SCONUL Statistics: The view from the shop floor JIBS workshop on management data in higher education libraries School of Oriental and African Studies,

SCONUL Statistics:The view from the shop floor

JIBS workshop on management data in higher education librariesSchool of Oriental and African Studies, London1st June 2009

Introduction

• Introducing Cranfield University

• Our process for the SCONUL statistics

• Working with the data

• Problems and issues

• Looking ahead

Cranfield University

• Wholly postgraduate

• Positioned between traditional universities and business and industry

• Specialising in applied sciences, defence, engineering, health and management

• Ranked 3rd in the UK for the impact of our mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing research* *RAE2008

Locations and Libraries

Cranfield Campus

• Kings Norton Library

• Management Information Resource Centre

Shrivenham Campus

• Barrington Library

Cranfield UniversityLibrary and Information Services

• Total catalogued book stock = 438,091

• Number of unique serial titles = 9,605 (92% e-only)

• Users entering the library = 385,773 • Number of FTE users = 4,408*

• Number of active borrowers = 1,506

• Total number of loans = 270,261

• Total number of staff = 48.1 (55% professional)

• Information provision expenditure = 32% of grossSource: SCONUL Statistics 2007-08

*SCONUL Statistics 2006-07

Cranfield Defence and Security

• Specialises in the research and teaching of Defence Management, Science and Technology

• Academic Provider to the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom - College of Management and Technology

• Student population of armed forces, civil servants and industry personnel from all over the world

Barrington Library

• Total catalogued book stock = 156,617

• Number of unique serial titles = 7,291 (97% e-only)

• Users entering the library = 70,805• Number of FTE users = 2,321*

• Number of active borrowers = 682

• Total number of loans = 19,804

• Total number of staff = 20 (59% professional)

• Information provision expenditure = 30% of grossSource: SCONUL Statistics 2007-08

*Internal data, not FTE

My Role

• Design and manage the processes and systems to collect the data at the Barrington Library

• Collate, review and submit data from all Cranfield Libraries

• Produce regular reports on results

(and other data sets) to

Senior Management

• Provide Library data as requested

Our Process – Cranfield at Shrivenham

Process

• Sections 1 – 4: Stock, Clientele, Usage.

• Data provided from:• Library Management System• Manual counts• Activity reports• Enquiry tracker

• Data provided by:• All Library staff

Process

• Sections 5 & 6: Library Staff & Staff Expenditure

• Staff numbers provided by Library Administrator

• Includes vacancies

• Staff expenditure provided by Finance

• All expenditure over the year

• Staff expenditure : staff numbers – inaccurate

Process

• Sections 7 & 8: Expenditure & Income

• Automated process

• Cost codes cross-referenced to SCONUL Q’s

• Serials breakdown provided by SWETS

• Data analysed by me, with input from Finance/SWETS

Data Checking

• Year-on-Year fluctuations• Number and %

• A + B = C• e.g. Number of additions to stock minus number

of disposals equals difference in catalogued book stock

• Ratios, e.g.• Number of loans : Number of active borrowers• Number of active borrowers : Number of users

• Differences between University Libraries

Working with the data

Working with the data

• Limited application for our needs• Provides a good framework for data collection• Supported with qualitative and quantitative data

• Resource impact measurement• Usage per target population• Cost per use• Impact rating by target population

• User feedback• LibQUAL+

SCONUL Statistics on the Web

• Excellent resource, if a little clunky…• Ranked list popular with stakeholders• Institutional data & defined groups useful for

benchmarking• Time series helped inform stakeholders of changing

costs of information provision

Problems and Issues

Consistency

…getting better but still not right• Year-on-Year• Between Cranfield University Libraries• With all SCONUL members

Causes of inconsistency:• Isolation of the role• Quiet discussion group• Grey guidelines• No definitive manual

eResources Definitions

• Is it an eBook? a Database? a Serial?

• Definitions do not meet our needs

• eMeasures table is not comprehensive

• Open for interpretation

Number of Unique Serials

How many unique eSerials do we have in each format?

• Publishers cannot tell us how many serials in our packages

• SWETS unable to provide report

• Annotated each record ourselves

• Double counting is currently unavoidable

Way forward?

• Ex-Libris Advanced Collection Tool?

Usage Statistics

• Contradiction in the question• “4s: Number of successful requests for full-text

articles (journals only)…including serials counted as databases in 2k”

• Data Source• Aggregator?• Publisher?

• Counter has helped, but usage data for each Library is strategically VITAL

Reliability of Systems

• Library Management System

• Reporting functionality minimal

• Verde/SFX

• SFX Advanced Collection Tool

• Verde reporting functionality still to come online

• Finance

• Accuracy of cost-codes

Looking Ahead

• Consistency• Isolated role within the Institution• Quiet discussion group• Grey definitions

• Changing face of information provision• Redundant information (e.g. ‘active’ borrower)• Open access• Bibliometrics for REF

• Changes in performance measurement• Impact is the new magnitude

Conclusions

• We’re improving, but we’re not there yet

• A useful framework of Library statistics but limited for our needs

• Supported with a portfolio of metrics

• Benchmarking ability excellent, however consistency could skew results

• SCONUL needs to move with the times without destroying the foundations

Selena Killick

Research & Development OfficerCranfield Universitys.a.killick@cranfield.ac.ukTel: 01793 785561