Use of Free Resources in a Digital Library
Author Information
Author(s): Mary Beth Schell
Primary Institution: UNC Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library
Hypothesis
The largest free resource user groups will emerge from the largest overall user groups when excluding guests from the free resource analysis.
Conclusion
The only free resource capturing a significant number of link outs is the free link to PubMed, indicating its importance to the user base.
Supporting Evidence
- 2056 free resource URLs were available in the ADL, with 1351 linked out.
- PubMed was the most popular free resource with 4803 link outs.
- Guests made up 33% of the access to free resources despite being only 2% of total user link outs.
- Institutional affiliates accessed free resources 30% of the time during the study period.
Takeaway
This study looked at how often people use free resources in a digital library, finding that most users prefer paid resources, but many guests use free ones like PubMed.
Methodology
The study analyzed free resource access logs over a 6-month period using SQL queries and basic descriptive statistics.
Limitations
The study only analyzed a 6-month period and did not assess the ultimate usefulness of the resources accessed.
Participant Demographics
Participants included guests, institutional affiliates, AHEC faculty/staff, and paid individual members.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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