The E-Resources Unit collects usage statistics for each of the Libraries’ electronic subscriptions, including databases, journals, and other resources. We input these numbers into the budget center trackers (link) to generate an annual cost per use figure. Cost per use is the cost of the resource in that fiscal year divided by how many uses the resource had in the past calendar year.
The majority of usage reports the E-Resources Unit can generate are COUNTER-compliant. The majority of vendors are compliant with Release 5 of COUNTER statistics as of 2020. Here are some commonly-used metrics from COUNTER-5 reports:
- Journal Report 1 (TR_J1)
- Used to assess e-journal usage
- Displays the metrics investigations, requests, and searches
- Preferred metric is total item requests, which is the number of successful full-text article requests by month and journal
- Excludes open access titles (OA Gold)
- Database Report 1 (DR_D1)
- Used to assess database usage
- Displays the metrics investigations, requests, and searches
- Preferred metric is total item requests, which is the number of successful full-text article requests by month and database
- For abstract and index databases, which do not contain full-text content, the preferred metric is searches
- Book Report 1 (TR_B1)
- Used to assess e-book usage
- Displays the metrics investigations, requests, and searches
- Preferred metric is unique title requests, which is the number of successful title requests by month and title, not counting duplicate requests for the same title by the same person
- Excludes open access titles (OA Gold)
- Platform Report (PR_P1)
- Used to assess platform usage
- Used rarely, when no other usage report is available
- Displays the metrics investigations, requests, and searches
- Preferred metric is unique item requests, which is the number of successful content requests by month and title, not counting duplicate requests for the same title by the same person
- Excludes open access titles (OA Gold)
Cost per use calculations for electronic resources may be found in the budget center trackers (link). Full usage reports are also available upon request. In many cases, E-Resources staff are able to send requested usage stats within 24-48 hours. In cases where staff must contact the vendor or publisher to obtain stats, the request may take longer. Not all vendors comply with COUNTER standards; in some cases we must rely on whatever statistics our vendors provide. Please contact your E-Resources Liaison (link) or e-mail er-help@uflib.ufl.edu to request usage stats or if you have questions about how to interpret usage reports.