Knowing Where They Went: Six Years of Online Access Statistics via the Online Catalog for Federal Government Information

Authors

Christopher C. Brown, University of DenverFollow

Publication Date

2011

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

University Libraries

Keywords

Online public access catalogs, URL, Federal information, Government information

Abstract

As federal government information is increasingly migrating to online formats, libraries are providing links to this content via URLs or persistent URLs (PURLs) in their online public access catalogs (OPACs). Clickthrough statistics that accumulated as users visited links to online content in the University of Denver’s library OPAC were gathered over a six-year period and were analyzed. Among the conclusions were that DU users prefer online content over print for both newer and older documents and that there is great benefit in adding URLs above and beyond the URLs supplied by GPO cataloging.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Recommended Citation

Brown, C. C. (2011). Knowing where they went: Six years of online access statistics via the online catalog for federal government information. College & Research Libraries 72(1), 43-61. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-68r1