About

SimplyE Analytics are provided through an integration between the SimplyE circulation manager and Google AnalyticsTM. We do not track events within the mobile app directly, and all events are event based versus client based so that no particular user can be identified (via their IP Address and Device ID). All events are anonymously generated by the transactions of signing in, placing holds, and borrowing a book by the Circulation Manager. Therefore events fall into 3 basic categories:

  1. Events from SimplyE circulation Manager
  2. Events from the ebook Distributor
  3. Events from the mobile clients

All events can be viewed from an assortment of Dimensions such as Title, Author, Audience, Genre, etc.

In Google Analytics events are captured by the standard Event Metric through the Measurement Protocol.  The events are reported under the category of Circulation and the dimension of Event_Action.  The Event Metric is a numeric value representing the time a "hit" or count of event occurrences.  This metric is accumulated automatically based on the time stamp of the event report.  This allows a time series view of the Event Totals or Unique Events measures in Google Analytics. 

Note

The Circulation Manager nor the implementation enables unique temporary or persistent identifiers to be generated or provided as part of the analytics payload to the measurement endpoint.  The IP Address and URLs reported to Google are of the Circulation Manager only, not of the individual client machine or user device in use by a patron.   This proxy and anonymization strategy inhibits the ability to link any particular transaction to a user or uniquely identify a user in Google Analytics. 


Definition of metrics


Events that happen through the SimplyE circulation manager.

  • circulation_manager_check_out – A patron checked out a book through SimplyE
  • circulation_manager_check_in – A patron returned a book through SimplyE
  • circulation_manager_hold_place – A patron placed a hold through SimplyE
  • circulation_manager_hold_release – A patron cancelled a hold through SimplyE
  • circulation_manager_fulfill – A patron downloaded a book through SimplyE. The patron might download the same book multiple times if using multiple devices or logging in and out, and each of these downloads will be tracked as a separate event. This event includes downloads of public domain books.
  • circulation_manager_new_patron – A patron logged in to SimplyE for the first time.


Events that SimplyE hears about from a distributor like Overdrive. This includes events from SimplyE, as well as the distributors' apps. There's a slight delay before we hear about the events. This means events for non-open access books that happen through SimplyE show up twice, once as a circulation_manager event and once as a distributor event.

  • distributor_check_out – A patron checked out a book through any app
  • distributor_check_in – A patron returned a book through any app
  • distributor_hold_place – A patron placed a hold through any app
  • distributor_hold_release – A patron released a hold through any app
  • distributor_license_add – The library added an additional license for a book
  • distributor_license_remove – The library removed a license for a book
  • distributor_availability_notify – A patron had a hold on this book and it became available for checkout
  • distributor_title_add – The library added a new title to the collection
  • distributor_title_remove – The library removed a title from the collection


Events that we hear about from the SimplyE app.

  • open_book – A patron opened a book in the SimplyE app


Dimensions that are included in each event:

  • time – time that the event occurred. May be inaccurate for distributor events.
  • identifier – The identifier (eg. Overdrive ID or ISBN) that SimplyE uses to refer to the book. Could be used for filtering to a specific book.
  • identifier_type – The type of identifier that SimplyE uses to refer to the book (eg. Overdrive ID or ISBN). Could be used to filter by distributor.
  • title – title of the book
  • author - author of the book
  • fiction – fiction or nonfiction status of the book
  • audience – whether the book is classified as Adult, Young Adult, Children, or Adults Only
  • target_age – target age range of the book
  • publisher – publisher of the book
  • language – language of the book
  • genre – The "top genre" for the book in the event - the genre with the highest weight in our database.
  • open_access - books that are under an open access license
  • distributor - the distribution service provider for the title
  • medium - the format of the title
  • library - the library from who collection the circulation event occurred

Things you can do with Google Analytics

You can see tutorials and demos at https://support.google.com/analytics/

  • Set email reports – Demo / Quickstart
  • Set up Dashboards – Demo / Quickstart
  • Set up a custom report – Demo / Quickstart


Nice to Have

Video to train users how to use Circulation Analytics for different uses cases.

New and requested analytics

Patron Identifier based events – This is wanted in order to measure on an event basis the type of activity individual users demonstrate so the library can better understand users needs for e vs physical media or other media types. This would mean counting event types by Patron ID but not the specific dimensions that could point to a specific reading history on a title basis. This data may need to go into a separate Analytics account or system given the individualized nature of the data capture.
Medium dimension – To filter events to a specific medium like epub or audiobook.


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