Assessing your Usage Data in Alma

Owned by Laura Krier
Last updated: Aug 27, 2019
4 min read

If you migrated usage data to Alma or have subsequently loaded usage data into Alma, the following tips can help you begin to get a sense for how the data is organized in Analytics, what data is available, and what you can start to learn from it. As of Aug/Sept 2019, Ex Libris will be making changes to how usage data is used in Analytics, moving Cost Usage data into the E-Inventory subject area. I will do my best to modify these reports so they continue to be useful as Ex Libris makes changes.


Alma can contain COUNTER usage data of a few different types: BR1, BR2, BR3, BR4, BR5, DB1, JR1, JR1a, JR1GOA, PR1, and MR1. When looking at a Usage Measures Total in either the Usage Data or E-Inventory subject areas, these numbers are all rolled into one field, no matter what type of usage or resource you’re looking at. It can be helpful to isolate different types of reports and resources in order to more accurately compare numbers and to get a sense of what data is loaded into Alma, but this can be tricky if you migrated data from USTAT.
 
These tips are for the Usage Data subject area.
  • For data loaded directly into Alma, the Load File —> Load File COUNTER Report Type will identify the type of report data and allow you to filter to only look at a particular type of usage.
  • For data migrated from USTAT, the Load File COUNTER Report Type will be blank. In order to include these numbers in your report, you may want to filter instead on the Title Identifier field. Title Identifiers contain characters can be used to determine the type of report.
    • DB1 numbers are reported on resources where the Title Identifier begins with DB
    • JR1, JR1a, and JR1GOA numbers are reported on resources where the Title Identifier begins with ISSN or EISSN
    • PR1 numbers are reported on resources where the Title Identifier begins with PR
    • BR numbers are a little trickier to isolate by title identifier, but I've settled on using Title Identifer begins with BR or 978. It seems to work pretty well.
 
The following reports are saved in Analytics under Assessment and Analytics --> Assessing Usage Data.
 
"All DB1 Reports Loaded" will show you the Uploading Vendor, Platform, Load File Name, and Usage Date Month and Year. You can select an individual Platform to see all of the vendors from whom you have usage files and what files were loaded. For files that were migrated from USTAT, the vendor name will be “None” and the Load File Name will be “Uknown” (and yeah, that’s a typo in Analytics). This report uses Title Identifier begins with DB to identify DB1 reports loaded. This will also allow you to see where you might have duplicate data loaded. This report doesn’t include usage numbers; it just reports on the files that are loaded. 
 
"All PR1 Reports Loaded" is the same report, for PR1 reports. This uses Title Identifier begins with PR to identify PR1 reports loaded. 
 
"All JR Reports Loaded" is similar. It uses Title Identifier begins with ISSN or EISSN to identify JR reports. For reports migrated from USTAT there isn’t an easy way to know what kind of JR report is loaded; the reports loaded into Alma directly will often include the type in the load file name. This also includes the COUNTER Report Type field, which is only populated for reports loaded directly into Alma. 
 
"All BR Reports Loaded" is filtered using Title Identifier begins with BR or 978. 
 
"Platforms and Titles" allows you to look at each Platform to see what titles are included on that platform and which reports are loaded for each title, as well as the uploading vendor for each title. This will include all reports types for which you have reports, so it lists databases, individual journal titles, and ebooks. This report is mainly helpful to start to get a sense of where your usage data is coming from. This breaks usage down by year, but not by month. 
 
"Vendors and Platforms" allows you to see what data is being loaded by which vendors. Again, this can just help you get a sense of what you’re getting from whom, and what the relationships are between vendors and platforms. 
 
Finally, "Database Usage from 2016" will let you select a platform and an individual database on that platform to view DB usage from FY 2016/17 to FY2019/20 (as long as you have that data loaded). You can also see here that you might get usage data for databases or titles to which you don’t describe, which will mostly display 0 usage. You can also see here the way that database titles have changed over time, which can make tracking usage over multiple years difficult.
 
These reports are just a starting place to begin to understand the data that you have loaded into Alma and how it is organized and can be used. I found it very helpful to review this information to start to better understand usage data in Alma; I hope you do, too. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Laura Krier.