---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 15:21:32 -0400
From: "ad6509@wayne.edu" <ad6509@WAYNE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Electronic journals usage statistics (Priscilla A. Crane)

I am posting this to the list because it may be of use to others.

If the articles are accessed from your own http servers, then the hits are
probably already logged by the http daemon software. This is true even of
"plain vanilla" http software. Analog, developed by Cambridge Univ., is
one time tested log analyzer. Packages like the Apache server come with
log stats s/w too.

To analyze the logs, you must keep them long enough to run the analysis.
Most s/w over-writes the logs every few days to save space, so the log
stats runs should be scheduled accordingly.

Of course, the fact that someone accesses an item on the Web does not mean
that it was actually _read_. Similarly, in-house reshelf counts can't
prove people _read_ reference books, nor can circ counts prove they read
the items they checked out.

cbs

---
       Chris Brown-Syed PhD. Editor, Library & Archival Security.
       <mailto:ad6509@wayne.edu> <http://valinor.purdy.wayne.edu>
     Never give up if the objective is worthwhile - Lionel Gregory.