Title: Statistical Analysis, Data Visualization, and Business Intelligence Tools for Electronic Resources in Academic Libraries
Abstract: Analytics, business intelligence, and data visualization have an increasingly important space in the changing assessment landscape of academic libraries. Today, most academic libraries are spending a significant amount of their total expenditure budget on electronic resources. While they are high-value assets for modern libraries, the expensive annual subscription cost and continuing price increases of e-resources also make them a substantial budgeting burden. It is therefore essential to have a clear statistical view of the trends and patterns in price changes for e-resources and vendors. This paper focuses on three major topics vital for developing such a view: first, the e-resources landscape and the need for evidence-based decision-making, analysis, and reporting; second, the methodology applied in a statistical analysis and data visualization research project, as well as business trends and patterns in the field of libraries’ e-resources; and third, business intelligence tools available for this type of analysis, including low-cost options such as Excel and Redlink, and premium options such as Tableau.