Can Victorian Collections provide analytics?

Can Victorian Collections provide analytics?

Victorian Collections provides users with data from Google Analytics on a by request basis. This data can help your organisation to better understand how and what the public are viewing from your collection. It’s important to note that types of analytics that are available for individual organisations are limited. Broadly the types of data that be provided via Google Analytics are number of page views, peak visitation days, and top items of interest. If there is information in addition to these areas that your organisation hopes to access, contact the VC team, however we cannot guarantee that it will be reportable via Google Analytics at organisation level.


Placing an analytics request
The process of placing a request for Google Analytics data is straightforward. Simply submit a ticket to the Victorian Collections helpdesk which includes the following information:
  • The name of your organisation
  • The exact time period you are interested in (e.g. 1 Jul 2023 - 30 June 2024)
  • The data you are interested in (e.g. number of page views, popular items) 
As each analytics request needs to be processed manually by a team member, it’s important to provide as much lead time as possible before you need this data and be specific about what type of data you would like to receive.

Available timeframes
The VC team can provide organisations with analytic data for individual collections recorded from the date 1 February 2023 onwards. 

Why can't I request data from before 1 February 2023?
In 2023, Google replaced its previous analytics platform, Universal Analytics (commonly known as GA3) with a new platform, Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Google advised that historical data from GA3 would not be migrated to the new platform. Data capturing within GA4 was enabled for Victorian Collections on 1 February 2023, ahead of this transition.

During the transition process from GA3 to GA4, Google advised that historic data from GA3 would not be retained. GA3 ceased capturing data on 1 July 2023. Data from GA3 is no longer available to the VC team from 1 July 2024. Updates were shared with the VC Community regarding this change in June 2023, both via our Forum and special e-bulletin.

Still have questions? Leave a comment.

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