[Eril-l] Is Breaking Up THAT Hard to Do?

[Harker, Karen]

This article lends credence to my hunch that ILL data has limited validity as indicator of future use.  First, you need to look at the age of the items requested at the time of the requests – are they requesting older articles or the latest articles?  Secondly, you need to examine trends in usage over time – has there been a steady direction of the number of requests?  Finally, examine the number of individuals making these requests.  Do all of the requests for this title come from 1 or 2 people?

I have not looked in the literature, but it would be interesting to read any studies that have attempted to ascertain the correlation of number of ILL requests with usage.  The research to answer this question (does the number of ILL requests predict unfettered usage of a resource) would require methodologies that are rife with potential problems, but it would be useful to see if it could be answered.

Karen Harker
Collection Assessment Librarian
940-565-2688
Libraries are for Use<http://librariesareforuse.wordpress.com/>

From: Eril-l [mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org] On Behalf Of Steve Oberg
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2015 1:04 PM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] Is Breaking Up THAT Hard to Do?

To add a bit more to my previous response, and also in response to more recent comments regarding use of ILL data….

One of the things I’ve done is a preliminary literature review on the topic of PPV and one of the articles I found interesting was the following one:

Hanson, Michael, and Terese Heidenwolf. 2010. “Making the Right Choices: Pay-per-View Use Data and Selection Decisions.”
College & Research Libraries News 71 (11): 586–88.

The authors began their exploration of PPV with the assumption that their serials collection development was strong. This was based on careful evaluation of subscriptions and faculty involvement in decision-making year-to-year, along with a thorough examination of ILL data. Their results, however, led them to question their initial assumptions, including the validity or relevance of ILL data.

This was written five years ago and perhaps longitudinal data will be more enlightening. But as I mentioned, I found their institution’s experience to be interesting.

The downloadable PowerPoint of the session to which I referred at The Charleston Conference will eventually be linked from the conference schedule, but you can get it here if you’re interested: http://librarylink.wheaton.edu/chs15

Steve

Steve Oberg<http://www.wheaton.edu/Academics/Faculty/O/Steve-Oberg>
Assistant Professor of Library Science
Electronic Resources and Serials
Wheaton College (IL)
+1 (630) 752-5852
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