Presented by Sonya True

COUNTER: Counting "Online Usage of "NeTworked Electronic Resources

What is COUNTER?

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.

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

But why can’t we rely on vendor usage statistics?

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.

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).

COUNTER’s Pyramid of Standards

MEANS to transition from vendor-specific to COUNTER-compliant usage statistics.

Compliant + Credible

Consistent

Comparable

Collaborate

How was COUNTER started?

Project COUNTER beginnings

Evolved in 2000 from several initiatives including PALS (Publishers and

Libraries Solutions) Usage Statistics Working Group

Launched in United

Kingdom on March 2002

Supported by NISO, ARL,

AAP + others

Project COUNTER"organization founded. Governed by

Steering Committee

Richard Gedye, Chair

(Oxford University

Press)

Peter Shepherd,

Project Director

(Harcourt Publishers)

Project COUNTER’s"3 initial goals. Develop

extendible COP to govern

usage data

GAIN worldwide information

industry support

CREATE sustainable supportive

biz/tech model

1

2

3

COUNTER’s Organization International Advisory Board

Gayle Baker University of Tennessee, USA 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

TIMELINE: "Usage statistics efforts

Why do we need standardized usage statistics?

Now

Access

Multiple Electronic Resources

Online

Signs of the times

E-journal Lifecycle

E-journal Lifecycle: EVALUATE

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.

Why do librarians collect usage statistics? ①  Because they must

  Government + funding bodies may require them   Management asks for them   Industry associations expect them

②  To inform renewal decisions   Overall use   Cost-per-use

③  Support cancellation decisions ④  Manage e-resources + tools and programs that support

them

Why do librarians collect usage statistics?

$

So, what’s in COUNTER?

project counter.org

COUNTER Codes of Practice

①  Definitions of terms used

②  Specifications for Usage Reports

a)  What they should include

b)  What they should look like

c)  How + when they should be delivered

③  Data processing guidelines

④  Auditing

⑤  Compliance

COUNTER Current Codes of Practice

①  Journals + Databases "Release 3 (August 2008)

②  Books + Reference Works"Release 1 (March 2006)

Journal and database usage reports ①  Journal Report 1

Number of successful full-text requests by month + journal

②  Journal Report 1a

Number of successful full-text requests from an ARCHIVE by month + journal

③  Journal Report 2

Turnaways by month + journal

④  Journal Report 5

Number of successful full-text article requests by year + journal

⑤  Database Report 1

Total searches and sessions by month + database

⑥  Database Report 2

Turnaways by month + database

7. Database Report 3

Total searches and sessions by month + service

Example of Journal Usage Report

EBSCO using COUNTER Journal Report 1: "No. of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month & Year

Example of Journal Usage Report

JOURNAL REPORT 2: Turnaways by Month + Journal

Example of Journal Usage Report JOURNAL REPORT 5: No. of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Year and Journal

Example of Database Usage Report DATABASE REPORT 1: Total Searches and Session by Month and Database

Book and reference usage reports ①  Book Report 1

Number of successful requests by month + title

②  Book Report 2

Number of successful SECTION requests by month + title

③  Book Report 3

Turnaways by month + title

④  Book Report 4

Turnaways by month + service

⑤  Book Report 5

Total searches and sessions by month + title

⑥  Book Report 6

Total searches and sessions by month + service

Example of Ebook Usage Report

BOOK REPORT 5: Total Searches and Session by Month + Title

Consortium usage reports ①  Consortium Report 1

Number of successful full-text journal article or book chapter requests

by month

②  Consortium Report 2

Total searches by "month + database

in XML ✒

Example of Consortium Usage Report

Number of"successful"full-text"journal "article"or"book "chapter"requests"by month

The Audit   Independent audit is now required   Audit is online, using scripts provided in the

Code of Practice   Auditor can be: ①  Any Chartered Accountant ②  Another COUNTER-approved auditor

  ABCE is the first COUNTER-approved auditor ①  Industry-owned + Not-for-profit ②  Independent + impartial ③  Part of ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) ④  Providing web traffic audits for over 150

companies + certifying over 1400 domains ⑤  Successfully completed test audits on

COUNTER usage reports

So, who’s COUNTER-compliant?

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

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

COUNTER helps maintain collection growth, weed control, sustainability and viability.