The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has announced the availability of the final report of a study on the usage of electronic resources - MINES for Libraries: Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services and the Ontario Council of University Libraries' Scholar Portal, Final Report 2011.
The study summarises findings on 34,000 randomly captured uses of electronic resources over a 12-month period from the 21 members of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). ARL worked collaboratively with OCUL's Scholars Portal staff to implement a second iteration of the Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services (MINES for Libraries) methodology that captures data on library user demographics, the purpose of use, and the location of the user at point of use when accessing electronic resources and services. The results show the increasing value derived from the use of digital content, and document the emerging use of digital resources in the humanities, and the soaring use of electronic resources from off-campus locations.
The data are currently used by Scholars Portal staff, as well as staff in OCUL institutions, to determine how specific populations apply digital content to their work, identify where library use originates to tailor services accordingly, gather usage data on digital collections to justify funding and inform collection development decisions, and assess the impact of networked electronic resources and services on teaching, learning, and research.
ARL implemented this methodology in collaboration with OCUL in 2004–2005 and again in 2010–2011. The latest summary report focuses on the 2010–2011 findings and provides a description of the major differences between the two implementations. The report is available at http://www.libqual.org/documents/LibQual/publications/MINES_OCUL2011.pdf.
Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services (MINES for Libraries) is an online, transaction-based survey that collects data on library-user demographics, the purpose of use, and the location of the user at point of use offered to the library community through StatsQUAL — a gateway of library assessment tools developed by the ARL.
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