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Exploring opportunities web metrics provide for librarians
THIS book is an excel- lent introduction to how web metrics can make a useful contribution to the work of librarians and information profes- sionals, enabling them to evaluate both their web and social media impact and the relation- ships between various platforms, predict social behaviour and determine which services are worth continuing.
Previously unmeasurable, web metrics can now provide a quantifiable standard of measurement, gathering, identifying, analysing and interpreting the search language used and frequency of searches undertaken by library users.
Written by Dr David Stuart, a researcher for the Centre for e-Research (CERCH) at King’s College, London, it is inform- ative and practical with nine chapters, a biblio graphy and index. The chapter headings are clear and signpost the con- tents which cover topics such as: definitions of web metrics; evaluative and relational metrics; an overview of data gathering and tools that can be used; evaluating the impact of both internal and external metrics; social media sites and social network analysis; web bibliometrics to enhance service provision; the analysis of data; and the future of web metrics. Although Google analytics and log analysis are briefly covered, the focus is
50 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Stuart, David. Web Metrics for Library and Information Professionals. London: Facet Publishing, 2023. 208pp. ISBN 978 1 7833 0566 7. £55. CILIP members 35% off.
mainly on freely available external metric tools. With a UK focus, Web Metrics provides guiding principles and techniques that could be useful for commu- nity, government, academic and corporate librarians and information professionals.
Barbara Band School Library Consultant
Comprehensive overview examining new forms of scholarly publishing
IN recent years librarians have become increasingly involved in the research dissemination process, primarily through being responsible for institutional repositories and supply- ing associated copyright advice.
Consequently, any book aiming
to help library staff understand the research process is to be welcomed. However, whilst some chapters of the books are useful for librarians, others are less so. Advice and guidance on open access and its various types of green, gold, and diamond is welcome, as is copyright and licence to publish as these tend to be areas that librarians are rightly considered to be the experts in. Although their use and usefulness has been questioned, the chapter on research metrics is helpful reading. However, there are chapters which seem unnec- essary. For example, there is a chapter on different publication types which focuses on the dif- ferences between monographs, journal articles, and conference proceedings and any academic or librarian is expected to know the differences and the pros and cons of each type of publi- cation. Frustratingly, one of the diagrams makes reference to ‘online first’ journal articles but no further reference is made to this type of publication, and it would have been a useful point of discussion as to how it can speed up the article publication process. There is a chapter on societal impact – an issue
Ma, Lai. The Scholarly Communication Handbook: from research dissemination to societal impact. London: Facet, 2023. 214pp. ISBN 978 1 7833 0624 4. £45. CILIP members 35% off.
given increasing importance in the REF – but is focussed on what the researcher can do to indicate impact, not the role of the librarian in this.
Overall, I felt that the book was more geared towards researchers than librarians; if so, it is a good introduction for PhD students and early career academics to the world of scholarly publishing. If the book is aimed at librarians, it needs more practical guidance around the areas that librarians tend to work in, namely open access and copyright, which could be achieved by reducing the focus given to areas such as peer review and research integ- rity which are of more interest to researchers than librarians.
Lisa Peters University of Chester March 2024
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