Problems with FirstSearch Usage Reports

[Drew, Bill]

I just discovered and reported to OCLC a very critical error in the reports
generated for FirstSearch Usage statistics.  The tech support contact told
me that they are aware of it and have been for some time.  It is fixed with
reports after this Month.  They are unable (or unwilling) to fix it for
statistics generated before that date.  What I found was in doing the
Searches Used report where individual databases are used, if a database was
not used for the month I selected to generate the report on it does not
appear in the report at all.  For example if I generate a report for August
2001 and we did not access Agricola that month it will not show up in any
other months listed on that report.  That would mean if we used Agricola in
June 2001 it still would not show up in the report for August 2001.  I was
comparing totals from different reports and getting very weird numbers.  I
personally feel that notice of this bug should been in the newsletters sent
out to everyone by OCLC.  It means that statistics I have reported in the
past for detailed database use on FirstSearch were wrong.  now I feel like a
fool since our database usage really varies month by month depending on
assignments given out here by faculty.  Please feel free to forward this
message.

Wilfred (Bill) Drew
Associate Librarian, Systems and Reference
SUNY Morrisville College Library
E-mail: mailto:drewwe at morrisville.edu
BillDrew.Net: http://billdrew.net/
Not Just Cows: http://people.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/njc/
Library: http://www.morrisville.edu/library/
Wireless Librarian: http://people.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/wireless/
Have Laptop -- Will Travel.
"If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in a library? "
Lily Tomlin