Chapter 1: Assessing Use and Usage

Abstract

In response to ever-increasing expenditures on collections, especially electronic resources, librarians are increasingly expected to demonstrate the value of the resources in which their institutions have made significant investments. Unfortunately, most attempts at e-resource usage assessment still follow the input-output model that has been so prevalent in evaluation of library resources. This section reviews the development of LIS use and user studies and identifies problems with relying on an exclusively statistical model of evaluation.