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Improving usage and impact of digitised resources<br />Paola Marchionni<br />JISC Digitisation Programme Manager<br />eContent 2011 – programme mtg<br />Oxford, 29-30 March 2011<br />

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Usage, metrics and impact:some background<br />JISC Impact and embedding programme<br /><ul><li>7 projects, http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/impactembedding.aspx

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Toolkit for the Impact of Digitised Scholarly Resources (TIDSR)

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http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/ - to be updated May 2011

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Digital Impacts: how to measure and understand the use and impact of digital content

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20 May, Oxford http://bit.ly/g3nMdE</li></li></ul><li>Usage, metrics and impact:what have projects found out?<br /><ul><li>full report out in May 2011

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not (just) about metrics, usability or Search Engine Optimisation

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issues relating to different stages in the development of a digital resource, life cycle approach

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some highlights here – not a comprehensive or exhaustive list

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some high level issues and nitty gritty details

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some common patterns

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some solutions

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some common sense </li></li></ul><li>Some general principles (TIDSR)<br /><ul><li>essential to view multiple sources of evidence when evaluating impact, not just numbers

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plan on measuring impact from the beginning of a project, to integrate impact measures in the design

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monitor impact regularly, but don’t become bogged down by it

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make impact monitoring an institutional priority and don’t assume somebody else will install Google Analytics for you</li></li></ul><li>1. Recognising the importance of user engagement<br /><ul><li>close contact with users when developing a project is key - life-cycle approach

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task somebody in the team with this responsibility

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specific workpackage that branches off into all other activities

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different ways of doing this – dedicated person vs shared task</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>Engagement Officer

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developed as part of Marketing and Comms strategy

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wide range of activities: recruitment of user panel, development of online user network, case studies, newsletter; blog, events and workshops, usability testing; launch etc…</li></li></ul><li>2. Design and serendipity<br /><ul><li>Designs which allow for more serendipitous discovery of materials by users and for flexible uses have more possibilities for impact</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>offering different ways of discovering unexpected content in the archive

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and from other platforms

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still in development!</li></li></ul><li>

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3. Resource discovery<br /><ul><li>yes, Google, but inclusion within a variety of trusted gateways is important for long term impact (eg library portals), also increases trust in resource quality and reliability

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be wary of changing URLs and keep the association between project page and final web site</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>40% of academic referrals came form library pages

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but collection still not well integrated into catalogue searches

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collection can be found through different routes: JSTOR, COPAC, Google Scholar, RLUK database, Europeana (in progress)</li></li></ul><li><ul><li> CEDAR: an excellent JISC project and theatre resource but

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project name (CEDAR), project blog (East London Theatre…) and final project web site (OTHA) all different

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no hyperlink from project page/blog to new resource</li></li></ul><li>4. Cool URIs<br /><ul><li>Importance of stable, clear and meaningful URIs if digital resources are to be used in teaching, learning and research

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URIs to reflect transparent citation style</li></li></ul><li><ul><li> clear, straightforward and easy to remember URI

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Different downloadable citation styles </li></li></ul><li>5. Which Web 2.0?<br /><ul><li>lots of different examples but opportunities for users engagement should:

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be quick and easy

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reflect users’ working practices

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be familiar to target users </li></li></ul><li><ul><li>will remove wiki section because not used by researchers, too time consuming

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will add other tools for annotations, corrections, bookmarking, tagging, and personal workspace </li></li></ul><li><ul><li> D-TRACES project: used blog to supplement reflective practice in Personal Development Planning (PDP) - undergrads dance curriculum at Coventry Uni

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tackled digital literacy issues</li></li></ul><li>6. Embedding in teaching and learning<br /><ul><li>Can be done at different levels and by offering a variety of resources and tools </li></li></ul><li><ul><li>embedding of theatre archive resources in courses/modules across four partner universities: UEL, Royal Holloway, Nottingham and Sheffield

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case studies of work with students and teachers on web site</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>screencasts for teachers to introduce resources preferred to learning packages

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teachers liked potentials of folksonomies for work with students once they understood what they could do with it</li></li></ul><li>7. Non-users<br /><ul><li>Engaging non-users can be as important as consulting current users</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>high volume of users but mainly general public, local and family historians

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data sets relevant to researchers but not many researchers use the site

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project is consulting with current non-users and creating new tools for researchers </li></li></ul><li>8. Licencing content<br /><ul><li>clear licencing information on web site

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open content to collections will increase impact

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however, could charging for part of the content add to the “perceived” value of content?</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>Clear licencing information on each page of the web site</li></li></ul><li><ul><li>anecdotal evidence:

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Institute of Historical Research: difficulty in getting resources listed by libraries until they introduced an element of subscription content

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perception of “value” of a resource if there is a charge/user has to pay for it?

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some non-commercial resources are not designed and marketed as well as one by commercial publishers</li></li></ul><li>9. Use impact metrics to enhance impact<br /><ul><li>Plant the seeds for measuring the impact of your resource when doing comms and dissemination activities, eg:

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If you plan to measure how much your resource in being talked about in blogs, make sure you do promote your website through blogs in the first place

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Same about citations, hyperlinks etc…</li></li></ul><li>10. Sustainability planning<br /><ul><li>Build in sustainability strategies from the beginning of your project

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Identify a “champion” at the end of the project who will make sure the resource is looked after and sustained </li>