Initiatives and Forums

ALCTS (Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a Division of the American Library Association) Electronic Resources Interest Group. "Electronic Resource Management Systems." 15 January 2005 [cited 2005]. Report on forum available in February 2005 Cites & Insights publication (PDF): http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ5i3.pdf

During the January 2005 Midwinter meeting of ALA, the Electronic Resources Interest Group of the ALCTS Division of ALA sponsored a forum on the "Electronic Resource Management Systems" being developed by Ex Libris and Innovative. Presentations by University of California-San Diego, MIT and Harvard outline their processes and experiences with the developing ERM products. The article about the session, published in Cites and Insights (vol.5 , issue 3) and written by Barbara Blummer of the Center for Computing Sciences, begins on page 23. Article also linked from the Annotated Bibliography, and links to Ex Libris and Innovative product information on the web are linked from the ERM Tools page.

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ARL (Association of Research Libraries). "E-metrics: Measures for electronic resources." 25 March [cited 2004]. Available from: http://www.arl.org/stats/newmeas/emetrics/

This initiative is working to standardize the measures for electronic resources for the purposes of comparison among academic libraries. Measures include volume of electronic resources, expenditures, use of resources and services, digitization activities and use of digital collections. The ARL E-Metrics was launched in 2000 with 24 libraries participating. Reporting on statistics gathered for the 2002-2003 academic year is expected in Summer 2004.

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COUNTER (Project COUNTER). "COUNTER Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources." [cited 2004]. Available from: http://www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html>.

COUNTER is the initiative that is leading the way in providing standards for the provision of electronic resources usage statistics. COUNTER focuses strictly on the definitions of the elements (e.g. vendors, searches, items), the types of data provided, and the format they are provided in. COUNTER does not address administrative or collection level issues. The Code of Practice 1.0 was released December 2002. Code of Practice 2.0 is available for review and expects formal release in January 2005. Vendors are encouraged to provide statistics in COUNTER-compliant formats.

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DLF's Electronic Resource Management Initiative (Digital Library Foundation). "A Web Hub for Developing Administrative Metadata for Electronic Resource Management." [cited 2004]. Available from: http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/elicensestudy/home.html

The DLF's ERM Initiative is the key project focusing primarily on standardizing the various elements of the management of electronic resources, including licensing agreements and technological details for facilitating access. XML standards for adminstrative metadata are scheduled for release in Summer 2004. There is lots of good information at this site. The DLF ERMI does not cover the standards for statistics provision.

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E-Metrics Instructional System (EMIS) Workshop. Scheduled for January 15, 2004 in Boston, Massachusetts at Simmons College as part of ALA Mid-Winter. Workshop information available from: http://www.ii.fsu.edu/emis/emisBoston.cfm

This workshop "offers continuing education for those seeking to understand how to evaluate the use of their onlinhe library services" and promise to be very interesting. This author plans to attend, and a report will be referenced here after the workshop. In the meantime, the extensive modules of materials are available online from: http://www.ii.fsu.edu/emis/index.cfm

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ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia). "GUIDELINES FOR STATISTICAL MEASURES OF USAGE OF WEB-BASED INFORMATION RESOURCES (December 2001 revision of original November 1998 Guidelines)." [cited 2004]. Available from: http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/2001webstats.htm

The ICOLC Guidelines were among the first attempts to begin standardizing electronic resources and their statistics. Current initiatives like COUNTER, ARL's E-Metrics Project, and the DLF's Electronic Resource Management Initiatve all draw on these early guidelines.

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NFAIS (National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services). "Online Usage Statistics: Current Trends and Future Directions in Meeting User Needs - A forum organized by the NFAIS Committee on Best Practices/Usage Statistics". New York, NY. October 1, 2004. Materials available from: http://www.nfais.org/events/event_details.cfm?id=26

This workshop included over 60 individuals representing vendors and publishers, academic institutions, government agencies and libraries, corporate information managers, professional associations, public libraries and other library related service and consulting operations. Sessions explored usage statistics issues in regards to standards, user needs, technology, legal issues, and case studies and perspectives from various sectors. This author's notes from that day, and a written summary published in the NFAIS newsletter, are linked from the event page. Go to the Online Usage Statistics Forum event page:http://www.nfais.org/events/event_details.cfm?id=26. Go directly to the Online Usage Statistics Forum (NFAIS) Notes page (on this site).

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NISO (National Information Standards Organization). "NISO Z39.7-200X Draft - Information Services and Use: Metrics & statistics for libraries and information providers--Data Dictionary." [cited 2004]. Available from: http://www.niso.org/emetrics/current/toc.html

Definitions of forms of electronic library services, electronic information resources, and the use of electronic resources are provided in the standard (particularly Section 4.10 and other "Emetrics Elements"), but no recommendations for usage statistics are included. Instead the reader is referred to Appendix B: Measuring the Use of Electronic Library Services.

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NISO National Information Standards Organization). "NISO Z39.7-200X Draft Inforamtion Services and Use: Metrics & statistics for libraries and information providers--Data Dictionary / Appendix B: Measuring the Use of Electronic Library Services." [cited 2004]. Available from: http://www.niso.org/emetrics/current/appendixB.html

This appendix briefly discusses why no recommendations for measuring use are currently included in the standard. It addresses the complex issues regarding the measurement of e-resources (e.g. What is a document?) and the issues in measuring the use of them (e.g. How do the various technological paths users take to get to the resources affect use? What kind of combined intellectual-keyboard action contstitutes a "use"?).

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Web Hub for Developing Administrative Metadata for Electronic Resource Management. [cited 2005]. Available from: http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/elicensestudy/home.html

Described under DLF above.

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