SPEC Kit 341: Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach · 53
Yes N=4
Annual reports
As part of grant reporting, we gathered documentation, statistics, and testimonials regarding the importance
and impact of outreach/digitization projects. We employ informal gathering of user feedback, online comments,
supplementary news articles/blog posts regarding our digital collections.
Typically, this is done by the Outreach Librarian in conjunction with others in university communications.
Yes, but... ad hoc.
No, but we plan to N=3
Again, dependent on the project and the project lead.
The promotions are ad hoc and continuing, rather than one-time planned. This makes tracking difficult. We could be
more consistent.
We would like to explore how we can do this effectively, however we require “stability” with respect to our discovery
platform: new web crawls are making our hit rates go up, and would cloud the assessment of how promotion may have
driven that.
No N=3
For the most part, no
We do this informally.
We track it on other outreach and promotion activities, but not digital collections in particular.
If yes or you plan to, what tracking methods are/will be used? Check all that apply. N=46
Hit count based on special URLs for tracking sources 40 87%
Head count at promotional events 33 72%
Number of reference questions 31 67%
Hit count based on specific date ranges 30 65%
Search queries 26 57%
Other tracking method 16 35%
Please briefly describe the other tracking method. N=16
Analytics from the blog are recorded and reviewed to track the impact of outreach through this tool. Specific tracking
methods for impact include conversions (clicks on URLs originating from the blog) and shares (instances of visitors
repeating blog content on their own social network accounts).
Anecdotal feedback and “stories” from users
Flash mob
For social media, we track likes, shares, and re-tweets. We also track citation counts.
Yes N=4
Annual reports
As part of grant reporting, we gathered documentation, statistics, and testimonials regarding the importance
and impact of outreach/digitization projects. We employ informal gathering of user feedback, online comments,
supplementary news articles/blog posts regarding our digital collections.
Typically, this is done by the Outreach Librarian in conjunction with others in university communications.
Yes, but... ad hoc.
No, but we plan to N=3
Again, dependent on the project and the project lead.
The promotions are ad hoc and continuing, rather than one-time planned. This makes tracking difficult. We could be
more consistent.
We would like to explore how we can do this effectively, however we require “stability” with respect to our discovery
platform: new web crawls are making our hit rates go up, and would cloud the assessment of how promotion may have
driven that.
No N=3
For the most part, no
We do this informally.
We track it on other outreach and promotion activities, but not digital collections in particular.
If yes or you plan to, what tracking methods are/will be used? Check all that apply. N=46
Hit count based on special URLs for tracking sources 40 87%
Head count at promotional events 33 72%
Number of reference questions 31 67%
Hit count based on specific date ranges 30 65%
Search queries 26 57%
Other tracking method 16 35%
Please briefly describe the other tracking method. N=16
Analytics from the blog are recorded and reviewed to track the impact of outreach through this tool. Specific tracking
methods for impact include conversions (clicks on URLs originating from the blog) and shares (instances of visitors
repeating blog content on their own social network accounts).
Anecdotal feedback and “stories” from users
Flash mob
For social media, we track likes, shares, and re-tweets. We also track citation counts.
