Increasing E-Journal Use
A Needs Assessment Proposal

Emma Goldman Memorial Library at Bertrand Russell State University Melanie Chu Francis Howard Bill Sherwood Geoffrey Skinner LIBR 228 April-May, 2002

I. Introduction

A. Statement of Problem and Context:

The Emma Goldman Memorial Library is the central library for Bertrand Russell State University (BRSU) in Winstanley, Oregon. The Library's collection is intended to serve the information needs of students and staff in all Bertrand Russell State University departments, but access to the collection is available to everyone. The online resources are, however, restricted to students, faculty, and staff.

Since 1998, the Library has purchased access to a number of online databases, currently including Ingenta, Academic Universe, and JSTOR. The Library Collection Development Committee selected these online databases only after an extensive evaluation in collaboration with faculty members from appropriate academic departments to ensure that the databases included the preferred journals and other content. Although the journals provided through the databases have been in the library catalog since acquisition, access statistics provided through the Serial Solution system indicate that use of much of the content has been less than anticipated. We need to increase the number of users for these databases to justify their high cost.

B. Statement of Causal Relationship:

Given the careful selection process, quality of materials, and needs of academic programs, we believe that the library has failed to market its databases among students, faculty, and staff, thereby creating a situation of low use.

C. Literature Review

In a review of the current literature, numerous studies of assorted user groups, electronic databases, and marketing techniques have been conducted. While results have varied in terms of setting and specifics, it has been consistently shown that marketing and promotion to potential users will increase database usage. A study by Bishop (1998) was based on the assumption that heavy publicity of a database would lead to heavy usage, "We reasoned that if we could market the system more aggressively to those people most likely to need it, we could attract a greater number of users who would be willing to…become active system users." Likewise, Morgan (1998) argues the importance of marketing library services in an information environment of much greater competition than ever before.

While Pinfield (2001) agrees that it is essential to have good marketing strategies in place to ensure electronic resources are used extensively, the author claims that it is just as important to first understand who is using the databases, who is not using them, and how and to what extent they are being used. As in business, a target group must be researched carefully to maximize the impact of an advertising campaign. Several studies have focused on investigating user needs and behavior regarding electronic database usage for this same purpose. In "Getting to know your non-users," McCarthy (1994) explains that "non-users" may have their own means of accessing information or may be unaware of services offered from a library. In any case, it is important to find out why potential users are not making use of a library's services in order to reach out to them.

Similarly, McKnight (1997) discusses a range of student attitudes and behavior in a university setting. Resistance to e-journals encompass factors such as format, when users might prefer to read traditional photocopies of articles over ones on a computer screen, because the former can be transported, annotated and manipulated in ways the latter cannot. Furthermore, database coverage might feature only current issues from the past several years, more limited in scope and date range than its print counterpart on library shelves. "Electronic journals: what do users think of them?" emphasizes that potential users must be made aware of the advantages to electronic journals, because without incentive there is no need for change.

When conducting surveys of usage, Bishop (1998) covers two different equations to measure success: one, the number of students and faculty registered with the database compared to the total number of students and faculty in relevant departments; and two, the number of repeat users divided by the number of potential users. Other factors to consider when gathering statistics involve knowing the information needs and habits of potential users, and for what ends and at what times of the year they are most likely to use this research. Mercer (2000) maintains that meaningful statistics can be difficult to obtain, and suggests practical measures of evaluation for electronic databases including statistics on total use, use by billable hours, use by various departments or groups, number of searches, number of unique IP addresses, and use of assorted journals or articles.

Suggested marketing tactics in "Measuring access, use, and success in digital libraries" were visiting classrooms of appropriate departments, placing stickers on paper journals that publicize the accessibility of the same articles in electronic versions, and having a brief description of the services offered by the database ("over fifty full-text journals") displayed clearly on the log-in page. Most importantly, this article indicates that people need incentive and returns to take time to use a database. Awareness of the availability of an electronic resource, and knowledge that access will lead to valuable content, can greatly increase its usage. In addition, Nicholas (1998) offers practical solutions on how to implement a marketing strategy, with particular emphasis on the value of using electronic information resources; and like Bishop and others, shows the link between promoting library services, increased usage of library resources, and raising the profile of the library.

D. Statement of Research Questions

1. Rationale

Based, however, on the literature review we make the assumption that a promotional campaign will in fact reach and positively influence student usage of the databases, and that students in the targeted departments have both the need and the technological ability to make use of the databases without significant additional bibliographic instruction. We acknowledge that by focusing on one database and only two academic disciplines among many, our results may not apply to all databases or disciplines.

2. State of Research

The importance of the study is to justify the high cost of the databases by demonstrating that usage of the selected databases will increase when they are properly marketed. The library has already invested thousands of dollars towards the access and upkeep, for which the contract is ongoing for three years. Due to this costly commitment, it is in the best interest of the library to recoup the investment through high use of the databases. Finally, since the mission of the library is to facilitate the learning and research needs of the student body, then it is essential that the students are made aware and encouraged to use electronic resources.

3. Research Questions

• Can the promotion of a university database increase the use of this database among students?
• Can marketing the use of a targeted database increase the use of e-journals?
• Can we marketing success be identified and measured?
• Can this research model be used to investigate the use of other underutilized databases?

II. Methodology

A. Design of Research

We intend to focus on one high-priced database (Ingenta) that, according to access statistics, is underused; within the database, we will look at two areas: history (48 journals) and biology/life sciences (748 journals). 

History is traditionally an area of low electronic journal use; biology is typically a high area of use. We expect to observe a larger percentage of new users within the history department after our marketing efforts, but overall use with biology will likely remain higher.

B. Sampling procedures

The study will be limited to a select group of students among the 6,000 total undergraduate students at Bertrand Russell State University. Specifically, 240 students will be surveyed, representing 30% of the 800 students in the history and biology departments. While this is a relatively small sample, we feel it is significant in this setting to allow us to gain knowledge and insight on the research needs and user behavior regarding electronic databases.

The population is undergraduate students taking history and biology courses.  The sampling frame is the list of undergraduate students majoring and enrolled in an advanced history or biology course. This study will use availability sampling, a form of non-random sampling.  In this type of sampling, a researcher selects subjects on the basis of their availability.  In this study, the subjects are available because they are students in these courses.  This form of sampling was chosen for two reasons.  First, the study is exploring the behavior of a very specific population, and second, it is a less expensive method than random sampling.

C. Timetable

The survey is intended to take place over the course of one semester. 

D. Sample description

The sample will be four undergraduate courses in each of the two departments: four upper division biology courses and four upper division history courses.  The upper division biology courses have a total of 140 students, and the upper division history courses have a total of 100 students. 

E. Human Subjects

This study will follow the University's Human Subject protocol. Prior to administering the surveys, all students participating in the study shall provide consent.

F. Data Collection

For each course, a librarian will make an in-class presentation on resources available through the database, with a focus on the electronic journals. A brief pre-presentation survey shall be distributed among students at the beginning of the presentation to measure current awareness and use of database resources. A post-test survey will then be administered three weeks after the presentation to measure changes in awareness and use.

Students in these eight courses will complete the same survey three different times.  The anticipated problem with this sampling procedure is that the sample will likely change each time the survey is administered.  This is primarily due to the fact that class attendance will vary from one date to the next.  In addition, students may tire of completing the same survey and refuse to complete it.

Access logs for the Ingenta database will be used to measure any change in usage.  Accessing the database is defined as performing any loggable action, such as running a search or downloading an article.  The computer network offers the option of collecting access data for individual sections of the Ingenta database.  Therefore, access data will be collected separately for the history and biology/life sciences sections of the database.  A usage baseline will be established for each section prior to the first administration of the survey.  Usage data will then be gathered when the survey is administered for the third and final time.  These two sets of data for each database section will then be compared to determine if there has been any change in usage.  The data analysis will include evaluating any change in usage both in the actual numbers and in percentage terms.

G. Data analysis

Data from each survey will be analyzed using descriptive statistics.  In general, measures of central tendency and measures of variability will be applied to the data.  Measures of central tendency include mean, median or mode.  Standard deviation and interquartile range are measures of variability.  The descriptive statistical tests applied to a particular set of data will be selected based on two factors: the shape of the frequency distribution (e.g., skewed or bimodal) and the type of data (e.g., nominal or ordinal).  For example, if the frequency distribution for a set of data were very skewed at one end, then applying the mean, or arithmetic average would not be a good choice to measure the central tendency.  In this case, a better measure of central tendency would be to determine the median.  Inferential statistics will not be applied to this data because it was collected using a non-random sampling method.

Finally, the survey data analysis will be compared with the access data analysis to gauge the accuracy of survey data.

References

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California Digital Library: Key indicators of collections and use, July 1, 2000-June 30, 2001. (2001). Retrieved April 21, 2002, from www.cdlib.org/about/publications/fy00-01cdlstatsprofile.pdf.

Crawford, Franklin. (2001, April 26). CU Library continues to be central to the Humanities, with an electronic edge. Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved April 12, 2002, from www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/4.26.01/library-humanities.html.

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International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). (1998). Guidelines for statistical measures of usage of web-based indexed, abstracted, and full text resources. Retrieved April 1, 2002, from www.library.yale.edu/consortia/webstats.html

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