Mass Representation Defined: A Study of Unique Page Views at East Carolina University

The following case study examines three years' worth of data gathered by East Carolina University's Special Collections Division. The analysis focuses on the number of Unique Page Views (UPVs) reported by Google Analytics. A straightforward method to analyze this data is proposed, which ranks the frequency of UPVs received per year for each collection-level web page. The results indicate that the overall distribution of UPVs is heavily skewed toward the top 20%—or, top quintile—of online finding aids, which account for over 70% of the views. The term mass representation is introduced to refer to the disproportionate amount of visibility attained by the top quintile.