Library Usage Data Research Articles

Information Literacy Programs: Assessing Effectiveness and User Engagement in Academic Libraries

This research paper explores the effectiveness of Information Literacy Programs (ILPs) and user engagement strategies in academic libraries. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study incorporates quantitative analyses of pre- and post-assessment scores, library usage data, and user surveys. Findings reveal a substantial 23% average increase in post-assessment scores, indicating the positive impact of ILPs on students' information literacy skills. User engagement metrics, including a 30% rise in library utilization, underscore the dynamic relationship between library services and user involvement. Challenges such as resource constraints and technological accessibility barriers are identified, and recommendations for improvement, drawn from successful case studies, are proposed. The paper concludes with implications for library practitioners, educational policymakers, and suggestions for future research.

Library Adoption and Use of GIS as an Information Sharing Tool during the Covid-19 Pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, libraries closed their physical facilities, offered shorter hours, rearranged and removed furniture, shifted to distance service provision, and used geographic information systems to support information sharing. For several decades, library and information studies have used geographic information systems for multiple purposes, and this occurred more than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic. This research investigated different ways libraries and library agencies have been using geographic information systems to support information and resource sharing during the Covid-19 pandemic. The overarching goal was to demonstrate how libraries provide value to local communities and society. Interview research identified multiple mapping projects undertaken either in relation to or during the Covid-19 pandemic, including maps depicting public access to Wi-Fi Internet, library building status, inter-library loan receiving and sending status of libraries, and library usage data, as well as a state Covid-19 data dashboard. Interviewees reported using geographic information systems for ease of use, interactive data displays, comparing multiple data points, increasing engagement and awareness, tailoring services, and currency of reporting. Now that they have made some maps and seen how helpful the maps are for access, interviewees had many ideas for expansion of new mapping projects going forward.

The 22nd Anniversary of the Cochrane Back and Neck Group.

Retrospective review and literature review. The aim of this study was to provide an update on The Cochrane Back and Neck (CBN) activities. Low back pain (LBP) affects 80% of people at some time in their lives. CBN Group has been housed in Toronto at the Institute for Work & Health since 1996 and has published 85 reviews and 32 protocols in the Cochrane Library. Narrative review of CBN publications, impact factor, usage data, and social media impact. In the past 3 years, CBN conducted priority setting with organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines for LBP. CBN editors and associate editors published key methodological articles in the field of back and neck pain research. The methodological quality of CBN reviews has been assessed by external groups in a variety of areas, which found that CBN reviews had higher methodological quality than non-Cochrane reviews. CBN reviews have been included in 35 clinical practice guidelines for back and neck conditions. The 2018 journal impact factor of CBN is 11.154, which is higher than the 2018 impact factor for CDSR (7.755). CBN reviews ranked 4th among 53 Cochrane review groups in terms of Cochrane Library usage data. The most accessed CBN review was "Yoga treatment for chronic non-specific low-back pain" which had 9689 full-text downloads. CBN is active on Twitter with 3958 followers. CBN has published highly utilized systematic reviews and made important methodological contributions to the field of spine research over the past 22 years within Cochrane. 4.

Revamping the academic library use data capabilities: the Greek library science postgraduates’ perspective

Purpose As universities advance towards a new data-informed, intra-institutional collaboration paradigm, new roles and services are continuously added to academic library routines. This changing context that exerts considerable stress upon library organizations to prove their value and contributions to student progress is leading the community to start questioning the utility, scope and prospects of patron data collection practices. The study sought library science postgraduate students’ viewpoints about the adequacy and utility of current library use data collection practices in Greek academic libraries. It also aimed to investigate the value, relevance and priority of the integration of library usage data with the rest of university information systems (e.g. learning analytics) along with associated practical and ethical considerations, and advocacy aspects. Design/methodology/approach Mixed-methods, Web-based survey distributed to postgraduate students during a seminar designed to familiarize them with trends in academic library use data capabilities. Findings Participants acknowledged that neither policies nor procedures are currently adequate to expand and interconnect their data pools to campus information systems. They were opposed to disclosing personally identifiable patron activity data to faculty, while their opinions were divided as to the use of student activity monitoring technology. Nevertheless, they made several comments on how to mitigate the community's considerations around the implementation of this new data management philosophy in the library and were optimistic about the benefits this development could entail for library visibility and student progress. Originality/value Results of this first-time research in the Greek higher education context, revelatory of potential road blockers to upgrading the library use data collection practices, can be of significant value to both curricula developers and university decision-makers who seek ways to prepare the ground for the successful implementation of new operations.

Does Public Libraries’ Facebook Following Correlate with Library Usage?

Social media like Facebook are widely believed to be a useful marketing tool for organizations, likely to include public libraries. However, there has as of yet been little research to examine whether Facebook followership actually correlates to increased use of the library. This study utilizes library usage data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and data describing the Facebook followings of 3,884 public libraries in the United States to statistically evaluate whether any significant relationships exist. Results indicate that Facebook followership per capita in a library’s service area is moderately-to-strongly correlated with both library visits per capita and event attendance per capita.

A Survey of Provosts Indicates that Academic Libraries Should Connect Outcomes to University Goals

A Survey of Provosts Indicates that Academic Libraries Should Connect Outcomes to University Goals

Usage and User Experience in an Academic Law Library

AbstractThis article, written by Josephine Bailey and Kate Faulkner, discusses the collection of library usage data at the Squire Law Library, an academic law library embedded in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. Two initiatives were employed to survey usage: firstly, regular headcounts of library users and secondly, occasional spot-checks of university cards. This article details the data that was collected and how it fits into a wider ethnographic approach to understanding how students and researchers use libraries. The article also discusses how the pilots have developed into long-term procedures, and how this has led to improvements to the delivery of the service.

Space and the Social Worth of Public Libraries

ABSTRACTIn spite of the growth of digital information and the resultant questioning by some of the value of public libraries, library usage data indicate there were 497,600,000 more visits to public libraries in 2013 than in 1993. Why do people still visit public libraries in the digital age? While many factors drive people to visit public libraries, one thing that public libraries offer that cannot be duplicated online is physical space. Over the decades, library space has been the glue holding the library universe together even as the specific activities that take inside libraries have evolved. While public libraries do an excellent job of promoting their important role in providing access to information, educational resources, technology, and a host of valuable services, they must also promote the value of public library space itself. This requires more than trotting out numbers; it requires telling compelling stories of how public library space is used and reminding the public that the kind of spaces public libraries provide are, in fact, a vanishing resource. The post-911 tightening of security in public buildings of all sorts—coupled with the increasing privatization of what were once public spaces—has left public libraries as perhaps the last remaining indoor public spaces where an individual can remain from opening until closing without needing any reason to be there and without having to spend any money. Public libraries should promote the uniqueness of their spaces in much the same way that National Parks promote the unique spaces they preserve and make available to the public.

Poverty and Public Library Usage in Iowa

ABSTRACTThis analysis identifies relationships between library usage, poverty, and median household income in Iowa. Quantitative analysis identifies two distinctive correlations within this data set. First, there is a negative correlation between library usage and poverty, associating higher library usage with lower poverty. Second, there is a subtle positive correlation between library usage and median household income, associating higher library usage with higher median household income. Library usage data is derived from the Iowa Library Services’ Iowa Public Library Statistics (July 1, 2013--June 30, 2014). Poverty and median household income data is derived from the United States Census Bureau.

The Use of Academic Libraries in the Digital Age: What the Numbers Say

Given the early twenty-first century’s wealth of information, it is a fair question to ask: “Are we approaching a time when academic libraries will no longer be necessary?” According to academic library usage data, the answer to this question is clearly “No.” While over the last ten to twenty years the number of books borrowed from U.S. academic libraries has plummeted, the number of people setting foot in those same libraries has significantly increased. And although longitudinal data for the use of non-U.S. libraries is hard to come by, a small sampling of academic libraries outside of the U.S. reflects a similar trend of fewer books borrowed coupled with more visits. The paper concludes by suggestions reasons for why students are making increased use of academic library spaces in the Digital Age.

Hidden Treasure on the Road to Xanadu: What Connecting Library Service Usage Data to Unique Student IDs Can Reveal

ABSTRACTLibrary data in the form of holdings, expenditures, and transactions continues to be collected. Recently emphasis is being placed on connecting library usage data to student success indicators for purposes of indicating impact. This article describes how one library involved in a large-scale, student success assessment project analyzed usage data linked to unique student IDs prior to connecting data to student academic information. Results revealed a trove of useful information that led to a more robust understanding of how students interacted with library services over the course of a year and are discussed in relation to process improvement.

More E-Books, Less Print?—What Does Usage Data Tell Us?

As academic libraries transform their buildings to provide more study space, librarians may consider increasing e-book acquisitions as a space saving strategy. However, to what extent a library's e-book collection is used remains a central question. Using two subject collections as examples, this case study analyzes one academic library's usage data for both electronic and print books over a 5-year period (2011–2015) in order to gain insights into usage patterns, trends, user preferences, and behaviors between print and electronic format. Based on the sample data, the study finds that not only was the library's e-books collection substantively used, but also the e-book usage was noticeably higher than print. In fact, there was a gradual shift in user preferences from print to electronic format. In addition, the study shows that newer publications had higher usage regardless of format. In conclusion, the authors recommend expanding e-books acquisition programs and shifting the focus of future collection de...

Understanding Patterns of Library Use Among Undergraduate Students from Different Disciplines

Abstract
 
 Objective – To test whether routinely-generated library usage data could be linked with information about students to understand patterns of library use among students from different disciplines at the University of Huddersfield. This information is important for librarians seeking to demonstrate the value of the library, and to ensure that they are providing services which meet user needs. The study seeks to join two strands of library user research which until now have been kept rather separate – an interest in disciplinary differences in usage, and a methodology which involves large-scale routinely-generated data. 
 
 Methods – The study uses anonymized data about individual students derived from two sources: routinely-generated data on various dimensions of physical and electronic library resource usage, and information from the student registry on the course studied by each student. Courses were aggregated at a subject and then disciplinary level. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney tests were used to identify statistically significant differences between the high-level disciplinary groups, and within each disciplinary group at the subject level. 
 
 Results – The study identifies a number of statistically significant differences on various dimensions of usage between both high-level disciplinary groupings and lower subject-level groupings. In some cases, differences are not the same as those observed in earlier studies, reflecting distinctive usage patterns and differences in the way that disciplines or subjects are defined and organised. While music students at Huddersfield are heavy library users within the arts subject-level grouping arts students use library resources less than those in social science disciplines, contradicting findings from studies at other institutions, Computing and engineering students were relatively similar, although computing students were more likely to download PDFs, and engineering students were more likely to use the physical library. 
 
 Conclusion – The technique introduced in this study represents an effective way of understanding distinctive usage patterns at an individual institution. There may be potential to aggregate findings across several institutions to help universities benchmark their own performance and usage; this would require a degree of collaboration and standardisation. This study found that students in certain disciplines at Huddersfield use the library in different ways to students in those same disciplines at other institutions. Further investigation is needed to understand exactly why these differences exist, but some hypotheses are offered.

The Effect of Facebook Adoption in an Academic Library

The postings in library‘s Facebook page were gleaned and analyzed. Data of important metrics of Facebook post usage were taken from ‗Facebook Insight‘ metrics of Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women Library‘s Facebook page. Alongside, library usage data were used to understand the change in behaviour of library usage. The findings provide further support to the view that social network sites (i.e., Facebook) have the potential to be a cost-effective means of engaging users effectively irrespective of the size of the academic library. It is also found that collaboration and communication through Facebook were far more effective than traditional approaches. Since only the experience of a single institution is considered, it cannot be generalized that Facebook will be effective in every institutional context. However, the result provides a basis for academic libraries to consider experimenting with Facebook and its page to understand its effectiveness. This paper provides evidence that such initiatives can provide a measurable impact of Facebook as an outreach tool with minimal efforts.

Library usage and demographic characteristics of undergraduate students in a UK university

PurposeThis paper builds upon existing research into library usage by exploring whether demographic characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity and country of origin have an effect upon undergraduate library usage at the University of Huddersfield.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses demographic and library usage data for a graduating year of full‐time undergraduate students at the University of Huddersfield, and uses statistical tests to explore the significance of the relationship between demographics and usage.FindingsThe study finds that there is a statistically significant relationship between demographic characteristics and library usage on some, though not all, dimensions. But in many cases the effect size is small.Research limitations/implicationsThe study uses data from a single UK university, and the findings may not therefore be generalizable. Furthermore, the study is able to identify statistical relationships but is not able to fully explain why they exist.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that library services may need to be shaped differently for different demographic groups of students. Working with students in their own institution, librarians may be able to discover more about why these differences exist.Originality/valueThis paper shows a relationship between usage and demographic characteristics among undergraduate students, allowing librarians to consider how better to shape their services to meet student needs.

Assessing library contributions to university outcomes: the need for individual student level data

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to suggest move beyond examining the impact of the library from the library's perspective but rather to collaborate with university‐wide assessment efforts to determine the impact of the library from the student's perspective, the instructor's perspective, or the researcher's perspective.Design/methodology/approachA limited number of studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine the impact of the use of the library's physical or electronic resources, reference services, and the library as place. Considerably more studies have been prepared that have examined library instruction programs and information literacy programs although the results paint a very mixed picture. A majority of the evaluation efforts for information literacy programs have used opinion surveys, skills testing, and observed actual behavior using rubrics and other methods. A consistent criticism of such studies has been the small sample size and the lack of replication of such studies. Clearly an approach that collaborates with the university's assessment efforts and allows the library to determine the correlation levels between use of a library collection or service and a desired university outcome will be welcome by all academic libraries.FindingsThe suggested approach is to combine library usage data with university data. In the best of worlds the library data would be combined with both indirect measures of learning (such as student persistence, graduation rates) as well as direct measures of student learning such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment, Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency, and the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress. If university libraries were to embark on a coordinated program of data analysis then the results would have greater credibility and impact within the university.Practical implicationsThe paper provides a set of recommendations for combining library data (where the identification of each user is preserved) with institutional performance and demographic data for each user (after which the unique identification information can be eliminated so as to preserve the privacy and confidentiality rights of the user). The resulting large data set can be then used to explore possible relationships between use of library services and important outcomes – student success, student retention, graduation rates, and so forth that is necessary in order to demonstrate the value of the academic library.Social implicationsOnce libraries have a better understanding of the impacts of specific library services in the lives of their students, faculty and researchers, libraries can enhance services that produce positive results and drop services that have marginal or no value. The end result will be that academic libraries will better serve the needs of their customers.Originality/valueThis paper offers a new broad perspective that will encourage libraries to undertake a collaborative effort with others on campus in order to better assess the impact of the academic library.

Maximizing use of library resources at the University of Huddersfield

Analysis of library usage data has become increasingly important in recent years, but how do we count and account for non-users? This paper will look at how, through the analysis of e-resource usage, book loans and gate entry figures, the University of Huddersfield has identified groups exhibiting low/non-usage behaviour. The results have then been linked to student attainment.

How usage statistics can inform national negotiations and strategies

The paper describes a recent Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded project, the aim of which was to analyse library usage data from selected e-journal deals negotiated by the JISC within the NESLi2 initiative. The project began in May 2004 and examined usage data from four publishers and 17 libraries. The aims, methodology, conclusions and recommendations of the project are included. Owing to confidentiality agreements with publishers and libraries, it is possible to share only a limited amount of usage data.