Sutherland Shire Libraries Staff News

In October we paid for the following notice to be included with the delivery of rates notices across the Shire. 63,000 odd flyers were delivered to ratepayers, starting on 19 October 2018.  Following is an initial look at the impact of this campaign on the usage of Kanopy.

THE CAMPAIGN FLYER

Flyer advertising Kanopy distributed with SSC Rates Notices

THE WEBSITE

The link on the flyer directed people to the Kanopy page on the library website. The following chart shows the daily page views of the Kanopy page, with the campaign delivery date marked.

Pageviews on the Kanopy page of the library web site

So we can see that the number of views definitely increases dramatically but, while the increase is obviously a result of the campaign, the chart above includes all site visits, not just those directly related to the campaign. The next chart shows the number of visitors to the site. This shows the number of people directly connected to the rates notice campaign (remember, one person can be responsible for multiple page views).

Users who visited the website as a direct result of the campaign

The light-blue line shows the number or New Users, or people that have not visited our website before, at least for some time (Note that the scale for New Users is on the right and the scale for all users is on the left). The number of new users per day is slightly less than the all users but the pattern of the charts is similar, suggesting that most of the campaign traffic is from people who are not already regular users of our stuff.

The charts above show that the campaign generated traffic to the site but they don’t tell us whether anyone followed through and actually used Kanopy. Over the period from 1 October to 30 November shown in these charts, the site analytics shows that there were 379 sessions initiated as a result of the campaign. Of these sessions there were 219 clicks through to the Kanopy collection, the first step in actually viewing a video.

KANOPY USAGE

For more detail about the number of videos played we need to look at the analytics provided by Kanopy. This chart shows the number of page views, sessions and video plays on the Sutherland Kanopy website. The key indicator here is the yellow line – the number of Plays. The increase in sessions and page views is obvious but we need to look at how much that interest translates into actual use – watching videos. Although it is not as pronounced, the increase in plays can be seen. Most importantly, however, is the lasting impact of the campaign. If we were to calculate the area under the yellow line before and after the delivery date it shows that the total usage of Kanopy has increased and there is a lasting effect upon usage as a result of the campaign.

Kanopy Analytics

The increase is a little more visible when looking at the total number of minutes played, shown below by the white line.

Daily minutes played on Kanopy by Sutherland users

Without boring you with the detailed data tables, I can provide 2 key numbers that demonstrate the impact of the campaign on Kanopy usage.

Prior to the campaign, there was an average of 23 videos played per day (all users). This number increased by half again as a result of the campaign to 36 per day. When it comes to minutes played, the impact is larger with the daily average increasing from 679 minutes per day prior to the campaign to 1208 minutes post campaign.

MEMBERSHIP

The final question that I have about the campaign is how many new library members were generated as a result of this campaign? This question is much harder to answer because there is no way to link new users to the campaign itself.

There is also no way to track how many people signed up to Kanopy each day - there is just a total number of Kanopy users. The closest I can get is to look at all the library members who are also signed up to Kanopy and check the date that they signed up as a library member.

The chart below shows how many people joined the library during October and November, who are also Kanopy users.  Just let that sink in for a second... the chart does not include any new members who have not signed up for Kanopy. Neither does it include any Kanopy users that signed up to the library before October 2018.

Kanopy users who joined the library during the campaign

What this chart shows is that, of all the users who joined the library during Oct/Nov, only a handful subsequently sign up for Kanopy as well. Prior to the campaign there was less than 1 per day.  Around the time of the flyer delivery there was a little spike where 4 people joined the library and Kanopy and small bump over the next couple of days.  All up, however, there were 5 in the 20 days before the campaign and 21 in the 40 days after. We cannot say for sure that these people joined the library directly in response to the campaign but I think it's safe to say that maybe the campaign attracted approximately 10 new members.

In some ways, it's a blessing that there was a relatively small impact on membership. We would struggle to absorb a larger number of new members who wanted to use Kanopy. The way our Kanopy subscription works is that we prepay for a set number of video plays for the year.  We then allocate monthly limits per patron to try and manage the demand so that our budget stretches to the end of the financial year. If we have a sharp increase in usage we could easily burn through our prepaid plays and be faced with trying to either find extra money to buy more credits or cut off patron access to Kanopy until the new financial year. Neither scenario is particularly appealing.  And as it turns out, it looks like we will have to redirect some funds from elsewhere this financial year to keep Kanopy available at 10 plays per month. We will have to dedicate increased funding to Kanopy in 2019/20 to account for the continued growth in users.

Martin

1. Academic library audiences consist of mainly 18-22 year olds. Once graduated, these students no longer have access to a service they value.

2. There’s a gap of video streaming services available to libraries offering good quality films.

3. Teachers in schools want access to films that support their curriculum.

The factors that make a subscription to Kanopy a good choice for public libraries relates to content, user experience and product support. Here's a little more on these:

CONTENT
Kanopy offers a collection of 30,000 films. They have the largest database of any video streaming service in the world – their volume is comparable to Netflix x 5. Having an Aussie background means that there is a good range of Australian content. They have an eclectic mix of films on offer including Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, foreign and indie films. They carry the entire Ronin collection and include other producers such as Criterion, Madman, Umbrella and Entertainment One. Kanopy offers an impressive service providing more than just mass media content.

Kanopy’s motto is “thoughtful entertainment”. They have aligned their content to support the mission statement of most public libraries in providing a service that builds stronger and better communities.

50% of Kanopy’s content (15,000 films) are documentaries
25% are feature films
25% are learning cinema (lectures, career development, technical content)

60% of what Kanopy offers is exclusive and unavailable elsewhere.

USER EXPERIENCE
Kanopy aims to make its user experience similar to Netflix’s.

Libraries that subscribe to Kanopy have their own live website (eg sutherlandlibrary.kanopy.com). They have the ability to curate their own site, select content and how it appears to the user.

Being a live website, any member of the public can browse a library's collection but to view a film a customer has to sign into their account (only library card holders can do this).

So how do customers search the website? There are 2 modes of discovery:
1. Subjects link at the top of the screen on the homepage. Subjects include: Film & Popular, the Arts, Business, Education, Global Studies & Languages, Health, Media & Communications, Sciences, Social Sciences, Instructional Film & Lessons. Once you have selected your subject you can refine the search using these filters: Suppliers, Filmmakers, Features, Languages, Captions and Year of Production.

2. Search box. Searching is made easy with the use of the truncation symbol *. For example, you wish to view films with a political theme, just type in the term politic* and the search will retrieve any film with matches in the title, synopsis or transcript of the film. [Transcripts of the films are provided – the wording There are matches in the transcript in the results list will indicate this. Searching transcripts is useful when looking for very specific material.] You can also use the dropdown menu to the left of the results list and use the filters listed there to further narrow your search.

Additional features:
1. Group sharing rights for all films. Libraries are able to use this feature for programming library events eg Thursday nights are Doco Night.

2. Access anywhere. Films can be played anywhere in the world, you only need internet access.

3. Closed captions/subtitles. 12% of the Australian population has a hearing impairment - the CC and transcript option allows a broader access to films. For the blind/visually impaired, this database is also compatible with computer screen reading programs such as JAWS if a user wishes to access a transcript.

4. You can create playlists eg a library can create a list of films on climate change and then screen them on Earth Day. You can also create a watchlist for films you intend to watch later. You can access these via your Dashboard.

5. Share/embed button. This allows you to share films on social media, you can also embed films in a blog or a library website.

6. iPhone and Android apps are in the pipeline and should be launched in 2 week’s time. This makes streaming videos even wider-reaching.

7. 500 new films per month are added to the database.

8. Libraries are able to edit comments made by customers if needed. Comments only ever display customer's first name and may also be made anonymously.

PRODUCT SUPPORT
Kanopy has a powerful admin dashboard.

Kanopy will provide MARC records for all films (RDA standard).

Analytics – visits to website, pages viewed, the number of times each film is played, where in the world films are being watched, viewer rating of films, types of films and minutes watched are available. Activity on devices and specific models are also provided. Referrals (URLs) option – where are users coming from – which websites and what terms they are using to search to find the service.

Reports – you have the option of creating up to 30 different types of reports and exporting these to Excel.

MODELS OF USAGE
1. Subscription basis.
This is a useful option for libraries once they know their audience's preferences. This is not a diverse collection of films. For example, you can subscribe to 100 films for 1 year, unlimited usage.

2. Pay for use model.
98% of libraries opt for this set-up. The reasons for this are:
It caters for the diverse needs of our communities.
New content is added regularly.
Library gets to design the collection of films.
Library gets to set up program details eg budget tracker. This means you can set a user cap ie set a limit on the number of films customers are able to watch (20 films per month). You can change this parameter at any time. As a customer, your login displays how many views you have available monthly. When customers view a film (1 credit) they have 3 days to watch the film as often as they like.
Costs include group viewing rights.

At any time a library can change from the Pay for use model to Subscription. For instance, we can keep track of the top 100 films our customers have watched and set up our film collection although the draw-back here is that you are locked in for 1 year. After the year you can move back to Pay for use set-up if desired.

Kris O.