Library and Information Science Commons^™

Discovery Systems: The Promise And The Reality. A Report Of The Rusa Mars Local Systems & Services Program, American Library Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, June 2012, Amy Fry

Amy Fry

At the 2012 ALA Annual Conference, an audience of over 300 gathered for the RUSA MARS Local Systems & Services Program “Discovery Systems: The Promise and the Reality.” Five speakers shared ideas and experiences that were informed by their roles, institutions, and the specific discovery services their institutions are using. Their comments highlighted the goals these very different libraries have in common, as well as the diversity of the decisions they have made and the things they have emphasized in order to achieve them.

The Biggest Winner: Using Statistics To Assess The Effectiveness Of An E-Resources Promotional Campaign, Amy Fry

Amy Fry

In the fall of 2011, librarians at Bowling Green State University were given the opportunity to compete for a $100 Amazon.com gift card by promoting an underused database. Usage statistics were tracked throughout the semester and compared to those for the same time period from the previous year. Eight of the twelve databases promoted rose in use. This article discusses the project methodology and uses its outcomes to assess the effectiveness of a range of marketing techniques for electronic resources, present hypotheses to account for some declines in usage, and demonstrate the value of distributed, personalized promotion for library resources.

A Hybrid Model For Managing Standard Usage Data: Principles For E-Resource Statistics Workflows, Amy Fry

Amy Fry

The migration from print to electronic collections over the last two decades has created a new environment for gathering and assessing collection use. Circulation and reshelving statistics tabulated in-house for journal and index volumes have been replaced by sophisticated, automatic monthly recordings of logins, searches, and full-text downloads provided by database and e-journal vendors. Because libraries often subscribe to thousands of titles from hundreds of sources, they have become awash in a flood of usage data that has proven difficult to collect, manage and assess, despite its value.

An early assessment and explication of the problems with usage data led …

Usability Testing For E-Resource Discovery: How Students Find & Choose E-Resources Using Library Websites, Amy Fry, Linda Rich

Amy Fry

In early 2010, library staff at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio designed and conducted a usability study of key parts of the library website, focusing on the web pages generated by the library’s electronic resources management system (ERM) that list and describe the library’s databases. The goal was to discover how users find and choose e-resources and identify ways the library could improve access to e-resources through its web site. This article outlines the usability study conducted at BGSU, presents its conclusions about how students at BGSU find and choose databases, contextualizes these findings with other current research …