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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Spring 2012 Data

Hello everyone! It has been a long time, but we finally have data and information to share concerning our continued efforts around this project. We finally have Spring 2012 data to share! But first, let's take a look back at the raw data from Fall 2011:





So, in the library access areas we measured there were 146,126 Internet IDs (61,195 unique) captured at the frequency of 1,548,209 transactions. With this data, we found that 77% of undergrads made use of the library during the Fall 2011 semester and 85% of grad students.


Now let's take a look at Spring 2012:





In the Spring 2012 semester, we captured 1,646,836 transactions, almost 100,000 more than in the Fall 2011 semester. As might be expected, the increase in usage was mainly seen in website, database, and e-journal usage.

You'll also note that we attempted to count transactions in more library access categories such as students who take our introduction to libraries instruction through their Writing course, or students that had a consultation with our Archives and Special Collections department. These new library access points did not have a huge impact on our overall numbers, but they are nice to have to compare and to determine who uses these services the most.

One thing this chart does not list is the number of unique Internet IDs captured in the Spring 2012 semester. That number is 59,722. So, slightly less unique Internet IDs in the Spring 2012 semester than in the Fall. Some of that difference can certainly be attributed to student graduation and attrition. In fact, from Fall to Spring we saw 43,015 returning users and 16,707 new users. Some of those new users were most certainly new undergrads and grad students just starting at the U of M in January.

In the next few days we will write some entries regarding the demographics of this Spring 2012 data, namely who are these students and what colleges and majors are represented. But as a little teaser, what we have found out so far is that 78% of undergrads used the library in Spring 2012. That is one percentage point higher than Fall 2011. 87% of graduate students made use of the library in Spring 2012. That is two percentage points higher than Fall 2011.

More to come soon!