[Eril-l] DB1 usage data from ProQuest

[Harker, Karen]

I'm wondering how others evaluate database usage data (DB1) from such meta-platforms as ProQUest & EBSCO, particularly searches.  Attached is a DB1 report from PQ.  I have two problems I haven't been able to solve:

1.       Summarizing by product based on Database.  The way they indicate the databases is hierarchical - Product->Collection->Subcollection->Database.  For example: SciTech Premium Collection->Materials Science & Engineering Database->Technology Collection->Materials Business File.  In addition to making some of these way too long for COUNTER-compliance (I've submitted a case to PQ support for this), I'm not sure how to summarize them.  Sometimes, we purchase the individual database within a collection; sometimes we purchased the whole collection.  Sometimes, we've purchased perpetual access to parts of a product (e.g. Congressional Retrospective), and subscribed to another part (Congressional Prospective), but the names of these products aren't in the Database column.  I need to see usage of the part that we subscribe to in order to determine if it's still worth it to continue to subscribe.

2.       The searches for the individual databases in a product are sometimes exactly the same, and sometimes they are close, but not quite the same.  I understand that this is due to their internal "federated" type searching, and so I use only Result Clicks & Record Views for evaluations.  It's just very frustrating it makes summarizing the usage of these products more complicated.  I'm trying to automate the process of not only collecting usage stats, but summarizing them for evaluation purposes, but there is so much data wrangling required.

So, how do you take the data provided by the DB1s for a product, say, the PQ Statistical Insight (which has many parts) or PQ Congressional (which has some parts that are purchased and some that are subscription), and summarize the data in a way that makes sense?

Karen R. Harker, MLS, MPH
Collection Assessment Librarian
UNT Libraries, Denton, Texas
940-565-2688
http://librariesareforuse.wordpress.com

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