Having looked at ours, this holds somewhat true - comparing Jan - June 2008
and 2009, usage was on average pretty similar. Comparing Jul - Nov 2008
and 2009, usage was down 30% on average.
Thanks for sharing this - it will explain the significant drop in figures.
Lizz
--On 25 January 2010 19:09 +0000 Cliff Spencer <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> "Dear IEEE Xplore Subscriber,
>
> Recently we at IEEE discovered something about our IEEE Xplore usage
> patterns that we want to pass on to you.
>
> We learned that PDF links to IEEE Xplore articles had been eliminated
> from Google search results. This means that anyone attempting to search
> for IEEE articles by using Google would probably be unsuccessful. Few
> search results would be returned. Because half of all IEEE Xplore
> downloads come through Google searches, particularly among our corporate
> customers, this likely resulted in a significant drop in IEEE Xplore
> usage.
>
> Upon investigation we learned that, due to a misunderstanding, Google had
> terminated these links to IEEE Xplore around July 2009. We have contacted
> Google, these PDF links have been restored, and searching IEEE Xplore
> through Google is now effective again.
>
> However, this action may have seriously affe! cted your IEEE Xplore usage
> in the latter half of 2009."
>
> =======
>
> So far I've not been a big fan of the research done on user behaviour of
> internet based e-resources, for me it just states the obvious; if it's
> free it will be used, and information available on Google/Myspace/you
> Tube/Twitter etc, including academic info, will be accessed more than
> through a library or publisher portal.
>
> However unless numbers are given this is just another (qualitative)
> opinion, and usually it's difficult to get vendors to reveal data on real
> user preferences - until things go wrong as above. So here we have some
> numbers. 50% of all downloads are generated from search results done on
> Google - the rest coming from - where? I wonder if this is wholly true
> for academic use? Better check.
>
> C.
>
> ===
>
>
>
--
Lizz Jennings BA ACLIP MCLIP
Information Librarian (E-Resources)
University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY UK
Ext. 3475 (External 01225 383475)
[log in to unmask]
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