2019 Charleston Library Conference

Analytics for Open Access (OA) books is being collated and used in different ways by different agents in the publishing eco-system; authors, distributors, librarians, tenure committees and funders. But the distribution channels differ significantly between OA and non-OA books, as does the ways the analytics data is collected, aggregated and understood. In this session we will address some of the specific issues and difficulties with interpreting Open Access book analytics, looking specifically at:

a. How Open Access strengthens the role of the author, not only as an originator of academic content, but also as a participant in the economic process between publishers and libraries - and why this requires a new approach to analytics and poses a specific set of questions publishers need to address in order to be fit for longterm success in OA.

b. The difficulties in comparing and aggregating usage data for Open Access books that are hosted on multiple different platforms - and how easy it is to create distorted, or even entirely meaningless figures.

c. How libraries are using analytics data for Open Access books, and the problems they are facing in doing this.