1. SCONUL Statistics: The view from the shop floor
JIBS workshop on management data in higher education libraries
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
1st June 2009

2. Introduction Introducing Cranfield University
Our process for the SCONUL statistics
Working with the data
Problems and issues
Looking ahead

3. Cranfield University Wholly postgraduate
Positioned between traditional universities and business and industry
Specialising in applied sciences, defence, engineering, health and management
Ranked 3rd in the UK for the impact of our mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing research* *RAE2008

4. Locations and Libraries
Cranfield Campus
Kings Norton Library
Management Information Resource Centre
Shrivenham Campus
Barrington Library

5. Cranfield University Library and Information Services
Total catalogued book stock = 438,091
Number of unique serial titles = 9,605 (92% e-only)
Users entering the library = 385,773
Number of FTE users = 4,408*
Number of active borrowers = 1,506
Total number of loans = 270,261
Total number of staff = 48.1 (55% professional)
Information provision expenditure = 32% of gross
Source: SCONUL Statistics
*SCONUL Statistics

6. Cranfield Defence and Security
Specialises in the research and teaching of Defence Management, Science and Technology
Academic Provider to the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom - College of Management and Technology
Student population of armed forces, civil servants and industry personnel from all over the world

7. Barrington Library Total catalogued book stock = 156,617
Number of unique serial titles = 7,291 (97% e-only)
Users entering the library = 70,805
Number of FTE users = 2,321*
Number of active borrowers = 682
Total number of loans = 19,804
Total number of staff = 20 (59% professional)
Information provision expenditure = 30% of gross
Source: SCONUL Statistics
*Internal data, not FTE

8. My Role
Design and manage the processes and systems to collect the data at the Barrington Library
Collate, review and submit data from all Cranfield Libraries
Produce regular reports on results
(and other data sets) to
Senior Management
Provide Library data as requested

9. Our Process – Cranfield at Shrivenham

10. Process Sections 1 – 4: Stock, Clientele, Usage. Data provided from:
Library Management System
Manual counts
Activity reports
Enquiry tracker
Data provided by:
All Library staff

11. Process Sections 5 & 6: Library Staff & Staff Expenditure
Staff numbers provided by Library Administrator
Includes vacancies
Staff expenditure provided by Finance
All expenditure over the year
Staff expenditure : staff numbers – inaccurate

12. Process Sections 7 & 8: Expenditure & Income Automated process
Cost codes cross-referenced to SCONUL Q’s
Serials breakdown provided by SWETS
Data analysed by me, with input from Finance/SWETS

13. Data Checking Year-on-Year fluctuations Number and % A + B = C
e.g. Number of additions to stock minus number of disposals equals difference in catalogued book stock
Ratios, e.g.
Number of loans : Number of active borrowers
Number of active borrowers : Number of users
Differences between University Libraries

14. Working with the data

15. Working with the data Limited application for our needs
Provides a good framework for data collection
Supported with qualitative and quantitative data
Resource impact measurement
Usage per target population
Cost per use
Impact rating by target population
User feedback
LibQUAL+

16. SCONUL Statistics on the Web
Excellent resource, if a little clunky…
Ranked list popular with stakeholders
Institutional data & defined groups useful for benchmarking
Time series helped inform stakeholders of changing costs of information provision

17. Problems and Issues

18. Consistency …getting better but still not right Year-on-Year
Between Cranfield University Libraries
With all SCONUL members
Causes of inconsistency:
Isolation of the role
Quiet discussion group
Grey guidelines
No definitive manual

19. eResources Definitions
Is it an eBook? a Database? a Serial?
Definitions do not meet our needs
eMeasures table is not comprehensive
Open for interpretation

20. Number of Unique Serials
How many unique eSerials do we have in each format?
Publishers cannot tell us how many serials in our packages
SWETS unable to provide report
Annotated each record ourselves
Double counting is currently unavoidable
Way forward?
Ex-Libris Advanced Collection Tool?

21. Usage Statistics Contradiction in the question
“4s: Number of successful requests for full-text articles (journals only)…including serials counted as databases in 2k”
Data Source
Aggregator?
Publisher?
Counter has helped, but usage data for each Library is strategically VITAL

22. Reliability of Systems
Library Management System
Reporting functionality minimal
Verde/SFX
SFX Advanced Collection Tool
Verde reporting functionality still to come online
Finance
Accuracy of cost-codes

23. Looking Ahead Consistency Isolated role within the Institution
Quiet discussion group
Grey definitions
Changing face of information provision
Redundant information (e.g. ‘active’ borrower)
Open access
Bibliometrics for REF
Changes in performance measurement
Impact is the new magnitude

24. Conclusions We’re improving, but we’re not there yet
A useful framework of Library statistics but limited for our needs
Supported with a portfolio of metrics
Benchmarking ability excellent, however consistency could skew results
SCONUL needs to move with the times without destroying the foundations

25. Selena Killick Research & Development Officer Cranfield University
Tel: