1. Evaluating the Big Deal:
What metrics matter?
Usage Statistics for Decision Making
London, 2 February 2012
Selena Killick
Library Quality Officer

2. Introduction
• Institutional, financial and strategic context
• Evaluating the Big Deals
• Quantitative Reporting
• Qualitative Measures
• Using the Results
• Conclusions

3. Cranfield University
• The UK's only wholly postgraduate university focused
on science, technology, engineering and
management
• One of the UK's top five research intensive
universities
• Annual turnover £150m
• 40% of our students study whilst in employment
• We deliver the UK Ministry of Defence's largest
educational contract

4. Key Drivers
• Financial realities
• Demonstrating value for money
• Strategic alignment
• Research Excellence Framework (REF)
• Income
Mission critical
• Reputation

5. Expenditure on Journals
Journal Spend
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

6. Information Expenditure
by Format 2010-11
Books eBooks
4% 4%
Databases
24%
Journals
68%

7. Information Expenditure
by Format 2010-11
Books eBooks
4% 4%
Databases
24%
Journals
31%
Big Deals
37%

8. Evaluating the
‘Big Deals’

9. Previous Techniques
Used:
Annual journals review using the follow data
• Circulation figures – issues and renewals
• “Sweep survey” to capture in-house use
• Journal contents page requests
• Download figures
• Journal prices v the cost of ILL requests
More recent focus on “cost per download”

10. New Approach
Quantitative: Qualitative:
• Size • Academic Liaison
• Usage • Reading Lists Review
• Coverage • REF Preferred
• Value for Money

11. Requirements
• Systematic
• Sustainable
• Internal benchmarking
• Elevator pitch
• So what?
• Enable informed decision making
• Demonstrate smart procurement

12. Quantitative Reporting

13. Brought to you by the
letters…
&

14. Our Approach
• What has everyone else done?
• Analysing Publisher Deals Project
• Storage centre
• Excel training
• Template design

15. Basic Metrics
• Number of titles within a package
• Total annual full-text downloads
• Cost:
• Core titles
• e-Access Fee
• Total costs

16. Value Metrics
• Average number of requests per title
• Average cost per title
• Total cost as % of information provision expenditure
• Cost per full-text download
• Average download per FTE student/staff/total
• Average cost per FTE student/staff/total

17. The Long Tail
Downloads
Titles Titles Titles
Long Tail Short Tail No Tail

18. Subscribed Titles
• Reviewing performance of core collection
• REF Preferred?
• Popular?
• Three year trends in cost / downloads / CPD
• Cost / Downloads / CPD categorised:
• Zero
• Low
• Medium
• High
• Cancel?

19. Popular Titles
• Which titles are the most popular?
• Top 30 titles in the package
• Three year trends in downloads
• REF Preferred?
• Subscribed title?

20. Considerations
• When to measure from/to?
• calendar, financial/academic, or contract year?
• Which titles make up our core collection?
• Do we have access to all of the „zero use‟ titles?
• What constitutes Low/Medium/High?
• What about the aggregator usage statistics?
• Do we trust the usage statistics?
• What is the size of the target population?

21. Capturing the data

22. Downloading Statistics
• Get organised
• Gather your usernames and passwords
• Create local files to save and store usage reports
• Software now on the market to manage this for you
• Joint Usage Statistics Portal

24. Introductory
Workshop
April 18
Birmingham

25. Reporting Period
• Calendar, financial/academic, or contract year?
• COUNTER Reports = Calendar year
• Converted using Vlookup on ISSNs
• Manual
• Problematic
• Automatically converted using the JUSP

26. Aggregator Usage
Statistics
• Combining usage from publishers and aggregators at a
title level
• Combined using Pivot Tables
• Manual
• Problematic
• Where possible combined using JUSP

27. Analysing the data

28. Excel Template
• Two main data sources:
• COUNTER JR1
• Subscription agent financial report
• Automated as much as possible
• Match formulas working with ISSNs to link title price to
usage/holdings
• All calculations are completed automatically when the
data sources are added

29. Quantitative
Reporting
• Systematic 
• Sustainable 
• Internal benchmarking 
• Elevator pitch 
• So what? 
• Enable informed decision making 
• Demonstrate smart procurement 

30. Qualitative Measures

31. Academic Liaison
• Who‟s using it?
• Why?
• How?
• What will be the impact if we cancel?
• Teaching?
• Research?
• How valuable is it?

32. Quantitative on the
Qualitative:
Analysis on the five REF Preferred Recommended
Journals Lists:
• Overlapping titles
• Unsubscribed titles
• Financial shortfall
• Current recommended subscribed titles
• Usage data

33. Reading List Review
Qualitative analysis on course reading lists:
• What are our academic recommending?
• Where is it published?
• How often is it recommended?
• Are there alternatives?

34. Quantitative &
Qualitative
Reporting
• Systematic 
• Sustainable 
• Internal benchmarking 
• Elevator pitch 
• So what? 
• Enable informed decision making 
• Demonstrate smart procurement 

35. Using the results

36. What they can do:
• Both qualitative and quantitative measures tell the
story of the resource
• Aid decision making
• Justify procurement
• Safeguard budgets…?

37. What they can’t do:

38. Conclusions

39. Closing thoughts
• Is it worth investing in this?
• Qualitative & Quantitative
• Danger of relying on cost-per-download

40. Looking Ahead
• Review of all budgets
• All Resources
• Systems
• Staff
• Services
• Demonstrating Value and Impact
• Resources
• Services

41. Thank You
Selena Killick
Cranfield University
s.a.killick@cranfield.ac.uk
Tel: 01793 785561