NewsBank Database Usage Study

#PLA12 NewsBank Database Usage Study

“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)”

Useful stuff.

Stephen