3 Circulation (Physical and Digital)

From IPEDS

Definitions:

Total Physical Circulation – Report the total number of times physical items are checked out from the general and reserve collections. Include only initial checkouts (circulation), not renewals. Exclude interlibrary loan lending and borrowing. Include transactions of books, media, and serials. Do not include transactions of equipment or computers. However, circulation of electronic reading devices (e.g., Kindles) can be included if the device is pre-loaded with e-books. For example, if a customer checks out a Kindle that is pre-loaded with 20 e-books, then that transaction counts as 1 physical circulation, not 20 electronic/digital circulations.

Total Digital/Electronic Circulation or Usage – Report usage of digital/electronic titles whether viewed, downloaded, or streamed. Do not include institutional repository documents.

Include usage for e-books and e-media titles only, even if the title was purchased as part of a database. Do not include usage of titles in Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) or Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) collections until they have been purchased or leased by the library. Do not include transactions of VHS, CDs, or DVDs, as the transactions of these materials are reported under “physical circulation.

Most vendors will provide usage statistics in COUNTER reports. As of January 2019, Release 5 became the current Code of Practice (see Project COUNTER Release 5 Code of Practice [https://www.projectcounter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Release_5_for_Providers_20191030.pdf]). Relevant COUNTER Release 5 reports for e-books are: TR_B1: Book Requests (Excluding OA_Gold). As to the COUNTER 5 metric type for e-books, report “unique title requests.” For e-media, use IR_M1: Multimedia Item Requests, report metric type for “total_item_requests” is the most relevant.

If COUNTER Release 5 reports are unavailable and if COUNTER Release 4 reports are available, IPEDS suggest that libraries report counts from BR1 and MR1. If BR1 and MR1 statistics are not available, BR2 and MR2 statistics can be used. In cases where vendors do not provide COUNTER reports, libraries may report using other means for monitoring digital/electronic circulation/usage (downloads, session views, transaction logs, etc.).

Report usage of e-serial titles whether viewed, downloaded, or streamed. Include usage for e-serial titles only, even if the title was purchased as part of a database. Viewing a document is defined as having the full text of a digital document or electronic resource downloaded. [NISO Z39.7-2013, section 7.7] If available, include the count for open access e-journal usage if the title is accessible through the library’s catalog or discovery system.

Libraries may need to ask vendors for e-serial usage reports; reports may not be delivered automatically or in easily- understood formats by the vendor to the library. Most vendors will provide usage statistics in COUNTER Release 5 reports. The most relevant COUNTER Release 5 report for e-serial usage is TR_J1: Journal Requests (Excluding OA_Gold). For the metric type, report “unique item requests.” If COUNTER Release 5 reports are unavailable, the most relevant COUNTER Release 4 report is JR1 (defined as the “Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month and Journal”).

Applicable COUNTER Release 5 definitions:

• Article: “An item of original written work published in a journal, other serial publication, or in a book.”
• Database: “A collection of electronically stored data or unit records (facts, bibliographic data, texts) with a common user interface and software for the retrieval and manipulation of data (NISO)”
• Full-Text Article: “The complete text, including all references, figures and tables, of an article, plus links to any supplementary material published with it.”
• Open access: “Online research outputs that are free of all restrictions on access (e.g. access tolls) and free of many restrictions on use (e.g. certain copyright and license restrictions). Open access can be applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed academic journal articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, and monographs.

In cases where vendors do not provide COUNTER reports, libraries may report using other means for monitoring digital/ electronic circulation/usage (downloads, session views, transaction logs, etc.), or report zero. An electronic resource management system (ERMS) and/or a usage consolidation service may be helpful for collecting e-serial usage statistics. Do not include usage of titles in Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) or Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) collections until they have been purchased or leased by the library.

Physical Circulation

• Open the Circulation – Physical Report in Alma Analytics.
• Change the dates if needed and click OK.
• Look it over and make adjustments as appropriate for your unique situation. For example, you may need to subtract numbers for equipment/computers.
• If you need to edit the report, be sure to save it in your institutional folder.

Digital Circulation

• Assuming you have not imported your usage data into Alma, log in to the Admin area for each of your vendors and get stats from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. For example for eLibraryMN databases, these are your vendors: Britannica, Capstone, EBSCO, Gale and Proquest. Links for those admin areas are here: https://www.minitex.umn.edu/services/elibrary-minnesota/elm-help/elibrary-minnesota-usage-statistics (If you have a problem with this part, reach out directly to Customer Service at the vendor.)
• Use COUNTER 5 reports if you can. Use COUNTER 4 reports or non-COUNTER reports if that is all that is available.
• Add e-book, e-media and e-serials usage from all your vendors together.

A summary of the recommended reports from IPEDS:

Note that it might be quicker/easier to work with the Platform Master Report by Data Type for each vendor.

Lastly, if you have imported all your usage data into Alma and you want help with Alma Analytics usage reports, put in a PALS ticket here. We have not yet worked on Alma Analytics reports for digital circulation since so few of our libraries have their data imported. (Also, it is complicated since some publishers have not transitioned fully to Counter 5 yet.)