Challenges and Opportunities for E-Resource Management

1. Challenges and Opportunities for E-Resource Management Jill Grogg E-Resources Librarian University of Alabama September 23, 2007

2. Fun with Acronyms • DLF ERMI – Digital Library Federation Electronic Resource Management Initiative • ER – Electronic Resources • ERMS – Electronic Resource Management Systems • ER in L – Electronic Resources in Libraries • SUSHI – Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative

3. Common mission • Make as much available in as many places as possible WHILE • Managing all the technology, tasks, and data necessary to facilitate such ubiquitous access. • In other words: The right resource for the right person at the right time.

4. The myth of multitasking • Hal Pashler, a professor at the University of California, San Diego: "If you talk on the cell phone and drive to work, you don't crash the car, but you may forget where you parked it." • October 12, 2006, Bob Faw, correspondent for NBC Nightly News Report, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15225042

5. Translated to e-resources • OCLC/RLG databases switched from the Eureka platform to the FirstSearch platform in September … I scanned this email announcement while talking to my boss about our three-year renewal for ScienceDirect … so what are the chances I will remember or even process that the OCLC/RLG switch requires some action on my part?

6. We’ve acknowledged and addressed the problem • Volume of e-resource materials collected in libraries has reached critical mass that prohibits traditional title-by-title management. • Thus, traditional tools (ILS) used to manage e-resources are not in and of themselves effective. • Digital Library Federation Electronic Resource Management Initiative initial report released in August 2004 (http://diglib.org/standards/dlf-erm02.htm)

7. To understand where we are going… Let’s examine where we have been (and for some of us, still are).

8. Self-disclosure

9. More self-disclosure

10. Information held hostage

11. Fantasy vs. Reality

12. Pandora’s Box Responsibilities for data entry Collaboration of library departments Prioritization of ERMI data elements Examination of local e-resource workflow Library mission for ER access and discovery

13. Recipe for successful ERM • System to: • manage the entire life cycle of an electronic resource • performs a variety of functions • facilitate workflow processes • eliminate duplicative efforts • help all users lose ten pounds • Honest workflow analysis + flexible people + efficient tools = SUCCESS

14. ERMS Implementation Choices • Administrative metadata • Collection development / management / evaluation info • Licensing / terms of use information • Public display • Incident tracking / reporting • Acquisitions / financial data • Queues / ticklers / other workflow “helpers” • And more ….

15. Interoperability “Interoperability is a much bandied about term these days. It is a very broad term that covers many of the issues that impinge on the effectiveness with which heterogeneous information resources can co-exist …

16. Interoperability, continued … To achieve the goal of seamless integration for the user requires significant collaboration and partnerships; and the use of standards and the implementation of common protocols is key to success ...

17. Interoperability, final thoughts • … as important [as technical interoperability] is the semantic interoperability … and libraries themselves need to consider the human/political interoperability as well as international and intercommunity interoperability.” • Jenny Walker, Online Conferentie NederlandApril 5, 2000; also published as “Open Linking for Libraries: the OpenURL Framework,” in New Library World 102, no. 1163/1164, 2001, pp. 127-133

18. Successes! (and challenges) • ERMI itself, ERMI Phase II • SUSHI • Ticklers and reminders for specific workflow tasks • Reallocating disproportionate number print staff to ER / addressing compartmentalization, gatekeeping • Knowledge management of administrative metadata and other e-resource collection management information

19. Electronic Resource ManagementReport of the DLF ERM Initiative • Timothy D. Jewell • Ivy Anderson • Adam Chandler • Sharon E. Farb • Kimberly Parker • Angela Riggio • Nathan D. M. Robertson Digital Library Federation, Washington, D.C., 2004, http://www.diglib.org/pubs/dlf102/

20. Challenges (and successes!) • Licensing information • Amorphous ER workflow issues (non-linear processes) – seeing the “invisible” • Continued reliance on outside tools • Pulling data from ERM and pushing to context-sensitive user groups • Reporting functionality • Data maintenance • Many more opportunities for standards

21. Most Popular • Cross-population of data from varied systems which leads us back to … Interoperability No publisher is an island, no information cannot be improved by enriching its context. (Pardon the double negative.) -- Elsevier’s Karen Hunter, 1998

22. Interoperability Redux

23. Future discussions • DLF ERMI 2, NISO workshops and committees, LE Working Group, and other less formalized initiatives • Electronic Resources in Libraries Forums • NASIG, ACRL, ALA, LITA • http://www.electroniclibrarian.org/forum • Article summarizing past year’s forums forthcoming

24. Questions?jgrogg@ua.edu