are doing so.  Knowing this, Google Analytics can be a valuable tool for ascertaining trends in order to inform other assessment activity within the library.

Google Analytics offers users an amazing amount of data about their website visitors. Primarily geared toward e-commerce, some of the functionality of Google Analytics isn’t relevant to libraries. More importantly, the data is given without context, allowing users to see how website visitors are behaving but not why. In light of this, Google Analytics is most powerful as a tool for gathering information to complement and inform other library assessment efforts.

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Statistics and Analytics: Ways to Record Library Interactions

How do we know if our library community is using the programs or services that our library offers? How do we know if our time is well spent in staffing these services? What products are put there that can help us record and use all of this information to help improve or develop new resources or services to engage our library patrons? RUSA MARS’ Products & Services committee has put together reviews of different options for libraries to track all sorts of stats.

If there are questions about a specific product/service, please contact the reviewer directly. If there are suggestions for other products to review, please contact the Chair of the Products & Services committee, Ngoc-Yen Tran at nttran[at]callutheran.edu.

From the Products & Services Committee | Discovery Tools: WorldCat Local

Title: Searching the World with WorldCat Local

Image representing product:
http://www.oclc.org/common/images/masterpage/mp-masthead-logo-oclc-en.gif

Contact information for product – web address: http://www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/default.htm

Reviewer’s name and contact information:
Brad Coffield
Assistant Information Services Librarian
Saint Francis University
Loretto, PA
bcoffield@francis.edu

Date reviewed: 5/20/2011

Change? Many academic libraries would say, “No thanks, let’s leave well enough alone.” What real library with a real budget to manage and real patrons to interact with loves change? Well, in 2009 my library made a rather large change: we shifted from the OPAC we’d had for years to a newfangled product, something touted as a “discovery tool,” known as WorldCat Local.

Worldcat Local is an OCLC product that combines the vast worldwide data of WorldCat and other FirstSearch databases with a local OPAC component. This product searches not only your own library’s collection but also, as the product’s website states, over 800 million additional items including books, articles, and audio/visual materials. As of the writing of this article, a keyword search for “information literacy” (in quotes) garnered 10,977 results in 0.2 seconds. Over 2,700 of those results were books and over 4,200 were articles. WorldCat Local, as evidenced here, certainly allows the end user to “discover” a great deal, and as I tell my students in class, this tool is all about helping you to find the best materials regardless of whether they are in our library or if you’ll need to have them interlibrary loaned to you.

Working with students at the reference desk, I find that most times only one or two searches in WorldCat Local are necessary to locate good results for their research. Because it searches not only books but also scholarly research articles, students successfully discover a wide range of potentially useful materials. WorldCat Local is an effective first place to search and is often sufficient for our large undergraduate population, although more advanced researchers are often better served by searching in more specialized databases.

OCLC promises with the product “continuous improvement,” and we’ve found that they meet this promise by tweaking the interface and addressing other minor issues. The biggest improvement was their addition of more and more searchable article databases. For instance, Proquest was recently added as a search option. When we were considering purchasing this product, we were impressed by its ability to search both WorldCat Local’s indexes and other databases to which we subscribe. The more databases they streamline into their interface, the better a tool it will become.

There are, naturally, some drawbacks to WorldCat Local for you to consider. Collections held only locally, such as our honor’s students’ final theses, are still only searchable using our old OPAC because the information for those items is not indexed at OCLC. This necessitates having a second search box (for our old OPAC) on our main screen, and while I’ve never been keen on this solution, the patrons haven’t mentioned any problems with it. Also, you lose metadata control on your books when viewed through WorldCat Local. The subject headings that are attached to books in this system are those attached to the record at OCLC, even for books you own locally. This can make for a couple of difficult situations. First, the selection/quality of subject headings may not be to your institution’s standards. Second, any unique subject headings that you may have assigned to books in your own collection — those designating a local special collection, for example — are lost, as is any easy way to digitally group them through WorldCat Local.

In the end, I firmly recommend WorldCat Local to any library of any size because of its viability and usability. Our implementation with a small staff has gone swimmingly, and I can only imagine that a larger library with its larger staff would have at least as easy a transition as we did. WorldCat Local is a discovery tool that lives up to the catch-phrase. It was picked up by our users with relative ease, has seen continual improvement, and quickly searches a truly staggering amount of worldwide material.