connecting the dots: how researchers use their library’s news resources debora cheney, the larry...

Connecting the Dots: How Researchers Use Their Library’s News Resources

Debora Cheney, The Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian

  and Head, The News and Microforms LibraryThe University Libraries

The Pennsylvania State University

News Resources at Penn State

• Microfilm and print newspapers• 3 Aggregator Databases

• LexisNexis• ProQuest• Newsbank

• 6 Historical Newspaper Databases• 3 Specialized Databases• PressDisplay (E-Newspaper)

A VARIETY OF DATA “DOTS”Individual data points

Areas Evaluated: Penn State News Sources

International and Historical Newspaper Use

New Media Use and Print Newspaper Use

Search effectiveness/efficiency

“Old Brand” Use Compared – Aggregator Databases, 2009

128,584

2,839

81,776

41,620

Total PA Newspapers Other Major US Cities Wall Street Journal Total 'Old Brands'

by

Do

cum

ents

Vie

wed

Most Frequently Viewed?Relative Usage by Aggregator, 2009

Documents Viewed

The New York Times

LexisNexis 90%

ProQuest 24%

Newsbank 13%

25% of total

Plus:

The New York Times

Digital Archive 41%

Pennsylvania Newspapers

LexisNexis 0%

ProQuest 4%

Newsbank 45%Centre Daily Times 4%26 titles

16% of total

Use of International Sources: Newsbank, 2009

1%

2%

1% 1% 1%

24%

70%

by Documents Viewed

Africa/Middle East Asia Australia Europe

North/Latin America PA USA

International Titles: Newsbank 2009

1. Times of India, The (Mumbai, India)2. Chinadaily.com.cn3. Toronto Star, The (Ontario, Canada) 4. Daily Star, The (Beirut, Lebanon)5. Economist, The (London, England)6. China Daily (Beijing) 7. Guardian Unlimited (England)8. Sydney Morning Herald, The (Australia) 9. Financial Times (London, England)

Percent of Historical News Content Use Compared to Aggregator

Databases, 2006 - 2009

2006

2007

2008

2009

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

89%

82%

79%

77%

0%

0%

4%

4%

3%

10%

6%

9%

8%8%

11%9%

Aggregators Gale

Vanderbilt America's Historical Newspapers (READEX)

Proquest The New York Times Historical

by

Do

cum

ents

Vie

wed

Newspaper Requests from Inter-Library Loan (ILL),

2004 - 2008Year Requested 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total

Pre 1924 148

128

125 95

109

605

1925-1949 74 52 19 22 41 208

1950-1974 18 33 14 29 33 127

1975-1999 19 53 13 11 17 113

2000 - Current 4 11 14 28 12 69

Unidentified Year 16 25 16 5 9 71

Total 279

302

201

190

221

1,193

Video, Blogs, and Web Content, Oh My!

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Web 0 0 1 330 1417 2613

Blogs 0 0 0 72 294 652

Video 232 156 129 56 1176 676

250

750

1,250

1,750

2,250

2,750

3,250

3,750

4,250

by

Do

cum

ents

Vie

wed

Newspaper Use Online and In Room, 2009

%USA

% PA

% Business

% Asia

% Sport

% Europe

% Latin/ North America

% Middle East/ Africa

5% 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65%

%USA % PA % Busi-ness

% Asia % Sport % Europe % Latin/ North

America

% Middle East/ Africa

PressDis-play

0.397973333333335

0.0394666666666667

0.0643131399317415

0.124466723549489

0.0273066666666667

0.232295221843003

0.0830933333333336

0.03104

In Room*

0.211618257261412

0.131742738589213

0.171507607192255

0.273072934669895

0 0.151054268924991

0.0345661942620118

0.0262703076391293

by

Issu

es R

ead

*In Room data is for Spring and Fall Semesters 2009

Top Newspapers: 2009

PressDisplay

1. Le Figaro 2. Liberation3. The Guardian4. Times of India (Mumbai)

5. Star (Malaysia)6. National Post (Canada)7. Jerusalem Post8. Les Echos9. Aujourd'hui en France10. China Daily

News & Microforms Library

1. Asahi Shimbun 2. El Pais 3. Times of India 4. Dong-a Ilbo5. Le Monde 6. Daily Telegraph 7. Estado de Sao Paulo8. Times (London)9. Corriere della Sera10. Izvestiia 11. Jerusalem Post

How efficient are researchers?Ratio of Searches to Documents viewed. 2009

By Database

LexisNexis 1

ProQuest 7

Newsbank 1

By Category

Aggregators 3

Specialized 8

Historical 1

Cross-Disciplinary Databases and use of newspapers?

Searches

ProQuest: ~84%

Newsbank: 8%

LexisNexis: 8%

Documents Viewed

ProQuest, 35%

Newsbank 31%

LexisNexis 34%

2009 data

Summary: Major trends in use of library news resources

Growth in use of state newspapers

Growth in use of “New Media”

Modest use of pre-1922 newspapers

Limited use of International News Sources

CONNECTING THE DOTSLarger Trends

Use by Category, 2009

Aggregator Databases: 61%

Specialized Databases: 21%

Historical Databases: 18%

Database Use by Category, 2006 - 2009

2006 2007 2008 2009 -

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

By Documents Viewed

Aggregator Databases

Specialized

Historical

Combined

Percentage Change, 2006-2009Documents Viewed, of total

By Category

Aggregator Databases -24%

Specialized Databases +17%

Historical Databases + 6%

By Aggregator

LexisNexis - 8%

Newsbank +22%

ProQuest -14%

Where we stand

More documents viewed from Aggregator databases

Decline in use of Aggregator Databases

Decline in documents viewed in library news resources

Cross disciplinary databases do not increase use of newspapers

Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

Debora Cheney, The Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian

Head, The News and Microforms Library

The University Libraries

The Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania, USA

dcheney@psu.edu

POST-SCRIPTWhat impacts news content use

A Changing Definition of “News”

Trends: Youth news consumption

Hunt and gather news they want

Expect news to “find them”

Accustomed to viewing news “categories”

May never have read a “newspaper”

Trends: News distribution

No longer means just a “newspaper”

News creators vs. news “aggregators” vs. library database aggregators

News is different: Event driven news vs. news commentary

Trends: Youth Research Behaviors

Power browsing behaviors

Google and familiar library databases

Faculty as advisor

Libraries and News ContentPossibly Too Tied to the Concept of the “newspaper”

Challenges for Libraries

Increased competition

Libraries ≠ News Content

News: a “digital wilderness”

Re-think how we position news content and news resources into the research, teaching, learning context of academic research

Re-establish the library as a the place for news-based research

• Better understand news researchers (faculty & students)

• Make library’s news resources more visible and find-able

• Establish clearly how library news resources differ from web-sources for news