[Libs-Or] OR State Reporting - annual # of internet users

[HAZEL Margaret E]

Dear colleagues,

We are considering how we obtain this count, and hoping you can enlighten us as to what you are doing.  We can easily get the straight count of users on our internet PCs, which are managed by Envisionware.

However, we also want to count users of our database-only PCs, which do not use Envisionware or any other kind of log-in software.   Because of the various ways databases report their use stats, and because one user may use multiple databases in one sitting, we don't think those counts will be helpful.

We could put Envisionware on those PCs for one week, but that loses all the folks who don't have cards who use those resources, and adds a barrier to folks who don't normally use their login information.  And it's a fair bit of work, etc.

We could put a short-ish  idle time-out on the PCs for a week, and count times the screensaver stops, but a person is likely to take some time to read an article, and would be justifiably annoyed if the time-out is too short.

We could recruit volunteers to count "butts in seats", but that's a lot of volunteers.

What are YOU doing to count these figures at your library?

Thanks for your ideas.

-Margaret

Margaret Hazel
Virtual Branch & Innovative Tech Manager
Eugene Public Library
Eugene, OR
541-682-6015
margaret.e.hazel at ci.eugene.or.us