Taking the long view. Using usage statistics to inform planned e-book budget expenditure

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1 Taking the long view Using usage statistics to inform planned e-book budget expenditure Terry Bucknell Head of Collections, Content and Discovery September 2013

2 Context University of Liverpool Founded 1881 Research intensive (Russell Group) Most disciplines: Medicine Biological Sciences Veterinary Science Physical Sciences Engineering Social Sciences & Law Management School Humanities Fairly representative (?)

3 Book Purchasing Patterns at Liverpool The print era: Only purchased requested titles Subject librarians did not do collection development No approval plans The electronic era: As above, but: Subscribe to packages: ACLS, ebrary, Knovel, etc Purchase packages: Palgrave, Springer, RSC etc DDA through EBL only since August 15 th 2013! Questions: Which packages to buy / subscribe to in future? Purchase requested titles, or add them to DDA? How much to allocate to DDA?

4 What indicators can we use to evaluate different packages?

5 Key Performance Indicators for e-book packages Want to use KPIs that allow different packages to be compared: Different subjects Different sizes (number of titles) Different publishers Different platforms with different functionality: Page views Chapter downloads Whole-book downloads

6 KPI 1. Intensity of Usage Downloads per title per month Start with the title list for the package Usage report might not include zero-use titles Bring in the usage statistics Use a VLOOKUP() table array function Determine the size of the collection Use COUNT() for numerical columns, or COUNTA() for text columns Add a row for Months of Ownership Calculate downloads per month every month use a SUM() from the first month to the nth month, and divide by the number of months of ownership Normalise by dividing by the size of the collection

7 Peak after 8 months in this case Gradual decline as: Users refer to previously-downloaded files (if no DRM) Users prefer more recent content Especially if you have continued to acquire books on the same topic Rapid increase as people discover that the books are available, and start using them

8 Points to Consider Is 7 downloads per title per year good? This is downloads of whole books Downloads of Chapters or Pages from other platforms Need to compare with those Note that this platform has no DRM Users can read previously-downloaded content without recording further usage Need to compare with platforms that have DRM, where most/all reading will be done online If a print collection had an average of 7 loans per year, we would probably consider that to be good Record the Intensity KPI after 1, 2, 3 etc years of ownership

9 KPI 2. Value for Money Cost per download For the purchase of a package: All cost occurs at the time of purchase Total usage mounts up over time (can never go down!) Cost per download inevitably decreases over time Just divide the purchase price by the total usage up to that date Length of ownership is a key variable State the length of ownership at which CPD calculated, or Plot CPD as a function of length of ownership, or Record the CPD KPI at 1, 2, 3, etc years

10 It is not possible to predict the long-term CPD after just a few months of ownership

11 Points to Consider If you need to pay an annual hosting fee, this should be included in the cost per download (though the effect is usually small) For repeated purchases of e-book collections, there will be a step in the CPD graph as you make each payment, but in the long-term the CPD should approach a stable value:

12 KPI 3. Breadth of Usage What proportion of the titles in a collection are responsible for the downloads from that collection? In other words, what proportion of the titles are used at least once? Again, length of ownership is a key variable State the length of ownership at which BoU calculated, or Plot BoU as a function of length of ownership, or Record the BoU KPI at 1, 2, 3, etc years Calculate the cumulative usage from the month of purchase to each month. Then use COUNTIF() to count the number zero-use titles, divide by the number of titles in the collection, subtract from 1 and express as a percentage.

13 Usually see consistent patterns of usage from one year s collection to the next.

14 KPI 4. Regularity of Usage What proportion of the titles in a collection have been used in 2, 3, 4 etc different months? i.e. regularly? Ideally we would like to know how many users have used each book, and how many times each of those users has used the book. But counting the number of months that each book has been used is the best we can do with COUNTER stats. As usual, length of ownership is a key variable Use COUNTIF() across each row to count the number of months that each book has been used between the month of purchase and the nth month. Then use COUNTIF() again, down each column, to count the number of books that have been used 1, 2, 3, etc times by each month, and divide by the size of the collection and express that as a percentage.

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17 Points to Consider What is an acceptable proportion of the collection to be used (regularly)? Depends on the pricing model: is the collection price 50% of total list price, or 80% (for example) It might be necessary to adjust months of ownership to reflect the number of months that titles have been available on the platform, if you purchased the platform before it was complete. Palgrave and Springer provide this information in their titles lists In other cases you might need to use your MARC record creation date from example. The effect will be small if you purchase the collection when it is nearly complete

18 The Platform Functionality Problem KPIs 1 and 2 depend on how the platform presents the e-books (whole books, chapters or pages). KPIs 3 and 4 do not. How to correct for this? Unique opportunity from T&F: Own platform until July 2011 BR1 report Transferred to MyiLibrary July 2011 to Oct 2012 BR2 pages viewed report but need to subtract usage from e- books purchased from Coutts New T&F platform from Sept 2012 BR2 chapters viewed report Compare stats and make deductions: 1 chapter view = 18 page views looks plausible! 1 book view = 1/3 of a chapter view don t believe the stats from the old platform

19 Can we apply this methodology to other business models?

20 Single-Title Purchase Platforms Essential to know when each title was purchased. Should be able to obtain from this information from: Vendor s acquisition reports MARC record creation dates Can then transform calendar months into months of ownership by shifting usage figures left or right for particular months of books. Only look at books that have been owned for at least a given period of time.

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22 Subscription Packages How many titles were in the collection during the period covered by the usage report? Do you need to correct for titles that were added to / removed from the package during that period? Example ebrary Academic Complete 2010 & 2011 We had 33,556 MARC records for ebrary Academic Complete added by 1 st January 2010 We added 28,998 ebrary Academic Complete MARC records between 1 st Jan 2010 and 31 st Dec 2011! How many books were in the collection in 2010 and 2011? 33,556 or 62,554 (or something in between)? Do we try to identify those additional titles in the usage report and correct for their release date? If cost per download is compelling, probably no need!

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25 Evidence-Based Selection Pay fee to open up access to a publisher s collections for a year At end of year, choose which titles / collections to retain permanent access to. Does ownership start with: The date that access was originally opened up, or The date that titles/packages were selected For packages, might prefer the former For single titles, will probably prefer the latter (because all titles were using during the evidence period, presumably!)

26 Titles were selected for purchase after 12 months. All selected titles had been used in at least 3 months by then. That was one of our selection criteria!

27 Did the selected titles continue to be regularly used after purchase? In most cases, yes!

28 Demand-Driven Acquisition Interested in: The whole collection exposed to DDA? The collection of purchased titles only? The collection of purchased and rented titles? Daily activity reports as well as COUNTER reports Demographic reports might be possible Use Pivot Tables and Pivot Graphs to automate the analysis

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31 Evaluation plan For each: Purchased package Subscription package Single-title purchases platform Calculate and record our KPIs, at 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, etc Create graphs too Use these to decide Which packages to purchase annually Which subscriptions to renew What platforms to prefer for single-title purchases How much to allocate to DDA Whilst keeping a balanced collection

32 Some Further Reading Bucknell, Terry, Buying by the bucketful: a comparative study of e-book acquisition strategies, Insights: the UKSG journal, 25(1). pp , DOI: / Lamothe, Alain R, Comparing usage between selective and bundled e-monograph purchases, Collection Building, 32(3), p , DOI: /CB Lamothe, Alain R, Factors Influencing the Usage of an Electronic Book Collection: Size of the E-book Collection, the Student Population, and the Faculty Population, College & Research Libraries, 74(1), p , DOI: (Open Access) Lannon, Amber & McKinnon, Dawn, Business E-books: What Can Be Learned From Vendor Supplied Statistics?, Journal Of Business & Finance Librarianship, 18(2), p , DOI: / Tucker, James, Ebook collection analysis: subject and publisher trends, Collection Building 31(2), p , DOI: /