Purpose & Goals

My purpose is to share what I do as the student assistant to the Assessment Librarian at the University of Washington to maintain and ensure the collection of usage data. My goal is to start a conversation around how we can use this usage to serve the library's Antiracist and DEI goals. The best way to improve is to learn from each other and the Assessment Conference seems the best place to do so.

Design & Methodology

The method I employ in my job includes three main tasks. The first is to keep sushi credentials up to date in Alma, where we passively collect usage data for librarians to find when needed with help from my direct supervisor. I audited the success of each vendor's usage collection in Alma last year and went hunting for solutions and missing data when possible. The second task is working with vendors who provide some COUNTER-compliant data but do not have Sushi credentials. The third is to collect data that is not COUNTER-compliant, which means it could be a unique data set in various formats. The last two tasks are not passive and involve navigating web pages and dashboards based on internal notes from past years. The assessment librarian assistant, unless a librarian makes a special request for data, gathers this data once a year for the previous year. This data is used to negotiate contracts and make selection decisions, so it is gathered each year before most contracts are renegotiated. There is some method and pattern to this work dependent on the dashboard (or lack of one) vendors use to share their data. Many vendors with COUNTER-compliant usage have been gaining sushi credentials, at which point I add them to Alma. Those vendors that still require manual collection of their data may do so based on a business decision or the nature of the materials they provide. Overall, using this data has proven valuable to selection decisions and is why we do this work.

Practical Implications & Value

I hope attendees will consider what untapped potential there may be in usage data that could impact DEI efforts in libraries. I also want to share how we have streamlined our data collection in the chance that this helps others do the same. Finally, I would hope to learn from the attendees ways we could potentially improve our system through their questions and discussions.