Database usage
• Although we subscribe to over 150 databases
– the top 20 in 1999-2000 represented 77.5% of the logins
and 88.6% of the searches
– the top 6 represented over 1/2 the logins, and about 2/3 of
the searches (MEDLINE alone represents 1/3 of searches)
• Maybe these are just the best databases
• Or maybe others aren’t being used as they
should:
– People don’t know about the others
– People find it too much work to use the others
• User surveys, reference interactions suggest
underutilization of other databases