Robot Hunter, or, precisely what I thought I wouldn’t be doing when I became a librarian

Web robots have become an enormous problem and must be considered when collecting and analysing web usage statistics. This is particularly problematic for institutional repositories, as the major platforms (DSpace and EPrints) have only basic robot detection and filtration capabilities for their native statistics packages. These systems, as well as a DSpace extension, the University of Minho StatisticsAddOn, will be described along with general information about web robots such as definition, usefulness and behaviour. Work is currently being done by COUNTER and IRUS-UK in this area. Their work will be discussed in the context of its applicability in Ireland.