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

2. What is
COUNTER?

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

9. How was
COUNTER
started?

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

15. Why do we
need
standardized
usage
statistics?

16. Signs of the times
Multiple
Electronic
Resources
Access
Online
Now

17. E-journal Lifecycle

18. E-journal Lifecycle: EVALUATE

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?
$

22. So, what’s in
COUNTER?

23. project
counter.org

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

36. So, who’s
COUNTER-
compliant?

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.