2021 FDL Conference: A Tiger’s Tale: Boosting All-Electronic Document Usage at a Liberal Arts College

2021 Federal Depository Library Conference

Title: A Tiger’s Tale: Boosting All-Electronic Document Usage at a Liberal Arts College

Speaker:

• Carl Olson, Research & Instruction Librarian for Government Publications, Albert S. Cook Library, Towson University

We measured document usage at Towson University using the PURL Referral tool and LibGuides statistics. We found that professors assign and students use the most non-specialized documents, typically classed in Y3.2, special commission reports, such as the 9/11 Commission Report. Used in combination, they were very useful in identifying, by SuDocs stem, which documents needed promotion and which performed best, and what acted to boost document usage. This has brought better focus to our efforts to market our documents collection.