[Web4lib] NFAIS workshop on Usage Statistics planned

[Seiler, Bernie]

NFAIS Workshop: Usage Statistics: New Developments and Practical Applications
Planned for October 21st, in New York City 

You and your colleagues might be interested in an upcoming NFAIS one-day workshop: Usage Statistics:  New Developments and Practical Applications. NFAIS' Best Practices/Usage Statistics Committee is organizing the meeting.  This meeting, scheduled for October 21, 2008 at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY from 9:00am to 4:30pm, will take a look at some of the new developments in usage statistics that have recently emerged, as well as the current practical applications of usage statistics.

The meeting will open with an update on the progress made by the two key standards for the creation and harvesting of usage statistics - Project COUNTER and SUSHI.  Publishers and librarians will present case studies on how they currently gather, analyze and make informed decisions based upon the data that usage statistics provide.  Of equal importance, they will highlight the pitfalls that must be avoided throughout the process so that the statistics are not unintentionally misused. 

The implications of three new related projects will also be discussed:  NISO's development of identifiers that will allow for the precise recognition of an institution and its relationships with its various libraries, departments, offices, etc., and two initiatives that are attempting to provide usage-based metrics for the scholarly evaluation of articles and journals (Project MESUR and Usage Factor).  The meeting will close with a visionary discussion on how usage statistics can be improved and used in the future to help institutions make informed decisions.

For more information about the meeting and the roster of professionals scheduled to present at this important workshop, please visit the following: http://www.nfais.org/events/event_details.cfm?id=53.

Regards,
Bernie Seiler
Product Manager, WilsonWeb
bseiler at hwwilson.com