Usage Consolidation Frequently Asked Questions

• How can EBSCONET^® Usage Consolidation help me?
• Does Usage Consolidation support COUNTER and SUSHI?
• If a content provider does not offer COUNTER reports, can I still load the usage into Usage Consolidation?
• Which content providers are SUSHI compliant?
• I manage my subscriptions using the EBSCONET^® Subscription Management interface.
  Will Usage Consolidation fit into my current workflow?
• How does Usage Consolidation help me with collection management decisions?
• Can usage be estimated for future months or months where usage was missing?
• How do I know when the usage shown in a Usage Consolidation report has been estimated?
• Will Usage Consolidation show me a breakdown of full-text downloads by database on full-text aggregator platforms?
• Does Usage Consolidation enable cost-per-use analysis?
• Do I get extra analysis featured for e-packages I buy through EBSCO?
• What about the e-packages and e-journals I don't buy through EBSCO?
• Can Usage Consolidation capture usage for my individually subscribed e-journals?
• In Usage Consolidation reports, what does it mean when the "In My Collection" flag for a title is set to "N"?
• Why would a title not in the libraries collection have use?
• What if I don’t have time to load usage?

• How can EBSCONET^® Usage Consolidation help me?
  EBSCONET^® Usage Consolidation provides valuable collection usage data and allows you to access cost-per-use information instantly within EBSCONET^® Subscription Management, enabling you to make sound collection development decisions and, ultimately, provide the best resources to your users.back to top
• Does Usage Consolidation support COUNTER and SUSHI?
  Yes. Usage Consolidation allows you to load data from virtually any content provider offering usage reports that are compliant with or similar to COUNTER (automated through SUSHI, where applicable).back to top
• If a content provider does not offer COUNTER reports, can I still load the usage into Usage Consolidation?
  Yes. Usage Consolidation allows you to load reports from any content provider that generates usage statistics, as long as those statistics can be converted into a COUNTER format (by copying and pasting details using Excel, for instance). Once converted into COUNTER format, the usage is treated like COUNTER data and can be loaded into Usage Consolidation.back to top
• Which content providers are SUSHI compliant?
  A list of SUSHI-compliant content providers is available at the SUSHI Server Registry: https://sites.google.com/site/sushiserverregistry/.back to top
• I manage my subscriptions using the EBSCONET^® Subscription Management interface.
  Will Usage Consolidation fit into my current workflow?
  Yes. Usage Consolidation is designed to provide usage data in EBSCONET^® Subscription Management, the tool you already use to make subscription, e-package, and other e-resource decisions.
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• How does Usage Consolidation help me with collection management decisions?
  Thanks to a real-time connection with Usage Consolidation, usage data is directly integrated into your EBSCONET^® Subscription Management session,  providing overall usage and cost-per-use details for subscriptions. Also in EBSCONET Subscription Management, you can instantly view your library's EBSCO A-to-Z^® holdings information (including all locations of a title, in addition to specifics about coverage and embargoes). Knowing that a title is available in a database or through another package is valuable input to help you make well-informed collection development decisions.
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• Can usage be estimated for future months or months where usage was missing?
  Yes. “Estimate Missing Usage” is an option on all Usage Consolidation reports. When that option is checked, the system will supply estimates for the missing usage based on a rolling average of actual usage available for a title for the reporting period. For example, if you request a usage report for January through December of 2011 and only January through October usage has been loaded, the system will estimate usage of November and December if you have selected the option to provide estimates.  
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• How do I know when the usage shown in a Usage Consolidation report has been estimated?
  Estimated values in the report will display as red italics on the screen and in the Excel download file.  In addition, most of the Usage Consolidation reports include a Usage Status column, which will have a value of “Estimated” if some of the usage for that title has been estimated.
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• Will Usage Consolidation show me a breakdown of full-text downloads by database on full-text aggregator platforms?
  No. COUNTER reports journal usage at the platform level, and there is no breakdown by database. Note that release 4 of the COUNTER Code of Practice introduces two new metrics that will offer a better measure of activity for databases — Record Views and Results Clicks by Database. A Record View is essentially when you click to look at the detailed view of the record in a database. A Result Click is when you click on a link in the initial result list to get more information about the result from the database, including linking to the detail record; looking at references; linking to an external source like a link resolver; etc. These new metric types, which apply to both full-text and A & I databases, provide a much truer measure of the value you get from the databases than the searches and sessions.
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• Does Usage Consolidation enable cost-per-use analysis?
  Yes, through EBSCONET Subscription Management. The role of Usage Consolidation is to collect and store usage data and enable other EBSCO tools, like EBSCONET Subscription Management, to use that usage to provide point-of-need analysis data, such as cost-per-use. You will find the cost-per-use details directly integrated into EBSCONET Subscription Management — the tool you use to manage renewals, work packages, consider new titles for subscription, etc.
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• Do I get extra analysis featured for e-packages I buy through EBSCO?
  Yes. Since EBSCO knows the titles in your packages as well as the cost information, you are able to get usage and cost-per-use details directly in the My Publisher Packages option within EBSCONET Subscription Management. There is no need to add cost data to another system or identify which titles are part of a package — this is all done for you.
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• What about the e-packages and e-journals I don't buy through EBSCO?
  Usage Consolidation allows you to load usage for any platform (content host), regardless of where you buy the resources.  For those resources you buy through EBSCO, the cost-per-use analysis is available in EBSCONET Subscription Management.  For your other resources, you can download your usage into a spreadsheet then use Microsoft Excel to add the relevant cost details and calculate cost-per-use.
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• Can Usage Consolidation capture usage for my individually subscribed e-journals?
  Yes. With Usage Consolidation, you can load COUNTER reports for the platforms (content hosts) where you access your content. Because usage is reported at the platform level, it does not matter if you subscribe to titles hosted on that platform as e-packages or as individual e-journals; the COUNTER report will list all titles available on that platform and include usage for each.  Once the usage has been loaded into Usage Consolidation, usage data will be available to your EBSCONET Subscription Management account and will be displayed in the Subscription Usage Details Report, in hover-over displays, and in the Usage Details data panels for Orders and Titles.  If you choose to load usage for your aggregated databases as well as your e-packages and individual e-journals, EBSCONET will show usage for All Platforms as well as for the Publisher’s Platform.
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• In Usage Consolidation reports, what does it mean when the "In My Collection" flag for a title is set to "N"?
  When the "In My Collection" flag is set to "N" for a particular resource, it means the title has not been selected as part of the EBSCO A-to-Z® account associated with your UC account; in other words, the title is not in your EBSCO A-to-Z list.back to top
• Why would a title not in the library's collection have use?
  One reason is that it may be in your library's collection but may not have been added to your EBSCO A-to-Z list. Other reasons why a title that is technically not in your collection may show up in a COUNTER usage report:
  • The usage could be past usage from a title that has since been removed from your collection.
  • You may have chosen to not add "non-subscribed" journals from a package to your OPAC and A-to-Z list.
  • Some publishers might include usage of titles not in your collection but from which individual articles had been purchased via PPV.
  • A publisher might have temporarily activated access to a title for a "free trial,"and that title might have gotten use.
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• What if my staff and I don't have time to load usage?
  EBSCO knows that you and your staff may not be able to dedicate time to loading usage, so we can load usage on your behalf. We have established the EBSCO Usage Loading Service, a separate, highly skilled team that’s dedicated to helping Usage Consolidation customers manage usage statistics. This provides you with the option to outsourcing the configuration, harvesting, and loading of usage data to EBSCO (a quote for this service can be provided upon request) — and allows you to focus on improving the quality of your collection.
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Glossary

The following is a list of helpful terms related to EBSCONET Usage Consolidation.

Cost-per-use analysis

A feature of EBSCONET Subscription Management. For those titles bought through EBSCO, EBSCONET can pull the usage data from Usage Consolidation for a subscribed title and combine it with cost data in Order History to provide point-of-need cost-per-use analysis. 

EBSCONET Usage Consolidation        

An inexpensive, vendor-neutral module that allows the customer to load usage from ANY supported platform (content host), regardless of where content is purchased. Usage Consolidation is a simple application that focuses on usage and basic reporting, but real-time integration allows EBSCONET Subscription Management to show usage details and present cost-per-use analysis for subscriptions and e-packages

EBSCO Usage Loading Service

A highly skilled team within EBSCO that works on behalf of customers to handle the labor of configuring platform details, obtaining and loading usage data.

Platform

The content host. COUNTER reports are pulled for a customer at the platform level. Journal Report 1 will include all titles from that platform to which the customer has access.