GaleNet Usage Statistics Help Topics

*Note: this help is from the Gale Stats site, and may refer to statistics that are collected but not presented on the Yale Usage Statistics site. Inquire of Kimberly Parker for the other stats if desired.

About The Usage Statistics

This feature provides a numerical picture of how frequently the GaleNet databases to which you subscribe are being accessed. A total is available for every month beginning with October, 1998. Your usage statistics are cumulative and will always display figures from past months.



Frequency of Updates

Usage statistics are refreshed once a day between Midnight and 5:00 a.m.

The figure cited for the current month will include use from the beginning of the month up to (but not including) the current day. (On November 2nd, for example, the figure will only reflect one day's usage.) To see usage statistics for a complete month, view those statistics on the first day of the following month.



For Further Assistance

If you have any questions about your library's usage statistics that are not covered in these Help Pages, please contact your Sales Representative or Robin Sabbath, Usage person, robin.sabbath@galegroup.com, 1-800-877-4253, ext 1884.



Is this Your First Visit to GaleStat? -- Bookmark it!

We suggest that you use your browser to create a bookmark for this location. In the future you will simply be prompted for your username and password and then linked directly to this page.



Viewing, Printing and Downloading

The usage statistics report that you create can be viewed online or printed by using your browser's "Print" function. We will soon include an option that will enable you to download statistics.



Building Your Usage Report

The GaleStat home page offers options to customize the usage statistics included in your report. Additional choices can be made from the report pages you create.



GaleStat Home Page

After you have logged on with your username and password this is the first page you will see. Make a selection from the two options described below, then click on "Get Report."

  • Select a Reporting Month
    Use this drop down box to select the month that you want to see statistics for. Statistics are available for October 1, 1998 on.



Summary Report

The summary report shows your total usage on a database-by-database basis for the selected month.

The categories found on the Summary Report are:

  • GaleNet Products - This is an alphabetical list of all of the GaleNet products you can access. For Associations Unlimited and the GaleNet Literary Databases (Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography), which can be subscribed to in different modular combinations and cross searched, your report will display cumulated usage total. To see a breakout of the usage for each of the individual components of these modules, click on the product name.

     

  • Product Breakout Report - If you subscribe to more than one Associations Unlimited module, or to more than one of the Gale Literary Databases (Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography), this report shows a breakout of how your patrons combined the databases in their searching.
      Not Elsewhere Classified. The hits counted in this category are valid searches and entry retrievals within this database that the usage statistics program could not classify into one of the previous categories.

     

  • Searches Submitted - This category tracks the number of searches that you have run in this database for the month selected. Each time you submit a search it generates a single "Search Submitted." If you modify a search and resubmit it that will generate one more 'search run.'

     

  • Entries Retrieved - This category counts the number of entries that you looked at in this database. If your search returned 15 entries in the search results list, and you retrieved two by clicking on them, you would generate two 'entries retrieved.' If you have retrieved an entry and you click on a hypertext link within that entry to a related entry, clicking on that hypertext link will generate one more 'entry retrieved.'

    For example, if you search DISCovering Science database for "Bears" your results will include 15 entries. If you then click on the entry entitled "Bears," you will have generated a single 'entry retrieved.' When you click on the "Polar Bears" hyperlink within the "Bears" entry, you will generate one more 'entry retrieved.'

    If you revisit an entry during your session by using your browser's back button, you will not generate another 'entry retrieved.' Or, if your library uses a proxy server in your network, multiple requests for an entry that has been cached will not result in additional 'entries retrieved' within the time-limits of your cache.

    If you are within a database such as What Do I Read Next? which allows you to create a Keeper List, then each time you view entries from that Keeper List it will generate an additional 'entry retrieved.'

    If you are within a database such as Associations Unlimited which has hot links to a listees Web site and you follow one of those links to the Web site it will not generate an 'entry retrieved.' Returning to GaleNet from this other Web page can only be accomplished through your browsers back button and that return will not generate an 'entry retrieved,' provided you have not set your browsers refresh function to "Every time."

     

  • Help - This category tracks the number of times that patrons at your location clicked on either the "Help" or "About" files for that database. A high number here may indicate a need for additional user training. Contact your GaleNet Sales Representative to discuss available training resources.



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