Data Needs and Use of Electronic Resources and Services at Academic Research Libraries

The ARL (Association of Research Libraries) E-Metrics project is a concerted effort by the research library community to investigate various problems related to collecting and using data for electronic materials and services. A survey was conducted involving twenty-four libraries during the first phase of the project to learn about current data collection activities. Twenty-two libraries responded to the survey. The results show that a number of libraries are not well prepared to collect, to analyze, and to report data related to networked resources and services. Libraries need to determine their data needs and the amount of resource that they can commit for data collection and use activities. The results also identified the lack of consistent and comparable statistics from database vendors as a main challenge and an area in which libraries and vendors must work together for solutions.