Demonstrating the Value of Libraries in Academic Research During a Pandemic: An Application of Web-Scraping Based Metrics

Conference Year

Online Northwest 2021

Session

3

Type

Breakout Session

Presenters

• Laura Baird, Pacific University
• Lynda Irons, Pacific University

Abstract

Pacific University Libraries strives to provide our researchers with articles, books, and other content to support their research. By analyzing citations from researchers’ publications, we measured the Libraries’ impact on research at our institution. We used the cited references of Pacific-published works, our discovery layer, browser automation, and scripting to find the percentage of Pacific-cited works available through the Libraries. By applying this methodology in 2019, then 2020, we are able to assess the changes in our impact on research at Pacific. We will share our techniques and our metrics-based analysis of library value during a pandemic.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees will learn a methodology to measure library impact on research.

Attendees will learn how this impact changed during the pandemic.

Links

• Recording: Demonstrating the Value of Libraries in Academic Research During a Pandemic (YouTube)
• Demonstrating the Value of Libraries in Academic Research During a Pandemic (PDF)