DPLA usage analytics
- Elliot Williams (Unlicensed)
- Courtney C. Mumma
TDL members who share metadata with DPLA can access usage statistics for their items through the DPLA Analytics Dashboard. The dashboard includes data about items views, referrals from DPLA to your repository, metadata usage in the DPLA API, and more.
To view this data, request an account for your institution by emailing info@tdl.org.
To login, visit the DPLA Analytics Dashboard: https://analytics-dashboard.dp.la/users/sign_in
When you login to the dashboard, you will see an overview page with data for all TDL aggregation members. The overview page summarizes the data that is available in more detail through the tabs on the left hand menu.
By default, this page shows data for the current month. To change the date range, select dates in the “Start” and “End” drop-downs in the upper right.
To see data specific to your institution, click on “Contributors” in the top navigation bar, and then click on your institution’s name. This will take you to a similar overview page, but with data only for your institution.
Some of the data that is available through the Analytics Dashboard includes:
Item count - Total number of items you currently have indexed in DPLA. This is the number of items available in the DPLA website and the DPLA API. Found on the Overview page.
Black Women’s Suffrage collection item count - Total number of items you have in the Black Women's Suffrage collection. Items for the BWS collection as selected algorithmically from the DPLA index. Found on the Overview page.
Catalog views - A record for your item was viewed in the digital library catalog. Users usually find these records by searching or browsing the catalog. Comparable to "pageview" in Google Analytics. Includes item title, link to DPLA, and number of views. Found in the tab “Digital library catalog views”.
Click throughs - A user clicked on a link to view a full item on your website or your contributor’s website. Click through links appear in the digital library catalog and curated content. Comparable to "referral" in Google Analytics. Includes item title, link to DPLA, and number of click throughs. Found in the tab “DPLA website click throughs”.
API events - Metadata from one of your items was included in a DPLA API response. Found in the tab “API item views”.
Search terms - Top search terms across the DPLA Website for all hubs and contributors. Equivalent to "search terms" in Google Analytics. Note: these are not specific to the terms that led to your institutions' items, but rather reflect all searches made in DPLA. Found through “Search terms” in the top menu.
Metadata completeness - For each field, the percentage of all your metadata records that have a value for that field. These fields are used most heavily in DPLA’s search and discovery systems, and therefore a higher percentage of completeness can lead to more use. However, we understand that not all fields will ever be 100% complete, so this should be used for information purposes only. Found on the overview and contributors pages.
Wikimedia readiness - Percentage of items that are eligible for upload to Wikimedia Commons. To be eligible, items must include an open rights statement and media access link. Note: TDL does not currently participate in DPLA’s Wikimedia upload project, so the percentage of items in this category is 0%. To learn more about DPLA’s Wikimedia project, see these DPLA blog posts from May 2022 and September 2022.
Much of the data in the dashboard can be downloaded in CSV format, including catalog views, click throughs, and API views.