Statistics on ejournal usage Dan Lester 04 May 2000 13:43 UTC
This reply is in response to the question below. >We would like to count these titles also and >have heard that some libraries create an intervening web page between >their own library's web page and the actual journal. The URL of this >web page is used in the 856 field of bib records and simply takes the >patron to a virtually blank web page which counts the hit and then takes >the user to the e-journal site itself. If any library has tackled this >approach to gather use statistics, could you please explain how this >intervening web page was created? We use Endeavor if that makes any >difference. The answer: We do just what you're asking for at Boise State University. Each ejournal has a URL of this format placed in the web catalog: http://library.boisestate.edu/ej/1234-5678.htm (This is not a real example) The URL ends with the page for the ISSN of the ejournal in question. In addition to the URLs being placed in the 856 field in the bibliographic record, they are also (at least so far) listed on separate pages on the website. You can get to them by going to: http://library.boisestate.edu/ejournals/ Each page has a link to the appropriate page for the ejournal. Besides some formulaic text (check some out to see), the page contains the following in the <head> of the page: <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; URL=http://www.somepublisher.com/journal/name/"> Of course the actual URL is substituted for the example above. If you want the page to delay more than one second before refreshing to the journal URL, change the 1 to a 2 or 5 or whatever. Do NOT change it to 0 (zero), as that will keep patrons from being able to go back to the previous page. No one notices or cares about a one second delay, but it does give them enough time to go backwards if they wish. See how it works by going to the library pages cited above. Of course you may not be able to get to all the journals we subscribe to. What are the flaws in this? It only tracks journals that people go to via the catalog or the website. If professor Jones bookmarks his favorite journal on his computer, you won't count those. But, no library statistics are perfect, and we think this is the best way reasonably available. And, at least all the stats are comparable. How do you get the numbers? Run your log analysis software on just the pages in the directory containing the intermediate referral pages and see how many uses there are for each page. Bingo, a report. I do make sure to include the journal title in the <head> of each page so that the report is more meaningful than one containing just the URL and ISSN. WebTrends makes beautiful and useful reports, but there are other packages available. The system you use for your catalog should make no difference. One other advantage to this system is that the catalogers NEVER HAVE TO CHANGE THE URL in the catalog. It does mean the person maintaining webpages may have to make changes (I just made the ones for all of the IOP journals today). But it is much easier and quicker to make them on a template-based webpage than it is in the catalog. I'll be glad to answer more questions on or off list. cheers dan -- Dan Lester dan@RiverOfData.com 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716-7115 USA www.riverofdata.com www.postcard.org www.gailndan.com