Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

4.3.2 Monographic Books

4.3.2.1 Total Use Over Time

The Online Books Project includes three collections of monographic books for which we now have some use data. These are (1) Past Masters, classical texts in social thought; (2) Columbia University Press Monographs, mostly contemporary social work books; and (3) Oxford University Press Monographs, contemporary philosophy and literary criticism books. Most of these books came online during the 1996-97 academic year.

4.3.2.1.1 The Past Masters Collection

Until July 1996, ten Past Masters texts were available to the Columbia community online; since then, 54 texts have been available.

As Table 14a shows, from September 1996 to May 1997, the Past Masters texts registered about 2,460 hits from the scholarly community. Table 14b displays the number of hits on the eight most heavily used of these texts for the period from September 1996 to May 1997. This group of texts registered 1,692 hits from the Columbia community, or about 69 percent of the total usage for the Past Masters for this period. Thus, in a collection of texts that was not specifically selected to meet the specific needs of a set of users, we find that 15 percent of the texts accounted for 69 percent of the usage. The other 46 texts averaged about 17 hits each over this period, or about two hits per month.

Patterns of usage may be expected to change over time as various texts are used in courses or by researchers and as the Columbia community becomes more aware of the online books. It will be interesting to see how usage of the Past Masters evolves over the next academic year. The data to date remind us that to the extent that there are meaningful costs to creating online books (or journals) and to maintaining them as part of a library's collection, planners must select items for the online collection carefully. Of course, the decision rules for a consortial approach will be different from those for a group of non-cooperating individual libraries. We are attempting to delve into these cost issues and hope to have some findings by the end of 1997.

4.3.2.1.2 Columbia University Press Monographs

Cross title comparisons are difficult because books were made available to the community at different times - from September 1996 forward. Our design breaks these books into chapter files in most cases, so a hit gives a user access to a whole chapter if he gets beyond the Table of Contents file. As Table 15 shows, scholars are using these online books.

>4.3.2.1.2.1 Social Work Books

In the period from May 1, 1996 to May 31, 1997, the social work books received a total of 1,948 hits, with a peak in October of 353 hits. The October peak reflects the use of the three books with the most hits in classes in the School of Social Work. Bold values on Table 15 indicate months in which we are aware that the book was being used in a class. If faculty members did not put the books on reserve in the library, we may not know that it was in use in a class. Also in many cases, although we know the book was used in a course, we do not know in which months. The secondary peak in February 1997 (278 hits on social work books) also reflects class use of the two titles with the greatest number of hits.

We informed the social work faculty of the availability of the online availability of these books in several ways over the months preceding their introduction. Furthermore, we requested permission of these instructors to conduct in-class surveys at the time they were discussing the material from these books. These steps seem to have led the instructors to inform their students of the availability of these books online and to have caused some faculty and students to look at the online books. In the Spring 1997 term, we also provided handouts about the Social Work collection to several classes that were using books included in the collection.

4.3.2.1.2.2 Other Works

The two earth and environmental science titles had 192 hits; the political science title received 55 hits. While these values do not seem large, they should be thought of in the context of the number of uses that a print copy would receive in a similar period if it were not on reserve for a course. If it is recalled almost at once, a book will circulate at most about six times during a semester. Books on loan are also unavailable for serendipitous use by scholars. For example, the two earth and environmental science titles had a total of only two circulations over the past three years.

As the following table shows, the paper copies of these books have experienced substantial circulation, some regular and some reserve, over the past three years. It does not seem that circulation of the print copy has declined with the introduction of the online versions. In fact, it is likely that online availability has created an expanded audience for at least some titles. Further analyses of the print circulation data will be conducted during summer 1997 to determine if additional expansion of use or new shifts in use can be discerned.

4.3.2.1.3 Oxford University Press Monographs

The first Oxford monographs were introduced to the Columbia community in mid-Fall 1996. Six books of literary criticism and 12 of philosophy were online by June 1997; Tables 17a and 17b detail the month of introduction and the usage for each. The literary criticism titles received 92 hits through May 31, 1997; the philosophy titles 626 hits.

None of these books was on reserve for a course Fall 1996 or Spring 1997. This is not surprising. Few monographs in the Libraries collection are on reserve for courses. Also, faculty members may take a while to become acquainted with newer monographs and to decide to include them in a course. Potentially, a great value of placing new monographs online will be in helping scholars to maintain current awareness in their fields of scholarship and teaching.

Although data on the Columbia circulation of the paper copies of these Oxford books are incomplete at this point, it is clear that these books have some interest for the Columbia community even though they are not on reserve for courses. They are circulating, while some other books sit on the shelf for years before someone checks them out.

One title that did not circulate greatly (Other Minds) was held by one scholar for 347 days from late 1995 through much of 1996, thus depriving other members of the community of the opportunity to encounter it, to determine whether it might be of value to their work, and to read it closely. As noted earlier, a key advantage of online books is their ready availability to the whole community at all times. The online version of Other Minds received 39 hits in 1996.

4.3.2.2 Host Computers for Monographic Book Use

The host computer categories used in analyzing the location of use of the various books were defined earlier. Looking at the Columbia University Press and Oxford University Press books as a whole, we find the distribution given below.

The detailed data on the host group for each book in the collection confirms what one would expect from these data -- host computer type is related to book type for the most part. However, once a group within the community becomes aware of the online books, they are likely to review other books in the collection (at least in this early stage when the collection is small). For example, half of the use of Autonomous Agents: From Self Control to Autonomy was from social work host computers. This is a title that might seem related to social work issues even though it is not one of the Columbia University Press social work books or part of the collection of the Social Work Library.

SSW was the host location for the following shares of the hits on the social work titles:

Handbook of Gerontological Services	53%
Mutual Aid Groups, Vulnerable Populations	76%
Philosophical Foundations of Social Work	39%
Qualitative Research in Social Work	69%
Supervision in Social Work	48%
Task Strategies: An Empirical Approach	68%

Closer analysis of the usage data finds substantial use from the computer lab in the Social Work School as well as from faculty computers. This suggests that many of these graduate students, most of whom do not live on or near campus, may not have Web access in their homes and, hence, at this point in time, are not equipped to take full advantage of the online books from home. Use of the online version enables them to use the books from the School, however, thus avoiding the walk of several blocks to the Social Work Library.

4.3.2.3 Use By Day And Time -- All Types of Books

Table 20 gives the breakdown of use of the online materials by day of the week for May 1, 1996 to March 15, 1997. Table 21 gives the breakdown by time of day for the same materials for the same period.

The patterns of use varied considerably among the families of online books. For example, 79 percent of the use of The OED, 80 percent of the use of the Oxford monographs, and 91 percent of the use of Columbia monographs occurred on weekdays. Friday alone accounted for 25 percent of the hits on Oxford monographs and 20 percent of the hits on Columbia monographs. This concentration of use is not surprising, as few classes meet on Friday at Columbia, making it a good day for both faculty and students to do research and class assignments. We will track future data to see if these patterns continue.

The time of day analysis finds:

• The use of reference books occurred mostly in hours in which the libraries are typically open, i.e., between 9: AM and 9: PM, but a meaningful share - 20 percent (Granger's) to 35 percent (OED) - occurred from 9: PM to 9: AM.

• The use of online monographs occurred almost totally (93 percent for the Oxford monographs and 95 percent for the Columbia monographs) in hours in which the libraries are typically open, i.e., between 9: AM and 9: PM. Users of these books do not seem to have been taking advantage of the constant availability of online materials. This suggests that these books may have been receiving a large share of their use from computers in the libraries or elsewhere on campus, such as the computer lab in the School of Social Work, that are used predominately or exclusively during work hours. The distribution of use by host type is discussed in the preceding section.

The online versions of these books provide scholars with the flexibility of access to materials at times of the day and week when they cannot use them in the libraries, either because the libraries are not open or because the scholars are not able or willing to be in the library at that time. This flexibility is likely to enhance the scholar's efficiency and effectiveness, but use patterns do not yet indicate that it is being exploited.

4.3.3 Session Analysis for Use of CWeb Books

4.3.3.1 Two Weeks' Sessions - All Online Books

We extracted the Web session data for the online books for the weeks of October 26 and December 7, 1996, in order to learn about the number of sessions and the number of text hits per session. The analysis involved looking for what seemed to be sequential hits from the same address, i.e., ones that were very close in time, and counting those as part of a session of using online books.

The number of sessions in the second week (212) was one-third greater than in the first week and the number of hits (611) was twice as great. The mean session included about two hits in the first week and three hits in the second. Several sessions seemed to involve systematic retrieval of many files.

One way to put this usage into perspective is to compare it to use of other library-related electronic services. In December 1996, bibliographic indexes on CLIO-Plus, the Libraries component of CNet, had a total of 16,740 hits (or about 4,000 per week). However, individual indexes sustained monthly usage ranging from 28 hits (AGELINE) to 2,743 hits (MEDLINE). In fact, only MEDLINE sustained an average number of hits per week that was greater than the number of hits to online books in the December 1996 sample week.

4.3.3.2 Sessions for Social Work Books

As noted earlier, in Fall 1996, three social work books were most intensively used as they were assigned reading for courses. We analyzed the server statistics through the end of 1996 for these books in an effort to learn how deeply the books were used - to what extent use sessions included book chapters, the search engine, the pagination feature, and the like.

Looking at each of these three titles, we find:

• Relatively few sessions (7% - 24%) involved someone going to the Table of Contents/Title page for a book and stopping.

• Many sessions (28% - 59%) involved use of more than one chapter of the book; sessions averaged 1.4 to 3.5 hits on chapters, depending on the book used.

• Some users would seem to be repeat users who had bookmarked a chapter in the book or made a note of the URL as some sessions (9% - 17%) did not include a hit on the Table of Contents/Title page.

Summary data follow:

4.3.4 Analysis of Unique Users Of Online Books

As of March 15, 1997, the online books system required users to sign in with email address and password, for all of our collection except The OED and Granger's Index to Poetry. This information can be combined with that obtained from the university's directory of its students and staff to obtain demographics on individuals who are using our books. Information on session behavior will be available late summer 1997. Summarized below are findings for the first period of 11 weeks, from March 15 - May 31, 1997, under the new system. Final exams for the Columbia spring semester ended on May 16th with graduation on May 21st. Thus, most of the period under analysis was a busy part of the academic year with only the last few days part of the early summer lull.

4.3.4.1 Use and Users

In this period, the collection (absent The OED initially) was used by 280 different persons making 1,439 hits, for an average of over five hits per user. One or more persons used 45 of the books in the collection. Looking at two data periods, we find use breaks down as follows:

Without a breakdown by individual, we cannot know the overlap between the 107 users in the first month (information obtained in an early analysis) and the 280 users over the whole period. We do know that the mean hits per user decreased from 5.5 in the first month to 5.1 for the whole period.

Comparing the number of hits on each book category for the two periods of data gathering, we find:

As The OED came into the user-based analysis late, it had an artificially low number of hits and share of the total in the first period. As a result, the shares for the other book categories were inflated. In the second period, The OED has the prominence among the online books - a 50 percent share of hits - that the other server data have shown, even though one means of access is not included.

During the second period, use of the three Garland reference books doubled to an average of four hits per week per book and hits on the Oxford monographs increased 43 percent. Weekly hits on the Past Masters decreased 79 percent and on the Columbia monographs 60 percent. Overall, average weekly hits were down ten percent.

4.3.4.2 Use Concentration

In this section we will analyze the data on the number of users, the amount of use per user, and the demographics of the user population for the various books. This analysis may shed light on the patterns of use and what factors favor use of online books.

4.3.4.2.1 Reference Books

The number of unique users, hits and mean hits per user for each of the reference titles for which data are available during this period was as the following table shows:

These data show an inverse correlation between number of users and the mean number of hits per user.

4.3.4.2.2 Non-Reference Books

Half of the 82 online non-reference texts, including the Past Masters, were used during this 11 week period. The distribution of titles by number of users was as follows:

In declining order of number of users, the non-reference texts which had two or more unique users during this period, their number of users, number of hits, and mean hits per user were:

The two books with the most users, both social work texts, had the most hits and the first and fourth highest mean hits per user. They accounted for 426 (51%) of the 832 hits on non-reference texts during this period. The top four texts (five percent of the non-reference collection), all social work books, accounted for almost 58 percent of the non-reference hits. The mean hits per user are highly variable. Only six texts averaged more than five hits per user.

4.3.4.3 User Cohorts

4.3.4.3.1 Reference Books

The top user departments and Columbia statuses for the reference books are as follows:

4.3.4.3.1.1 The OED

The seven departments that were the source of four percent or more of the users were:

Primary Columbia statuses that were the source of four percent or more of the users were:

Faculty were responsible for a total of less than three percent of the hits on The OED.

4.3.4.3.1.2 Grangers Reference Works:

4.3.4.3.1.2.1 Chaucer Name Dictionary

The distribution of the nine unique users by department is:

The distribution of the nine unique users by primary Columbia status is:

4.3.4.3.1.2.2 Native American Women

The distribution of the nine unique users by department is:

The distribution of the nine unique users by primary Columbia status is:

4.3.4.3.1.2.3 African American Women

The distribution of the six unique users by department is:

The distribution of the six unique users by primary Columbia status is:

4.3.4.3.2 Non-Reference Books

Almost 91 percent of the users of the top four books, all social work titles, were from the School of Social Work; they accounted for 98 percent of the hits on those books. The vast majority of these users (56 of 64) were graduate students. With the exception of the most used one, Task Strategies, these books were on reserve for social work courses during the spring 1997 semester.

• Three sections, with a total of about 70 students, used Supervision in Social Work as a key text. Thus, potentially, if all seven graduate student users were members of these course sections, about 10 percent of the students used this book online during this half semester.

• A different three sections, again with about 70 students in total, used Mutual Aid Groups. This book was a major reading in the course; in fact, one of its authors taught two of the sections of the course in which it was used. Sixteen graduate students used this title for a potential penetration of about 23 percent.

• Philosophical Foundations... (as well as Qualitative Research in Social Work) was on reserve for a doctoral seminar which had an enrollment of 11 students. The instructor reported that this book was a major text in the course that students would have bought traditionally. She did not know how many of her students used the online version. If all eight graduate student (7) and professional student (1) users were class members, that suggests a substantial penetration for that small class. However, it is likely that some of these users were not enrolled in that course.

• We have no explanation for the heavy use of Task Strategies (by 26 graduate students). The instructor for the course in which the book had been assigned the previous semester reported that she had not recommended it to her students.

The fifth and sixth most used titles - Self Expressions: Mind, Morals and the Meaning of Life and Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, & Shrieks - are both Oxford University Press philosophy titles.

• Self Expressions is listed in the Current Social Science Web page along with the social work titles. Five of its seven users were from the School of Social Work, one from the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, and one from Electrical Engineering. Five of the users were graduate students, one an undergraduate student, and one a post doctoral research fellow.

• Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, & Shrieks is listed under Physics in the Current Science Web page. Two of its seven users were from the Physics department, another two from unidentified departments, and one each from Electrical Engineering, Engineering and General Studies. Five of the users were undergraduate students and two unidentified status.

Looking at the various non-reference collections overall, we find the following cohort dominance patterns:

4.3.4.3.2.1 Past Masters

The departments with four percent or more of the 125 hits on Past Masters were:

The Columbia statuses with four percent or more of the hits on Past Masters were:

4.3.4.3.2.2 Columbia University Press

The departments with four percent or more of the 597 hits on the Columbia University Press texts were:

The Columbia statuses with four percent or more of the hits on these texts were:

4.3.4.3.2.3 Oxford University Press

The departments with four percent or more of the 110 hits on the Oxford University Press texts were:

The Columbia statuses with four percent or more of the hits on these texts were:

4.3.4.4 Online Book Use Per User

The distribution of number of hits on the online books collection per user over this period indicates that while many users are making quite cursory use of the online books, more are looking at more than one file (e.g., reference entry, chapter) in the collection.

The distribution of number of unique titles viewed by these users over this period indicates that most users come to the collection to look at a single book. The greatest number of books used by a single person was seven (by two persons).

Not surprisingly, there is a certain correlation between number of hits and number of titles used. Those with only one hit could only have looked at one title (42 percent of those using one book). The range of hits among those who used only one book is wide - 20 (9 percent) had more than ten hits. Six users had more than 25 hits; two of them looked at only one book, one each at two and three books, and two at seven books. These statistics indicate some significant use of the collection as measured by average number of hits per title used.

However, hits on several titles need not indicate heavy use of the online books collection. The individual who looked at five books had a total of only six to ten hits as did four of the seven people who looked at four books (one to two hits each). The person who looked at six books had 11 to 15 hits in total (an average of about two hits per book).

As the following table shows, graduate students tended to have more hits, undergraduates and faculty fewer hits.

These are highlights of the recent data on usage by individuals. Once we have the information on sessions, we will be able to derive valuable information on user behavior - not only number of books used and hits on those books but parts of the book used and repeat usership. We will begin to be able to see revealed preference in user behavior and will be less reliant on responses to questionnaires.

s title or first line. In addition, it provides easy access to the 10,000 most often anthologized poems. As the following table shows, total usage declined from 1996 to 1997 - by 49 percent from the first quarter of 1996 to the first quarter of 1997. Even so, the 4,289 hits for 1996 is considerable.

Reference librarians report no more than a handful of uses of the print version of Granger's each year; it is kept behind the main reference desk and lacks the database of poems. The CD-ROM version, which is kept in the Electronic Texts Service, has the same functionality as the online version; it is used once or twice a month on average.

4.3.1.1.3 The Oxford English Dictionary

At this time, The Oxford English Dictionary is the most heavily used reference work in our collection. As noted earlier, it is available on both CNet and CWeb, with the former format having greater functionality but being quite opaque. Users find the latter attractive and easy to use, but it only permits them to look up a definition or browse through the contents.

Usage of the CNet version dropped 59 percent from the fourth quarter of 1994 (2,856 hits) to the first quarter of 1997 (1,167 hits). The CWeb version attracted greater use than the CNet version from its first months. Total usage of the resource was greater with the two versions in place than with only CNet, by 55 percent in February 1997 versus February 1995.

Columbia College has a one semester Logic and Rhetoric course that is required of all its students (about 1,000 each year). Students in this course must complete an assignment involving the OED and are encouraged to use an online version. That assignment occurred in October 1996 and mid-February to early March 1997. In the period preceding mid-March 1997, almost 42 percent of the hits (1,531) on the CWeb OED came from computers in dormitory rooms, suggesting that students are using this resource. This conclusion is confirmed by the analysis of the data by user in the period beginning in mid-March; see section 4.3.4.

Observation and reshelving activity show that scholars frequently use the print copy. However, statistics on use are unavailable as scholars have direct access to several sets in libraries around campus and have not been cooperative in recording use of volumes. In addition, scholars often owned their own copies of the compact edition of The OED. Finally, some serious scholars use the CD-ROM version in the Libraries' Electronic Text Service which allows refined searches with a search engine that is more attractive and user friendly than that in CNet.

4.3.1.1.4 Garland Reference Works

Garland's Chaucer Name Dictionary was added to the CWeb collection at the end of 1996. Native American Women was added in January 1997 and African American Women in February 1997. The first two were added to the CNet collection in February 1997 and the third in March 1997.

CWeb is a far more popular means of access to these resources than CNet. Although Chaucer Name Dictionary and African American Women were both available on CNet from February 3rd, their usage on CNet in February was only 10 to 15 percent of that on CWeb. The Libraries' print copies of these reference books are lightly used, so these hits signify substantial expansion of use of these books.

4.3.1.2 Host Computers for Reference Book Use

A user location analysis acts as a proxy for user cohort for the early use data. We have grouped host computers into the following ten categories.

cc - mainly computers in public labs

cul - computers in the libraries

cunix - in general on campus computers linked directly to a cunix server, also now the host computer for Granger's

cupress - computers at CUP

dialup - computers connected by dialup modem

english - computers in the English department

pols - computers in the Political Science department

rhno - computers on the residence hall network

sipa - computers at the School of International and Public Affairs

ssw - computers in offices and labs at the School of Social Work

other - computers at all other Columbia locations

The distribution of use of the five reference works supplied via CWeb across these categories is shown below. With the exception of the three Garland books, a very small share of the uses of these reference works occur on computers in the libraries; the Columbia community is taking advantage of the out-of-library access to these resources. As noted earlier, a large share of the use of The OED occurs from students' on campus residences (rhno host computers).

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