MEASURING THE IMPACT OF WEBSITES : AN OPEN SOURCE, NATIONAL SOLUTION

PRESENTATION AT INTERNET LIBRARIAN INTERNATIONAL 18 OCTOBER 2016OLYMPIA CONFERENCE CENTRE

Project Manager Jannicke Røgler, Buskerud Regional Library, Norway

Overview

› The need for a uniform and consistent measuring of websites

› Background

› Inspiration from Denmark

› Piwik versus Google Analytics

› Norwegian library index,norskbibliotekindeks.no

› The role of Piwik analytics

› Further possibilities

Measuring the impact of websites › Measure – monitor over time › Analyse – understand your users and their

behaviour› Act – improve your sites and services

Why measure at the national level?

› Creating awareness

› Return of Investment

› Comparisons with other similar librariesand countries

› Measuring effects of joint campaigns

› Development over time

› Professionalization of digital services

Starting point: Revision of the national statistics

› A working group was set up in 2014, finished 2015

› Three areas were emphasized:• reporting libraries digital services and collections• reporting activity and events in libraries• reporting statistics for combination (school and public)

libraries

Statistics for libraries digital services

› The main recommendation ofthe working group was:• to develop a library index

reporting libraries digital services for a consistent measuring of online performance using free software and open source.

Project overview

• Buskerud Regional Library as project owner of pilot• Specifications and tender spring 2016• Technical development by Ignitas May – July.• Cost technical development - NOK 150 000, Euro 16 700• Phase 1 – MVP, minimum viable product =

Library home pages only• Pilot running autumn 2016• Report and recommendations to The National Library

winter 2017• Regular service spring 2017 with The National Library as

owner

Main source of inspiration

Google Analytics versus Piwik

› Google Analytics› Google Analytics is a widely used

service.› Google Analytics store your data at

Google. › The functionality is good › Free Google Analytics can not be

recommended as a solution because of the lack of ownershipto the data.

› Premium edition of Google Analytics allows local storage of data but costs$ 150,000 per year (figure from 2015).

Piwik

Piwik is the leading open-source analytics platform.

The functionality is good.

100% data ownership.

User privacy protection.

Customisable and extensible.

Test of Piwik and Google Analytics

The Norwegian Library Indexconsists of the following parts:

› The index main site and admin site

› Piwik used for collecting data and as analysis tool for each library

› Help pages

Norwegian Library Index

The main page consists of two different parts

Week viewas a line chart

Week viewin tabularform

Total visits per week

Separate page for each library

The admin page

Piwik analytics site for each library

Help pages

Main data source - Webloft.no

• Blue marker – launched• Yellow marker – trying

out or not yet launched (September 2016)

Universal Design

› Emphasis on universal design• All text is possible to enlarge and reduce• All navigation can be done using the keyboard• Contrasts are adapted to universal design

GitHub – please feel free to test

Results after 3 months › 50 libraries are participating in the test› The index has so far proved to be a stable

solution› Piwik a stable environment for our input data› Starting a professional

debate about the impactof our library websites

Further development – Phase 2

› Include other web services• Social media, databases, ebooks…

› Separate the site by library type, public and academic

› Include ILS like Koha

› Develop a community of users

› Dissemination to othersectors and countries

Jannicke Røgler, Buskerud Regional LibraryBuskerud.fylkesbibl.noEmail: Jannicke.rogler@bfk.noSlideshare.net/janniroGithub.com/buskfyb/webanalysisTwitter: @jannicker

Questions?

References:

› https://www.norskbibliotekindeks.no/

› http://www.nb.no/Bibliotekutvikling/Tall-og-fakta/Statistikk-for-norske-bibliotek

› http://danmarksbiblioteksindex.dk/

› https://github.com/buskfyb/webanalysis

› http://statistikk.webloft.no/

› https://pixabay.com/