As of July 1, 2023, OAC and Calisphere are running Matomo to track and process web usage statistics. Our immediate next priority is to develop Matomo usage statistics reports to share with OAC and Calisphere contributors, with the goal of making them easily available to you on a “self-serve” basis. Stay tuned for an update about our approach to producing shareable reports. Please see our Matomo implementation FAQ page for additional details.

So you've contributed finding aids to the OAC. Now's the fun part: seeing their usage! Let's dive into stats.

Please note that these instructions slightly differ from those for Calisphere, and you will need a separate Tracker ID for OAC vs. Calisphere.

Introduction to Usage Stats

We use Google Analytics for tracking usage of objects on the OAC. Google Analytics is a flexible stats program that allows us to divide stats up by contributor -- in other words, you can get stats about the usage of your content, and only your content. Data is collected on each institution’s finding aids and METS digital objects (if you have them).

Set Up Your OAC Usage Stats via Google Analytics

It takes a little bit of set-up on your part to get your stats going. You will need to complete 2 steps. If Google Analytics is new to you, or if you run into any road blocks, please don't hesitate to contact us.

1. Create a new Google Analytics "property" for OAC stats

A new property in Google Analytics correlates to a new report. To learn how to set up a new property, read the instructions here. The URL for your new property should be www.oac.cdlib.org. (Note: if this is your first time using Google Analytics, start by creating a new account; you will automatically create a new property in the process). We recommend naming this property something like "[institution name] OAC stats."

Note for contributors with sub-institutions/units: There are a couple of different ways to gather stats across multiple units: a) setting up distinct tracker IDs for each unit, or b) sharing a single tracker ID across multiple units. We'd recommend contacting us before you get started, so we can confer with you and others at your campus on the best way to structure the stats report.

2. Add your property's tracker ID to your OAC dashboard

A Google Analytics tracker ID will be generated when you create a new property. The tracker ID will be a 9-character string beginning with the letters "UA." Please copy this tracker ID and record it in your OAC Dashboard:

  • Login to your OAC Dashboard. You will need your voroEAD user name and password to sign in.
  • Click on “edit institution contact information” for your institution  
  • Scroll down to the heading called “Statistics.” Paste the string of characters you copied in Step 2. Do not include the single quotation marks surrounding the tracker ID.
  • Save your changes.

The tracker ID will be automatically added to your finding aids (and METS objects, if applicable) during the next index (typically over the next upcoming weekend). You can expect to start seeing statistics on your data shortly thereafter.

View Your OAC Usage Stats on your Google Analytics Dashboard

Once your stats are set up, you can go to your Google Analytics OAC report to get your data. Generally speaking, we will not be providing support in navigating and interpreting your usage reports, as Google Analytics already provides extensive help documentation. That said, we are happy to consult to the extent we can, especially if you need more information about the OAC in order to understand your stats.

What's it Counting?

The data in your OAC Google Analytics report will reflect usage on the following pages:

  • Your institution's finding aids on the OAC
  • Your institution's METS digital objects on the OAC (if you have contributed any)

If you have METS objects on the OAC, you can look at your finding aid and digital object usage separately by going to the Behavior / Site Content / All Pages report and applying a custom filter as follows:

  • For finding aids: include Page begins with /findaid
  • For METS digital objects: include Page begins with /ark

Remember that METS objects on the OAC can also be accessed through Calisphere. To get a total picture of your digital object usage across both sites, you can add together the usage of your OAC METS objects with the usage from your Calisphere report (just be sure you are adding the same metrics, e.g. pageviews or sessions).

For Contributors with Multiple Sub-units/repositories

For contributors with multiple sub-units/repositories represented in the OAC, you may be interested in understanding usage stats for each sub-unit. As noted in "Step 1" of the Set-up process outlined above, there are a couple ways to set up and view your usage stats:

Option A: Set up distinct tracker IDs for each sub-unit

  • Follow the steps outlined in the previous section (above) to view your usage stats.

Option B: Share a single tracker ID across multiple units

  • With this option, usage stats from all sub-units/repositories will display in your Google Analytics reports.
  • Go to Behavior / Site Content / All Pages report.
  • Click the "secondary dimension" button, and choose "Custom Variable (Value 01)" -- doing so will display an additional column that will include information about the sub-unit/repository.
  • To view only usage stats specific to a particular sub-unit, apply a custom filter to this report as follows:
    • include Custom Variable (Value 01) containing [indicate sub-unit name]

Extent Stats (Finding Aid Counts)

Extent statistics (the number of finding aids you've published on the OAC) are available right on the OAC site. Simply navigate to your institution's page on the OAC to find the "total collections" count. If you need more granular data about the types of records you've contributed, please contact us.