[Eril-l] Counter Searches vs. Unique Item Investigations

[Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list]

I just learned from a presentation at the Acquisitions Institute
<https://acquisitionsinstitute.org/> this past week that Counter 5.1
apparently reports unique title requests accurately, but not unique item
requests. Unique Item requests count all items of a title as used even if
only one was used (i.e. all book chapters record usage when only one book
chapter was actually accessed). Perhaps that is what is happening.

I do not yet know specifics for all of the reports, but had planned to
explore it.

Chris

_______________________
Christine W. Blackman (Chris)
Head of Collections and Systems
Williams Libraries <https://library.williams.edu/>
(413) 597-4403
pronouns: she/her



On Fri, May 22, 2026 at 9:41 AM Electronic Resources in Libraries
discussion list via Eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org> wrote:

> I understand the distinctions between searches, total item requests, and
> unique item investigations.  What I’m wondering about is why a database
> would have a large number of searches (over 1,000) yet only have small,
> double digit unique item investigations and/or total item requests.  Is
> there some explanation for this significant variance?
>
> Thanks
> Mark
>
> —
>
> Mark Gooch
>
> Collection Management Librarian
>
> The College of Wooster Libraries
>
> 1140 Beall Ave.
>
> Wooster, Ohio 44691
>
> Phone: 330-263-2522
>
> FAX: 330-263-2253
>
> mgooch at wooster.edu
> _______________________________________________
> Eril-l mailing list
> Eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
> http://lists.eril-l.org/listinfo.cgi/eril-l-eril-l.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.eril-l.org/pipermail/eril-l-eril-l.org/attachments/20260522/ac548713/attachment.htm>