We use the previous entire year's statistics, and then January to June
of the current year, annualized.  Our wish would be for fewer platforms,
as we have to combine all of our statistics, and integrate the data with
the subscription prices.

Ellen Rothbaum, MS, AHIP
Assistant Director
Daniel Carroll Payson Medical Library
North Shore University Hospital
300 Community Drive
Manhasset, NY 11030
Voice:  (516) 562-4324
Fax:  (516) 562-2865
ellenr@nshs.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Heather Cannon
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 11:49 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Annual Reports and Usage Stats

As I'm getting ready my part of the library's annual report and
crunching through usage statistics, I thought of an "I wonder how
everyone else does this" question.

If you, also, have an annual report that includes statistics AND you are
on a July through June (or anything other than January through December)
fiscal year, what time frame of statistics do you use?

We've always used usage stats from July of one year through June of the
next, but that causes lots of little glitches.  First, a lot of
providers don't offer their stats in a customizable time range, so I
have to get 2 years worth of stats and break them up, and re-add them
myself (well, via Excel, but it feels like I do it all myself!)  Plus,
if there are titles that we added or unsubscribed to from one calendar
year to the next, we only have 6 months worth of usage data instead of a
full year's worth.  Titles that move from one publisher or online
platform to another frequently happen at the calendar year mark, too.

So... what does everyone else do?  Do you also use two half-years?  Do
you use half of the current year?  All of the previous year?

Thanks for any input!

--

Heather Cannon, MLIS
Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian
Loyola University Health Sciences Library
708-216-5302
hcannon@lumc.edu