Statistics usage by French academic libraries: a survey

Abstract

The article presents a survey on usage statistics management in academic libraries in France. The objective is to provide empirical evidence on real methods and processes, best practices and problems experienced by librarians. The survey adapted Baker and Read's methodology to the French context. One‐third of French academic libraries answered the survey. Results show that usage statistics are crucial for librarians' daily work. COUNTER reports are mostly used, specifically the JR1 format. Two‐thirds of the libraries enhance the usage statistics with other data. Librarians face three major difficulties: lack of time, lack of usage data produced by French vendors, and the need for customized tools. The article contains a short literature review and ends with recommendations for further studies. It is the first published survey on usage data management in France and allows for comparison with results from other countries.

Public accessibility of biomedical articles from PubMed Central reduces journal readership—retrospective cohort analysis

“…The relationship between free access and subscription cancellation behavior is not well understood. As librarians base cancelation decisions, in large part, on publisher‐provided article download data (9–13), a significant reduction in usage as a result of reader access from PMC is likely to have unintended consequences for those publishers who participate in the direct article deposit program. Usage traffic for articles on PMC has been increasing steadily since the participating journals began depositing article content (Fig.…”

Relationship between Online Journal Usage and their Citations in the Academic Publications: A Case Study

“…Londhe & Deshpande 8 have shown in their study that usage reports analysis helped to identify important e-journals for the user community helpful for proper allocation of funds. Studies have also given priority for the analysis of the usage reports because of its value for the decision making in the investment on library subscribed resources, especially the e-journals that required long term financial commitment 9 .…”

The uptake and usage of a national higher education libraries statistics database in South Africa

“…Statistics are being used by staff outside the library at two institutions. Although Boukacem-Zeghmouri (2012) stated that statistics are a crucial element of a librarian's daily work, not one of the respondents elaborated on how the statistics were being used by completing the "Type of use" column. However, one institution indicated that it does not know for what the statistics are being used.…”