Interview: David Sommer, Chair of COUNTER Executive Committee

In the first of a new series of occasional posts to get to know people within the COUNTER community we interview David Sommer, chair of the COUNTER Executive Committee.

Who are you and who do you work for?

I’m Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Kudos, a company that helps the global research community showcase their ideas and discoveries to diverse and influential audiences in academia, government, industry, education and the media. I also chair the ALPSP Awards Committee.

How are you involved with COUNTER?

I chair the COUNTER Executive Committee, which is the main committee that progresses the work of COUNTER. Tasha does an excellent job as Executive Director, assisted by Siân who manages communications and community engagement. However, many people don’t realise that COUNTER has fewer than one FTE! We are very much reliant on volunteers who sit on various committees, without whom we simply couldn’t exist. I think it is the “for the community, by the community” aspect of COUNTER which has made it so successful. Managing the competing interests and priorities with fairness, openness and transparency is really important to us. And the feedback we get suggests our members and stakeholders appreciate that.

When and why did you get involved?

I have been involved in COUNTER since before it was COUNTER! Back in 2002 it started life as PALS (Publisher and Library Solution). Back then, we were a loose collaboration of interested parties trying to look at the problem of standardising usage data collection and reporting. Before COUNTER, we had a wild west of data reporting which made life very difficult for librarians. I’ve always thought standards were critical for our community, so I jumped in and got involved. That was 22 years ago!

How has COUNTER grown and developed over that time? 

COUNTER has changed a lot over the years. We’ve had three logos and three project / executive directors over the years. The sector no longer sees us as a project exploring some interesting ideas. Now people recognise COUNTER as THE organisation delivering the standard for usage metrics for this community. Libraries, consortia, publishers and vendors rely on COUNTER metrics for credible, consistent and compatible metrics. We have grown our technical capabilities significantly and developed tools to help more providers become and remain compliant. Now we are a highly professional membership organisation with modern tools and systems to help us achieve our mission. Our name change from Project COUNTER to COUNTER Metrics reflects that change.

Why is it important that COUNTER exists?

Without COUNTER, we’d go back to the days of each vendor providing their own format of statistics, making librarians jobs much harder. COUNTER plays a critical role for our community. However, the needs of the community are changing rapidly with the huge growth of Open Access and now the challenges and opportunities of generative AI. COUNTER needs to remain responsive and continue to focus on what is important to our members.

What role do you anticipate COUNTER will play in the future?

Tasha has been busy since she started in April 2022! She led the strategy development, created operational plans and modernised and automated a lot of older systems, particularly around membership, the registry, validation tools, website and Code or Practice development. With these foundations now firmly in place, COUNTER is well positioned to deliver the strategy to support the knowledge community. We will continue to update The Code of Practice, tools and materials to provide the support people need. As a non-profit organisation, we’ll ensure we are sustainable so we can continue to provide the services that people value so much. COUNTER has an exciting future ahead, and we are always looking for volunteers. Now would be a great time to get involved and help shape the future!