2018 Charleston Library Conference

Business, social sciences, and other disciplines use databases that are not article-based. These databases provide numeric data, maps, other visualizations, or perhaps lists of companies. Counter standards do not accurately measure usage of these resources. In fact, there aren’t even standard usage definitions. This makes it difficult to compare the value of diverse databases for library budgeting purposes. Vendors of such products can also struggle to prove value to library customers. This panel includes both librarians and database vendors to explore these issues. Our friendly discourse will cover:



· What do we mean by usage, data points, or the number of times a database is accessed?

· Why Counter Standards don't work. Are there other methods to value or measure the impact of a database?

· Can we agree on mutually acceptable definitions and statistics?