Six Uses of Analytics: Digital Editors’ Perceptions of Audience Analytics in the Newsroom

ABSTRACT

This article investigates how digital news editors perceive the uses and implications of audience analytics in contemporary digital newsrooms. Based on 21 interviews with digital news editors at 11 Belgian news organisations, including 7 national newspapers, one news magazine, one public and one commercial broadcaster, and one digital-born news medium, the study shows how audience analytics have become normalised in these digital newsrooms and how, in the perception of those who use them, tools for capturing audience behaviour data inform and shape their daily work practices and organisational strategies. Combining insights from literature with empirical findings, the study distinguishes six uses of audience analytics: Not only do analytics inform editorial decisions on (1) story placement, (2) story packaging, (3) story planning and (4) story imitation, but they can also serve as instruments for (5) performance evaluation and (6) audience conception. Overall, the digital news editors are convinced that audience analytics support rather than harm their journalism.     

Open data visualizations and analytics as tools for policy-making

Government agencies collect large amounts of structured and unstructured data. Although these data can be used to improve services as well as policy processes, it is not always clear how to analyze the data and how to glean insights for policy making, especially when the data includes large volumes of unstructured text data. This article reports opinions found in “We the People” petition data using topic modeling and visual analytics. It provides an assessment of the usability of the visual analytics results for policy making based on interviews with data professionals and policy makers. We found that visual analytics have potentially positive impacts on policy making practices. Experts also articulated potential barriers regarding the adoption of visual analytics tools, and made suggestions. Potential barriers included insufficient resources in government agencies and difficulty integrating analytics with current work practices. The main suggestions involved providing training and interpretation guidelines along with the visual analytics tools. Major contributions of this study include: (1) suggesting viable visualization tools for analyzing textual data for policy making, and (2) suggesting how to lower barriers to adoption by increasing usability.     

Ethical issues and learning analytics: Are academic library practitioners prepared?

Academic libraries are participating in the collection and analysis of student data. Under the umbrella of learning analytics, these practices are directed toward developing an understanding of how libraries contribute to student learning, the educational experience, and efficient operations of academic institutions. Learning analytics, however, is loaded with ethical issues, which are made more complex by the high ethical bar library practitioners espouse as part of their professional values. This article discusses findings from a survey of academic library practitioners. The survey identifies what ethical issues practitioners associate with learning analytics and the degree to which they are prepared to address such issues. The discussion suggests pathways forward for filling knowledge and practice gaps.     

Knowing What the Patron Wants: Using Predictive Analytics to Transform Library Decision Making

Predictive analytics and machine learning are burgeoning areas of professional practice for large corporations especially businesses that offer products and services to customers. The power to better understand the movement of large amounts of data in a company and the capability to deploy that data to meet a customer's needs is invaluable from a services standpoint. Some in libraries have theorized that this type of data usage could possibly be used in a library service environment as well. In this article, we demonstrate how you can develop and use machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics to proactively understand library behavior. Although libraries are good at data collection, we often rely on statics or old data for assessment. Utilizing a machine learning system, called the Automated Library Information Exchange Network (ALIEN), we can better understand the movement of the items in the collection and better serve the needs of our customers the library patrons.     

Streamlining Document Delivery and Interlibrary Loan Services for Distance Learners

Abstract

Technological advances in the processing of interlibrary loans have enabled libraries to deliver materials electronically to users. Delivery is especially beneficial for distance education students for whom typical interlibrary loan services are often not a viable option. The author conducted a survey of libraries that serve distance education students to determine which systems and processes, used in traditional interlibrary loan, are transferable to the delivery of materials from the “home” institution to off-campus students. To complement the survey, the results of a case study of experiences at Western Michigan University (WMU) are presented. WMU uses ILLiad and SFX systems to facilitate the request and delivery of interlibrary loan and document delivery requests to students both on and off-campus students.     

Tutorials on Google Analytics: How to Craft a Web Analytics Report for a Library Web Site

Libraries, along with other information service institutions, have entered a digital era in which resources are presented electronically through various digital platforms. The library Web site functions as the main source of information to patrons as well as a community outreach tool. Many library services now either succeed or fail based on how well users interact with the institution's Web site. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of library services, it thus becomes important for libraries to measure the performance of library Web sites. Web analytics is the ideal tool to answer questions regarding the evaluation of Web site performance. However, Web analytics can be hard to understand for those who do not have the time to familiarize themselves with all the terms and data. Writing a thorough Web analytics report can help make Web analytics easier to digest for administrators or Web site stakeholders.

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to craft a Web analytics report. It provides suggestions on visualizing statistics, interpreting data, and customizing the report based on a real experience. The tutorial is facilitated with customized figures, charts, and tables from a real Web analytics report on the Texas Tech University Libraries Web site and concludes with recommendations on presenting the report to the administration and stakeholders.     

Applying user analytics to uses and effects of social media in China

ABSTRACT

We introduce what user analytics can do in the first half of the paper and then illustrate how to do user analytics in the second half. In the current context, user analytics refers to a set of diverse communication research methods on uses and effects of social media. User analytics has evolved from TV ratings research to online user research. The history illustrates what data sources, measures, and analyses can be used for what types of research questions under user analytics. We discuss the similarities of and differences between user analytics and other methods of computational communication research (e.g. content mining and online experiments), and compare the strengths and weaknesses of user analytics with traditional quantitative methods (e.g. survey). Finally, we present an application study of Chinese bloggers to demonstrate how to employ user analytics methods to study the production, consumption, and effects of user-generated content.     

Demonstrating Success: Web Analytics and Continuous Improvement

As free and low-cost Web analytics tools become more sophisticated, libraries’ approach to user analysis can become more nuanced and precise. Tracking appropriate metrics with a well-formulated analytics program can inform design decisions, demonstrate the degree to which those decisions have succeeded, and thereby inform the next iteration in the design process. The Health Sciences Libraries of the University of Minnesota have been using Google Analytics as their primary analytics solution since 2005, and as Google has continued to add functionality and flexibility to the platform, the Health Sciences Libraries has capitalized on the opportunities made available. In this article the author outlines the Health Sciences Libraries strategy for using Google Analytics and describes several of the more novel methods they have developed, providing a roadmap for others seeking to strengthen their understanding of the behavior of users on their library's Web sites.     

The Suitability of Web Analytics Key Performance Indicators in the Academic Library Environment

As the demand for library assessment grows, academic libraries are becoming more interested in Web analytics. Data are automatically gathered and provide information about a wide variety of online interactions. Libraries have long used simple counts such as visits and page views, but have more recently begun to choose strategic benchmarks, also known as key performance indicators (KPIs). Many common KPIs were created for commercial websites and are challenging to adapt for libraries. However, the underlying concepts are sufficiently valuable that libraries should explore their use. By evaluating the validity of web metrics, libraries can further the development of standards and benchmarks to support future investigations. This article discusses how commercial web metrics might be adapted for use in academic libraries. First, the limitations of web analytics are presented. Major key performance indicators used in the commercial sector are reviewed in the academic library context. Finally, the article discusses how the various indicators might support specific library website goals and decisions and uses local data to illustrate one example case. As libraries choose web analytic methods, they should deliberately evaluate their validity. Over time, this will slowly build the profession's ability to use web analytics more effectively for library assessment.     

Big and open linked data analytics ecosystem: Theoretical background and essential elements

Big and open linked data are often mentioned together because storing, processing, and publishing large amounts of these data play an increasingly important role in today's society. However, although this topic is described from the political, economic, and social points of view, a technical dimension, which is represented by big data analytics, is insufficient. The aim of this review article was to provide a theoretical background of big and open linked data analytics ecosystem and its essential elements. First, the key terms were introduced including related dimensions. Then, the key lifecycle phases were defined and involved stakeholders were identified. Finally, a conceptual framework was proposed. In contrast to previous research, the new ecosystem is formed by interactions of stakeholders in the following dimensions and their sub-dimensions: transparency, engagement, legal, technical, social, and economic. These relationships are characterized by the most important requisites and public policy choices affecting the data analytics ecosystem together with the key phases and activities of the data analytics lifecycle. The findings should contribute to relevant initiatives, strategies, and policies and their effective implementation.     

Customer agility and responsiveness through big data analytics for public value creation: A case study of Houston 311 on-demand services

A theoretical framework for big data analytics-enabled customer agility and responsiveness was developed from extant IS research. In on-demand service environments, customer agility involves dynamic capabilities in sensing and responding to citizens. Using this framework, a case study examined a large city government's 311 on-demand services which had leveraged big data analytics. While we found the localized big data analytics use by some of the 22 departments for enhanced customer agility and on-demand 311 services, city-wide systemic change in on-demand service delivery through big data analytics use was not evident. From the case study we identified key institutional mechanisms for linking customer agility to public value creation through 311 services. We posit how systemic use of big data analytics embedded into critical processes enables the government to co-create public values with citizens through 311 on-demand services, indicating the importance of creating a culture of analytics driven by strong political leadership.     

Supporting policy-making with social media and e-participation platforms data: A policy analytics framework

E-participation enables citizens to have an impact on policy-making through electronic means. Two of the most popular channels are social media and dedicated e-participation platforms. However, the ideas, comments, discussions of citizens on these two channels generate a lot of data to be processed by political representatives or public agents afterwards. Despite the existence of various techniques for social media analytics, literature is scarce regarding the analysis techniques to mine e-participation platforms as well as the possible combination of insights between the two channels.In order to address these gaps, we design a policy analytics framework to leverage insights from e-participation platforms and social media through relevant data analytics to support policy-making. In order to do so, we rely on the Design Science Research methodology. Through the analysis of four different cities in Belgium (Liège, Mons, Marche-en-Famenne, Leuven), we identify policy-makers' requirements and needs of information from platforms and social media. Then, we explore data analysis techniques to address those requirements. Finally, we design an actionable framework, present it as an interactive dashboard and iteratively test it on the case of Liège. This policy analytics framework supports each step of the traditional policy-making process with appropriate data analytics applied to the two sources.     

Search systems and their features: What college students use to find and save information

College students have often been surveyed about their general information seeking behaviors. However, little has been done to explore what specific system features they use to find and save information when they are working on their real-life tasks. In this study, 32 college students were invited to an information interaction lab for a session in which they recalled a recently finished task and worked on a to-be-finished task using a computer in the lab. They were asked to complete questionnaires regarding what systems they used to finish their tasks and what features were helpful for searching and for saving information. Results showed that college students rely more heavily on the Internet sources than on library sources, even for their course related work. The study identified fourteen categories of system features helpful for information search and eight categories helpful for information saving. The findings have implications for designing systems that will better help people accomplish their tasks.     

Snakes or Ladders? Evaluating a LibGuides Pilot at UCD Library

Online subject guides are commonly used by libraries to provide information support to students. LibGuides (a cloud-based commercial product launched in 2007) represents one of the latest incarnations of the traditional subject guide or portal, and are widely used across American academic libraries. In Ireland however, library subject guides of entirely local design and hosted on a local web server still dominate.This paper outlines the project management process involved in implementing a LibGuides pilot at University College Dublin Library, including the planning, design and implementation of a new range of subject-related guides. The pilot nature of the project necessitated a strong focus on evaluation, particularly in assessing the effectiveness and suitability of LibGuides as a platform for delivering information literacy support, both from an administrative and end-user perspective. A two-stranded approach was used in this review process, incorporating quantitative web statistics and analytics alongside qualitative feedback from students, academic staff and Library staff.Feedback that was gathered suggested that the LibGuides subject guides were generally viewed very positively by both staff and students. Notwithstanding this, awareness (as indicated through usage statistics) remained moderate during the pilot, pointing to the importance of the visibility, positioning and promotion of guides.     

美国高校图书馆参与机构学习分析研究与启示——基于IMLS《图书馆机构学习分析整合》报告的解读与思考

近年来,在图书馆价值评估活动的影响下,越来越多的美国高校图书馆开始参与到学习分析项目中来。《图书馆机构学习分析整合》是美国博物馆和图书馆服务研究所基于三次全国图书馆学习分析整合信息论坛讨论结果发布的报告,内容涉及图书馆机构学习分析整合形式,支持图书馆参与学习分析的策略方法,图书馆机构学习分析整合障碍及未来努力方向等。该报告对于指导图书馆员如何参与学习分析及应对学习分析带来的挑战具有重要的价值和意义。     

Librarians,Faculty, and the Writing Center Partnering to Build an Interdisciplinary Course: A Case Study at the University of Houston,USA

This article covers how an interdisciplinary course was developed using the expertise and resources of a history professor, the history and psychology subject librarians, and the university's writing center. The course, supported by a grant, was aimed at helping students improve their research, information literacy, and writing skills across disciplines. The article discusses the involvement of the partners from the initial planning stages to its conclusion, focusing especially on how the librarians created a library session, course-specific guide, annotated bibliography assignment and grading rubric, and how these were used as opportunities to interact with the students throughout the course. Also covered are research and writing challenges, especially for English-language learner students, and how they were addressed by all the partners. It also discusses how the librarians used this experience to seek out opportunities to create similar collaborations with other instructors, and to strengthen ties with support services on campus.     

An examination of motivations for using the World Wide Web

Using data collected from students at a fully networked university community, this study examines patterns of World Wide Web use and how they may relate to gratifications people seek from traditional media. Path analyses show that beliefs about the Web predict gratifications sought, and that the latter predict gratifications obtained, with considerable reliability. More importantly, entertainment, surveillance, and passing time—gratifications typically associated with television and newspaper use—prove to be significant predictors of World Wide Web site visitation. Thus, the data indicate that Internet use may be understood and predicted through the application of traditional gratification typologies.     

An Analysis of Identifier Use in SHARE

SHARE, an open metadata aggregator for scholarly content launched in 2013, provides access to dispersed scholarly content through a powerful application programming interface and set of tools for research discovery and analytics. Metadata is crucial for retrieval in systems like SHARE. The use of unique identifiers promotes the disambiguation of people, places, and objects and the linking of related information in aggregated systems. Yet, identifiers have not been uniformly adopted by organizations and institutions worldwide. This column seeks to identify and explore the extent of identifier use in the SHARE catalog.     

对汉英语文词典编纂和出版的一些思考

对我国改革开放后汉英语文词典编纂和出版进行考察和研究。总结这一阶段汉英词典编纂和出版的总体情况,包括词典出版的数量、词典编纂的特色等。重点分析汉英词典在提供学习型信息方面的特点及存在的问题和不足,提出改进我国汉英词典编纂和出版的建议。     

Building for a New Generation of Learning: Catalytic Conversations for the Educational Publisher

This article uses the metaphor of building to frame discussion about how we prepare for the provision of learning in the years to come. The intention is to catalyze key conversations that will shape how, where, and why we learn. The principal focus is on areas such as blended learning, mobility, gaming, social networking, holographics, analytics, and the human touch. However, the larger theme involves challenging the reader to vision how we bring the best of traditional education forward, combine it with new technologies and techniques, to reach and teach students well.