SCONUL Statistics: The view from the shop floor

1
SCONUL StatisticsThe view from the shop floor

• JIBS workshop on management data in higher
  education libraries
• School of Oriental and African Studies, London
• 1st June 2009

2
Introduction

• Introducing Cranfield University
• Our process for the SCONUL statistics
• Working with the data
• Problems and issues
• Looking ahead

3
Cranfield University

• Wholly postgraduate
• Positioned between traditional universities and
  business and industry
• Specialising in applied sciences, defence,
  engineering, health and management
• Ranked 3rd in the UK for the impact of our
  mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing
  research RAE2008

4
Locations and Libraries

• Cranfield Campus
• Kings Norton Library
• Management Information Resource Centre
• Shrivenham Campus
• Barrington Library

5
Cranfield UniversityLibrary and Information
Services

• Total catalogued book stock 438,091
• Number of unique serial titles 9,605 (92
  e-only)
• Users entering the library 385,773
• Number of FTE users 4,408
• Number of active borrowers 1,506
• Total number of loans 270,261
• Total number of staff 48.1 (55 professional)
• Information provision expenditure 32 of gross
• Source SCONUL Statistics 2007-08
• SCONUL Statistics 2006-07

6
Cranfield Defence and Security

• Specialises in the research and teaching of
  Defence Management, Science and Technology
• Academic Provider to the Defence Academy of the
  United Kingdom - College of Management and
  Technology
• Student population of armed forces, civil
  servants and industry personnel from all over the
  world

7
Barrington Library

• Total catalogued book stock 156,617
• Number of unique serial titles 7,291 (97
  e-only)
• Users entering the library 70,805
• Number of FTE users 2,321
• Number of active borrowers 682
• Total number of loans 19,804
• Total number of staff 20 (59 professional)
• Information provision expenditure 30 of gross
• Source SCONUL Statistics 2007-08
• Internal data, not FTE

8
My Role

• Design and manage the processes and systems to
  collect the data at the Barrington Library
• Collate, review and submit data from all
  Cranfield Libraries
• Produce regular reports on results
• (and other data sets) to
• Senior Management
• Provide Library data as requested

9
Our Process Cranfield at Shrivenham
10
Process

• Sections 1 4 Stock, Clientele, Usage.
• Data provided from
• Library Management System
• Manual counts
• Activity reports
• Enquiry tracker
• Data provided by
• All Library staff

11
Process

• Sections 5 6 Library Staff Staff Expenditure
• Staff numbers provided by Library Administrator
• Includes vacancies
• Staff expenditure provided by Finance
• All expenditure over the year
• Staff expenditure staff numbers inaccurate

12
Process

• Sections 7 8 Expenditure Income
• Automated process
• Cost codes cross-referenced to SCONUL Qs
• Serials breakdown provided by SWETS
• Data analysed by me, with input from Finance/SWETS

13
Data Checking

• Year-on-Year fluctuations
• Number and
• A B C
• e.g. Number of additions to stock minus number of
  disposals equals difference in catalogued book
  stock
• Ratios, e.g.
• Number of loans Number of active borrowers
• Number of active borrowers Number of users
• Differences between University Libraries

14
Working with the data
15
Working with the data

• Limited application for our needs
• Provides a good framework for data collection
• Supported with qualitative and quantitative data
• Resource impact measurement
• Usage per target population
• Cost per use
• Impact rating by target population
• User feedback
• LibQUAL

16
SCONUL Statistics on the Web

• Excellent resource, if a little clunky
• Ranked list popular with stakeholders
• Institutional data defined groups useful for
  benchmarking
• Time series helped inform stakeholders of
  changing costs of information provision

17
Problems and Issues
18
Consistency

• getting better but still not right
• Year-on-Year
• Between Cranfield University Libraries
• With all SCONUL members
• Causes of inconsistency
• Isolation of the role
• Quiet discussion group
• Grey guidelines
• No definitive manual

19
eResources Definitions

• Is it an eBook? a Database? a Serial?
• Definitions do not meet our needs
• eMeasures table is not comprehensive
• Open for interpretation

20
Number of Unique Serials

• How many unique eSerials do we have in each
  format?
• Publishers cannot tell us how many serials in our
  packages
• SWETS unable to provide report
• Annotated each record ourselves
• Double counting is currently unavoidable
• Way forward?
• Ex-Libris Advanced Collection Tool?

21
Usage Statistics

• Contradiction in the question
• 4s Number of successful requests for full-text
  articles (journals only)including serials
  counted as databases in 2k
• Data Source
• Aggregator?
• Publisher?
• Counter has helped, but usage data for each
  Library is strategically VITAL

22
Reliability of Systems

• Library Management System
• Reporting functionality minimal
• Verde/SFX
• SFX Advanced Collection Tool
• Verde reporting functionality still to come
  online
• Finance
• Accuracy of cost-codes

23
Looking Ahead

• Consistency
• Isolated role within the Institution
• Quiet discussion group
• Grey definitions
• Changing face of information provision
• Redundant information (e.g. active borrower)
• Open access
• Bibliometrics for REF
• Changes in performance measurement
• Impact is the new magnitude

24
Conclusions

• Were improving, but were not there yet
• A useful framework of Library statistics but
  limited for our needs
• Supported with a portfolio of metrics
• Benchmarking ability excellent, however
  consistency could skew results
• SCONUL needs to move with the times without
  destroying the foundations

25
Selena Killick

• Research Development Officer
• Cranfield University
• s.a.killick_at_cranfield.ac.uk
• Tel [phone]