First vendors compliant with COUNTER Code of Practice for Books

["Gillingham Emily" <Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com>]

-- First vendors compliant with COUNTER Code of Practice for Books --

Coutts-MyiLibrary, Greenwood Publishing Group and Xrefer are the 
first three vendors to achieve compliance with the new COUNTER 
Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works. As such they are 
providing their customers with credible usage statistics that can 
be used to assess the value of the growing number of online books 
now available.

"Greenwood Publishing is delighted to see the COUNTER efforts 
gain traction...Potential customers of both our database products 
and our ebooks consistently look for COUNTER compliance." 
Birgitte Elbek, Greenwood Publishing

"By becoming one of the first aggregated eBook vendors to be 
COUNTER compliant, MyiLibrary has responded to the changing 
demands of its library customers worldwide for usage statistics 
in an industry standard format." James Tucker, MyiLibrary

"COUNTER standardization of the usage reports enables librarians 
to understand better the patterns of use of the resources to 
which they subscribe; it also helps them in their collection 
development decision making." Jenny Walker, Xrefer


The COUNTER Code of Practice for online books and reference works 
was published in March 2006. Vendors seeking to comply with it 
should follow the procedures described in the Code of Practice 
document, which is available on the COUNTER website 
(http://www.projectCounter.org). Its features include:

* A set of six basic usage reports that cover full-text requests 
for a whole title, as well as for sections (eg chapters, 
encyclopedia entries) within a title. Searches, sessions and 
turnaways are also covered.

* A comprehensive set of definitions of terms relevant to books 
and reference works

* A format and structure consistent with the existing COUNTER 
Code of Practice for journals and databases. Only the content of 
the usage reports has been changed and the set of definitions of 
terms expanded. The specifications for report delivery, data 
processing, auditing, and compliance are identical to those 
already prescribed in the Code of Practice for journals and 
databases.

-- About COUNTER --

COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a
multi-agency initiative whose objective is to provide a set of
internationally accepted, extendible Codes of Practice that will allow
the usage of online information products and services to be measured
more consistently. COUNTER is actively supported by the international
community of librarians, vendors and intermediaries, and by their
professional organizations.

For more information, please contact:
Peter Shepherd
Director - COUNTER
pshepherd@projectCounter.org