Library Analytics Survey How important will analytics be to academic libraries now and in the future, and what is the potential for a service in this area?
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Library Analytics Survey
How important will analytics be to academic libraries now and in the
future, and what is the potential for a service in this area?
Dear Colleagues,
We are currently undertaking a preliminary survey to understand potential demand for data analytics services which can enhance business intelligence at the institutional level, and so support strategic decision-making.
We envision a shared service that centrally ingests and processes raw usage data from different systems, and provides analytics tools and data visualisations back to local institutions…
66 institutions responded
• University of Sussex• University of York• London School of Economics• University of Oxford• Heriot Watt University• University of Bradford• University of St Andrews Library• University of Hull• University of Bedfordshire• University of Warwick• Queen Mary, University of London• Cardiff Metropolitan University• University of East London• Edge Hill university• Glasgow Caledonian University• University of Aberdeen• Aberystwyth University• London Metropolitan University• University of Sussex• University of Central Lancashire• Glasgow School of Art• CranfieldUniversity
• University of Bradford• Sheffield Hallam• Bangor University• Swansea University• University of Leeds• University of Buckingham• University of the West of Scotland• De Montfort University• Newcastle University Library• Aston University• University of Westminster• Royal Holloway University of London• Birmingham City University• University of West London• National Library of Scotland• Leeds Metropolitan University• Birmingham City University• Cardiff University• University of Birmingham• University of Kent• Brunel• University of Glasgow Library
Please indicate which of the following services would be
potentially useful:
1. Automated provision of analytics demonstrating the relationship between student attainment and resource/library usage within your institution
Yes (96%)
No (4%)
Automated provision of analytics demonstrating the relationship between student attainment and resource/library usage benchmarked against other UK institutions
.
Yes (94.6%)
No (3.6%)
Other (1.8%)
Automated provision of analytics demonstrating e-resource and collections (i.e. monograph) usage according to demographics (e.g. discipline, age, year, nationality, grade).
Yes (87.7%)
No (10.5%)
Other (1.8%)
The ability to benchmark and compare against other institutions
Yes (96.5%)
No (3.5%)
Key strategic drivers
• Supporting research excellence
• Enhancing the student experience
• Collection management
• Creating business efficiencies
• Demonstrating value for money
• None of the above
Other drivers….
“Building a business case for additional resources”
“Support development of University corporate strategies”
“Get student buy-in for using our resources”
“Marketing”
“Support bids for additional internal funding”
“Support the case for better resourcing of the library”
In principle, would your institution be willing to contribute data that
could be linked to anonymisedindividuals in the following areas?:
(or, how willing do you think your institution is to share its data?)
Circulation data
Yes (96.4%)
No (3.6%)
UCAS data
Yes (80%)
No (20%)
Library entrance data
Yes (89%)
No (11%)
Student Data
Yes (79%)
No (21%)
Other data
Yes (79%)
No (21%)
‘Other’ responses
• Can only respond on behalf of the library
• I cannot make this decision on behalf of the institution
• “not in my power” “not within my gift”
• “There will be other streams of data collected but under-utilised”
• Anonymised shibboleth data?
• Would need considerable assurances about security of the data
In principle, would your institution be willing to allow its data to be used as a benchmark for other institutions if anonymised and made available by a category such as JISC band?
Yes (91%)
No (0%)
Other (9%)
‘Other’ responses
• “Cannot comment on other categories of data listed as a University level decision would be required”
• “Library information, yes. UCAS & Student data, probably not”
In principle, would your institution be willing to allow its data to be used as a benchmark for other institutions with users being able to see your institution's name?
Yes (47%)
No (20%)
Other (32%)
‘Other’ responses
“I think that has to be a maybe”
“Cannot comment without taking advice”
“not sure”
“this would have to be discussed in detail with other departments at the University”
“We already contribute to SCONUL so may be prepared to do something similar”
What would prevent you from sharing this data?
Concerns over data privacy
Yes (91%)
No (7%)
Other (2%)
Concerns over divulging business intelligence
Yes (85%)
No (15%)
Reservations over the quality of your data
Yes 55%)
No (41%)
Other (4%)
Technical barriers (e.g. resource for extracting data, lack of the skills required to benefit from this activity)
Yes (76%)
No (24%)
Institutional focus is on other goals/projects
Yes (41%)
No (57%)
Other
Who at your institution would be the key decision-maker in this area?
05
101520253035404550
Library Director IT Director eLearning Director
Director of a converged
service
Other
Results
Significant number of ‘other’ responses
• “Academic registrar, Director of Finance and Planning”
• Deputy Director who lead admin team
• Deputy Librarian• Deputy VC• Director of Curriculum
design and teaching enhancement
• Director of the office of institutional effectiveness
• Head of Collections• Head of strategic
planning, D of Finance• Head of Student
Administration• IT Directors• Library Exec team• PCV for learning and
teaching• PVC level• University Planning Office• The Registrar
A current strategic priority?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Top priority Important but not essential
A 'nice to have' Not important I don't know
Results
The next five years?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Top priority Important but not essential
A 'nice to have' Not important I don't know
Results
Strong appetite (demand?)
Significant appetite for analytics services among this sample
Student experience is the dominant driver for these services, along with demonstrating value
Strong willingness to share
Significant willingness to share a broad range of data (but preference to be identified by JISC band as opposed to named institution)
More hesitation over sharing UCAS and student data than other forms of transactional data
Decision-making will involve campus senior management
Library Directors and IT Directors seen as key decision-makers
VCs, registrars, and PVCs also referenced
Decision-making at the individual institution level is complex and variable
What would stop you from sharing?
Dominant barriers include concerns over data privacy and sharing business intelligence
A more mixed response: concerns over data quality, lack of technical expertise, and institution is focused on other agenda
A strategic priority?
For most libraries, these services are at present important but not essential
But they view this as changing into the next five years to a top priority
Related Documents
