BR: So what are the latest developments at COUNTER?
LE: We needed to make the COUNTER code of practice far more accessible, so we have now developed a new website which presents user-friendly guides for libraries on how to best use reports, and also – very importantly – a guide for publishers to aid those who are not fully compliant – though they may be making strides in that direction – and those who are not yet compliant at all. These consist of technical guides and guides to the reports themselves. Mitchell Dunkley, a Principal Information Assistant for De Montfort University, wrote the three library guides on Database Reports, Journal Reports, and Book Reports. These are available from the COUNTER website: https://www.projectcounter.org/guides-to-counter/
BR: So that’s really going to help Librarians and Publishers. How about those vendors, like Ingenta Connect, that are already compliant?
LE: A problem for all vendors is that there is no automated testing service for their COUNTER reports. A very exciting development is that we’re now building a fully automated testing service. This has been generously funded with a contribution from the EBSCO Foundation. It will be available before the end of this year.
BR: So we can test our own COUNTER reports against it?
LE: Exactly. It’ll be a real efficiency saving for all vendors, and help ensure reports are accurate and according to our code and policies.
BR: So win-win all round! What other initiatives are planned?
LE: We ran a survey last year and realised there was a huge demand for webinar-based training. So a top priority is more webinars for librarians – and maybe publishers too. The last webinar was run with UKSG and attracted 600 participants. We’d be delighted to run one with Ingenta.
BR: We’ll get that organised! We also have a new YouTube Channel – could we do a video training session and discussion on Counter?
LE: Very happy to do that, perhaps in the autumn.
BR: What else is new?
LE: We’ve created a new registry of approved publishers and vendors, with SUSHI login details where applicable. Compliance was a major issue that came out of the 2015 survey. For librarians and publishers who are COUNTER members we now have a forum; we found many issues were in common across a number of our members, so this forum should help providing quick answers to frequently asked questions.
BR: And of course this brings us to COUNTER 5. What’s the next step?
LE: We are currently working on the new release of the COUNTER Code of Practice, with input from librarians and publishers. The draft policy will hopefully be ready by January, and
we’re looking for far greater clarity, transparency and simplicity in the new code. There will
then be a consultation process running from January to March 2017. The new code will be published after that’s complete, probably in the third quarter of 2017.There will then be an eighteen-month grace period for publishers to comply with the new code of practice. We’ll have the new testing site by then too, of course. This will be the last ever release, by the way; after COUNTER 5, we shall move to a policy of continuous small improvements and developments, but no new releases.
BR: Thanks very much Lorraine – looking forward to getting the webinar and video organised!