connecting the dots: how researchers use their library’s news resources debora cheney, the larry...
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Connecting the Dots: How Researchers Use Their Library’s News Resources
Debora Cheney, The Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian
and Head, The News and Microforms LibraryThe University Libraries
The Pennsylvania State University
News Resources at Penn State
• Microfilm and print newspapers• 3 Aggregator Databases
• LexisNexis• ProQuest• Newsbank
• 6 Historical Newspaper Databases• 3 Specialized Databases• PressDisplay (E-Newspaper)
A VARIETY OF DATA “DOTS”Individual data points
Areas Evaluated: Penn State News Sources
International and Historical Newspaper Use
New Media Use and Print Newspaper Use
Search effectiveness/efficiency
“Old Brand” Use Compared – Aggregator Databases, 2009
128,584
2,839
81,776
41,620
Total PA Newspapers Other Major US Cities Wall Street Journal Total 'Old Brands'
by
Do
cum
ents
Vie
wed
Most Frequently Viewed?Relative Usage by Aggregator, 2009
Documents Viewed
The New York Times
LexisNexis 90%
ProQuest 24%
Newsbank 13%
25% of total
Plus:
The New York Times
Digital Archive 41%
Pennsylvania Newspapers
LexisNexis 0%
ProQuest 4%
Newsbank 45%Centre Daily Times 4%26 titles
16% of total
Use of International Sources: Newsbank, 2009
1%
2%
1% 1% 1%
24%
70%
by Documents Viewed
Africa/Middle East Asia Australia Europe
North/Latin America PA USA
International Titles: Newsbank 2009
1. Times of India, The (Mumbai, India)2. Chinadaily.com.cn3. Toronto Star, The (Ontario, Canada) 4. Daily Star, The (Beirut, Lebanon)5. Economist, The (London, England)6. China Daily (Beijing) 7. Guardian Unlimited (England)8. Sydney Morning Herald, The (Australia) 9. Financial Times (London, England)
Percent of Historical News Content Use Compared to Aggregator
Databases, 2006 - 2009
2006
2007
2008
2009
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
89%
82%
79%
77%
0%
0%
4%
4%
3%
10%
6%
9%
8%8%
11%9%
Aggregators Gale
Vanderbilt America's Historical Newspapers (READEX)
Proquest The New York Times Historical
by
Do
cum
ents
Vie
wed
Newspaper Requests from Inter-Library Loan (ILL),
2004 - 2008Year Requested 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total
Pre 1924 148
128
125 95
109
605
1925-1949 74 52 19 22 41 208
1950-1974 18 33 14 29 33 127
1975-1999 19 53 13 11 17 113
2000 - Current 4 11 14 28 12 69
Unidentified Year 16 25 16 5 9 71
Total 279
302
201
190
221
1,193
Video, Blogs, and Web Content, Oh My!
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Web 0 0 1 330 1417 2613
Blogs 0 0 0 72 294 652
Video 232 156 129 56 1176 676
250
750
1,250
1,750
2,250
2,750
3,250
3,750
4,250
by
Do
cum
ents
Vie
wed
Newspaper Use Online and In Room, 2009
%USA
% PA
% Business
% Asia
% Sport
% Europe
% Latin/ North America
% Middle East/ Africa
5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65%
%USA % PA % Busi-ness
% Asia % Sport % Europe % Latin/ North
America
% Middle East/ Africa
PressDis-play
0.397973333333335
0.0394666666666667
0.0643131399317415
0.124466723549489
0.0273066666666667
0.232295221843003
0.0830933333333336
0.03104
In Room*
0.211618257261412
0.131742738589213
0.171507607192255
0.273072934669895
0 0.151054268924991
0.0345661942620118
0.0262703076391293
by
Issu
es R
ead
*In Room data is for Spring and Fall Semesters 2009
Top Newspapers: 2009
PressDisplay
1. Le Figaro 2. Liberation3. The Guardian4. Times of India (Mumbai)
5. Star (Malaysia)6. National Post (Canada)7. Jerusalem Post8. Les Echos9. Aujourd'hui en France10. China Daily
News & Microforms Library
1. Asahi Shimbun 2. El Pais 3. Times of India 4. Dong-a Ilbo5. Le Monde 6. Daily Telegraph 7. Estado de Sao Paulo8. Times (London)9. Corriere della Sera10. Izvestiia 11. Jerusalem Post
How efficient are researchers?Ratio of Searches to Documents viewed. 2009
By Database
LexisNexis 1
ProQuest 7
Newsbank 1
By Category
Aggregators 3
Specialized 8
Historical 1
Cross-Disciplinary Databases and use of newspapers?
Searches
ProQuest: ~84%
Newsbank: 8%
LexisNexis: 8%
Documents Viewed
ProQuest, 35%
Newsbank 31%
LexisNexis 34%
2009 data
Summary: Major trends in use of library news resources
Growth in use of state newspapers
Growth in use of “New Media”
Modest use of pre-1922 newspapers
Limited use of International News Sources
CONNECTING THE DOTSLarger Trends
Use by Category, 2009
Aggregator Databases: 61%
Specialized Databases: 21%
Historical Databases: 18%
Database Use by Category, 2006 - 2009
2006 2007 2008 2009 -
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
900,000
By Documents Viewed
Aggregator Databases
Specialized
Historical
Combined
Percentage Change, 2006-2009Documents Viewed, of total
By Category
Aggregator Databases -24%
Specialized Databases +17%
Historical Databases + 6%
By Aggregator
LexisNexis - 8%
Newsbank +22%
ProQuest -14%
Where we stand
More documents viewed from Aggregator databases
Decline in use of Aggregator Databases
Decline in documents viewed in library news resources
Cross disciplinary databases do not increase use of newspapers
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
Debora Cheney, The Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian
Head, The News and Microforms Library
The University Libraries
The Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania, USA
POST-SCRIPTWhat impacts news content use
A Changing Definition of “News”
Trends: Youth news consumption
Hunt and gather news they want
Expect news to “find them”
Accustomed to viewing news “categories”
May never have read a “newspaper”
Trends: News distribution
No longer means just a “newspaper”
News creators vs. news “aggregators” vs. library database aggregators
News is different: Event driven news vs. news commentary
Trends: Youth Research Behaviors
Power browsing behaviors
Google and familiar library databases
Faculty as advisor
Libraries and News ContentPossibly Too Tied to the Concept of the “newspaper”
Challenges for Libraries
Increased competition
Libraries ≠ News Content
News: a “digital wilderness”
Re-think how we position news content and news resources into the research, teaching, learning context of academic research
Re-establish the library as a the place for news-based research
• Better understand news researchers (faculty & students)
• Make library’s news resources more visible and find-able
• Establish clearly how library news resources differ from web-sources for news