Happy Holidays from COUNTER

It’s December, which means holiday season is upon us, which in turn means the COUNTER office will be closed from the 20th of December until the 3rd of January. 

Before the break, though, I am excited to say that 2024 is our 21st anniversary year, and we’ve some extremely big plans*. The news I can share right now is that, in response to many requests from the community, there’s going to be a COUNTER Conference next year! If you’ve always wanted to share your COUNTER expertise, check out the call for speakers below. And if you’d like to get even more deeply involved, this newsletter includes an invitation for nominees to join our Board.

Before I sign off to gorge myself on mince pies, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who’s worked with me this year: our Board, Executive Committee, Technical Advisory Group, Communications & Engagement Group, and of course YOU. So thank you, happy holidays, and stay safe.

*don’t worry, our big plans are things like a new strategy and a fresh website, not a new Release!

Call for Speakers at the COUNTER Conference

The COUNTER team is delighted to announce the first ever COUNTER Conference, running alongside our Annual General Meeting on 16th May 2024. This online event, exclusively for COUNTER members, will focus on sharing best practices for usage metrics. The Conference will also include the launch of a new COUNTER strategy and updates on our plans for the next five years.

If you would like the opportunity to share your expertise in a 20-30 minute session, please send us a proposal. Topics we’d like to see include but aren’t limited to:

• Best practices for working with usage metrics within library or publisher teams
• Innovations in working with COUNTER reports
• Usage as part of demonstrating research impact
• Usage metrics for assessing open access resources
• Technical implementation approaches

Please send us your proposals by the 31st of January 2024 at https://forms.gle/ErGz5agmSLL4H7EB6. We encourage submissions from COUNTER members anywhere in the world and from all parts of our community, but sales pitches will not be considered.

For more information about COUNTER and how to join, please visit the members page.

Join the COUNTER Board

COUNTER’s Board of Directors are the people who make sure we’re delivering on our mission and objectives – and this is your opportunity to get involved. We are recruiting new Directors to bring in new experiences and perspectives and diversify our Board, with three open vacancies to start in mid-2024. The new Board members will play a key role in helping us deliver the new strategy, so if you are enthusiastic about usage metrics and want to guide us forward, this is the perfect role for you.

Who we’re looking for

• Of our three open positions, one is reserved for a publisher or aggregator so that COUNTER’s Board can continue to represent all parts of the knowledge community.
• We welcome and encourage the nomination of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to diversity in race, ethnicity, culture, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, geographic location, and career stage. The only restriction is that candidates must be employed or associated with a COUNTER member organisation.

About the role

• Directors are expected to make constructive contributions to our discussions during our quarterly meetings, and may occasionally be called upon to share their expertise between times.
• Directors hold their roles for three years, and may be reinstated for a second three-year term
• This is an unpaid role, but if we ask you to travel for any reason then reasonable expenses will of course be reimbursed.

The process

If you’d like to be part of the team and influence the future of COUNTER, please send a short expression of interest together with your CV or LinkedIn profile to by the 31st of January. The current Board of Directors will review the expressions of interest and recommend a slate of candidates for approval by the membership.

COUNTER in the Community

After a busy few months with multiple conferences and webinars, it’s a little quieter for a while. The next significant event where you’ll find the COUNTER team is ER&L (https://electroniclibrarian.org/), where Athena Hoeppner and Tasha Mellins-Cohen are running a four-hour workshop getting up close and personal with usage metrics.

If you missed the recent webinar on Release 5.1: what you need to know, you’ll find the video in our previous post.

Ask Us Anything

I’ve already said 2024 is shaping up to be a big year. One of our projects is a new COUNTER website, which will include an FAQ. If there’s a question you think we need to include, contact tasha@countermetrics.org.