Electronic Resources @ Binghamton University Libraries: EVALUATE

Libraries spend considerable amounts of money licensing different types of online content and want to measure return on the investment to ensure that library budgets are spent as productively as possible. One of the ways to measure this return on investment is to assess usage statistics.

COUNTER exists to develop and maintain the standard for counting and reporting the use of electronic resources. It will ensure that content providers can implement the code of practice efficiently and that their library customers and users will receive relevant usage reports in the format they need.

The COUNTER Code of Practice is designed to balance changing reporting needs with the need to make things simpler so that all content providers can achieve compliance and librarians can have usage statistics that are credible, consistent and comparable.

This is a modular manual for librarians. It explains in non-technical terms the metrics used in the COUNTER Code of Practice, including key metrics that show user activity on a platform, how to calculate usage per book or journal, the main COUNTER reports and how to use them,and how to track trends by comparing the correct figures between Release 4 and Release 5 reports.

The COUNTER_SUSHI API is designed to simplify the gathering of usage statistics by report consumers, and report providers MUST support automatic harvesting of COUNTER reports via the COUNTER_SUSHI API. Starting with R5.1, the specification for the RESTful COUNTER_SUSHI API uses JSON schema for the JSON format, and OpenAPI 3.1 for the API. The COUNTER_SUSHI API Specification is now maintained by COUNTER on Stoplight.io: https://countermetrics.stoplight.io/docs/counter-sushi-api

Compilation of non-standardized vendor metrics fpr BU e-resources maintained by the Electronic Resource Librarian

Non-COUNTER platforms processing in CELUS