Gale Group InfoTrac Statistics

Did you know? A large proportion of users of NMRLS' databases enter via "Answers to Go" sites. There is a gateway on NMRLS' site as well as at MVLC and NOBLE. A number of libraries have posted customized pages for their own patrons with gateway to NMRLS and local resources. We have pens to promote use of NMRLS' Answers to Go site. Please contact Lucie Gallagher lucie@nmrls.org to request a supply for your library.

InfoTrac Changes - Have you noticed a huge jump in the number of InfoTrac searches made in your library this fall? There is a good reason for this increase--"PowerSearch." This new feature was installed in September. While regional use of InfoTrac has been slowly increasing, PowerSearch pushed the growth in the number of searches in September-November 2005 up over 400 percent higher than last year. The number of sessions has also risen. However, full-text and retrievals are down significantly. Have your patrons reacted to this new way to search InfoTrac? Send me a note: greg@nmrls.org.

To learn more about your library's use of NMRLS databases, please visit: www.nmrls.org/reference/stats/index.shtml or call us--888-326-7772.

Searches - A specific intellectual query submitted through a search form to the database. Searches are shown at 10 percent to keep the scale proportional.

Sessions - Cycle of user activities, which start when a user connects to a database and ends by connecting to another database or leaving the service through a logout or timeout due to user inactivity.

Full Text - Sum of only full text records examined, downloaded, or otherwise supplied to user, to the extent these are recordable and controlled by the Gale server rather than the browser.

Retrievals - Sum of all full text, abstract, and extended citation records examined, downloaded, or otherwise supplied to user, to the extent these are recordable and controlled by the Gale server rather than the browser.

November Database Views/Searches by NMRLS Member Library Type

We analyzed views* within databases by library type. The chart below illustrates the proportion of use by academic, public, and school libraries in November 2005. Special library use is less than one percent of the total and use barely shows in the bar chart.

* OCLC use is measured in searches. All others measured in views.