EBSCO server puts Sushi on database menu

Sushi, or the Standardised Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative, was created by US standards body NISO to make it easier for libraries to track journal and database usage centrally instead of having to collate statistics from each individual publisher.

EBSCO has been involved with SUSHI since its inception in 2006.

Developers from EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service were involved in developing the schemas and the standard, and the EBSCOhost service was one of the prototype servers.

According to Michael Gorrell, chief information officer at EBSCO, the company began to plan for the Sushi server for EBSCOhost research databases even before Sushi became an official standard in late 2007.

The Ebsco server was developed in tandem with a major overhaul of the EBSCOhost interface that was several months in the making.

“Thankfully it’s been very well received,” said Gorrell. “It did, however, have an impact on the other things we were able to focus on, including Sushi support.

Despite those factors, it is our understanding that we are the first database provider to introduce a Sushi server.

“Sushi is important because it is the only standard that provides a practical solution for our customers to capture their usage for meaningful analysis.”

Gorrell said that efforts to promote the standard to a wider group were paying off.
“If the recent announcement by Gale about its upcoming plans to introduce a Sushi server is any indication, adoption is beginning to happen.

“This rate of adoption will be further accelerated by the recent release of release 3 of the Counter code of practice for journals and databases, in which providing a Sushi server becomes a requirement for compliance with Counter.”