[Eril-l] DB1 usage data from ProQuest

[Melissa Belvadi]

I use Google Sheets rather than Excel for almost everything, and this
inspired me to finally find how to do a basic script (custom function).

I've copied your spreadsheet to Google and added a column using a formula
including the custom function. I'm not sure if the function itself will get
shared properly when I share the document as below, so I will also paste
the code of the function here.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NG0ZH-gK537p84ilVPFOsGc8AepbDtYq3jFFHwqw-Vk/edit?usp=sharing

I admit to having gotten some of the basic code for this from someone on
the Internet, but had to change quite a bit to convert from Excel to
Google, so I don't think I'm plagiarizing not to the cite the original.

In Google, this goes into something in the Tools menu called Script Editor.

function FindLastCharOccurence(fromText, fromTextLen, searchChar,
searchCharLen)
{
var lastOccur = -1;
var j = fromTextLen;
var k = searchCharLen;
for (var i=(j-k-1);i>=k;i--)
{
    if (fromText.substring(i, i+k) == searchChar)
    {
        lastOccur = i;
        return lastOccur;
     }
  }
  return lastOccur;
}

Melissa

On Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 11:32 AM, Harker, Karen <Karen.Harker at unt.edu> wrote:

> 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 <(940)%20565-2688>
>
> http://librariesareforuse.wordpress.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Eril-l mailing list
> Eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
> http://lists.eril-l.org/listinfo.cgi/eril-l-eril-l.org
>
>


-- 
Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi at upei.ca 902-566-0581
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