About
SimplyE Analytics are provided through an integration with Google AnalyticsTM. All events are event based versus client based so that no particular user can be identified. All events are anonymously generated by the transactions of borrowing a book from the libraries vendors, use of the client. Therefore events fall into 3 basic categories:
- Events from SimplyE circulation Manager
- Events from the ebook Distributor
- Events from the mobile clients
All events can be viewed from an assortment of Dimensions such as Title, Author, Audience, Genre, etc.
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
Additional Events Coming Soon:
- open_book_first_time (what should we name this?) – A patron opened a book in the SimplyE app for the first time on their current device. If they open the book on an additional device later, that will also be an open_book_first_time event.
Suggestions?
Dimensions that are included in each event:
- audience – whether the book is classified as Adult, Young Adult, Children, or Adults Only
- fiction – fiction or nonfiction status of the book
- genre – The "top genre" for the book in the event - the genre with the highest weight in our database.
- 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.
- language – language of the book
- publisher – publisher of the book
- target_age – target age range of the book
- time – time that the event occurred. May be inaccurate for distributor events.
- title – title of the book
Overview of How to get to the metrics
Use Cases
- Readers Advisory – How does what we promote affect demand? "Demand Shaping"
- Collection Development – What do people like to read? – Genre intelligence, Audience, Authors, etc
- Marketing – What are New Yorkers Reading? Engagement with our patrons
- Data Analytics – SimplyE circulation vs the distributor circulation, basics stats, etc.
Things you can do with Google 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.
