By Alex Brown, graduate assistant, Department for Information Technologies

(Brown is a graduate student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology and is a member of the Web Implementation and Management Team, WIMT.)

Web analytics is traditionally rooted in business, but the field has recently been expanding to several other fields including academic libraries. The expansion can be largely attributed to the free service Google Analytics. Since the release of Google Analytics, numerous web analytic studies within the context of academic libraries have been published.

While previous studies have proven elemental to improving academic library websites, these studies have also left a lot of room for growth primarily in terms of how web analytics can be interwoven with organizational strategy. Penn State University Libraries has recognized the need for implementing strategic web analytics and is one of the main focus areas, while migrating the website to a new content management system. The recognized importance of strategic web analytics will allow PSUL to emerge as a web analytics leader among academic libraries.

The process to implementing a strategic program has seen much success, but started by taking a step back from the data and asking questions such as: “What are our objectives? How can we measure the performance of these objectives? What technologies and methods are necessary to fulfill the plan?” Implementation has required organizational collaboration between management, web programmers, and analysts. This ultimately leads to the ability for data to provide actionable insight, not just for the present, but also sets in place a roadmap for future analysis as well.

Since the initiative to implement a strategic web analytics program has started, PSUL has implemented an overarching strategy, implemented new technologies and methods, and captured new forms of data. Despite success, the initiative is not complete, as web analytics is a process of continual improvement. Future methods, for example, seek to improve the efficiency of pixel space and measure the return on investment for databases. Web analytics is a powerful process that PSUL is committed to innovating and leading within academic libraries.