Explanation of Z39.50 statistics report

The Z30.50 statistics reports show activity on SIRIS data bases from Z39.50 interfaces. These searches are often initiated by other libraries and archives, as the Z39.50 protocol is a standard among these institutions. For example, this protocol is widely used for interlibrary loan processes.

Report description

For each month's report, the date the report was generated is given in the second line, and the inclusive dates represented are given in the third line. These reports are broken down to show activity generated from within the Smithsonian Institution and activity from outside. Not all 'outside' activity is actually non-SI. Any activity generated by a web address that begins '160.111' or '172.17' is considered within-SI activity, all else is considered non-SI activity. However, some SI units have domain addresses outside these domains. While this criterion correctly identifies most SI and non-SI activity, some 'non-SI' activity may actually represent activity from SI units outside these domains. Percentages of non-SI usage are calculated in each case as

    Percentage non-SI = ((non-SI)/(non-SI)+(SI))*100

Sessions initiated in 2-hr Increments: This section counts individual sessions initiated within the two-hour segment. Amount of time a particular session exists is not counted.

Total Numbers, by Catalog, of Individual Sessions: This section records the total number of individual sessions initiated over the measurement period, according to the data base queried. A single session can include many searches.

Search Numbers, by Catalog, by Search Type: This section records the number of types of searches done in the data bases over the measurement period.


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