Knowledge Unlatched Releases Geolocational Data for Pilot and Round 2 Collections

Berlin, 03.05.17. Knowledge Unlatched (KU) is excited to announce the launch of geolocational data for its Open Access e-books.

There are always concerns whether a university library is investing in the right content. Yet how can credible usage data be captured in an Open Access environment where patrons can read from anywhere? We have addressed this issue by combining the usage from researchers within the IP range of each library with geolocational data. Downloads of books that have been unlatched can now be assessed in an easier way.

Sven Fund, Managing Director of KU, said, “Looking at the example of the Boston/Cambridge area, KU books have been downloaded within the IP ranges of the three supporting institutions—Harvard, MIT and Boston University—84 times in Q4 of 2016—counting full books, not chapters. If geolocational data is included, it becomes clear that this figure only captures 13.5% of all downloads in the region. The total number of downloads was a whopping 593 in just one quarter for 104 titles only!”

The geolocational data allows for more specific observation of the usage of KU's content. For instance, data shows that institutional downloads we retrieve only represent approx. 15% of the total downloads for both the Pilot and Round 2 titles, or 19,979 of 131,064 downloads; therefore libraries considerably contribute to the dissemination of knowledge in a broader sense.

In addition, KU can now reveal the further download figures for Pilot and Round 2 titles that have been unlatched. Overall, there have been 131,064 downloads of the Pilot and Round 2 titles in at least 180 countries. These COUNTER-compliant statistics are from the OAPEN platform. This averages to 1,205 downloads per book. In addition, HathiTrust, KU’s other official host, has reported a further 9,312 individual page views for books in the Pilot and Round 2 collections.

An interactive map showing downloads and geolocational data from OAPEN’s platform, as well as statistics for OAPEN and HathiTrust downloads can be found on our usage statistics page here.

Libraries who supported the unlatching of the Pilot and Round 2 titles receive their own institutional usage statistics report based on their IP addresses at http://app.knowledgeunlatched.org

About Knowledge Unlatched:

Knowledge Unlatched is an Open Access cooperative funding Open Access books and journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Founded by Frances Pinter in 2012, the initiative has so far unlatched nearly 500 titles and is presently launching its fourth round, KU Select 2017 with 350 monographs, both front list and backlist.

Read or download the PDF versions of this press release in English or German, or contact Knowledge Unlatched for more information; or download the geolocation data map.