First draft COUNTER Usage Reports available for feedback now - Librarians, please take part in the online survey!

["Sommer, David" <David.Sommer@blacksci.co.uk>]

First draft COUNTER Usage Reports available for feedback now -
Librarians, please take part in the online survey!

--Apologies for cross-posting--

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'.

**Draft 1 of the COUNTER Usage Reports is now available; librarians are
invited to participate in an online survey that will collect their
comments on them. The online survey and the full text of the Usage
Reports is accessible via the COUNTER web site: www.ProjectCounter.org

The absence of a Code of Practice has meant that suppliers and
purchasers of online information services have had no common standards
for the recording, analysis or sharing of usage data. COUNTER will
provide guidance on data elements to be measured, definitions of these
data elements, data processing, report formats, methods of delivery,
methods of combining usage reports from direct use and from use via
intermediaries.

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.

For further information contact Peter Shepherd at
pshepherd@projectCounter.org