BC Library Conference 2016

Generously Sponsored By: Vancouver Public Library

Collecting a bunch of numbers might make us feel like we’re accomplishing something, but how can we use this data to make real and beneficial changes to our patrons’ online experiences? As most research into web analytics comes from world of e-commerce, there is little guidance for librarians who want to use Google Analytics for more than numbers to plug into the annual reports. In this session, we will present a case study of how we are attempting to transform our Google Analytics into a reference tool that can reliably tell us meaningful information about what our users are doing online.

The Web Team at the Vancouver Public Library recently undertook a project to make over our Google Analytics. We had three main goals: 1) to clean up how we tracked our web properties and ensure that we were counting accurately; 2) to organize our analytics so it would be easier to reference and collaborate; and 3) to ask how we can make these numbers tell us things that will help our users find information and accomplish important tasks on our websites. We’ll discuss the steps we took and give attendees a peek under the hood of our Google Analytics account to demonstrate how we tried to accomplish our objectives. We will also discuss the limitations of what Google can track and show some other tools we’re using to fill the gaps. Finally, we’ll spark a discussion around what we want our users to do on our library websites, what exactly we’re trying to measure and improve, and why it’s not the end of the world if your numbers drop as a result (it may be a good thing!).