Presented by Sonya True COUNTER: Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources
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.