SCONUL Statistics: The view from the shop floor. Presented at the JIBS workshop on management data in higher education libraries. London, 1st June.

1. SCONUL Statistics:
The view from the
shop floor
JIBS workshop on management data
in higher education libraries
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
1st June 2009

2. 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

3. Locations and Libraries
Cranfield Campus
• Kings Norton Library
• Management
Information Resource
Centre
Shrivenham Campus
• Defence College of
Management and
Technology Library

4. Cranfield University
Library 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 gross
Source: SCONUL Statistics 2007-08
*SCONUL Statistics 2006-07

5. Cranfield Defence and
Security
• Specialises in the research and teaching of
Defence Management, Science and Technology
• Part of the Defence Academy for the United
Kingdom, College of Management and
Technology
• Student population of armed forces, civil servants
and industry personnel from all over the world

6. DCMT 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 gross
Source: SCONUL Statistics 2007-08
*Internal data, not FTE

7. My Role
• Design and manage the processes and systems to
collect the data at DCMT 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

8. Our Process –
Cranfield at
Shrivenham

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Working with the data

14. 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+

15. 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

16. Problems and Issues

17. 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

18. eResources Definitions
• Is it an eBook? a Database? a Serial?
• Definitions do not meet our internal needs
• eMeasures table is not comprehensive
• Open for interpretation

19. Number of Unique
Serials
How many unique eSeriels do we have in each format?
• Suppliers cannot tell us how many serials in our
subscriptions
• SWETS unable to provide report
• Annotated each record ourselves
• Double counting in currently unavoidable
Way forward?
• Ex-Libris Advanced Collection Tool?

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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
• Changes in performance measurement
• Impact is the new magnitude

23. 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

24. Selena Killick
Research & Development Officer
Cranfield University
s.a.killick@cranfield.ac.uk
Tel: 01793 785561