COUNTER - Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources

" 'The use of online information resources is growing exponentially. It is widely agreed by producers and purchasers of information that the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they buy from a variety of sources is being used; publishers want to know how the information products they disseminate are being accessed. An essential requirement to meet these objectives is an agreed international Code of Practice governing the recording and exchange of online usage data. No such Code of Practice yet exists' (from SEPW)

This is a very important theme as libraries move more and more into the electronic and digital realm. In order for some libraries to justify their existence, they sometimes need to provide a count of usage of library materials. To this day there is no uniform code for obtaining this number. There should be, so that when administrator ask, 'what methods did you use to obtain these figures?', librarians can point to specific and 'official' rules. Am I also correct in thinking that this system can be used as bargaining power with vendors?" [Library Stuff]

It's so true that libraries need new metrics to fully illustrate the breadth of services they now provide. Check out this slide (Powerpoint) from Navjit Brar's presentation about Mobile Computing at the Kennedy Library (Powerpoint) as evidence.

While I'm not totally sure how to pull it off (especially in regards to privacy concerns), I think there should be a way to use GIS to plot various statistics (database searches, web site hits, circulation, in-library foot traffic, interlibrary loan requests, online catalog searches, reference questions, programming counts, etc.) for a given library. A color, multi-layered map of actual points that represent constituents using specific library services would go a long with legislators.