visualizing electronic resources data using a statistics dashboard

Visualizing Electronic Resources Data Using a Statistics Dashboard

Marie R. KennedyMarisa Ramirez

2015 ACRL poster presentation

https://sites.google.com/site/eresstatistics/

The purpose of a dashboard

“A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives: consolidated and arranged on a

single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.”

(Few, S. (2006). Information dashboard design: The effective visual communication of data. North

Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly. )

The goal for our dashboard

Our goal is to present librarians with information pertaining to electronic

resource usage in a manner that is quick, clear, and simple.

Potential users of our dashboard

Primary user group: Our university’s librarians may use it for evidence-based decisions at subscription renewal time, as well as using the linked data sets for research projects.

Secondary user group: You! We have released the data under a Creative Commons license so that it can be benchmarked, re-mixed, and improved.

Dashboard content

• Brief narrative content (quick facts, glossary)

• Graphic information (charts, Top-10 lists)

• Links (raw data)

Data maintenance

As the content found in the brief narrative, graphic, and list areas are summaries of our university’s fiscal year reporting data, these areas will be updated annually, during the month of August.

Limitations of our dashboard

Librarians agree that COUNTER statistics are more meaningful than non-COUNTER statistics; our dashboard contains only COUNTER data. Over time we may decide to gather non-COUNTER statistics for electronic resources, if the publisher provides them. Gathering these statistics is a current low priority since they cannot be compared to other statistics but may be useful for informal decision-making if it is the only data about the use of the product provided by the publisher.

Dashboard formats we considered (and examples)

LibGuide-based: http://law.okcu.libguides.com/content.php?pid=344895&sid=2861234

Wiki-based: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Wiki_Statistics

Web-based: http://library.indstate.edu/dashboard/

Why we use Google Sites

• Visually customizable (not bound by the templates in commercial products)

• Easily updatable

• (main site screen shot)

• (e-books tab screen shot)

Assessment

• Informal feedback

• Survey of our university librarians

Build your own

If you have questions about how to design your own dashboard, contact us.

Marie R. Kennedy: marie.kennedy@lmu.edu

Marisa Ramirez: marisa.ramirez@lmu.edu

https://sites.google.com/site/eresstatistics/