Library Web Chic

AWStats Up and Running

I got AWStats up and running at the end of last week after testing it
and deciding that it met our library's needs for a log analysis tool.
Honestly, I have nothing but positive things to say about it. The
install and configuration requires a degree of technical skill that
initially spooked me, but once I got some help from someone who had
installed it and had it working all was well. I am particularly
impressed with the variety of statistics I can get. (Entry and exit
pages, browsers used, operating systems, screen resolutions, and much
more) I fired off a list of 404 errors to the library webmaster to
track down (small aftershocks of the site redesign) and am currently
pondering the search terms that people use to find the site. I
currenlty have it running on our primary web server and want to get it
running on the server that hosts the website for the ILLiad
interlibrary loan software.

The biggest downside of this product was that I wasn't able to get the
web interface for running the statistics to work in IIS. However, this
was resolved by constructing a nifty batch file that runs every night
and updates the analysis pages with new log information. So it is
nearly real time for us. Overall, I am highly statisfied and when I get
it running on this site will set up a demo for people to look at. It is
a REALLY nice tool and gets the job done at a low cost (free). If you
haven't checked it out, it is worth the time. (http://awstats.sourceforge.net/)