The University of Iowa Libraries, in consultation with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), implemented MINES (Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services) during the summer of 2007. MINES is an online transaction-based survey designed to collect data on the purpose and frequency of use of electronic resources. The survey asks three multimple choice questions during 2-hour random intervals once a month. The third and final implementation on MINES began on  January 27, 2009 and will continue through December 1, 2009.

Highlights from the 2008 report:

• The majority of the users are from the graduate college, and the medical and liberal arts and sciences fields.
• The Libraries’ resources are mainly used from a non-library location on campus (36.6%), but accessing resources using the campus library (27.75%) and off campus locations (35.65%) follow closely.
• The primary purpose of use of the University of Iowa Libraries’ resources is for personal research (36.66%) with coursework representing an important second highest category of use (31.59%).
• The total number of respondents increased between 2007 (n=5,351) and 2008 (n=6,468).
• Graduate/professional students comprised over 40% of the Libraries’ electronic networked resources uses in 2007 (n=2,176, 40.7%) and 2008 (n=2,726, 42.2%).