Federal Science eLibrary Pilot Project Final Report

Appendix G - Usage Statistics

Objective

Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) "has been developed to provide a set of international, extendible Codes of Practice that allow the usage of online information products and services to be measured in a credible, consistent and compatible way using vendor-generated data." ¹⁰ The objective of developing these reports at NRC-CISTI was to:

• Offer publishers with content on the NRC-CISTI infostructure data on how their content was being used
• Offer partners accessing the infostructure data on how their client groups were using the infostructure.

During the Federal Science eLibrary Pilot Project, COUNTER reports were used as a way to quantitatively study how the pilot groups were using the e-Repository.

Methodology

Activity on the digital repository from the pilot sites was monitored based on IP addresses. At the end of each month, November, December and January, COUNTER 2 compliant reports were run. Journal Reports 1 and 3 and Database Report 1 comprised the set of reports. ¹¹ The reports contain information on:

1. Searches and sessions performed from each site
2. PDF downloads
3. HTML full-text views
4. TOC views
5. Abstract views

Results

November

	PDF	HTML	Abstract	TOC	Searches	Sessions
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre	51	3	1	63	80	28
CANMET Energy Technology Centre	1,657	16	15	416	500	146
Institute of Ocean Sciences/Pacific Geoscience Centre	281	5	20	183	398	143
TOTAL	1,989	24	2,013	662
Monthly total of all activities	4,688

December

	PDF	HTML	Abstract	TOC	Searches	Sessions
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre	147	6	24	95	217	31
CANMET Energy Technology Centre	354	5	1	129	165	83
Institute of Ocean Sciences/Pacific Geoscience Centre	23	2	2	37	42	37
TOTAL	524	13	537	261
Monthly total of all activities	1,335					;

January

	PDF	HTML	Abstract	TOC	Searches	Sessions
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre	176	14	9	67	199	40
CANMET Energy Technology Centre	379	5	16	191	212	75
Institute of Ocean Sciences/Pacific Geoscience Centre	65	7	24	94	144	50
TOTAL	620	26	646	352
Monthly total of all activities	1,644

Definitions ¹² of terms in table:

• Search: 'A specific intellectual query, typically equated to submitting the search form of the online service to the server'
• Session: 'A successful request of an online service. It is one cycle of user activities that typically starts when a user connects to the service or database and ends by terminating activity that is either explicit (by leaving the service through exit or logout) or implicit (timeout due to user inactivity) (NISO)'
• PDF: 'Article formatted in portable document format so as to be readable via the Adobe Acrobat reader; tends to replicate online the appearance of an article as it would appear in printed page form'
• HTML: 'Article formatted in HTML so as to be readable by a Web browser'

Conclusions

Use of the site over the duration of the pilot averaged 609 PDF ¹³ downloads/month.

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¹⁰The COUNTER Code of Practice
Journals and Databases: Release 2
Published April 2005; valid from 1 January 2006

¹¹ Journal Reports 1 and 3 and Database Report 1 are fully described in The COUNTER Code of Practice
Journals and Databases: Release 2
Published April 2005; valid from 1 January 2006

¹² Definitions taken from The COUNTER Code of Practice
Journals and Databases: Release 2
Published April 2005; valid from 1 January 2006

¹³ Use of the site over the pilot averaged 1,044 PDF downloads/month. This average included an unusually high number of downloads from the Devon site during November. Devon's usage remained consistent at around 350 PDF downloads/month in December and January. If the November usage statistic was adjusted to 350, then use of the site over the duration of the pilot would have averaged 609 PDF downloads/month. This number was used to represent site usage during the pilot, as it seems to most accurately represent true consistent usage levels.