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Enhancing life-long learning, teaching and research through
information resources and services
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Fast, autonomous and verifiable:
piloting a new method for gathering library
usage statistics independently from the
resource provider
Richard Cross, Nottingham Trent University
Joshua M Pyle, Dublin Six
UKSG Conference April 2014, Harrogate
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Abstract
Metrics about the use of library resources is a growing preoccupation for all library
services concerned to demonstrate value-for-money on their resource budgets and prove
that their customers are using the materials they acquire. In 2013 Nottingham Trent
University became the first UK university to begin piloting the new AUDITOR application
from US start-up Dublin Six. The AUDITOR combines sophisticated web traffic logging (at
the network level) with a range of analytical and reporting tools to provide COUNTER-
compliant usage data for library resources, which is collated and analysed independently
of any publisher service. In contrast to the time-delayed (and ultimately unverifiable)
data offered by publisher websites, the AUDITOR generates usage analytics based on the
verifiable network traffic of the institution, producing reports which reflect near real-time
usage. As well as having immediate value in itself, this autonomous usage statistics
service will, as the product develops, support a range of proactive services designed to
improve the library customer experience (through more timely responses to interruptions
in online publisher services) and enhance collection management processes (by offering
responsive analytics on events such as 'turnaways'). This session will introduce the key
features of the AUDITOR application; explain how and why NTU chose to be such an early
adopter of the AUDITOR; and describe how the library service at NTU will be leveraging
the data and reporting tools that the AUDITOR provides to improve service management
and delivery.
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Agenda
• The importance of usage data
• The challenge of partial usage data
• Resource usage management at Nottingham Trent University
• Attractions of the AUDITOR pilot
• Committing to the AUDITOR pilot
• The need for institutional buy-in
• Participating in the AUDITOR pilot
• AUDITOR demonstration
• Next stages and future developments
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The importance of usage data
• Enabling evidence based acquisition and subscription planning
• Supporting ‘cost per use’ and other value-for-money calculations
• Demonstrating of customer engagement (or disengagement)
• Informing collection management and profile review
• Tracking ‘anticipated’ against ‘actual’ resource use
• Underpinning cross-institution benchmarking
• Delivery quantitative data that can demonstrate
– Library service’s resource match to learning, teaching and resource needs
– The continuing case for the resource budget
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The challenge of partial usage data
• Some electronic publishers provide no usage data
• Some providers provide bespoke, idiosyncratic usage data
• COUNTER is a strong and widely adopted standard for
journals, books and databases – but is silent on some critically
important variables
• Next to no usage standards exist for non-standard, non-text based
materials
• Libraries have access to range of other access and ‘log in’ metrics
for resource platforms (GA, discovery portal, link
resolver, Shibboleth, eZproxy or Athens log counts)
• No single all-encompassing framework for calculating
electronic resource use across the online collection
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The issue with provider usage data
• Confidence and dependability
• Despite COUNTER, counting mechanisms are not transparent
• No ability to independently audit or verify
• Delay – after-the-fact data, released to the publisher’s schedule
• Instances where publishers have withdrawn and republished data
• SUSHI protocol has reduced manual overhead, but process can still
be staff-resource intensive
• Provide ‘compliance’ with SUSHI, COUNTER and other standards can
be ‘aspirational’
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Resource usage data management at NTU
• UStat (Ex Libris): SUSHI and manual COUNTER JR1, DB1 (from
2009)
• JUSP (JISC): SUSHI JR1 (from 2013)
• Manual: spreadsheets for BR1
• Manual: spreadsheets for non-COUNTER (recording variety of
metrics)
• None: rump of subscription resource providers offering no data
• None: free-to-access, open-access resources outside of subscription
• Application usage data: Primo, SFX,
• System logs: Shibboleth, eZproxy
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Attractions of the AUDITOR pilot
Short-term
• Independent, verifiable usage data
• Real-time access to usage data
Medium to longer-term
• Collect data for non-COUNTER compliant resources
• Capture service interruptions, access fails and resource turnaways
• Enable user-responsive services in the event of failures and lock-
outs
• Benefit from pro-active alerting of platform issues
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Committing to the AUDITOR pilot programme
• Met with Dublin Six at UKSG conference in 2012
• Discussed possibility of involvement in trialing the AUDITOR
software during active first-phase development
• Libraries and Learning Resources at Nottingham Trent University
has extensive track record of ‘early adoption’ of emergent library
technologies and services
• Quickly won the backing of SMT of the library service to commit
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The need for institutional buy-in
• Library services and Information Systems (IS) teams at NTU have
strong collaborative ethic
• Remained key for IS to be supportive of the pilot – because of the
local network and data copying components
• Required extensive legal and contractual discussion to secure the
sign-up
– Location of the data
– Access to the data
– Exclusions from the data tracking
– Governance
– Change management
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Participating in the AUDITOR pilot
• Put simply – the AUDITOR is compromised of three components
– Specialised logging software: deployed to the institutional network which
copies the imprint of ‘packets’ of network traffic being sent/returned to/from the
web
– Analytical software: interprets and unpacks the raw web logs, mapping them
to set of access behaviours on known resource providers web sites
– Reporting and services software: delivers analytics, reports and responsive
services for librarians and end-users based on the analysed data
• For the pilot, LLR facilitated, with the support of IS, the deployment
of Dublin Six’s servers and software to the NTU network
• IS provided expertise to configure environment, configure
secure, managed access, ensure no compromise to the
integrity, security or performance of the network
• Discussion began in April 2012, pilot began in early 2013
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Next stages in the AUDITOR pilot process
• Library to validate, QA and compare AUDITOR usage data with
resource provider usage reports
• Begin process of evaluating AUDITOR library reports and services
• Focus discussions with selected providers on opportunities and
challenges (for them) of the AUDITOR approach
• Whilst remaining an active development partner, agree with Dublin
Six the tipping points that will enable us to move from pilot to full-
scale production
• Consider how best to merge, integrate, blend or supplement
AUDITOR data with data gathered in UStat, JUSP, RAPTOR, and
application usage data
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The AUDITOR: future developments
• Working to test and assist development of service layers of the
AUDITOR
• With Dublin Six, exploring the potential for recording usage for non-
standard library resources
• Investigate potential for combining tracking of Shibboleth, eZproxy
and off-campus use
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Questions and comments?
Fast, autonomous and verifiable
Richard Cross, Resource Discovery and Innovation Manager
Libraries and Learning Resources, Nottingham Trent University
+44(0)115 848 4878 | richard.cross@ntu.ac.uk
Joshua M Pyle, Dublin Six
