IPEDS is a mandatory report ... no
getting out of it for US institutions, I'm afraid.
IPEDS questions can be tricky for academic libraries because the
survey was only extended to us starting last year, when our
previous survey, NCES, was combined with IPEDS. While the IPEDS
survey has been radically improved for this year, some of the
questions still have a school library/public library feel to them,
especially the usage/circulation question.
As far as your question goes, Kathy, we chose to interpret the
electronic circulation/usage question in terms of our
licensed
resources, partly because we can't get stats on OA
resources, partly because the universe of OA is so vast and fuzzy
(in terms of what we do or don't link to/index/catalog/take
responsibility for), and partly because we felt that the question
itself was probably really asking "how is YOUR stuff getting
used?"
To get a reasonable answer to this question, I used COUNTER BR1
reports where available, and COUNTER BR2 as a backup source of
data. BR1 is the closest analog to physical circulation (one book
- one use), and thus seems to be closest to what IPEDS asks; BR2
measures chapters, so it inflates the numbers somewhat. For
streaming media, I used MR1 where I could, and the closest analog
I could find for the others (user sessions, tracks played, site
visits, etc.).
ProQuest Ebrary was the most difficult exception to deal with, as
they don't provide a BR1 report, and their BR2 includes
pageviews--ignorable for a small collection, but not for Academic
Complete. With well over 100,000 titles in AC, those pageviews
were utterly swamping the use data from the rest of our
collection. I finally compromised, not at all happily, on User
Sessions as the only metric that was vaguely close to the physical
circulation analog IPEDS seems to want. (
Note to ProQuest if
you're listening--we need a BR1 report even if we never use it
for anything other than IPEDS!) I could, under the
instructions, have used the BR2 report anyway--I just personally
didn't feel comfortable with the figures I would have been
reporting.
One final piece of advice: whatever you decide to do, document it
and do it the same way in future years (provided the survey
questions remain the same). At least that way, there will be some
consistency in your own data.
Hope this helps.
--
Nikki DeMoville
Electronic Resources Coordinator
Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California
Direct 805-756-5780
Fax 805-756-7711
ndemovil@calpoly.edu
On 4/4/2016 7:40 AM, Renner, Kathy wrote:
I
am not totally sure what I am asking. This is a request
that I received for a federal report. Is there a way to
capture statistics in Sierra for item records created for a
web resource such as Gutenberg eBooks that are simply URLs
that a student would click on and go to the website to
access? As far as I know, without a barcode to physically
checkout the resource, Sierra will not track this type of
item usage.
Total
Digital/Electronic Circulation or Usage – Report
usage of digital/electronic titles whether viewed,
downloaded, or streamed.
Include
usage for e-books and e-media titles only, even if the title
was purchased as part of a database. Do not include usage of
titles in Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) or Patron-Driven
Acquisition (PDA) collections until they have been purchased
or leased by the library. Do not include transactions of
VHS, CDs, or DVDs, as the transactions of these materials
are reported under "physical circulation".
Many
vendors will provide usage statistics in COUNTER reports.
Project COUNTER Code of Practice is available here. Relevant COUNTER
reports for e-books are: BR1-Number of Successful Title
Requests by Month and Title; and BR2-Number of Successful
Section Requests by Month and Title. For media, the report
MR1-Number of Successful Multimedia Full Content Unit
Requests by Month and Collection, is most relevant.
If
COUNTER reports are available, IPEDS suggest that libraries
report counts from BR1 and MR1. If BR1 and MR1 statistics
are not available, BR2 and MR2 statistics can be used. In
cases where vendors do not provide COUNTER reports,
libraries may report using other means for monitoring
digital/electronic circulation/usage (downloads, session
views, transaction logs, etc.).
Kathy
Renner
|
Serials and Electronic Resources Coordinator
Reeves
Library | Westminster College | 501 Westminster Avenue |
Fulton, MO 65251
(573)
592-5248 |
Kathy.Renner@westminster-mo.edu
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