1 Use Measures for Electronic Resources: Theory and Practice A Vendor’s Perspective ALCTS June 27, 2005 Oliver Pesch Chief Strategist for E-Resources EBSCO Information Services

2 The questions… What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? Why use EBSCO as a source of usage statistics if not all statistics are available through them? What is the role of the vendor to provide usage statistics for products for which they are not the vendor? What is the impact of federated searching? Is there a role for a “middle person” or consolidator of usage statistics? Is COUNTER the right direction? How can we make it better?

3 What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? Accessibility of usage statistics –Provide customers with the ability to set up EBSCOadmin logins with functionality limited to read only access to usage reports.

4 What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? Ease of use and flexibility - Options on the user interface are easy to find and easy to use. Customize reports and analysis with a few clicks of the mouse.

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9 What are vendors doing to make statistics gathering easier? Automation of delivery –Customers can schedule any report to be run automatically and ed on a regular basis.

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14 Why use EBSCO if all usage statistics are not available through them? EBSCO delivers full text through: –EBSCOhost full text databases –The EJS e-journal gateway COUNTER Code of Practice dictates that the site delivering full text is responsible for reporting on it EBSCO is obliged to report usage and is the only valid source for this usage

15 What is the role of a vendor to provide statistics for products for which they aren’t the vendor? A content provider can only provide usage data for content it delivers If the provider is a listing service or link resolver, it can provide link-out statistics, but not full text requests

16 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

17 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

18 What is the impact of Federated Searching and how can EBSCO handle this? - Federated or metasearch products can greatly inflate session and usage counts and thus this activity need to be isolated for comparative results.

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

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

21 Visits = 1 Sessions = 20 Searches = 20 With Metasearch engine EBSCOOCLCProQuestOVID use r Metasearch -Search All -Business -Medicine … Visits = 1 Sessions = 28 Searches = 28

22 Controlling over-counting Libraries should isolate metasearch sessions and searches –On EBSCOhost this is achieved by assigning the metasearch to a specific user group or user profile Support metasearch standardization activities through NISO –We need a standard way to recognize a metasearch session Encourage further research through COUNTER participation

23 Is there a role for a “middle person” or consolidator to assist in providing usage? Yes, in some form… –Module from ILS vendor allows scheduled retrieval of raw usage to produce consolidated reports –Open Source or collaborative tool, such as being proposed by the ERUS project ( –Central data warehouse which combines and consolidates usage from all vendors for many libraries

24 Is COUNTER the right direction? Most definitely… –Provides a code of practice for basic but valuable reporting –Makes uniform reporting a real possibility –Clarifies expectations to vendors –Enforces compliance with the audit –Provides a forum for vendors and libraries to move forward

25 How can we make it better? Develop usage-consolidation and reporting tools based on COUNTER Machine-to-machine friendly formats Automation of report retrieval Continued support of standards efforts Keeping short-term goals modest