This article describes a project undertaken as part of a cross-campus strategic planning effort. The project documented current campus practices and systems in use for collecting, analyzing and reporting key research metrics. The project identified organizational issues around siloed data collection and lack of clarity on data stewards, data…

User experience is immeasurably important for your patrons as they access your Web site. This article presents tips and strategies for testing user experience, suggests a number of different popular technologies and tools that are used in the UX field, and lays out a plan for sharing and utilizing data to make improvements on your Web site. It is…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Business Intelligence and Data Visualization with Tableau…

The South Carolina Information and Library Services Consortium (SCILS) began with three public two-year college libraries in 1995. Since then, nine other public two-year college libraries have joined SCILS. In 2004, Sirsi's buyout of Data Research Associates (DRA) in 2001 was the impetus for SCILS to migrate to Sirsi. Migration to a more dynamic…

In spring of 2006, a task force was charged to look at the feasibility of acquiring hand-held inventory devices for the Pennsylvania State University Libraries (PSUL). The task force's charge was not to look at the whole concept of doing an inventory, but rather to focus on the feasibility of acquiring hand-held devices to use in an inventory.…

This report describes the aspirations and inspirations as well as the data collection and analyses which constituted the first phase of activity under the Mellon Foundation grant to examine collection development and management at Cornell. The emphasis is mainly on analytical and planning processes rather than specific results during this first…

Narrative and statistics are used to describe the activities of the University of New Mexico libraries in fiscal year 1973-74. The information given includes quantities of print and nonprint material acquired; changes in the administrative, readers' services, and technical processes divisions; the establishment of a collection development office;…

A study was conducted of three key availability characteristics of material at the University of California (UC), Berkeley library system: (1) status of materials, (2) time required to obtain them, and (3) their location. These characteristics were examined in light of interlibrary loan criteria set forth in a major report on library cooperation…

A study was conducted to inventory and describe the quantitative performance measures of an academic library system which originate as a result of the activities at an automated loan desk. Visits were made to 24 academic libraries whose experience in library automation ranged from the completely on-line system with user self service and in-house…

Special statistical reports on public, society, and school libraries have been published periodically by the United States Bureau of Education. Nine of these reports have appeared in the past 40 years, the last one, preceding the present 1913 report, presented the statistics of 1908. The earlier reports included the names of all libraries…

A study of the Purdue University Libraries was conducted to help allocate costs by user group and academic department. A circulation survey was taken to determine user identification. The sampling included reserve material used in the library, materials borrowed overnight or longer, and use of photocopy service. Copies of transaction cards were…

Space layout and work flow patterns in the Audiovisual Center at Purdue University were studied with respect to effective space utilization and the need for planning space requirements in relationship to the activities being performed. Space and work areas were reorganized to facilitate the flow of work and materials between areas, and equipment…

A study was conducted at Purdue University to gather operational and budgetary planning data for the Libraries and Audiovisual Center. The objectives were: (1) to complete a current inventory of equipment including year of purchase, costs, and salvage value; (2) to determine useful life data for general classes of equipment; and (3) to determine…

Highlights of the 1975/76 annual report for the University Libraries at the State University of New York at Albany include: (1) acquisitions dropped markedly; (2) follow-up on the report of the library review team, including the beginning of a long term project of developing a statement of mission and objectives for each unit by library staff and…

This examination of the potential uses of the OCLC (Ohio College Library Center) system in public service areas of libraries discusses anticipated use of a public access OCLC terminal in the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library of the University of Michigan, including a description of preparations and preliminary findings on its use. (Author)