Using Counter Data for Collection Assessment Projects: Question, Confirm and Trust

Our library has collected and stored Counter usage reports in Alma for many years, but our library’s use of this data has been mainly for conveying the large, total numbers required for annual reports and surveys. When our library’s Collection Development team undertook a massive project to revise budget allocations across all subject areas and started to drill into usage of individual titles to help with this assessment, we discovered discrepancies that made us question what the data was telling us. Specifically, titles that should have shown high usage were reported with no usage. This consequently made us question the accuracy of everything. In this presentation we will explain how prior cataloging decisions may have contributed to these problems as well as what steps we have taken to improve the situation as we continue to pursue projects like this.