Analyze This

Cheryl Highsmith is an expert librarian, she is the Coordinator of  Electronic Resources and Serials at Chapman University in Orange, California. In addition, she is the chairperson of the Electronic Resource Committee. Highsmith is responsible for leading an annual review of usage stats. Based on the stats reviewed, the committee makes suggestions on retaining or canceling various e-resources.  

In this article, Ms. Highsmith talks about the importance of drawing on usage statistics to make informed decisions when selecting electronic resources. In order to do that, there are specific terms that librarians should understand so they can properly analyze usage statistics. 

One of the most important terms to understand is Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER). COUNTERS are reports from vendors that quantify the use of electronic content resources in a library. Another important term is Pay Per View (PPV). The way I understand PPV is that it is a tool that only allows authorized users to access electronic materials on a pay to view basis.  The final term is Cost Per Use (CPU). This is a self explanatory term and is very similar to PPV.

There are a few areas that stood out to me as problems that need to be addressed. The first is embargos on full text articles on e-journals. I think it is important for vendors and librarians to work together to gradually eliminate embargos. Lastly, I am concerned when vendors bundle expensive databases and then toss in so called “free” additions. Those free add-ons are tantamount to junk. Usually when something is free, it is not of high quality. Libraries should beware of free an avoid it if at all possible.