EBSCO Information Services Successfully Tests Web Service for Harvesting Usage Statistics

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, U.S.A., November 22, 2005 – In collaboration with various members of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), EBSCO Information Services has successfully demonstrated a Web service that will allow simple machine-to-machine transfer of journal-level usage. The initial pilot is part of the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) which continues to evolve with the support of NISO.

The wide acceptance of the Project COUNTER Code of Practice has assisted greatly in the standardization of how usage data is counted and presented. Libraries are now looking to consolidate this normalized data as input for collection development decisions. A new and sometimes significant challenge is the actual collection of reports for analysis. SUSHI was specifically introduced to solve the problem of harvesting this data. With SUSHI, the library’s usage consolidation application (often tied to a library’s e-resource management software) will be able to use the Web service to automatically retrieve data whenever desired.

Initiative co-chair and EBSCO’s Chief Strategist of E-Resources Oliver Pesch said: “We are very excited about this initiative as it solves a very real problem in an elegant way. The simplicity of the solution makes it accessible to content providers and application developers alike. We are also pleased with the positive support from both NISO and Project COUNTER.”

SUSHI will be released by NISO as a Draft Standard for Trial Use early in 2006. This release will be followed by a workshop in the spring of 2006 which will introduce the Initiative to a larger community of stakeholders. More information on the initiative can be found at the SUSHI Web site at http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/elicensestudy/ermi2/sushi/.

About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services provides libraries and research centers with online and print journal subscription services, e-resource access and management services, full-text and secondary database development and access, an OpenURL-compliant link resolver, online book purchasing and related information services. EBSCO maintains a title database of more than 300,000 title listings and upholds relationships with more than 78,000 publishers around the world.

EBSCO’s 32 Regional Offices worldwide are staffed with personnel who speak the local language and understand the particular challenges faced by librarians in their areas, offering a uniquely personal level of service. Specialized divisions serve academic, biomedical, government, public, school and special libraries as well as corporations.

About NISO
NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation. NISO Standards, information about NISO's activities and membership are featured on the NISO website http://www.niso.org.

About COUNTER
COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a multi-agency initiative whose objective is to develop 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. Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for journals and databases was published in January 2003 and is now widely implemented. COUNTER is actively supported by the international community of librarians and publishers, and by their professional organizations.