Although the college libraries were already dedicating an increasing percentage of the resources budget to electronic resources over physical, the COVID pandemic has particularly impacted that movement. In particular, the library has acquired several new resources this past year that replicate physical content, including new collections of e-magazines, e-audiobooks, and e-books, with several in the latter category intended to replace physical books on reserve.
Metric: The number of titles held across various electronic information resource platforms, grouped by type.
Analysis: Even though the library has been more aggressive in selecting e-books over print books, print books still outnumber their electronic counterparts by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio, although this does not account for the millions of public domain books available through platforms such as HathiTrust. On the other hand, the number of electronic videos, audiobooks, and periodicals available online now dwarfs the number of physical items held for those material types.
Source: Vendor statistics
Metric: Identify the usage of ebooks, including the top 20 used ebooks, based on Total Item Requests (COUNTER 5). Total Item Requests are defined as "the total number of times the full text of a content item was downloaded or viewed." (Friendly Guide to Release 5 for Librarians, COUNTER, 2019).
Analysis: Surprisingly, the number of ebook uses during the past year dropped, at a time when those might be expected to increase due to the COVID pandemic. It will be interesting to see if the addition of new content impacts usage data next year.
Source: FLVC LINCC Report L012
Analysis: Unlike ebooks, the number of uses of streaming video rose, an increase likely attributable to the pandemic, as more professors integrated streaming video into their courses to replace face-to-face screenings.
Source: Vendor reports
Metric 2: Identify top 50 used licensed electronic databases, based on Total Item Requests (COUNTER 5). Total Item Requests are defined as "the total number of times the full text of a content item was downloaded or viewed." (Friendly Guide to Release 5 for Librarians, COUNTER, 2019).
Analysis: EBSCO's Academic Search Complete product, a comprehensive and general database that is often the most referred source in ENC 1101 classes, is by far the most used resource. Interestingly, though, 5 subject-specific databases are in the top 11, including two health-related, and one each for education, business, and psychology, perhaps reflecting a greater emphasis on research in the courses in those departments.
Source: Vendor reports