Project Counter in brief

1
Project Counterin brief

• Jim Self
• University of Virginia Library
• ARL Survey Coordinators Meeting
• Chicago, Illinois
• June 24, 2005

2
Origins

• International effort to develop standards for
  measuring online usage
• Builds on ICOLC guidelines and
• ARL e-metrics
• ARL a founding sponsor

3
Rationale

• Libraries, consortia, publishers, and
  intermediaries all need statistics that are
• Credible
• Consistent
• Compatible

4
History up to now

• Journals and databases
• Code of Practice, January 2003
• Release 2, completed 2005, effective 2006
• Auditing
• Required as of 2005
• Books and reference works
• Draft Code of Practice February 2005

5
COP Release 2

• Requires reporting for consortia
• Requires exact formatting
• Includes publisher and platform data
• Separate tallies for html and pdf
• Level 2 reports relegated to the Appendix

6
Guiding Principles

• Only intended usage should be recorded
  unintentional clicks are not counted
• Counter will ensure that vendors provide reliable
  basic usage reports, not develop an expanding set
  of detailed reports
• Counter will not develop software or hardware, or
  expand its mission

7
Delivering the data

• ScholarlyStats, MPS Technologies, is testing a
  for-hire service
• Full service expected in Fall 2005

8
Implications

• Some nervousness from vendors
• Some disagreement among librarians as to what
  reports are needed
• Overall, much optimism
• Very positive discussions at UKSG
• Credible and consistent reports are a good thing
  for librarians, publishers, and intermediaries