COUNTER Usage Statistics
- 1. COUNTER: Counting " Online Usage of " NeTworked Electronic Resources Presented by Sonya True
- 3. COUNTER is… NOT a technology or an application but is… Acronym for “Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources.” International Initiative designed to serve librarians, publishers, consortia + intermediaries (i.e. full-text aggregators and subscription agents). Standards Guidelines for the recording, reporting + exchange of online usage statistics for electronic resources.
- 4. COUNTER is… MORE than standards documentation A Code of Practice for counting online usage statistics Series of practice codes that address" 1. Terminology" 2. Report layout + format" 3. Processing of usage data" 4. What categories or filters should be available" 5. Report delivery" + " 6. Compliance + auditing process" 7. Code maintenance + development" 8. Governance
- 5. But why can’t we rely on vendor usage statistics?
- 6. Mark Twain said “There are 3 kinds of lies – lies, damned lies, and statistics.”" There’s a 4th kind of lie…" Vendor/Publisher Usage Statistics.
- 7. Vendor Statistics Tower of Babel Vendors collected usage statistics but had their OWN DEFINITIONS. (AND) Generally did NOT SHARE statistics with customers. (THEREFORE)" PROJECT COUNTER " bringing librarians and vendors together to jointly develop standards = (COLLABORATION) + give usage statistics (CREDIBILITY) + (COMPARABILITY) + (CONSISTENCY) + (VISIBILITY).
- 8. COUNTER’s Pyramid of Standards MEANS to transition from vendor-specific to COUNTER- compliant usage statistics. Compliant + Credible Comparable Consistent Collaborate
- 10. Project COUNTER beginnings Supported by NISO, ARL, AAP + others Launched in United Kingdom on March 2002 Evolved in 2000 from several initiatives including PALS (Publishers and Libraries Solutions) Usage Statistics Working Group
- 11. Project COUNTER" organization founded. Governed by Steering Committee Richard Gedye, Chair (Oxford University Press) Peter Shepherd, Project Director (Harcourt Publishers)
- 12. Project COUNTER’s" 3 initial goals. Develop extendible COP to 1 govern usage data 2 GAIN worldwide information industry support 3 CREATE sustainable supportive biz/tech model
- 13. International Advisory Board Gayle Baker University of Tennessee, USA COUNTER’s Organization Diana Bittern Knovel, USA Lars Bjornshauge Lund University, Sweden Johan Bollen MESUR, USA Patricia Brennan Thomson Scientific, USA Todd Carpenter NISO, USA Diane Costello CAUL, Australia John Cox NUI Galway, Ireland Brian Crebs Safari Books, USA Lorraine Estelle JISC, UK Emily Gillingham Wiley, UK Brian Green BIC/EDItEUR, UK Tony Hammond Nature Publishing Group, UK Timo Hannay Nature Publishing Group, UK Warren Holder University of Toronto, Canada Ruth Jones MyiLibrary, USA Heather Joseph ARL, USA Kornelia Junge Wiley, Germany Bernd Kaemper University of Stuttgart, Germany Shinya Kato University of Tokyo, Japan Alexander Kousnetsov NERC, Russia Martha Kyrillidou Association of Research Libraries Judy Luther Informed Strategies, USA Caren Milloy JISC, UK Ross MacIntyre University of Manchester, UK Kirsty Meddings Ingenta, UK Lisa Moske California State University, USA James Mouw University of Chicago, USA David Nicholas CIBER, UK Henning Nielsen Novo Nordisk, Denmark Bo Ohstrom National Library of Denmark Jill O’Neill NFAIS, USA Norman Paskin DOI, UK Bill Russell Emerald, UK Wendy Queen MUSE, USA Ian Russell ALPSP, UK John Sack HighWire Press, USA Sherrie Schmidt Arizona State University, USA
- 14. TIMELINE: " Usage statistics efforts
- 16. Signs of the times Multiple Electronic Resources Access Online Now
- 19. The NEED for online usage statistics Libraries and consortia needs The reality is majority of academic journal budget is now focused on digital journals + databases. Assess value of different online products and services. Support collection development. Justify materials expenditure budget proposals. Publishers’ needs Experiment with new pricing models Assess relative importance of different channels by which information reaches market. Provide editorial support. Plan infrastructure.
- 20. Why do librarians collect usage statistics? Because they must Government + funding bodies may require them Management asks for them Industry associations expect them To inform renewal decisions Overall use Cost-per-use Support cancellation decisions Manage e-resources + tools and programs that support them
- 21. Why do librarians collect usage statistics? $
- 24. COUNTER Codes of Practice Definitions of terms used Specifications for Usage Reports a) What they should include b) What they should look like c) How + when they should be delivered Data processing guidelines Auditing Compliance
- 25. COUNTER Current Codes of Practice Journals + Databases" Release 3 (August 2008) Books + Reference Works" Release 1 (March 2006)
- 26. Journal and database usage reports Journal Report 1 Number of successful full-text requests by month + journal Journal Report 1a Number of successful full-text requests from an ARCHIVE by month + journal Journal Report 2 Turnaways by month + journal Journal Report 5 Number of successful full-text article requests by year + journal Database Report 1 Total searches and sessions by month + database Database Report 2 Turnaways by month + database 7. Database Report 3 Total searches and sessions by month + service
- 27. Example of Journal Usage Report EBSCO using COUNTER Journal Report 1: " No. of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month & Year
- 28. Example of Journal Usage Report JOURNAL REPORT 2: Turnaways by Month + Journal
- 29. Example of Journal Usage Report JOURNAL REPORT 5: No. of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Year and Journal
- 30. Example of Database Usage Report DATABASE REPORT 1: Total Searches and Session by Month and Database
- 31. Book and reference usage reports Book Report 1 Number of successful requests by month + title Book Report 2 Number of successful SECTION requests by month + title Book Report 3 Turnaways by month + title Book Report 4 Turnaways by month + service Book Report 5 Total searches and sessions by month + title Book Report 6 Total searches and sessions by month + service
- 32. Example of Ebook Usage Report BOOK REPORT 5: Total Searches and Session by Month + Title
- 33. Consortium usage reports Consortium Report 1 Number of successful full-text journal article or book chapter requests by month Consortium Report 2 Total searches by " month + database in XML ✒
- 34. Example of Consortium Usage Report Number of" successful" full-text" journal " article" or" book " chapter" requests" by month
- 35. The Audit Independent audit is now required Audit is online, using scripts provided in the Code of Practice Auditor can be: Any Chartered Accountant Another COUNTER-approved auditor ABCE is the first COUNTER-approved auditor Industry-owned + Not-for-profit Independent + impartial Part of ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) Providing web traffic audits for over 150 companies + certifying over 1400 domains Successfully completed test audits on COUNTER usage reports
- 37. 100+ vendors, 20K+ journals, ebooks, ref works OCLC EBSCO Ovid Wiley Illumina ProQuest Springer MPS CSA U. Of Wisconsin Press, Oxford U. Press, Wiley, Taylor & Francis
- 38. New and Upcoming NOW: SUSHI NISO Standard: “Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative” Web-based service model that automatically downloads vendor reports IN DEVELOPMENT: Project PIRUS “Publisher + Institutional Repository Usage Statistics” Apply COUNTER principles to article-level statistics Focus on institutional + subject repositories Example: PubMed Central
- 39. COUNTER helps maintain collection growth, weed control, sustainability and viability.