Hi Will,

What kind of software your Library use to do so? Or it  is embedded in your main data management system?

Thanks,

Larisa Smyk

Library associate
University of Waterloo, ON Canada 

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Will Martin
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2015 6:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Website KPIs

The University of Minnesota has a fairly intricate process for recording patron interactions with their library that yields very detailed information of the sort you're looking for.  For example, they can tell you -- based on statistically significant data -- the exact amount by which a student's GPA rises on average for each point of contact with the library.  I've been working (slowly) towards doing the same kind of thing at my institution.

In brief, they log personally identifiable information about patron interactions.  Say Sally Student checks out Moby Dick.  They would log her name, student number, and the type of activity -- "checked out a book", or "accessed a database" or "logged into a lab computer" and so on.  Then, each year, they package up that data and send it to the 
Office of Institutional Research.   The OIR connects all of the student 
library data with their student records, and conducts statistical analysis on it, focusing on measures of student success.

They've published some aggregate results.  The person to talk to at UMN about this is Shane Nackerud.

This may be larger than you're looking for, because it touches on overall library performance rather than just the website.  But you did ask for big picture stuff.

Hope this helps.

Will Martin

Chester Fritz Library
University of North Dakota

On 2015-09-16 10:50, Joshua Welker wrote:
> We are in the middle of a large strategic alignment effort at our 
> university. A big part of that is developing KPIs (key performance
> indicators) to use as a benchmark for self-assessment and budget 
> allocation. The goal is to develop "scorecards" of sorts to help us 
> track our success.
> 
> Our website and other web platforms are of vital importance to us, but 
> I really don't know what would make good KPIs to help us evaluate 
> them.
> We
> collect loads of website usage data, but I don't know what kind of 
> metrics could serve as a scorecard. Looking at raw sessions and 
> pageviews is simple but not particularly meaningful.
> 
> There are two ways to approach KPIs. There is a data-based approach 
> that correlates performance with data and then just tracks the data, 
> like pageviews. Then there is an outcomes-based approach that is more 
> qualitative in nature and simply states the outcome we want to 
> achieve, and then a variety of types of data are examined to determine 
> whether we are achieving the outcome.
> 
> Long story short, I am curious about how other libraries assess the 
> success or failure of their websites. I am not looking for usability 
> testing strategies. I am thinking more big picture. Any help is 
> appreciated.
> 
> Josh Welker
> Information Technology Librarian
> James C. Kirkpatrick Library
> University of Central Missouri
> Warrensburg, MO 64093
> JCKL 2260
> 660.543.8022