Monitoring patron use of CD*ROM databases using Signin*Stat By Howard Silver, M.S. Head of Access Services Sharon Dennis, M.S.
Manager, Microcomputer Learning Laboratory Hahnemann University Library 245 North 15th Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102
Signln-Stat, a PC-based, menu-driven program, collects information from users of the library's public access computer systems. It was used to collect patron use data for the library's four CD-ROM workstations for the period September 1987 to April 1988 and to survey users for the period December 1987 to March 1988. During the sample period, 5,909 CD-ROM uses were recorded. MEDLINE was the most heavily used database, followed by PsycLIT and Micromedex CCIS. Students accounted for 61% of the use, while faculty, residents, and staff were responsible for 31%. Graduate students had the highest rate of use per student. Nineteen percent of use was by patrons who had never used CD-ROMs before, while 37% was by patrons who had used CD-ROMs ten or more times. Residents were the least experienced user group, while graduate students and faculty were the most experienced. INTRODUCTION Recent surveys have shown that CD-ROM services are becoming increasingly common in public and academic libraries [1-2]. While many libraries report a positive response from users and heavy use of some optical database products, there have been only a few articles published that provide quantitative data about patron use. Such data have been reported for Compact Cambridge MEDLINE* at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse [3]. At Texas A&M University's laserdisk installation, patron use statistics were collected over a five-day period [4]; data on patron use of InfoTrac was collected at Louisiana State University [5]. Several studies have examined patron attitudes toward CD-ROM databases [6-8], while Kleiner reviewed studies that examined patron attitudes towards InfoTrac [9]. Librarians may need more than anecdotal accounts of heavy use and positive feedback from small samples of users to convince administrators to allocate resources to CD-ROM subscriptions and workstations. Libraries holding multiple subscriptions to CD* MEDLINE is a registered trademark of the National Library of Medicine.
252
ROM products are now facing choices concerning cancellation of little-used CD-ROMs in favor of new products or additional subscriptions to heavily used CD-ROMs. Staff time is needed to promote new products, write documentation, train new users, and provide ready reference. Librarians must decide how they can use their limited time most effectively to support these new services. Reliable patron use data will enable librarians and administrators to make better decisions regarding daily and long-term management questions.
Libraries holding multiple subscriptions to CDROM products are now facing choices concerning cancellation of little-used CD-ROMs in favor of new products or additional subscriptions to heavily used CD-ROMs. In response to these needs, the manager of Hahnemann Library's Microcomputer Learning Laboratory developed SignIn-Stat to gather patron use data for the library's public access microcomputers. The data support library decisions regarding the purchase of CD-ROM subscriptions and workstations and help Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
Monitoring patron use
guide allocation of staff time and responsibilities. SignIn-Stat has been installed on Hahnemann University Library's CD-ROM workstations since September 1987. A questionnaire was added to the signin procedure between December 1987 and March 1988. Hahnemann University Library serves a community of approximately 6,000 students, faculty, and employees. It includes Hahnemann Hospital and the University's School of Medicine, Graduate School, and School of Health Sciences and Humanities. The library introduced Compact Cambridge MEDLINE in May 1986. The CD-ROM facility had four workstations and subscriptions to MEDLINE, PsycLIT, the MICROMEDEX Computerized Clinical Information System, and Science Citation Index (SCI-CD). During most of the survey period, the library subscribed to Compact Cambridge MEDLINE, which was replaced by SilverPlatter MEDLINE in March 1988. The Permuterm Subject Index (of SCI-CD) was a beta test product. The much-improved commercial version of SCI-CD, to which the library now subscribes, was released in June 1988. The library subscribed to Books in Print Plus during the survey period but does not do so now.
Figure 1 Signin-Stat's opening menu HAHNEMANN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY REFERENCE DEPARTMENT
Please answer a few questions for our statistics. Press the
1. 2. 3. 4.
10 uses) uses
Faculty Resident Student Graduate Medical Undergraduate Staff Ubrary staff Total
26% 31% 21% 15% 28%
30% 61% 47% 45% 48%
26% 22% 3% 22%
57%
Novice*
Intermediate
36% 5%' 42%
44% 8% 32% 40% 23% 18% 42% 91% 37%
469 210
1,633
880 571 182 283 175
2,770
The number of novice respondents is higher than in Table 3 because Table 4 measures first-time use of a database, rather than first-time use of CDROM. *
Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
Use of MEDLINE CD-ROM at Hahnemann is comparable to that reported at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse [11]. The daily use rates are comparable to those reported at Texas A&M; afternoon is the busiest period at both institutions [12]. The average session length of 29 minutes for MEDLINE and 44 minutes for PsycLIT at Hahnemann is longer than the
Table 6 Reasons given for using CD-ROM by database, December 1987March 1988 Database Books in Print MEDLINE MICROMEDEX Permuterm PsycLIT Total
Class- Patient Teach- Research Other work care ing 7% 13% 12% 8% 16% 13%
5% 14% 20% 18% 7%
13%/o
2% 10% 10% 7% 4% 8%
19% 49% 31% 52% 57% 48%
67% 14% 27% 15% 16% 18%
Total uses
42
1,454 459 106 709
2,770
255
Silver and Dennis
15- to 30-minute sessions reported by Texas A&M [13]. Part of this difference is an artifact of different collection methods. SignIn-Stat overestimates the average session length because of the ten-minute timeout feature and because piggybacking increases the average session length. CD-ROM use exceeds mediated online searching by a factor of almost ten (738 CD-ROM sessions per month versus 77 mediated requests per month), even though the number of mediated search requests has increased slightly since the introduction of CD-ROM [14]. Library staff conducted spot surveys comparing CD-ROM use with use of printed indexes in December 1987 and April 1988 [15]. They found that CDROMs were more likely to be in use than printed indexes, even though the printed index holdings are more diverse and cover more years. It is not possible at Hahnemann to compare CD-ROM use with use of end-user systems such as Colleague or Grateful Med because the library does not administer end-user accounts.
Bibliographic instruction promotes use because it demonstrates that CD-ROM databases are useful and easy to learn. It is likely that bibliographic instruction is most effective in promoting use among computer-phobic and computer-indifferent library patrons. When CD-ROMs were introduced at Hahnemann, there were few experienced searchers using them. In the library's second year with CD-ROM, 81% of use is by people with some experience. Staff spend less time dealing with CD-ROM questions because experienced users need less assistance, but the total number of CD-ROM queries recorded at the reference desk has remained about the same (ninety-three per month). Although the population of experienced users is growing, 19% of use is by first-time users (Table 3). Of all patron categories excluding librarians, graduate students had the highest rate of CD-ROM use, and the lowest rate of first-time use. They were also the first group of users in the institution to receive formal bibliographic instruction in CD-ROM, and a greater proportion of graduate students have received instruction than any other group in the institution. Undergraduate students had the lowest rate of CDROM use (Table 2). Only a small proportion of these students had received formal instruction. CD-ROM instruction for undergraduates is a high priority for the 1988-1989 academic year. The use rate by residents was 0.12 in the first four months of data colleciton. Between December 1987 and January 1988, the library demonstrated CD-ROM 256
databases at nine hospital department conferences. In the months following those classes, resident use rate rose by 42% to 0.17. This increase corresponds to a large percentage of first-time uses among residents in the online questionnaire (34%) (Table 3). The decision to present demonstrations at conferences was stimulated in part by lower than expected use of CDROMs by residents. Bibliographic instruction promotes use because it demonstrates that CD-ROM databases are useful and easy to learn. It is likely that bibliographic instruction is most effective in promoting use among computer-phobic and computerindifferent library patrons. Database use statistics have already affected collection development. A second subscription for MEDLINE was added in July 1988, and the subscription of Books in Print Plus was not renewed.
CONCLUSION In two years, Hahnemann's CD-ROM facility has evolved from a demonstration of new technology into a basic service. People are obtaining more information via CD-ROM databases than through either mediated searching or printed indexes. The substantial increase in interlibrary loan that followed the introduction of CD-ROM databases suggests that patrons are finding more information [16]. Not only are they finding more information, they are probably finding it faster. At Cornell University, students trained to use ERIC on CD-ROM found more references in less time than students who were trained to use the ERIC printed indexes [17]. In institutions providing optical-based reference services, it may take several years before most of their user population has tried, or is even aware of, these resources. Signln-Stat provides data that can be used to monitor use of public-access computers and to help guide the allocation of personnel and financial resources. SignIn-Stat makes it possible to observe enduser behavior in a rapidly changing information-access environment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank Carol Fenichel, Ph.D., for her critical review of the manuscript.
REFERENCES 1. SALOMON K. Survey results indicate online, end-user, and CD-ROM usage. Online 1988 Jul;12(4):102. 2. YEE M. Results of Microsoft's ALA CD-ROM survey. Online 1988 Jan;12(1):74. 3. CAPODAGLI JA, MARDIKIAN J, UVA PA. MEDLINE on compact disk: end-user searching on Compact Cambridge. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1988 Apr;76(2):181-3. Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
Monitoring patron use 4. TucKER SL, ANDERS V, CLARK KE. How to manage an extensive laserdisk installation: the Texas A&M experience. Online 1988 May;12(3):34-46. 5. KLEINER JP. InfoTrac: an evaluation of system use and potential in research libraries. RQ 1987 Winter;27(2):25263. 6. GLITZ B. Testing the new technology: MEDLINE on CDROM in an academic health sciences library. Spec Libr 1988
Winter;79(1):28-33. 7. DENNIS S. Medical university library evaluates MEDLINE CD-ROM. Inf Today 1987 May;4(5):2, 35. 8. SILVER H. Managing a CD-ROM installation ... a case study at Hahnemann University. Online 1988 Mar;12(2): 61-5. 9. KLEINER, op. cit., 253-4. 10. SWEETLAND JH. Beta test and end-user surveys: are they valid? Database 1988 Feb;12(1):27-32.
CAPODAGLI, op. cit., 181. TUCKER, Op. cit., 44-6. IBID., 46. SILVER H. Supporting CD-ROM users and its effect on library services. In: Bremner J, Spigai F, Nixon C, eds. Optical publishing & storage: products that work. Proceedings of optical publishing & storage '87. Medford, NJ: Learned Information, 1987:151-4. 11. 12. 13. 14.
15. FENICHEL C. Personal communication on survey results comparing CD-ROM use with use of printed indexes, November 1989. 16. SILVER, Supporting CD-ROM users, 152-3. 17. STEWART C, OLSEN J. Compact disk databases: are they good for users? Online 1988 May;12(3):48-52.
Received January 1989; accepted December 1989
FROM THE BULLETIN- 25 YEARS AGO
Emerging disciplines in the health sciences and their impact on health sciences libraries: the behavioral sciences By David Dorosin, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California Behavioral sciences have added to the problems of the library both by contributing to the "information explosion" and by increasing the numbers of people using the health sciences library. Yet, in the medical centers of the nation, behavioral sciences have contributed methods of attack on a number of problem areas, and the results of these studies have been people doing their jobs more effectively. Both Scott Adams and Ralph Esterquest say that a library has a problem not only of meeting the future, but also of catching up with the present. Their prescription of active leadership, more support locally and nationally, and the use of the new technology to enhance the purposes of the library are sound. One component of the prescription warrants especial highlighting. To quote Scott Adams: The unsolved problems ahead of computer applications are socio-economic. What are the patterns of organization required to process computer input, e.g., in terms of coverage of significant information and excellence of indexing techniques? What do we really know about user requirements? Who benefits? How? How much does it cost?
Bull Med Libr Assoc 1965 Jul;53(3):407
Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
257
Manager, Microcomputer Learning Laboratory Hahnemann University Library 245 North 15th Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102
Signln-Stat, a PC-based, menu-driven program, collects information from users of the library's public access computer systems. It was used to collect patron use data for the library's four CD-ROM workstations for the period September 1987 to April 1988 and to survey users for the period December 1987 to March 1988. During the sample period, 5,909 CD-ROM uses were recorded. MEDLINE was the most heavily used database, followed by PsycLIT and Micromedex CCIS. Students accounted for 61% of the use, while faculty, residents, and staff were responsible for 31%. Graduate students had the highest rate of use per student. Nineteen percent of use was by patrons who had never used CD-ROMs before, while 37% was by patrons who had used CD-ROMs ten or more times. Residents were the least experienced user group, while graduate students and faculty were the most experienced. INTRODUCTION Recent surveys have shown that CD-ROM services are becoming increasingly common in public and academic libraries [1-2]. While many libraries report a positive response from users and heavy use of some optical database products, there have been only a few articles published that provide quantitative data about patron use. Such data have been reported for Compact Cambridge MEDLINE* at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse [3]. At Texas A&M University's laserdisk installation, patron use statistics were collected over a five-day period [4]; data on patron use of InfoTrac was collected at Louisiana State University [5]. Several studies have examined patron attitudes toward CD-ROM databases [6-8], while Kleiner reviewed studies that examined patron attitudes towards InfoTrac [9]. Librarians may need more than anecdotal accounts of heavy use and positive feedback from small samples of users to convince administrators to allocate resources to CD-ROM subscriptions and workstations. Libraries holding multiple subscriptions to CD* MEDLINE is a registered trademark of the National Library of Medicine.
252
ROM products are now facing choices concerning cancellation of little-used CD-ROMs in favor of new products or additional subscriptions to heavily used CD-ROMs. Staff time is needed to promote new products, write documentation, train new users, and provide ready reference. Librarians must decide how they can use their limited time most effectively to support these new services. Reliable patron use data will enable librarians and administrators to make better decisions regarding daily and long-term management questions.
Libraries holding multiple subscriptions to CDROM products are now facing choices concerning cancellation of little-used CD-ROMs in favor of new products or additional subscriptions to heavily used CD-ROMs. In response to these needs, the manager of Hahnemann Library's Microcomputer Learning Laboratory developed SignIn-Stat to gather patron use data for the library's public access microcomputers. The data support library decisions regarding the purchase of CD-ROM subscriptions and workstations and help Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
Monitoring patron use
guide allocation of staff time and responsibilities. SignIn-Stat has been installed on Hahnemann University Library's CD-ROM workstations since September 1987. A questionnaire was added to the signin procedure between December 1987 and March 1988. Hahnemann University Library serves a community of approximately 6,000 students, faculty, and employees. It includes Hahnemann Hospital and the University's School of Medicine, Graduate School, and School of Health Sciences and Humanities. The library introduced Compact Cambridge MEDLINE in May 1986. The CD-ROM facility had four workstations and subscriptions to MEDLINE, PsycLIT, the MICROMEDEX Computerized Clinical Information System, and Science Citation Index (SCI-CD). During most of the survey period, the library subscribed to Compact Cambridge MEDLINE, which was replaced by SilverPlatter MEDLINE in March 1988. The Permuterm Subject Index (of SCI-CD) was a beta test product. The much-improved commercial version of SCI-CD, to which the library now subscribes, was released in June 1988. The library subscribed to Books in Print Plus during the survey period but does not do so now.
Figure 1 Signin-Stat's opening menu HAHNEMANN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY REFERENCE DEPARTMENT
Please answer a few questions for our statistics. Press the
1. 2. 3. 4.
10 uses) uses
Faculty Resident Student Graduate Medical Undergraduate Staff Ubrary staff Total
26% 31% 21% 15% 28%
30% 61% 47% 45% 48%
26% 22% 3% 22%
57%
Novice*
Intermediate
36% 5%' 42%
44% 8% 32% 40% 23% 18% 42% 91% 37%
469 210
1,633
880 571 182 283 175
2,770
The number of novice respondents is higher than in Table 3 because Table 4 measures first-time use of a database, rather than first-time use of CDROM. *
Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
Use of MEDLINE CD-ROM at Hahnemann is comparable to that reported at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse [11]. The daily use rates are comparable to those reported at Texas A&M; afternoon is the busiest period at both institutions [12]. The average session length of 29 minutes for MEDLINE and 44 minutes for PsycLIT at Hahnemann is longer than the
Table 6 Reasons given for using CD-ROM by database, December 1987March 1988 Database Books in Print MEDLINE MICROMEDEX Permuterm PsycLIT Total
Class- Patient Teach- Research Other work care ing 7% 13% 12% 8% 16% 13%
5% 14% 20% 18% 7%
13%/o
2% 10% 10% 7% 4% 8%
19% 49% 31% 52% 57% 48%
67% 14% 27% 15% 16% 18%
Total uses
42
1,454 459 106 709
2,770
255
Silver and Dennis
15- to 30-minute sessions reported by Texas A&M [13]. Part of this difference is an artifact of different collection methods. SignIn-Stat overestimates the average session length because of the ten-minute timeout feature and because piggybacking increases the average session length. CD-ROM use exceeds mediated online searching by a factor of almost ten (738 CD-ROM sessions per month versus 77 mediated requests per month), even though the number of mediated search requests has increased slightly since the introduction of CD-ROM [14]. Library staff conducted spot surveys comparing CD-ROM use with use of printed indexes in December 1987 and April 1988 [15]. They found that CDROMs were more likely to be in use than printed indexes, even though the printed index holdings are more diverse and cover more years. It is not possible at Hahnemann to compare CD-ROM use with use of end-user systems such as Colleague or Grateful Med because the library does not administer end-user accounts.
Bibliographic instruction promotes use because it demonstrates that CD-ROM databases are useful and easy to learn. It is likely that bibliographic instruction is most effective in promoting use among computer-phobic and computer-indifferent library patrons. When CD-ROMs were introduced at Hahnemann, there were few experienced searchers using them. In the library's second year with CD-ROM, 81% of use is by people with some experience. Staff spend less time dealing with CD-ROM questions because experienced users need less assistance, but the total number of CD-ROM queries recorded at the reference desk has remained about the same (ninety-three per month). Although the population of experienced users is growing, 19% of use is by first-time users (Table 3). Of all patron categories excluding librarians, graduate students had the highest rate of CD-ROM use, and the lowest rate of first-time use. They were also the first group of users in the institution to receive formal bibliographic instruction in CD-ROM, and a greater proportion of graduate students have received instruction than any other group in the institution. Undergraduate students had the lowest rate of CDROM use (Table 2). Only a small proportion of these students had received formal instruction. CD-ROM instruction for undergraduates is a high priority for the 1988-1989 academic year. The use rate by residents was 0.12 in the first four months of data colleciton. Between December 1987 and January 1988, the library demonstrated CD-ROM 256
databases at nine hospital department conferences. In the months following those classes, resident use rate rose by 42% to 0.17. This increase corresponds to a large percentage of first-time uses among residents in the online questionnaire (34%) (Table 3). The decision to present demonstrations at conferences was stimulated in part by lower than expected use of CDROMs by residents. Bibliographic instruction promotes use because it demonstrates that CD-ROM databases are useful and easy to learn. It is likely that bibliographic instruction is most effective in promoting use among computer-phobic and computerindifferent library patrons. Database use statistics have already affected collection development. A second subscription for MEDLINE was added in July 1988, and the subscription of Books in Print Plus was not renewed.
CONCLUSION In two years, Hahnemann's CD-ROM facility has evolved from a demonstration of new technology into a basic service. People are obtaining more information via CD-ROM databases than through either mediated searching or printed indexes. The substantial increase in interlibrary loan that followed the introduction of CD-ROM databases suggests that patrons are finding more information [16]. Not only are they finding more information, they are probably finding it faster. At Cornell University, students trained to use ERIC on CD-ROM found more references in less time than students who were trained to use the ERIC printed indexes [17]. In institutions providing optical-based reference services, it may take several years before most of their user population has tried, or is even aware of, these resources. Signln-Stat provides data that can be used to monitor use of public-access computers and to help guide the allocation of personnel and financial resources. SignIn-Stat makes it possible to observe enduser behavior in a rapidly changing information-access environment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank Carol Fenichel, Ph.D., for her critical review of the manuscript.
REFERENCES 1. SALOMON K. Survey results indicate online, end-user, and CD-ROM usage. Online 1988 Jul;12(4):102. 2. YEE M. Results of Microsoft's ALA CD-ROM survey. Online 1988 Jan;12(1):74. 3. CAPODAGLI JA, MARDIKIAN J, UVA PA. MEDLINE on compact disk: end-user searching on Compact Cambridge. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1988 Apr;76(2):181-3. Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
Monitoring patron use 4. TucKER SL, ANDERS V, CLARK KE. How to manage an extensive laserdisk installation: the Texas A&M experience. Online 1988 May;12(3):34-46. 5. KLEINER JP. InfoTrac: an evaluation of system use and potential in research libraries. RQ 1987 Winter;27(2):25263. 6. GLITZ B. Testing the new technology: MEDLINE on CDROM in an academic health sciences library. Spec Libr 1988
Winter;79(1):28-33. 7. DENNIS S. Medical university library evaluates MEDLINE CD-ROM. Inf Today 1987 May;4(5):2, 35. 8. SILVER H. Managing a CD-ROM installation ... a case study at Hahnemann University. Online 1988 Mar;12(2): 61-5. 9. KLEINER, op. cit., 253-4. 10. SWEETLAND JH. Beta test and end-user surveys: are they valid? Database 1988 Feb;12(1):27-32.
CAPODAGLI, op. cit., 181. TUCKER, Op. cit., 44-6. IBID., 46. SILVER H. Supporting CD-ROM users and its effect on library services. In: Bremner J, Spigai F, Nixon C, eds. Optical publishing & storage: products that work. Proceedings of optical publishing & storage '87. Medford, NJ: Learned Information, 1987:151-4. 11. 12. 13. 14.
15. FENICHEL C. Personal communication on survey results comparing CD-ROM use with use of printed indexes, November 1989. 16. SILVER, Supporting CD-ROM users, 152-3. 17. STEWART C, OLSEN J. Compact disk databases: are they good for users? Online 1988 May;12(3):48-52.
Received January 1989; accepted December 1989
FROM THE BULLETIN- 25 YEARS AGO
Emerging disciplines in the health sciences and their impact on health sciences libraries: the behavioral sciences By David Dorosin, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California Behavioral sciences have added to the problems of the library both by contributing to the "information explosion" and by increasing the numbers of people using the health sciences library. Yet, in the medical centers of the nation, behavioral sciences have contributed methods of attack on a number of problem areas, and the results of these studies have been people doing their jobs more effectively. Both Scott Adams and Ralph Esterquest say that a library has a problem not only of meeting the future, but also of catching up with the present. Their prescription of active leadership, more support locally and nationally, and the use of the new technology to enhance the purposes of the library are sound. One component of the prescription warrants especial highlighting. To quote Scott Adams: The unsolved problems ahead of computer applications are socio-economic. What are the patterns of organization required to process computer input, e.g., in terms of coverage of significant information and excellence of indexing techniques? What do we really know about user requirements? Who benefits? How? How much does it cost?
Bull Med Libr Assoc 1965 Jul;53(3):407
Bull Med Libr Assoc 78(3) July 1990
257
