Internet Presence: a statement of worth
The purpose of the Catholic Central Library is to provide a resource for the spiritual, intellectual and cultural development of the Catholic community as well as the community at large of the Dioceses of the United Kingdom and beyond. To assist in fulfilling this purpose, in the year 2001, the library established a presence on the Internet. Since that initial step, the library has discovered many ways to use the web, from e-mail requests for research and book checkout to disseminating information about services available and library content.
This Statement of Worth has been produced to give a clear representation of the internet activities the library site has experienced as well as to hint at the potential of the site in the future. All this reveals the true worth of the site The statistics are drawn from those collected by ByteHaven Ltd, the Internet Service Provider for our site. In some instances the raw report is presented with brief interpretation. More lengthly reports have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Web site statistics report: www.catholic-library.org.uk
Keep in mind that all this data was collected during the months from April 6 through October 31, 2004, and that all during this time, the library was closed.
Monthly Report
The Monthly Report identifies activity for each month in the report time frame.
Remember that each page hit can result in several server requests as the images
for each page are loaded.
Note: Depending on the report time frame, the first and last months may
not represent a complete month's worth of data, resulting in lower hits.
|
Month |
Number of requests |
Number of page requests | |
|
1. |
April 2004 |
37,801 |
3,496 |
|
2. |
May 2004 |
76,477 |
4,844 |
|
3. |
June 2004 |
48,214 |
4,344 |
|
4. |
July 2004 |
45,031 |
4,250 |
|
5. |
August 2004 |
54,656 |
4,311 |
|
6. |
September 2004 |
64,217 |
4,038 |
|
7. |
October 2004 |
78,434 |
4,082 |
Most active month May 2004 : 4,844 pages sent.
Monthly average: 4,195 pages sent. 57,832 requests handled.
General Summary
The General Summary provides a quick overview of the general statistics for the entire web site during the report time frame.
General Summary
|
Host name |
www.catholic-library.org.uk |
|
Successful server requests |
404830 Requests |
|
Successful requests in last 7 days |
40204 Requests |
|
Successful requests for pages |
29365 Requests for pages |
|
Distinct files requested |
19891 Files |
|
Total data transferred |
7.566 GBytes |
|
Total data transferred in last 7 days |
654.889 Mbytes |
Page activity
From the statistical information we can get a general idea of the frequency with which each web page is visited. While these figures are not exact because of the various ways pages are accessed, they do offer a valid indication of activity and therefore interest.
|
Page |
Number of requests |
|
Catalogue visits |
1,929 |
|
Catalogue search results.... |
48,356 |
|
Family History Registers |
3,442 |
|
Move update information |
2,405 |
|
Membership Information |
1,811 |
|
Links to other web sites |
897 |
|
Spotlight on Books |
507 |
|
Periodical List |
469 |
|
Continuing Formation |
431 |
|
Recent Acquitions |
368 |
|
Impact Report 2002 |
253 |
|
Quotes of Note |
222 |
Here is a brief explanation of the content of some of these pages which may not be immediately obvious.
Family History Registers – a list of the types and dates of information contained in the Family History records held by the Library
Spotlight on Books – a cover photo and description of two books recently added to the library collection.
Continuing Formation – a categorized list of books suitable for the continuing formation of clergy and religions along with an simplified way to check them out.
Impact Report 2002 – The statement of worth for the Catholic Central Library written in 2002.
Quotes of Note – quotes from books recently checked out by readers who wanted to share them with others.
Domain Report
It is informative to know where visitors to the site come from. The Domain Report identifies this origin. This is determined by the suffix of their domain name.
|
Domain Name |
Number of requests |
|
.uk (United Kingdom) |
4,069 |
|
.nl (Netherlands) |
2,427 |
|
.edu (USA Higher Education) |
1,024 |
|
.au (Australia) |
1,177 |
|
.ca (Canada) |
866 |
|
.it (Italy) |
454 |
|
.be (Belgium) |
365 |
|
.fr (France) |
292 |
|
.pl (Poland) |
198 |
|
.org (Non Profit Making Organisations) |
261 |
|
.nz (New Zealand) |
190 |
|
.us (United States) |
144 |
|
.br (Brazil) |
138 |
|
.ie (Ireland) |
147 |
|
.de (Germany) |
133 |
|
.ch (Switzerland) |
111 |
|
.gov (USA Government) |
82 |
|
.ph (Philippines) |
83 |
|
.ar (Argentina) |
91 |
|
.mil (USA Military) |
88 |
|
.sg (Singapore) |
83 |
|
.mx (Mexico) |
67 |
|
.dk (Denmark) |
59 |
|
.hu (Hungary) |
61 |
|
.no (Norway) |
64 |
|
.at (Austria) |
40 |
|
.es (Spain) |
43 |
|
.jp (Japan) |
49 |
|
.cz (Czech Republic) |
54 |
|
.se (Sweden) |
39 |
|
.il (Israel) |
40 |
|
.hr (Croatia) |
43 |
|
.sm (San Marino) |
23 |
|
.gr (Greece) |
26 |
|
.fi (Finland) |
40 |
|
.sk (Slovakia) |
35 |
|
.in (India) |
25 |
|
.lt (Lithuania) |
29 |
|
.za (South Africa) |
29 |
|
.ru (Russia) |
20 |
|
.va (Vatican City State) |
14 |
|
.int (International Treaty Organisations) |
3 |
Search Word Report
Many factors control the effectiveness of search engines in offering references to a particular web site. To make matters worse, the criteria are modified now and then. The library makes every effort to increase its exposure on search engines. Evidence of our success is that during the statistical period represented by these data we received 12,822 visits which were directed to us by Google.
When search engines such as Google are used to find sites on the Web, key words are entered by the user. Here is a small sample of the words used to reach our site. This can use to get a better idea of what our visitors are looking for when they come to the site.
|
Search Word |
Number of requests |
|
catholic |
4,490 |
|
church |
1,581 |
|
history |
1,296 |
|
library |
1,200 |
|
saint |
1,141 |
|
john |
1,075 |
|
england |
896 |
|
central |
743 |
|
mary |
700 |
|
bible |
680 |
|
life |
588 |
|
theology |
506 |
|
pope |
506 |
|
london |
495 |
|
christian |
467 |
|
biography |
460 |
|
[not listed: 16,024] |
111,659 |
Some Conclusions
The content and statistical evidence supports the following conclusions about the Library web site:
- Frequently visited by a broad spectrum of users from worldwide locations.
- Informative and useful
- Increases the awareness of the existence, nature and value of the Library
Planned for the immediate future are:
- Completion of proofreading of the catalogue data and inclusion in the web catalogue
- Post on the web a page listing the reference material available in the collection.
- Post of the web all the details for future plans for the library and complete promotional information in support of the financial appeal for the support of the library.