From: Xiaotian Chen <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:24:16 -0600 It seems that ARL and other organizations of our profession still live in the 1990s. In the age of PubMed and Google Schoar, I have always found stats like # of databases and # of searches meaningless. Do we know the # of searches on PubMed and Google Scholar? If not, what is point of counting the # of searches on MEDLINE? Federated searches and discovery tools have made # of searches more meaningless. ARL, ACRL, etc should just get over it. I thought the most meaningful stats are COUNTER Journal Report 1 (R3) and my proxy server stats. Xiaotian Chen Electronic Services Librarian Bradley University Peoria, Illinois http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~chen/ On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 2:17 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From: "Hamaker, Charles" <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:23:34 +0000 > > I’m in a bit of a quandary about what to do about search statistics > from Discovery services. > > I can’t find anywhere a definition that includes them, yet when I look > at some of what we are receiving from our vendors, I can’t EXCLUDE > them from the stats to determine individual database usage either. > > What is being requested.. (these originally were in the ARL supplemental stats) > > Number of successful full-text article requests (journals) > > Number of regular searches (databases) > > Number of federated searches (databases) > > When you look at the ARL supplemental definitions, it says: > > “Questions 18-20. Use of Electronic Resources. Items reported should > follow definitions as defined in the COUNTER Code of Practice > (www.projectcounter.org). In a footnote, please include the types of > resources for which you are reporting data. It is recommend that ONLY > data that follow the COUNTER definitions be reported. Any exceptions > should be documented in a footnote.” > > And when you go to the COUNTER pages, the list of “known” federated > search engines while quite lengthy does not include the discovery > services. > > Any thoughts welcome. > > Chuck > > Charles Hamaker M.L.S | Associate University Librarian Collection > Development and Electronic Resources > UNC Charlotte | J. Murrey Atkins Library > 9201 University City Blvd. | Charlotte, NC 28223 > [log in to unmask] | http://library.uncc.edu/