What deep log analysis tells us about the impact of big deals: case study OhioLINK

Purpose – This article presents the early findings of an exploratory deep log analysis of journal usage on OhioLINK, conducted as part of the MaxData project funded by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services. OhioLINK, the original “big deal”, provides a single digital platform of nearly 6,000 full‐text journal for more than 600,000 people in the state of Ohio. The purpose of the paper is not only to present findings from the deep log analysis of journal usage on OhioLINK, but, arguably more importantly, to try test a new method of analysing online information user behaviour – deep log analysis. Design/methodology/approach – The raw server logs were obtained for the period June 2004 to December 2004. For this exploratory study one month (October) of the on‐campus usage logs and seven months of the off‐campus transaction logs were analysed. Findings – During this period approximately 1,215,000 items were viewed on campus in October 2004 and 1,894,000 items viewed off campus between June and December 2004. The paper presents a number of usage analyses including: number of journals used, titles of journals used, use over time, a returnee analysis and a special analysis of subject, date and method of access. Practical implications – The research findings help libraries evaluate the efficiency of big deal and one‐stop shopping for scholarly journals and also investigate their users' information seeking behaviours. Originality/value – The research is a part of efforts to test the applications of a new methodology, deep log analysis, for use and user studies. It also represents the most substantial independent analysis of, possibly, the most important and significant of the journal big deals ever conducted.