1 NISO Standards and Best Practices: Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) Oliver Pesch Chief Strategist, e-Resources EBSCO Information Services April 4, 2012

Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) One of the first standards initiatives to use NISO’s more agile standards development process Focus on solving the core problem Allow the standard to evolve through ongoing maintenance 2

The problem… It’s 2005… –ERM systems are new and –COUNTER allows for standard usage reports –Very promising for managing usage of “e”! But… –Excel-based reports were not really standard –Downloading dozens/hundreds of usage reports not really scalable 3

What happened next… Tim Jewell, Adam Chandler, Ted Fons and Oliver Pesch met at ALA in the summer of 2005 The vision was to create an automated mechanism for retrieving reports Success of this initiative hinged on having the support of a larger organization 4

Why take the problem to NISO… NISO is about information standards Synergy with the ERMI/DLF work of which this problem was an off-shoot NISO offered the processes, the infrastructure and the support NISO offered the neutral ground where interested parties could work collaboratively 5

What was achieved through NISO… Committee formed in late 2005 Work began in early 2006 Draft standard published in 2007 Final standard approved in

The result… A request/response protocol that allows automated retrieval of COUNTER reports SUSHI has been a success –It’s central to virtually all usage consolidation applications –Adopted by approximately 40 content providers –SUSHI support is now a requirement for COUNTER compliance 7

Why it worked… NISO offered a neutral forum for collaboration and exchange of ideas 8

Why it worked… SUSHI was established as a continual maintenance standard –A standing committee was formed and meets monthly –Respond to feedback from the community –If necessary, adjustments can be made to the standard 9

Why it worked… NISO SUSHI Standing Committee serves as maintenance agency for COUNTER XML Schema –COUNTER XML is integral to SUSHI –COUNTER recognized the need for formal and controlled maintenance of their schema –COUNTER sees NISO as a trusted partner 10

Why it worked… NISO provided the infrastructure and support for ongoing maintenance and advocacy –NISO SUSHI website –SUSHI developers listserv –Hosting site for official schemas –Communication channels through NISO Newsline and ISQ 11

And the work continues… Promoting interoperability –Providing developer tools and FAQs through the NISO web site –Published the SUSHI Server Test Mode recommended practice –Working on a SUSHI Server Status Report 12

And the work continues… Preparing for Release 4 of the COUNTER Code of Practice –Adjusting the COUNTER Schemas to support new reports and metric types –Updating support material on the SUSHI web site (report registries, controlled vocabularies, “what’s new” documents, FAQs, etc) –Publishing the COUNTER SUSHI Implementation Profile 13

Conclusion… SUSHI has been a success but needs ongoing support, maintenance and advocacy NISO provides the credibility, processes and infrastructure necessary for standards like SUSHI to succeed 14

Thank You!