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

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

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

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

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 2007-08 *SCONUL Statistics 2006-07

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

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 2007-08 *Internal data, not FTE

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

Our Process – Cranfield at Shrivenham

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

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

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

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

Working with the data

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+

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

Problems and Issues

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

Selena Killick Research & Development Officer Cranfield University s.a.killick@cranfield.ac.uk Tel: 01793 785561