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The first release of the COUNTER Code of Practice is now available and can be downloaded from the website at http://www.projectCounter.org. The Code of Practice specifies in detail the requirements that vendors must meet to have their online usage reports designated COUNTER-compliant.
There will be one valid version of the Code of Practice at any given time, but different levels of compliance will be possible. Release 1 focuses on journals and databases, as these products are not only the most significant budget items for libraries, but they have also been available online for some time and have a core of well-accepted definitions and content structures.
"I am delighted that Release 1 of the Code of Practice is now available", said Richard Gedye of Oxford University Press and Chair of COUNTER. He added, "This is a very important step towards producing vendor-generated usage statistics that are credible, compatible and consistent and has been achieved through excellent co-operation between the librarians, vendors and intermediaries involved in the project."
Tony Kidd, Head of Serials at the University of Glasgow, said, "This is a very significant advance in helping us to better understand online usage and compare the effectiveness of different products. We would encourage all publishers worldwide to adopt the Code of Practice and become COUNTER-compliant within the coming year."
**About COUNTER**
COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a multi-agency project whose objective is to develop a single, internationally accepted, extendible Code of Practice that will allow the usage of online information products and services to be measured more consistently. COUNTER is actively supported by the international community of librarians and publishers, and by their professional organisations, including:
AAP, Association of American Publishers
ALPSP, The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
ARL, Association of Research Libraries
ASA, Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
BIC/EDItEUR
JISC, Joint Information Systems Committee
NCLIS, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science
NISO, National Information Standards Organization
PA, The Publishers Association
STM, International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
UKSG, United Kingdom Serials Group
**For more information, please contact Peter Shepherd, Project Director of COUNTER at [log in to unmask]
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