1. INTRODUCTION

The licensing and use of electronic information resources will continue to expand and in some cases become the sole or dominant means of access. The electronic environment as manifested by the World Wide Web, provides an opportunity to improve the measurement and use of these resources. In the electronic arena we can more accurately determine which information is being used. Without violating any issues of privacy or confidentiality we can dramatically enhance our understanding of information usage.

The participating consortia of the ICOLC have a responsibility to their library members to ensure the provision of usage information of licensed electronic resources. Information providers should want the same information to better understand the market for their services as well as to create an informed customer base. These mutual interests can be best met by defining and creating a common set of basic usage information requirements.

The following guidelines are intended to assist information providers in what the ICOLC sees as the basic set of requirements. The ICOLC sees these as an integral and necessary part of any electronic product offering. These requirements apply to vendor operated web sites and to software provided to libraries or consortia for local operation. Information providers are encouraged to go beyond these minimal requirements as appropriate and suitable for their specific data.

REQUIREMENTS

Each element defined below should be able to be delineated by the following subdivisions;

1. By each specific database of the provider
2. By each institutionally defined set of IP address / locator to subnet level
3. By total consortium
4. By special data element passed by subscriber( e.g., account or ID number)
5. By time period -- vendor’s system should, minimally, report by month and for each month, each activity by hour of the day, and maintain 24 months of historical data

Usage Elements that must be provided are:

Number of queries (Searches) categorized as appropriate for the vendor’s information. A search is intended to represent a unique intellectual inquiry. Typically a search is recorded each time a search form is sent/submitted to the server. Subsequent activities to review or browse among the records retrieved or the process of isolating the correct single item desired do not represent additional searches unless the parameter(s) defining the retrieval set is modified through resubmission of the search form, a combination of previous search sets, or some other similar technique.

Number of Menu Selections categorized as appropriate to the vendor’s system. If reaching data is accomplished by browsing (menuing) this measure must be provided (e.g. An electronic journal site provides alphabetic and subject-based menu options in addition to a search form. The number of searches and the number of alphabetic and subject menu selections should be tracked).

Number of sessions (Logins) must be provided as a measure of simultaneous use. It is not a substitute for either query or menu selection counts.

Number of turn-aways if relevant as a contract limit (e.g., requests exceed simultaneous user limit)

Number of items examined (i.e., viewed, marked or selected, downloaded, emailed, printed) to the extent these are recordable and controlled by the server rather than the browser :

1. Citations examined (for A&I databases)

2. Full text examined broken down by title, ISSN with title listed, or other title identifier as appropriate

(1) Tables of Contents examined

(2) Abstracts examined

(3) Articles or essays, poems, chapters, etc., as appropriate, viewed (e.g., ASCII or HTML) or downloaded (e.g. PDF, email)

(4) Other (e.g., image / AV files, ads, reviews, etc., as appropriate)

See ICOLC guideline on Technical Performance of Web-based Services for reporting of system related parameters ( e.g., downtime, response time).

2. PRIVACY AND USER CONFIDENTIALITY: Statistical reports or data that reveal confidential information about users must not be released by resource providers without permission. Providers do not have the right to release statistical usage information about institutions without permission.

3. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS: Resource providers should provide comparative statistics that give participants a context in which to analyze statistics for their institutions. A grouping for purposes of comparison might be compiled by the resource provider (e.g., statistics from an anonymous selection of similar institutions), or it might be a grouping composed on demand (e.g., statistics from all campuses in a consortium, presented either anonymously or not, as desired by the participating institutions).

4. ACCESS / DELIVERY MECHANISMS / REPORT FORMATS: Access to statistical reports should provided via web-based reporting systems and be restricted by IP address or another form of security such as passwords. Institutions should be able to allow access to their usage data by other institutions in the consortium if they desire.

Resource providers should maintain access to tabular statistical data through their website (updated monthly) which a participant can access, aggregate and manipulate on demand. When appropriate, these data also should be available in flat files containing specified data elements that can be downloaded and manipulated locally. Resource providers are also encouraged to present data as graphs and charts.

This ICOLC guideline draws heavily for its content from the guidelines developed by JSTOR Web Statistics Task Force: David Farrell, Berkeley, Chair; Jim Mullins, Villanova; Kimberly Parker, Yale; Dave Perkins, CSU-Northridge; Sue Phillips, Texas; Camille Wanat, Berkeley; Kristen Garlock, JSTOR, ex-officio.

Posted by K.Perry (VIVA), Updated: 9/21/98