Project COUNTER Trends in Statistical Standards for E- Resource Management March 2005 Oliver Pesch Chief Strategist, E-Resources EBSCO Information Services

Overview COUNTER now and future The COUNTER basics Release 2 Auditing vendor reports E-Reference Beyond COUNTER Where A&I usage fits Other important metrics Things to ponder Activity captured – is it meaningful? Effect of metasearch on usage Capturing the data

COUNTER Member supported Members include: Libraries Publishers Aggregators Goal: Allow credible and consistent usage measurement between vendors

Code of Practice Compliant Vendors Rules for compliance Upcoming releases

COUNTER Code of Practice Addresses: Terminology Layout and format of reports Processing of usage data Categories Delivery of reports

Terminology Ensure consistent use of terminology Rely on existing standards for definitions NISO Z39.7 (Usage Statistics)

COUNTER Usage Reports Journal Report 1: Full Text Article Requests by Month and Journal Journal Report 2: Turnaways by Month and Journal Database Report 1: Total Searches and Sessions by Month and Database Database Report 2: Turnaways by Month and Database Database Report 3: Searches and Sessions by Month and Service

Journal Report 1: Full Text Article Requests by Journal

Journal Report 2: Turnaways by Journal

Database report 1: Searches and Sessions by Database

Database report 2: Turnaways by Database

Database report 3: Searches and Sessions by Service

COUNTER: Data Processing Only count valid requests For progressive PDF retrieval, only count the first request Filter out multiple successive clicks (“double clicks”) of same link by same user 10 seconds for HTML 30 seconds for PDF

COUNTER basics Q: Who gets to count full text requests? Publisher? Aggregator? E-Journal gateway? Link Resolver? A: The party that delivers the actual text to the user

Linking A&I Database Link Resolver E-Journal Gateway Publisher site User finds citation of interest in an A&I database. An OpenURL link provided Citation Link menu Abstract or TOC Full Text Link-Out Full text

Linking A&I Database Link Resolver E-Journal Gateway Publisher site User finds citation of interest in an A&I database. An OpenURL link provided Citation Link menu Abstract or TOC Full Text Link-Out Full text

Delivery CSV, Excel or file that can be imported into Excel XML version being tested On password controlled web site Scheduled alert or delivery of report Provide monthly Available within 2 weeks of end of month Current and previous year’s data

Compliant vendors/products

COUNTER basics Any questions on current COUNTER Code Of Practice?

COUNTER Release 2 Minor fixes and improvements New report (Journal report 1a) Level 2 report eliminated in favor of “optional” reports

Release 2: minor fixes Added header rows to identify, report, criteria and run date

Release 2: minor fixes Include Publisher field

Release 2: minor fixes More forgiving date representation for Excel. Jan-2004 instead of Jan-04

Release 2: minor fixes “Calendar YTD” now “Total”

Release 2: Journal Report 1a “Page Type” column added to breakout activity by full text format.

Release 2: Journal Report 1a Two rows per title

COUNTER: Audit Passing audit will be required in 2005 Conducted by auditor certified by COUNTER At vendor expense

COUNTER: Audit Audit will check each product and report for: Layout Right rows and columns Header rows Column headings Formats CSV or Excel Delivery of report notification of availability Access from password controlled web site Accuracy of data Conduct series of tests for each report Current tolerance is -8% to +2%

COUNTER: E-Reference The next initiative? Focus to-date have been on journals E-Reference includes: e-books Dictionaries Encyclopedias almanacs, etc. E-Reference materials becoming increasingly more important.

COUNTER: E-Reference Unit of access may include: Entire book Chapter Entry (dictionary or encyclopedia) Page Paragraph Challenge is what constitutes a countable “access”

COUNTER: E-Reference Access depends on interface and organization of content. Entire reference work may be in one PDF (1 access and user reads all of the book) Each chapter may have own PDF (1 access per chapter read) Reference may organized by topic or section with user linking from topic to topic within a chapter (many access within one chapter) Discussions continue…

Looking ahead (future releases?)

Where A&I Statistics fit Metrics for product purchase and usage patterns Journal-level use metrics help with collection development COUNTER represents only in optional report

COUNTER optional report

Other important metrics Link activity Where the users came from Where the users go By target By type of target

Example of link activity

Linking A&I Database Link Resolver E-Journal Gateway Publisher site User finds citation of interest in an A&I database. An OpenURL link provided Citation Link menu Abstract or TOC Full Text Link-Out Full text

Link-out activity Record each time user links from an item to full text or other service For each, track: Source information Database Journal/Book Year published Target information Category (full text, ILL, etc.) Target service (domain)

Year of publication Record with each full text retrieval Summarize retrieval activity by journal by year of publication Analyze importance of back files Analyze who using back files Make archival decisions

Type of material Journal article, book, book chapter, video, sound track, encyclopedia, dictionary… COUNTER moving towards E-Resource code of practice Record with each TOC, citation, abstract or full text request Summarize retrieval activity by type of material Make decisions on value of non-journal information in hybrid collections

Article level data? Volume versus value Minimum data to store? Is roll-up possible to achieve goals? Section Subject (journal level?) Author What transactions need this level of detail? Full text requests Abstract views? TOC views?

Other things to ponder

Metasearch Also known as: Federated search Broadcast search User presented with a single search interface Searches multiple information sources at same time Eliminates (or assists with) resource selection Retrieve, consolidates and ranks results A new challenge for statistics

Metasearch: a new challenge What can be affected Session counts Search counts Why? “Search all” option or automatic selection/search of many resources Perform simultaneous activities Optimization techniques

Searching without Metasearch EBSCOOCLCProQuestOVID use r Resources -Product 1 -Product 2 -Product 3 … Visits = 1 Sessions = 2 Searches = 2

With Metasearch engine EBSCOOCLCProQuestOVID use r Metasearch -Search All -Business -Medicine … Visits = 1 Sessions = 20 Searches = 20

With Metasearch engine EBSCOOCLCProQuestOVID use r Metasearch -Search All -Business -Medicine … Visits = 1 Sessions = 28 Searches = 28

Metasearch lessons Libraries should want to isolate metasearch sessions and searches Capture source of activity Isolate metasearch IP address Have metasearch access through separate account Support metasearch standardization activities through NISO We need to be able to recognize a metasearch session

Summary of COUNTER Collaboration of vendors and libraries More than just a standards document A code of practice Enforcement and registration compliance Setting reasonable expectations Benefits extend to all parties COUNTER is very active and forward-looking

Thank you Oliver Pesch