30 April 2020
COUNTER has published the first module in its manual for librarians. This guide with clear and non-technical language should enable librarians to understand and get the best from their usage reports.
Lorraine Estelle, the project director, explained that the manual has been produced in response to comments received through COUNTER’S annual survey of its members. One librarian said, “Please stop talking in that technical way”. Another said, “The online tutorials are good, but my preference is to read information”.
With these comments in mind, COUNTER set about creating a written manual with clear and non-technical language.
The author is John Hendry whose speciality is presenting complex matter in clear and simple terms. Experts from the COUNTER Executive Committee reviewed the drafts to ensure that although written in a non-technical way, the manual is technically accurate.
COUNTER is publishing the manual in modules, with the first module ready now for librarians to download and use. This module is all about books. Users will see:
- the key metrics that show activity for each book
- most importantly, how to calculate usage per book — regardless of how the platform presents its books
- the three main COUNTER reports relevant to books
- how to track trends by comparing the correct figures between Release 4 and Release 5 reports
This module can be downloaded from the COUNTER website.