From: Anne Osterman <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 20:42:20 +0000

Announcing Usus – a community website on usage

Usus (Latin for usage) is a new, independent, community-run website
(http://www.usus.org.uk/) for all those interested in the usage of
online content.  It is designed to support a productive conversation
among librarians, publishers, aggregators, and repository managers so
that we can all get the best possible usage reports for our electronic
resources.

The Usus website provides:

* A source of  hints and tips on solving known problems

* A list of vendors with problems that are affecting the credibility
and/or usefulness of the COUNTER reports

* A collection point for suggestions for new COUNTER usage reports and metrics

Supervisory Board

The Usus Supervisory Board will ensure that the website is editorially
independent and will serve the needs of the community. Chaired by Anne
Osterman, Deputy Director of VIVA (the Virtual Library of Virginia),
the members of the Supervisory Board are:

Anne Osterman, VIVA, USA (Chair)
Simon Bevan, Cranfield University, UK
Melissa Blaney, ACS Publications, USA
Anna Creech, University of Richmond, USA
Lorraine Estelle, JISC, UK
Oliver Pesch, EBSCO, USA
Kari Schmidt, Montgomery College, USA
Mark Tullos, ProQuest, USA

Travel Award

Thank you to Project COUNTER for the financial support needed to get
Usus off the ground.  COUNTER has also offered to provide a travel
award worth £1,000/$1,500 to a librarian who contributes the best
opinion piece for the News & Opinions section of the Usus site.  The
award can be used to travel to the Charleston Conference, UKSG
Conference, or Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference.  Please
send your submissions of 1,000 words or less to [log in to unmask]
by December 31, 2014.

For more information, please contact Usus at: [log in to unmask]