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Response (6/29/16) via Brandon: Ex Ex Libris does not plan to offer a data loading service as a free or paid service to Alma customers for several reasons (mostly financial) and would go so far to opine that they would probably not offer it to current SS/PQ customers for much longer based on their response to this question at the Exec meeting.
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Follow-up: Any progress on whether current SUSHI configurations (e.g. from USTAT) can/will be loaded into ALMA automatically, or will we need to re-enter each account manually?
- Availability of usage statistics during Test Phase (June 2016 - May 2017)
Response (3/30/16) via Brandon: I will ask ExL to update us on their plans in as much detail as they can currently provide as well as address what functionality will be present in our test instances.
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- USTAT Availability From 2016 Q3 to Go Live Date
Response (3/28/16) via Brandon: Ex Libris announced in Feb 2016 that the ALMA roadmap for 2016 Q3 includes uploading and SUSHI retrieval of COUNTER usage data moving from UStat to ALMA. As As part of this transition, UStat will no longer be available to ALMA customers.
Follow-up: We are waiting to learn whether a potential cutover from USTAT to Alma in 2016 Q3 applies to CSU libraries since we will only have a test instance of ALMA at that time.
Specific Functionality Questions:
- ALMA support for COUNTER reports
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- Support for loading non-COUNTER compliant usage data
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Response (6/28/16) via Patrick: The library loads the COUNTER report data.
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Responses received 6/28/16 in email from Patrick (with attached PDF):
Data Retrieval Functions
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There is no ability to manually match titles. We have not encountered situations where this has been needed. (screenshot of matching criteria in PDF)
Reporting Functions
- Incorporate data from Books in Print, Resources for College Libraries, and Ulrich's
On the roadmap - Intota assessment can include usage for Open Access journals, or on open access articles inside non-open access journals.
Alma can get usage for data which comes from COUNTER reports. Alma can also get usage from the Alma Link resolver. - Overlap analysis: journals, ebooks and streaming as currently on the Intota development timeline. Including functionality to check against external collections and unowned packages
Overlap analysis can be done already. It can be done on collections owned by the library (portfolios in multiple collections) and it can be done in Alma analytics.
In Q4 2016 it will be possible to check overlap with portfolios / collections in institution and in Community Zone.
It is also possible in Alma and in Alma analytics to create reports on “duplicate titles” (titles with inventory both physical and electronic). - Ability to include/exclude platform & access fees from cost per use reports
The price is taken from the invoice lines of the POL and cannot be selectively removed.
See https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Materials/Overview_Materials/Presentations_and_Documents
Analytics - Overview of calculation of the cost per use in the Cost Usage subject area with DB and JR1.pptx
Analytics - Overview of Usage Data subject area.pptx - Intota’s planned proportional pricing enhancements to provide more accurate title costs across a package
The Alma method of determining cost per use is very exact and precise.
See https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Materials/Overview_Materials/Presentations_and_Documents
Analytics - Overview of calculation of the cost per use in the Cost Usage subject area with DB and JR1.pptx” referred to above at:
Desired functions not currently in Intota and unknown with regard to Alma Analytics:
- "Out-of-the-box" reports corresponding to all collections questions for the major surveys
- Most of them are now available, but a few of the trickier ones like title count are not
Alma analytics has a very vast, well used and proven set of OOB reports.
- Most of them are now available, but a few of the trickier ones like title count are not
- automated Automated collection analyses to aid in decision making, including benchmarking. May be part of ExL’s KPI work.
Overlap analysis (portfolios in collections) and duplicate titles (physical and electronic) we have. Benchmarking and KPIs are on the roadmap - Clearly identify BR2 (e-book usage) report "Section Type" (e.g. chapter, section, page, etc.)
A report of display titles for BR2 with the “Book Success Section Requests” is available in the PDF
Clarification: This appears they cannot identify the specific type of section being reported - JB - User-configurable adjuster for estimated average chapter length to allow better comparison between e-book platforms that report BR2 usage by page vs by chapter
- This would allow for more realistic "top performers" or cost-per-use reports across the collection
- As it currently stands, the usage stats from aggregators like PQ and EBSCO, as well as encyclopedias and similar reference titles, overwhelm and hide the usage from PDF-chapter-oriented platforms (JSTOR, MUSE, most publisher sites)
- Development plans include creating a place to store, manage and use data from non-bibliographic services (study room usage, lib instruction sessions, etc.) in various analyses.
It is not possible to upload data directly to Alma analytics. The data comes to Alma Analytics via Alma. In the case of the usage data: COUNTER reports are loaded to Alma, then from Alma there is a daily ETL to Alma analytics.
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