SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) allows libraries to automatically retrieve COUNTER usage reports from publishers without manual downloading. It is important because it helps libraries efficiently manage large amounts of usage data without human intervention. SUSHI supports all COUNTER Release 3 reports and compliance is now required. The California Digital Library uses usage statistics to evaluate resources and is testing SUSHI to automate downloading reports from multiple UC campuses. Next steps are full content provider implementation of SUSHI by the August 2009 deadline.

1. California Digital Library
NISO Standardized Usage Statistics
Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI):
Z39.93
Chan Li
California Digital Library
ALA Midwinter 2009

2. California Digital Library
Agenda
• SUSHI: What it is and Isn’t
• Why is SUSHI important
• SUSHI/COUNTER relationship
• How does SUSHI work and how to implement
SUSHI
• How does CDL deal with usage statistics
• What have we accomplished and Next Steps
• Discussion?

3. California Digital Library
SUSHI: What it is and Isn’t
• What it is:
– A web-services model for
requesting data
• Replaces the user’s need to
download files from
vendor’s website
– SUSHI schema is to define
the expected values that move
from one place to another
• What it isn’t:
– A model for counting usage
statistics (that's what the
COUNTER Code of Practice
does)
– A usage consolidation
application
Slide courtesy of Adam Chandler, Cornell University Library
SUSHI---Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative

4. California Digital Library
Why is SUSHI important?
• As the usage data continues to proliferate, libraries are still
managing the usage data by hand and SUSHI is going to
solve the difficult usage data collection/management
problem without human intervention.
• SUSHI is a collaboration initiative that builds on and
reinforces COUNTER standard work.
o SUSHI is now capable of supporting any of COUNTER reports in
Release 3, including the consortium reports
o SUSHI support becomes a requirement for COUTNER Code of
Practice compliance In Release 3.

5. California Digital Library
COUNTER/SUSHI relationship
Date Standard Event
January 2003 COUNTER COP 1 for journals and databases
April 2005 COUNTER COP 2 for journals and databases
Feb 2006 NISO SUSHI Version 0.1 of the SUSHI schema (proof of concept)
September 2006 NISO SUSHI Version 1.0 of the SUSHI schema: Draft Standard for Trial
Use, NISO Z39.93-200X
October 2007 NISO SUSHI Version 1.5 of the SUSHI schema: ANSI/NISO Z39.93-2007
July 2008 COUNTER COP 3 for journals and databases
November 2008 NISO SUSHI a) Version 3.0 of the COUNTER Code of practice XML
Schema; b) Version 1.6 of the SUSHI schema
Slide courtesy of Adam Chandler, Cornell University Library

6. California Digital Library
Technically, how does SUSHI work

7. California Digital Library
Implementing SUSHI
• SUSHI is not a stand-alone application, it works with
another system to retrieve COUNTER usage reports
o SUSHI Client on the library’s server / usually integrated with an
ERM system
o SUSHI server on content provider’s system
• COUNTER reports need to be loaded into another system
for processing and reporting
• For SUSHI to be effective, a Usage Management system
must be in place

8. California Digital Library
How does CDL deal with usage
statistics
• Usage statistics is one of the major measures used at CDL
to evaluate journals / databases performance
Annual usage statistics collection project for major journal packages
and databases licensed by UC libraries
Data analysis for the e-resources when we have ad-hoc packages
review projects: usage data, cost per use, citation data, Bergstrom-
McAfee data, UC publication data, cost per article, use per article,
etc.
• Downloading usage stats for 10 UC campuses and merging
the usage stats with other data points are time consuming.
ScholarlyStats service
Manually manage the usage stats for the rest of the resources

9. California Digital Library
Data analysis for Publisher A
• ISSN
• Journal Title
• List Price
• Coverage begin date
• Broad Subject Category
• Average Annual list price increase
• Relative cost index from Bergstrom-McAfee
database
• Value from Bergstrom-McAfee database
• Impact Factor
• No. of articles published by UC authors
• UC aggregated usage data
• Usage % change from previous year
• Cost per Use
• 10 Campuses usage data

10. California Digital Library
How will COUNTER and SUSHI help us
• Consortium Reports required by COUNTER Release 3 of the Code of
Practice:
– Full text requests by title and searches by database with breakdown by
consortium member
– A single login for all the consortium accounts
• We are going to test the SUSHI loads through our ERM
implementation

11. California Digital Library
Committee membership
• Adam Chandler (co-chair), Cornell University
Library
• Oliver Pesch (co-chair), EBSCO Information
Services
• Nettie Lagace, Ex Libris, Inc.
• Hana Levay, University of Washington Libraries
• Chan Li, California Digital Library
• and lots of help from NISO staff
• Call for more members?

12. California Digital Library
Let’s take a look at SUSHI website
and what we have accomplished in
the past

13. California Digital Library
SUSHI Web Site (http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi)
Data value registry
Annotated diagrams
SUSHI Compliance List

14. California Digital Library
Next steps
• Continue to refine documentation and support
• Track content provider implementations through
COUNTER Code of Practice Release 3 compliance
auditing process. Deadline is August 31, 2009

15. California Digital Library
Next Steps for YOU
• For Consolidators & Content Providers:
Implement! Implement! Implement!
• For Librarians:
Support! Support! Support!

16. California Digital Library
Discussion:
•What are your experiences working with
COUNTER reports and at your library, how do
you use the usage data in the decision making
process?
•What are your experiences working with
SUSHI?

17. California Digital Library
Thank You
chan.li@ucop.edu