COUNTER Usage Report Survey - Results now in

["Gillingham Emily" <Emily.Gillingham@blacksci.co.uk>]

**Results of librarian survey on draft COUNTER Usage Reports now
available**

COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a
new, multi-agency project whose objective is to develop a single,
internationally accepted, extendible Code of Practice that will allow the
usage of online information products and services to be measured more
consistently.

One of the most important features of the Code of Practice will be the
Usage Reports that vendors will have to supply to customers in order to
qualify as 'COUNTER compliant'. To ensure that these meet customer needs,
librarians worldwide have been invited to take part in an online survey in
which their comments were invited on the draft COUNTER Usage Reports.

Over 650 librarians from the academic, corporate, hospital and other
sectors completed the survey and the full results are now available at
http://www.projectcounter.org/news.html They give a clear picture of the
content, format and delivery methods that librarians wish to have and the
draft COUNTER Usage Reports are being modified accordingly.

Release 1 of the Code of Practice will be available at the end of 2002.
An organizational framework for implementation and compliance will also be
proposed at that time.

COUNTER is actively supported by the international community of librarians
and publishers, and by their professional organisations, including:

AAP, Association of American Publishers
ALPSP, The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
ARL, Association of Research Libraries
ASA, Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
BIC/EDItEUR
JISC, Joint Information Systems Committee
NCLIS, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science
NISO, National Information Standards Organization
PA, The Publishers Association
STM, International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
UKSG, United Kingdom Serials Group

The development of COUNTER is being supervised by a Steering Group chaired
by Richard Gedye of Oxford University Press. The Project Director,
responsible for day-to-day management is Peter Shepherd
(pshepherd@projectCounter.org), who should be contacted for further
information.