CDL: Questions about statistics harvesting methodology (Response 1)

[Original Post followed by the response.]

Good afternoon:
I have been asked to compile various statistics about print/electronic serials  and 
e-books for reporting to the ACRL by our Associate Dean for Collections. There are a 
number of documents that outline the basic parameters and methods at 
http://www.arl.org/stats/annualsurveys/arlstats/09statmail.shtml
But I was hoping I could get some advice about the best way to go about this.
There are a number of tools that we have that item counts, etc. These are:
- Serials Solution 360 Resource Manager
- Ex Libris SFX Link Resolver
- Voyager ILS (I can use Access/SQL to query the database)
- A Variety of manual/Excel files we keep during the year
After reading the ARL documents and looking at the various reports that the products above 
can produce, I've come up with a couple ways of going about collating the statistics. The 
problem is, depending on what system is used different results can occur.
I was wondering if others on the List are having the same dilemma and do you have a 
preferred methodology to deal with this problem?
Thank you,
George Boston <george.boston_at_wmich.edu>


==#1==

CDL: Questions about statistics harvesting methodology.
From: Leslie Czechowski <lczech_at_pitt.edu>

This is becoming a huge issue for most of us, I think, George. A few years ago we were 
able to obtain funding to purchase an ERM. We bought the one from Innovative Interfaces 
even though our ILS is Voyager and we've been very satisfied with the results. After we 
devoted much staff time to inputting the data into the ERM, we were also able to license 
Scholarly Stats, a product that collected our use data and presented it to us in one 
spreadsheet (for our journals). Since then we've had a staff member who could create the 
same reports, so we were able to drop Scholarly Stats (although it's a very good product).

I give this background to support my argument that it may be a very good investment to 
purchase such products because once implemented, they allow you to harvest use statistics 
in a manner that is much less time intensive. We've had to produce mountains of use data 
for our funders these past few years, and I don't believe we could have done it if we 
didn't have the automated methods for collecting the data.

For print journals, we do query Voyager for use reports. Please let me know if you'd like 
to discuss further. / Leslie

-- 
Leslie Czechowski, Assistant Director
Collections&  Technical Services
University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System