Improving Database Vendors’ Usage Statistics Reporting through Collaboration between Libraries and Vendors

The article reports the results from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) E-Metrics study to investigate issues associated with the usage sta- tistics provided by database vendors. The ARL E-Metrics study was a con- certed effort by twenty-four ARL libraries to develop and test statistics and measures in order to describe electronic resources and services in ARL libraries. This article describes a series of activities and investigations that included a meeting with major database vendors and the field-testing of usage statistics from eight major vendors to evaluate the degree to which the reports are useful for library decision-making. Overall, the usage statis- tics from the vendors studied are easy to obtain and process. However, the standardization of key usage statistics and reporting format is critical. Vali- dation of reported statistics also remains a critical issue. This article offers a set of recommendations for libraries and calls for continuous collaboration between libraries and major database vendors.