Standardizing Usage Statistics Requests with SUSHI

Theodore Fons

Senior Product Manager

Innovative Interfaces

Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI)

The usage statistics gathering enterprise for libraries– The benefits of COUNTER– The task before libraries

The solution for libraries– The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI)

Electronic Resource Management Systems

Future directions for SUSHI

Resources

First, some thoughts on statistics…

Some thoughts on statistics

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.

Some thoughts on statistics

“Meaningless statistics were up one-point-five percent this month over last month.”

Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI)

Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI)

SUSHI is:– An automated way for a customer to harvest COUNTER-based

usage statistics

SUSHI benefits libraries:– By eliminating the labor-intensive process of downloading usage

statistics from each content provider

SUSHI benefits content providers:– By providing an efficient method of providing statistics and

reducing user interface layers

Starting at the beginning: COUNTER

The Usage Statistics Gathering Enterprise for Libraries

The Benefits of COUNTER– Uniformity in the rules of tracking usage– Uniformity of data reported

• What activity is occurring with the electronic resource:– Full text downloads– Database access– Database searches

– Simplifies usage statistics database design– Allows meaningful comparisons between resources

The Usage Harvesting Task for Libraries

The Usage Statistics Gathering Enterprise for Libraries

Libraries must gather statistics from each provider using each provider’s interface

This library maintains a 38 page manual on how to get usage stats from each vendor

The Usage Statistics Gathering Enterprise for Libraries

The Solution for Libraries

The Solution for Libraries

Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI)– June, 2005 Discussions begin: Cornell Univ., Ebsco, Ex Libris,

Innovative, Swets, Univ. of Washington (later expanded to include Thompson

Scientific)– Summer, 2005 Technical discussions– October, 2005 NISO Initiative/Committee forms– April, 2006 University of Nebraska Lincoln harvests data from

Ebsco – Sept., 2006 Draft Standard for Trial Use published – May, 2007 Trial use period completed – June, 2007 NISO membership balloting

– September, 2007 Z39.93, Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative

How does it work?

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : How does it work?

Server

Client

request

usage data

usage data

ERM

Publisher

or

Third Party Aggregator

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : Why Web Services?

Web Services combine the best aspects of component-based development and the Web

Commercially accepted

Widely Supported (W3C)

Secure

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : Some Definitions

XML Schema– A language for describing the structure and constraining the

contents of XML documents. (reactivity.com glossary)

Web Services– Open, standard (XML, SOAP, etc.) based Web applications that

interact with other web applications for the purpose of exchanging data. (lucent.com)

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)– SOAP is a lightweight XML based protocol used for invoking web

services and exchanging structured data and type information on the Web

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : Some Definitions

Web Services Description Language (WSDL)– WSDL is an XML format published for describing Web services

(wikipedia.org)

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : The Exchange

Report Request<Requester>

<Customer Reference>

<Report Definition>

Report Response<Requester>

<Customer Reference>

<Report Definition>

<Report as payload>

Electronic Resource Management Systems

Electronic Resource Management Systems

Collection Analysis &

Usage Tracking

The Benefits of SUSHI

Benefits for Libraries– Efficiency

• The end of manual usage statistics harvesting

• Eliminates significant time investment in manual harvesting

– Integration• Harvesting can be integrated

with the ERMS and/or Integrated Library System

• The burden of database design and development is removed for the library

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : What are the benefits?

Benefits for Content Providers– Matching Customer Expectations

• Libraries see the value in usage statistics and appreciate vendor compliance, but harvesting must be efficient

• Inefficient harvesting adds to overall cost of the electronic resource

– Reduced overall investment• “The best user interface is no user

interface.”• SUSHI moves the user interface

design to the SUSHI client

Benefits for Libraries– Efficiency

• The end of manual usage statistics harvesting

• Eliminates significant time investment in manual harvesting

– Integration• Harvesting can be integrated

with the ERMS and/or Integrated Library System

• The burden of database design and development is removed for the library

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : What are the benefits?

Benefits for Content Providers– Matching Customer Expectations

• Libraries see the value in usage statistics and appreciate vendor compliance, but harvesting must be efficient

• Inefficient harvesting adds to overall cost of the electronic resource

– Reduced overall investment• “The best user interface is no user

interface.”• SUSHI moves the user interface

design to the SUSHI client

– Mitigating element• Relatively easy to implement

• Known Web Services technology

The Future of SUSHI

The Future of SUSHI

Additional Data Elements– Cost and Payment information?– License Terms?

SUSHI could become a requirement for COUNTER compliance– Under consideration by COUNTER

Next Steps…

Steps for Publishers/Content Providers:– Talk to your development staff about SUSHI and web services– Talk to your customers about how important this is to them

Steps for Libraries:– Implement an ERMS with a built-in SUSHI client– Tell your content providers about how important SUSHI is to you

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative

Resources

NISO Website:

http://www.niso.org/committees/SUSHI/SUSHI_comm.html

SUSHI Schemas:

http://www.niso.org/schemas/sushi/index.html

SUSHI FAQ:

http://docs.google.com/View.aspx?docid=d2dhjwd_63tkkwf– What is the relationship of the COUNTER payload schema to the SUSHI schema? – What variable information has to be supplied in a SUSHI (client) request? – What variable information has to be supplied in a SUSHI (server) response? – What COUNTER reports can be delivered with SUSHI? – Does SUSHI support older Releases of the COUNTER reports?

The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative : Resources

Questions?