Leila Belle Sterman

Undercounting File Downloads from Institutional Repositories

ABSTRACT A primary impact metric for institutional repositories (IR) is the number of file downloads, which are commonly measured through third-party Web analytics software. Google Analytics, a free service used by most academic libraries, relies on HTML page tagging to log visitor activity on Googles servers. However, Web aggregators such as Google Scholar link directly to high value content (usually PDF files), bypassing the HTML page and failing to register these direct access events. This article presents evidence of a study of four institutions demonstrating that the majority of IR activity is not counted by page tagging Web analytics software, and proposes a practical solution for significantly improving the reporting relevancy and accuracy of IR performance metrics using Google Analytics.

Institutional Repositories: An Analysis of Trends and a Proposed Collaborative Future

This study seeks to give libraries a plan for interinstitutional cooperation for institutional repositories that will benefit all involved: researchers, institutions, and, ultimately, global scholarship. This research uses repository studies, interviews with existing repository managers, and the input of libraries considering a repository to inform the exploration of the opportunities for collaboration in IR development and maintenance. This article proposes opportunities for collaboration between institutions in order to convince libraries that it is possible and effective to work together toward a common goal: highlighting existing working groups or alliances, sharing technology and hardware, building separate interinstitutional bodies to house repositories, and sharing the work of specialists.

RAMP – the Repository Analytics and Metrics Portal: A prototype web service that accurately counts item downloads from institutional repositories

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present data that begin to detail the deficiencies of log file analytics reporting methods that are commonly built into institutional repository (IR) platforms. The authors propose a new method for collecting and reporting IR item download metrics. This paper introduces a web service prototype that captures activity that current analytics methods are likely to either miss or over-report. Design/methodology/approach Data were extracted from DSpace Solr logs of an IR and were cross-referenced with Google Analytics and Google Search Console data to directly compare Citable Content Downloads recorded by each method. Findings This study provides evidence that log file analytics data appear to grossly over-report due to traffic from robots that are difficult to identify and screen. The study also introduces a proof-of-concept prototype that makes the research method easily accessible to IR managers who seek accurate counts of Citable Content Downloads. Research limitations/implications The method described in this paper does not account for direct access to Citable Content Downloads that originate outside Google Search properties. Originality/value This paper proposes that IR managers adopt a new reporting framework that classifies IR page views and download activity into three categories that communicate metrics about user activity related to the research process. It also proposes that IR managers rely on a hybrid of existing Google Services to improve reporting of Citable Content Downloads and offers a prototype web service where IR managers can test results for their repositories.

Making Visualization Work for Institutional Repositories: Information Visualization as a means to browse electronic theses and dissertations

INTRODUCTION An attractive repository with clear, well-structured and accessible content can be a powerful recruitment and publicity tool for administrators, fundraisers, and others trying to bolster support for repositories. Digitizing ETDs is a lengthy and often arduous process. Once that process is completed, it is often a victory that suffices. As a result, collections frequently receive no further treatment. We demonstrate the benefits of visualizing repository content. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT The goal of the project was to create an interactive visualization to make our newly digitized theses and dissertations more discoverable. By leveraging the institutional organization of College, Department and Year of Graduation, we visualized data to help users understand ETD content as a whole and find specific items more easily. BUILDING THE VISUALIZATION The process begins with data cleanup involving extracting and normalizing repository metadata, then the data is processed and the Data-Driven Documents (D3) JavaScript library is used to generate the actual visualization. Benefits of Visualizations to Users: The visualization allows for the sort of happenstance discovery of materials that are celebrated about shelf browsing and a way to compare the productivity of each college and department at our university. It also illustrates our institution’s changes in emphasis over time. NEXT STEPS Visualizations have vast potential for creating engaging user interfaces for digital library content. We would like to explore how people are using the visualization as we move forward with this process to visualize multiple collections.