NewsBank has been conducting a study with 100+ libraries of various sizes, to look closely at how library databases are used. Here are my notes on the presentation, and the short discussion afterward.

• As daily newspaper shrink (in page count), archiving shrinks as well (many newspapers are posting more to their websites than they put in print, and they are not archiving that content)
• The trend of investment is going to "first-to-web" systems model, mobile and social network integration, and paywalls and metering systems
• Library databases appear to be ~80% remote usage
• Majority of use is for older content, not current news - 80% of articles accessed are more than 90 days old. Of that 80%:
  • 18% = 1-4 years old
  • 32% = 5-9 years old
  • 50% = >10 years old
• Majority of searches are for local news: people names and local topics (political issues, crime, businesses, development of schools, etc)

As a bonus, the local NewsBank rep explained how to properly order a Philly cheesesteak:

1. Specify the quantity you want
2. Specify your cheese:
   • Wiz = cheese wiz
   • American = American cheese
   • provi = provolone
3. Specify fried onions or no:
   • Wid = with onions
   • Widout = without onions

So, an order for one cheesesteak with cheese wiz and onions would be:

One - wiz - wid

Posted under Uncategorized on Thursday, March 15th, 2012 at 9:52 am, by Brian Herzog. Post and comments available via the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.