Libraries track many things, from the number of patrons who walk through our doors, to the number of times a book is checked out. This data helps us determine which services and materials are in demand so that we can better meet our students' needs. Cerro Coso is celebrating 50 years, and for 35 of those years, the library has kept records. Here are just a few trends we've noticed, reported by fiscal year (July 1 - June 30):
Gate count measures the number of students walking through the library doors at the IWV campus.
A few interesting historical notes on gate counts: The Cerro Coso library was housed in portable buildings in 1988 while the third floor of the main building underwent a remodel. In 2004, the library moved from the third floor of the main building to the separate LRC building, which led to a slight decrease in traffic. The sharp decline in recent years can be explained by two significant factors: The July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes put the LRC building out of commision for 10 months (and moved us to a classroom in the east wing), and was followed immediately by the Covid-19 pandemic, which closed in-person services from March 2020 to July 2021. Fortunately, our library attendance is slowly increasing again as students return to campus and seek out quiet spaces and group study rooms.
This measures the number of times books have been checked out across all campuses and sites.
Until 2011, print books (both circulating and reserve textbooks) accounted for the highest number of checkouts at all library campuses. The library began purchasing bulk eBook collections starting in 2001, but it wasn't until the Kindle, iPad, and other smart devices were invented in the 2010s, that eBooks became really popular, far outpacing our print collection checkouts.
It should be noted that data on eBook checkouts comes the platforms hosting those eBooks, and in 2019, many vendors adopted a new standard for reporting usage statistics called COUNTER R5. This poses some issues with our trend comparison - For example, in 2019 EBSCO EBooks measured 6,479 eBook checkouts by its old standard and 7,357 by the new standard. This discrepency may account for part of the drastic increase in 2020. However, because the new standards are more accurate, it's more likely that our eBook checkouts had been underreported for the previous two decades!
The increase in eBook usage in 2020 is likely due primarily to the earthquake and pandemic, since access to our print collections was very limited. Circulating and reserve print book usage has not fully rebounded, but we hope to see an increase in the coming years! Interestingly, from 2007 until 2021, students checked out more reserve textbooks than circulating books. In the past few years, checkouts for circulating books are surpassing reserve books again. While not reported here, we also have a new contender: digitized textbooks, which are already proving incredibly popular. (1,196 checkouts in fiscal year 2023, and 11,493 in 2024!) While we'll always have a special place in our hearts (and on our shelves) for print books, trends suggest that students are wholeheartedly embracing the benefits of 24/7 online access to eBooks!
This measures the number of times library staff and librarians have assisted students
The number of times library techncians and assistants have helped library patrons with general assistance has varied wildly over the years, peaking in 2002 and 2014 at nearly 4,000 questions answered per year, and dropping all the way to zero during the pandemic when in-person services were not offered at all. General assistance is categorized as answering questions that do not involve research or citations, such as providing directions, helping with computer or printer issues, and emailing a scanned copy of a book chapter.
Reference questions, which involve helping students locate and cite resources for research papers, have been on a steady increase over time, primarily due to the hiring of additional full time librarians to meet online demand. In 2010, we began distinguishing between in-person reference (face-to-face) and virtual reference (chat, email, Zoom, mail, Canvas discussion boards, etc.). Virtual reference first surpassed in-person reference in 2015, and has remained the preferred form of contact with librarians for most students. This is particularly due to embedded services, in which librarians join an online course discussion board, assisting students with research topics, citations, and more. These statistics do not include orientations or workshops, which have also increased in popularity in recent years due to extra credit offerings!
These charts are just the tip of the iceberg of library services we offer, but they help us see what's going on at our library, and where things may lead in the future. We can't wait to find out what these graphs will look like in another decade!
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