re: circ stats At our library we stream licensed local TV shows and own-university content. Our stats not only records what files are viewed, but also length of view. We find that many last less than a minute, and very few over 10 minutes (15 minutes is about the length of a subject of a news segment).
I know that with physical items, we assume that one check-out means one view, when the truth of the matter is that people may borrow and let it sit on their shelf, or watch it for 5 minutes and say "this is boring". However, I think that a lot of "hits" for a title may be a form of browsing, since people do not read catalog records the same way that they seem to read the blurbs and covers of a video they are deciding to choose from in the stacks. So I think that we must be careful and not compare exactly one-to-one between stats for hits on a streaming video and circ for hard-copy. I guess it's similar to how I view stats for book circ vs. video circ. The novel "Pride and Prejudice" may have circulated 85 times in the last 15 years, whereas the DVD of the 1995 BBC version may have circulated 290 times - both of them are what I would call "very heavily used", although the DVD has 3-times the circ. Or, maybe I am stating the obvious. If so, please forgive me. - Victoria Caplan HKUST Library Hong Kong University of Science & Technology http://library.ust.hk > We run circulation statistics for our streaming collection and last > fiscal year (June 2010) the streaming circulation was about equal to our > hard copy circulation which is amazing because of no. of titles as of > June was 335 streaming titles as compared to around 7500 hard copy. One > also has to take into account that the first titles we purchased for > streaming were those requested or in high demand. > > I suspect that this coming year streaming circulation will surpass as we > now have well over 1000 streaming titles. About half the views last > fiscal year were on campus and most came through the Library's OPAC. > Being discoverable is important. Having a link right in the catalog > also makes access that much easier. More than half were viewed at the > 1Mbit rate as compared to the 300 kbit rate. It will be interesting now > that the collection has grown beyond individual requests to see where > titles are viewed (on or off campus) and at what bit rate. > > Regards, Jane > > Jane B. Hutchison > Associate Director Past > President > Instruction & Research Technology CCUMC: > Leadership in Media & Academic Technology > William Paterson University > http://www.ccumc.org > Wayne, NJ 07470 > 973-720-2980 (work) > 973-418-7727 (cell) > 973-720-2585 (facs) > hutchis...@wpunj.edu > > > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of > issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic > control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in > libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve > as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of > communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video > producers and distributors. > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
