Automating usage data and building a cost per use you can stand behind

Live webinar by CELUS & ConsortiaManager | 50 min + 10 min Q&A

Budgets are flat. Prices aren't. And sooner or later, someone asks the direct question: what are we renewing, and what are we letting go?

Answering that properly means knowing what each resource costs you per use. Most libraries can produce that number for one or two agreements. Far fewer can produce it consistently across their whole portfolio — and a cost-per-use figure you can't compare against anything else doesn't actually help you make a decision.

The problem isn't the formula. It's the data behind it.

Usage is spread across publisher platforms, SUSHI feeds, emails, downloaded reports and spreadsheets. Some of your most expensive resources may not support COUNTER at all. And even when you have the usage, you still need to know what was actually included in the agreement, which period and cost to use, and which usage metric makes sense.

In this practical webinar, CELUS and ConsortiaManager will show how to bring those pieces together and build cost-per-use figures you can actually defend — in front of your director, finance office or faculty committee.

What you'll learn

• The three questions that determine whether your cost per use survives scrutiny: what was actually in the package, what was actually used, and which metric you counted.
• How to move from analyzing individual agreements to comparing your whole portfolio — so cost per use becomes a decision-making tool rather than an isolated number.
• How to include resources that don't support COUNTER, from legal databases and news archives to standards, streaming services and local-language publishers.
• Why agreement data matters as much as usage data — including scope, subscription period and the titles actually covered by the price.
• How to spot zero-use and underused content — and distinguish a collection decision from a potential access problem.
• Why one year's usage deserves more context than it used to, with AI-assisted discovery, bot traffic, platform changes and the COUNTER 5.1 transition shifting usage patterns.
• How CELUS and ConsortiaManager bring usage, agreements and costs together to create comparable, portfolio-wide insights.

We'll take a real agreement from price and scope through usage to title-level cost per use, including both COUNTER and non-COUNTER data, and show what the resulting numbers can tell you.

Who should attend?

This session is designed for e-resources, acquisitions and collection development librarians, and anyone responsible for evaluating or defending a collections budget.

You don't need to use CELUS or ConsortiaManager to attend. The principles apply whether you're working with dedicated tools, spreadsheets, or a combination of both.

Choose the session that works for your time zone:

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September 24 at 9:00 CEST - REGISTER HERE

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September 24 at 20:00 CEST - REGISTER HERE

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Both sessions cover the same content and include a live Q&A.

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