Library Quarterly Report FY20 Q2: October-December 2019

Database Usage

Use of library subscription databases as measured in full-text downloads was surprisingly high this quarter, continuing to demonstrate the value employees place on "self-service" access to high quality information at the desktop. As is typically the case, ASTM Compass led all downloads, followed by the clickthroughs from the Library Catalog and then ASCE Library and Knovel. For unknown reasons, database downloads surged 14% above average in October before returning to slightly above "normal" levels again in November and December. Average monthly downloads for the past five years have been just over 1,000 items/month. However, this quarter we saw the highest database use we have recorded since 2015, a total of 3,709 downloads over the 3-month period.

The Library continues to expand access to resources through "self-service" online subscription databases. We provide 16 subscription databases to VDOT employees (14 of those are "full text" resources). Tables here show the number of downloads per month (below) from each database, and the trend over the past year (right), which spiked for unknown reasons in October.

Subscription database usage FY20 Q2: January-Decemer 2019

Subscription Downloads By VDOT: FY20 Q2
	October	November	December	Total
ASTM Compass	681	227	326	1,234
Non-subscription Downloads (EOS Catalog)	165	139	183	487
ASCE Library	145	136	171	452
Knovel	123	93	93	309
Skillsoft Books	180	43	30	253
Transportation Research Record	112	63	49	224
*Other (miscellaneous journals)	78	43	46	167
ScienceDirect	17	10	15	42
ICE Virtual Library	18	6	17	41
EBSCO Business Book Summaries	19	6	8	33
EBSCO eBooks	7	3	2	12
EBSCO Business Source Corporate Plus	2	0	1	3
Monthly Totals	1,692	905	1,112	3,709

Note: Miscellaneous resources includes International Journal of Pavement Engineering, Corrosion and Road Materials and Pavement Design.

Library Quarterly Report FY20 Q2: October-December 2019

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