1. Proposal for Enhancement of the CAUL Statistics <statistics.caul.edu.au

2. Summary of recent developments This is a summary of a proposal from CAVAL to improve the current collection, presentation and online functionality of CAUL’s Australian and New Zealand academic library statistics. The CAUL Statistics Focus Group recommends that CAUL accept the proposal.

3.  CAUL Statistics have been collected since 1953. Data collection moved from printed forms to Excel spreadsheets in 1996, and the CAUL Statistics website was established in 1997.  CAVAL has managed the collection of these statistics since 1992; the contract was renewed by CAUL in 2003.  In 2003 the CAUL Statistics Focus Group conducted a survey of CAUL to find out how the statistics are used, and requirements for further development of the statistics. There was strong support for a number of enhancements.

4.  CAVAL developed a pilot online statistics site in 2004. This site has been tested and reviewed by CAUL staff responsible for data collection – their response has been enthusiastic.  The proposal addresses the upgrading of the pilot into an online statistics service for CAUL, incorporating the enhancements identified by the survey.

5. Summary of new benefits  Online comparison of institutional data – up to ten institutions can be compared using an unlimited number of variables.  Ratios and other statistical measures can be calculated easily, displaying results online for all the institutions in the dataset in ranked order.  Summary statistics – online display of descriptive statistics for all of the institutions in the data set.

6.  Graphs – allows the production of an online graph for one institution (or median institution value) and up to ten variables, or up to ten institutions and one variable.  Download data - the user can extract and download a subset of the data by selecting the institutions, geographic regions (i.e. one or more Australian States or New Zealand), variables, and range of year(s) for which the data is required.  Input module - online input of data by staff from contributing institutions, enabling more efficient data collection and incorporating new functionality such as data validation and online help.

7. Summary of costs The proposal involves these additional costs – Development cost (ex-GST)$37,583One-off Increase in annual cost (ex-GST)$8,610 Annual