Now that more vendors are enacting COUNTER 4 reports, what are people doing about the lack of session reporting? Like Dale, the Session count is extremely useful to me -- especially in our EBSCO databases because SmartLinking greatly inflates the number of searches, but a session is *supposed to* only be recorded once for the initial access.
Full-text downloads are great but only tell me if someone found something useful – it won’t help me determine if a lot of students go into the database but leave because they can’t find what they want. And they don’t do me any good for our Indexes (indices?).
Thanks,
Nancy
Nancy A. Bennett
Electronic Resources & Systems Librarian
Carroll University Todd Wehr Memorial Library
100 N. East Ave.
Waukesha, WI 53186
(262)650-4886
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Dale LaBonte
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 6:26 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] COUNTER DB1 sessions vs searches
Wouldn’t you know, just when I think I have a metric (session) that makes a connection between database usage and information literacy (expresses the need for information), the metric is going to disappear. What good is a search number without a session number? They might as well just use the retrievals or lack thereof and be done with it.
I had also been noticing greater numbers of sessions than searches, so it is helpful to know the link-resolvers are the culprits.
Dale
(Ms) Dale LaBonte
Coordinator of Library Serials and Electronic Resources
Alden Library | Quinsigamond Community College
670 W Boylston Street | Worcester MA 01606
508 854-7472 | dlabonte@qcc.mass.edu
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Jill Emery
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 4:18 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] COUNTER DB1 sessions vs searches
In Counter Code of Practice version 4, sessions will no longer be reported. Publishers/providers have 18 months to enact the new version which was released in April 2012. This means session reporting will go away in the near future.
http://www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html
Jill
On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 1:08 PM, Jeanne Little <jeanne.little@uni.edu> wrote:
Diana,
My understanding about searches and sessions means the number of sessions is the number of times a patron has accessed the database, and the searches are the number of searches done within each session. Thus, the session totals would be the number of different patrons (including multiple times one patron has entered the database), and the searches would be the total number of searches done for the total number of sessions for any given period. (i.e. Jan-Mar, Jan-June, etc.)
Does that help, or is it clear as mud?
Jeanne Little
On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 1:31 PM, Reid,Diana L. <diana.reid@louisville.edu> wrote:
Hi All,
Does anyone have any wisdom for me about sessions vs searches on DB1 reports? I am wondering why I see so many reports with vastly more sessions than searches.
If a session is recorded when a user requests a service, say to connect to a particular database, it doesn't make sense to me that in many instances the majority of users are basically choosing a resource
and then not searching at all. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance,
Diana Reid
Serials Acquisitions Librarian
University of Louisville
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