Metasearch Usage Statistics

Brad Buckley

Thomson / Gale

October 30, 2003

About

Gale Primary publisher, licensed content, aggregated

databases, distribution in several media formats. Consumers are researchers and reference

librarians in K-12, Academic, Public, Corporate, Special and Government libraries.

Me Senior Product Architect Design Infotrac information service

Usage Statistics – Wanted!

Meaningful usage reports for decision support: Evaluate a service Compare services Compare demographics

Usage Statistics - Metasearch But with Metasearch…

What statistics should be counted ? By Who ? And When ?

Metasearch Issues – What to count? Need broad agreement on key measures

“search” “retrieval” (or “item requests”) “session” “turnaway” Others? E.g., “referrals”, “Metasearch search”

Need to rationalize and standardize industry definitions (COUNTER, E-Metrics, and ICOLC).

Metasearch issues – Who counts? Who is responsible for collecting and

reporting each usage measure ? Are existing role definitions (e.g., COUNTER)

adequate ? Standardize industry definitions (COUNTER,

E-Metrics, and ICOLC).

Metasearch Issues – When to count? “Broadcast” search occurs with multiple

resources and parties at the same time. Do we need to qualify usage measures when

Metasearch is involved ? Avoid double or inappropriate counting.

E.g., What if Metasearch involves a pre-search? Meaningfully analyze counts from the parties

involved.

Metasearch – Real Usage Statistics For library X database Y, interpret:

Sessns Srchs Views Rtrvls

5/2002 1903 6178 6213 1289

9/2002 21811 22904 3007 634

Usage Statistics - Recommendations Thorough review of NISO Z39.7-2002

“Information Services and Use: Metrics & statistics for libraries and information providers--Data Dictionary”

Analyze impact of Metasearch Create a NISO working group to…

Statistics Working Group Activities

Review definitions in existing standards Identify missing definitions Identify overlap Identify inappropriate or incomplete definitions Revise definitions Present at focus group Recommend to existing standards bodies