In this final blog post, I want to look back at the blogging exercise in general for LIS 855: Electronic Resource Management. I found that blogging once a week about the articles for classes helped me stay on top of the readings, and I found that I would have even probably liked to do a most important sentence or a summary for each article if I were to do it over again. I am not certain that this would have helped me much for the quizzes, but it would have made the blog in to a quick reference for the open book tests.
Unlike the first blog that appears at www.digitaltoolsandtrends.blogspot.com, I felt a bit more like I was writing in to a void. To recap that experience, during the course LIS 644, I was asked to keep a blog and a delicious account to keep track of links and tools on the web related to WorldCat. I received a comment from a woman at OCLC, asking me about the project and posing questions to me about one of my blog posts. I found that to be very intriguing: someone was actually reading besides those in the class! In the case of this blog, I felt like the format of the one reading a week made it too tied to the course, which did not draw any outsiders to the blog. It might as well have been a reading diary in a Word document. For this reason, I tried to tie the readings to real life instead of strictly summarizing them.
I felt most engaged with the blog post about the e-book panel, since I had just attended a similar panel at the 2010 Wisconsin Library Association Conference. I was able to draw off of that real life experience and look deeper at the issues surrounding e-publishing. I also find this subject really interesting to my own experiences, having supported e-book readers and the e-book sales site at Sony. Another blog post I enjoyed writing was the one about how copyright has affected me. I believe that I could have kept on writing this for many more paragraphs. I even found that I left some things out, due to the fact that I felt uncomfortable talking about them on a public blog. Even after I posted it, I came up with another 4-5 instances where copyright has affected me. I thought about writing a second, follow-up copyright post, but realized it may have been too much, and I moved on.
I have truly enjoyed the subject matter of this course. I feel that my understanding of ERM has really grown and blossomed in to an understanding of the complexity of this field. I had initially hoped to do my practicum in an ERM setting, and even though I enjoyed my practicum at the Digital Collections immensely, now I wish I had. It seems like there are a lot of jobs out there in this field. I have a better understanding now of what it would take to be an ERM librarian. I have truly loved the portions of the class where we have had guest speakers. The insight in to institutions such as WiLS, Wisconsin Tech Search, and Interlibrary Loan and the way that these groups interface with each other at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is, in my opinion, a unique experience for a Master's student. This is the kind of stuff I came to SLIS for: real hands-on experience, and a view in to the world of libraries.
Thank you for reading!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Preservation Concerns in the E-Resource Environment
The article by Jennifer Watson for this week talks about maintaining perpetual access to items in a collection. In the print format, we have learned that once technical services librarians are done processing the book, there is little to be done unless a book is damaged. In the case of electronic resources, the need to maintain the digital work is much more time intensive and can require the full-time attention of an ER Librarian. The question that Watson ponders for the first half of the article is:
Why are libraries willing to compromise their desire for perpetual access?
Some more ideas that are repeated from our other readings again by Watson are:
Just yesterday, I was working at the reference desk at MERIT, when a patron asked if she could access a particular journal. She wanted to view the entire journal issue online, not just one article, although they did have one article in mind as an interesting one from that issue. We found out that the access to the electronic version of the journal had been canceled and that back issues were not able to be viewed. The patron was confused. She told us that she had reviewed this journal in this way frequently in the past, but now the website was asking her for a login, even when she was on a campus computer. We also tried to get in, but to no avail. We called over to Memorial Library, and were told it was not available any longer. There was also no print version of the journal in UW's collection after 1999. The patron was in disbelief when we told her that there was nothing we could do except submit an ILL request, and even then the lending library would be recalcitrant to sending an entire journal article, due to copyright issues. She was shocked at the price of the journal. She mentioned that ILL was "too slow" and was not an option. This is a prime example of why we must assure perpetual access. It is confusing to our users when things they could do previously are no longer allowed, and they are not aware of the price that is being paid for journal access.
Why are libraries willing to compromise their desire for perpetual access?
- Patron Pressure
- Rise of Distance Education
- Availability of Content: Electronic content is just becoming more popular
- Financial Pressure: shrinking budgets
- Physical Storage of items
- Human resources limitations
Some more ideas that are repeated from our other readings again by Watson are:
- Normally a fee is required to maintain perpetual access.
- "Cost for digital storage are much higher than generally believed (49)."
- Technology changes very quickly, so that things saved in former file formats or on types of drives may no longer be accessible.
- Access versus ownership
- Pay-per-view and document delivery are on the rise
- Just-in-time collection development is increasingly popular
- "Preserving everything is not an option (51)"
Just yesterday, I was working at the reference desk at MERIT, when a patron asked if she could access a particular journal. She wanted to view the entire journal issue online, not just one article, although they did have one article in mind as an interesting one from that issue. We found out that the access to the electronic version of the journal had been canceled and that back issues were not able to be viewed. The patron was confused. She told us that she had reviewed this journal in this way frequently in the past, but now the website was asking her for a login, even when she was on a campus computer. We also tried to get in, but to no avail. We called over to Memorial Library, and were told it was not available any longer. There was also no print version of the journal in UW's collection after 1999. The patron was in disbelief when we told her that there was nothing we could do except submit an ILL request, and even then the lending library would be recalcitrant to sending an entire journal article, due to copyright issues. She was shocked at the price of the journal. She mentioned that ILL was "too slow" and was not an option. This is a prime example of why we must assure perpetual access. It is confusing to our users when things they could do previously are no longer allowed, and they are not aware of the price that is being paid for journal access.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Life of an ER Librarian
The "Day in the life of an ER Librarian" is a subject that I find worthy of discussion, since I will soon be on the job market. I have really enjoyed having the different people involved in Electronic Resources Management at the UW come talk to us in LIS 855, because it gives us a glimpse of what the daily duties of a number ER Librarians are. It is also clear that some people love their jobs, and others feel indifferent or stressed about their duties. The articles for this week further describe what it would be like to work as an ER librarian.
The role of the ER Librarian is aptly described in the abstract of Albitz and Shelburne's article "Marian Through the Looking Glass: The Unique Evolution of the Electronic Resources (ER) Librarian Position" as being between the two disparate spheres of business and librarianship. After spending the semester in this class, I am convinced that this is the most astute description I have yet heard of the position of an ER Librarian. However, some things surprised me about this 2007 study. Firstly, I did not expect this to be a study, rather just a missive from the field. In the literature review, they mention studies of ER Librarian job postings done from 1990-2000 and 1996-2001. To me, these years can literally be compared to the Dark Ages, due to the fact that many libraries were still focused on CD-ROMs during this time, and fewer had large collections of online works. E-Books were relatively unknown, due to the large file size and slow transfer rates. New, more current studies need to be done, if they have not been completed already, and perhaps they can be compared to this one. It seemed that there were not many respondents to the study, and that perhaps this could mean that there is more to learn about ER Librarians. Lastly, many of the things that were asked seem to be incomparable to the data collected in the two previous studies, which made me question the findings. There are still some things to be taken away from the article.
Job Descriptions
Albitz and Shelburne describe ER Librarian jobs as "kitchen sink" positions; I have felt this when reflecting on whether to apply for the ER jobs in my job searches. It seems to me that some libraries must be dreaming: you may never find anyone who could do all that is being asked of the job descriptions. The findings show that public service is no longer highlighted in the job description, rather the ER Librarian is supposed to focus on the management of electronic materials. This makes sense, since the older studies came out before electronic materials had become more prevalent. Perhaps the ER Librarian did not have enough to do with electronic resources and needed to split their time to help other sections of the library. The following is a list of job tasks that appeared in this article associated with current ER Librarians:
The respondents of this study said that they reported to Technical Services or Acquisitions, rather than to Public Services. In the older studies, the findings showed that most ER Librarian jobs reported to Public Services and a fewer amount report to Technical Services, and their most frequently cited responsibilities are reference and bibliographic instruction. All of this shows to me that the current trends in ER librarianship are moving away from having ER Librarians also perform public service like reference and instruction, likely due to the fact that they have enough work to keep them busy without multitasking. The following duties were also transferred off of the ER Librarian: OPAC Support, web management, online searching, and scholarly communication.
Background in ER
One factoid that I found interesting from this study is that no one had reported that they had held a similar position to their ER Librarian position before their current appointment. The authors of this article say it is because no one applying for these jobs has relevant experience, and that may be true. Many of the ER Librarians were internal candidates or were reassigned in to their positions (67%). Furthermore, in my own job search, it seems to me that I see a lot of these jobs open right now. Is this due to a high turnover? Unhappiness in the job? Or are there more jobs being created? This question is not answered by the researchers, but I feel it could be a combination of all three. The field will continue to change, as will the job descriptions, as technology advances and electronic resources become more technologically complex. It will take a person who can keep up with these changes to stay in the ER world and be happy in it. As Albitz and Shelburne sum it up: "[I]t is important to be willing to take the initiative and learn on your own (26)." Without this, the life of an ER Librarian is sure to be fraught with frustration. All of this being said, I feel that it could be a very good job, and that if one is prepared with a good basis in technology and ERM systems, it is likely a good job for someone just starting out on their job hunt.
The role of the ER Librarian is aptly described in the abstract of Albitz and Shelburne's article "Marian Through the Looking Glass: The Unique Evolution of the Electronic Resources (ER) Librarian Position" as being between the two disparate spheres of business and librarianship. After spending the semester in this class, I am convinced that this is the most astute description I have yet heard of the position of an ER Librarian. However, some things surprised me about this 2007 study. Firstly, I did not expect this to be a study, rather just a missive from the field. In the literature review, they mention studies of ER Librarian job postings done from 1990-2000 and 1996-2001. To me, these years can literally be compared to the Dark Ages, due to the fact that many libraries were still focused on CD-ROMs during this time, and fewer had large collections of online works. E-Books were relatively unknown, due to the large file size and slow transfer rates. New, more current studies need to be done, if they have not been completed already, and perhaps they can be compared to this one. It seemed that there were not many respondents to the study, and that perhaps this could mean that there is more to learn about ER Librarians. Lastly, many of the things that were asked seem to be incomparable to the data collected in the two previous studies, which made me question the findings. There are still some things to be taken away from the article.
Job Descriptions
Albitz and Shelburne describe ER Librarian jobs as "kitchen sink" positions; I have felt this when reflecting on whether to apply for the ER jobs in my job searches. It seems to me that some libraries must be dreaming: you may never find anyone who could do all that is being asked of the job descriptions. The findings show that public service is no longer highlighted in the job description, rather the ER Librarian is supposed to focus on the management of electronic materials. This makes sense, since the older studies came out before electronic materials had become more prevalent. Perhaps the ER Librarian did not have enough to do with electronic resources and needed to split their time to help other sections of the library. The following is a list of job tasks that appeared in this article associated with current ER Librarians:
- ER coordination
- Department liason
- Department management
- Management of acquisitions
- Renewals
- Cancellation
- License and pricing negotiations
- Troubleshooting technical problems
- Management of a link resolver or federated search product
- Coordination of trials of products
- Management of statistics and usage data
The respondents of this study said that they reported to Technical Services or Acquisitions, rather than to Public Services. In the older studies, the findings showed that most ER Librarian jobs reported to Public Services and a fewer amount report to Technical Services, and their most frequently cited responsibilities are reference and bibliographic instruction. All of this shows to me that the current trends in ER librarianship are moving away from having ER Librarians also perform public service like reference and instruction, likely due to the fact that they have enough work to keep them busy without multitasking. The following duties were also transferred off of the ER Librarian: OPAC Support, web management, online searching, and scholarly communication.
Background in ER
One factoid that I found interesting from this study is that no one had reported that they had held a similar position to their ER Librarian position before their current appointment. The authors of this article say it is because no one applying for these jobs has relevant experience, and that may be true. Many of the ER Librarians were internal candidates or were reassigned in to their positions (67%). Furthermore, in my own job search, it seems to me that I see a lot of these jobs open right now. Is this due to a high turnover? Unhappiness in the job? Or are there more jobs being created? This question is not answered by the researchers, but I feel it could be a combination of all three. The field will continue to change, as will the job descriptions, as technology advances and electronic resources become more technologically complex. It will take a person who can keep up with these changes to stay in the ER world and be happy in it. As Albitz and Shelburne sum it up: "[I]t is important to be willing to take the initiative and learn on your own (26)." Without this, the life of an ER Librarian is sure to be fraught with frustration. All of this being said, I feel that it could be a very good job, and that if one is prepared with a good basis in technology and ERM systems, it is likely a good job for someone just starting out on their job hunt.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Future of E-Books
A think tank on the future of e-books. Panel at ER&L 2008. Retrieved from http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/20914.
Having supported a commercial E-book sales site via phone and some of the first readers commercially available while working at Sony, I take a special interest in the future of E-books and E-book readers. For this reason, I was excited to see the video about the future of E-books on the reserves list for class this week. It was also a nice departure from journal articles and readings. Here are a few points I took away from this video:
Although the topic differed slightly, since the ER&L discussion centered on E-books and the WLA panel talked more about the physical readers, the two were similar in that they provided a short case study of 6 libraries' usage of electronic resources. It shows that different libraries have different kinds of users who have different needs. The other difference is a budget issue. For instance, the UW Business Library has MBA students purchase IPads and then loads the course readers on to the IPads as .PDF and .PPT files. Weyenberg Public has Kindles loaded with multiple Amazon E-books that are purchased through grants and donations and circulated throughout their community. These are also able to be discovered through the OPAC by users. The Tennessee librarians at ER&L did not appear to have E-book readers that circulated, however, they did have a large collection of E-books. Two of the librarians on that panel mentioned that their budgets did not include E-books, rather that they depended on restricted funds through donations for increasing their collections. In many cases, libraries do not purchase E-books due to the fact that their budget does not increase, rather it reduces or remains steady.
An issue that was raised in both discussions had to do with cataloging. Linda Bendix provided attendees of the panel with a sample MARC record of one of the circulating Kindles, which contain more than one novel or book on them. The librarians in the think tank discussion also discussed the use of MARC records and the inability of the MARC record to facilitate easy cataloging and location of electronic-only items. This is, to me, further proof of the need for a solution other than the antiquated MARC record and AACR2 cataloging rules. Until a modern method is adopted, the use of an antiquated system that was invented before E-books will continue to make cataloging difficult.
At MERIT Library, I am responsible for the circulating equipment, including 4 IPads. I have asked for 4 Kindles and 4 Nooks for next year's budget. With the help of our Research Intern, Joe Morgan, I hope to come up with a plan to load course materials for select classes on to these machines in order to test out E-book readers and their use in our library. Perhaps we can even turn this in to a study. I know that similar E-book studies are going on now at College Library and elsewhere around the world. Whatever the future holds for E-books, it is clear that there is a great interest in them in the library world. As panels such as these continue to discuss E-books in the present tense, it is my hope that many realize that E-books are here to stay, and that their "future" is secure, as they continue to gain more ground. As Christine Ryan jokingly said in the video, "if the internet breaks in a few years, we can just go back to [physical] books."
Having supported a commercial E-book sales site via phone and some of the first readers commercially available while working at Sony, I take a special interest in the future of E-books and E-book readers. For this reason, I was excited to see the video about the future of E-books on the reserves list for class this week. It was also a nice departure from journal articles and readings. Here are a few points I took away from this video:
- Most of these librarians promote their E-books through the OPAC and not through any other means.
- Vendors completed a survey of librarians that found that librarians believe 70-75% of all E-books are found by students by searching the OPAC, backing up the above statement.
- Students who are asking for E-books are asking for novels, and not reference E-books.
- Funding for E-books is not yet a line item in the budget, but rather comes from donations, grants, or endowments.
- Perpetual access vs. ownership is a big concern for E-books and online journals.
- Vendors could help with discovery by providing Library of Congress Subject Headings.
- E-books could be considered by some libraries to be a space saving technique for overfull stacks.
- E-books require continuing maintenance, whereas with the paper book, technical services need not think about the book unless it is damaged.
Although the topic differed slightly, since the ER&L discussion centered on E-books and the WLA panel talked more about the physical readers, the two were similar in that they provided a short case study of 6 libraries' usage of electronic resources. It shows that different libraries have different kinds of users who have different needs. The other difference is a budget issue. For instance, the UW Business Library has MBA students purchase IPads and then loads the course readers on to the IPads as .PDF and .PPT files. Weyenberg Public has Kindles loaded with multiple Amazon E-books that are purchased through grants and donations and circulated throughout their community. These are also able to be discovered through the OPAC by users. The Tennessee librarians at ER&L did not appear to have E-book readers that circulated, however, they did have a large collection of E-books. Two of the librarians on that panel mentioned that their budgets did not include E-books, rather that they depended on restricted funds through donations for increasing their collections. In many cases, libraries do not purchase E-books due to the fact that their budget does not increase, rather it reduces or remains steady.
An issue that was raised in both discussions had to do with cataloging. Linda Bendix provided attendees of the panel with a sample MARC record of one of the circulating Kindles, which contain more than one novel or book on them. The librarians in the think tank discussion also discussed the use of MARC records and the inability of the MARC record to facilitate easy cataloging and location of electronic-only items. This is, to me, further proof of the need for a solution other than the antiquated MARC record and AACR2 cataloging rules. Until a modern method is adopted, the use of an antiquated system that was invented before E-books will continue to make cataloging difficult.
At MERIT Library, I am responsible for the circulating equipment, including 4 IPads. I have asked for 4 Kindles and 4 Nooks for next year's budget. With the help of our Research Intern, Joe Morgan, I hope to come up with a plan to load course materials for select classes on to these machines in order to test out E-book readers and their use in our library. Perhaps we can even turn this in to a study. I know that similar E-book studies are going on now at College Library and elsewhere around the world. Whatever the future holds for E-books, it is clear that there is a great interest in them in the library world. As panels such as these continue to discuss E-books in the present tense, it is my hope that many realize that E-books are here to stay, and that their "future" is secure, as they continue to gain more ground. As Christine Ryan jokingly said in the video, "if the internet breaks in a few years, we can just go back to [physical] books."
Friday, November 12, 2010
CrossRef
This week's blog post is about Amy Brand's coverage of the product CrossRef. I had seen a presentation on CrossRef in LIS 644, Digital Tools, Trends and Debates, but I understood little of it and nearly none of the presentation had stuck with me, which is why I decided to cover it for today's blog post. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that I believe that Amy Brand, the author of this article, is an employee of CrossRef. Brand reports that CrossRef is considered a non-profit, but in the next breath describes it as a cooperative venture between 12 scholarly publishers. CrossRef was started by a loan from the publishers. Although it may be run as a non-profit, it likely has the interests of the publishers in mind.
The system was set up to be a cross-publisher citation linking system and also a DOI registration agency, originally mainly for STEM research. Brand also mentions the term "deep web" resource discovery, which, at its most basic, means searching and accessing websites that require a login through the World Wide Web that cannot be found through normal search engines. Authors read articles online, and then can click on a citation, which takes the user to a linked article. CrossRef is necessary, due to the fact that URLs change often. DOIs are more stable than URLs.
Factoids about DOI
How CrossRef Works
Publishers use batch process to update metadata records. Then CrossRef stores XML metadata about the article or work; this can be called up with DOI. Simply put, they provide a database of DOIs and metadata that allow articles to be looked up. They make linking possible at any level, such as the book, chapter, or article, without having to worry about URLs being broken (109).
One thing about Brand's article that I found very helpful is that she explains that OpenURL and DOI are not competing technologies: this wasn't clear to me after class, so it was good to read this and get clarification. Brand describes how they work together, and that they are streamlined when they do work together.
Much of the article sounds like an advertisement for CrossRef and DOI technology. For instance, Brand reports that the "usefulness of the system is directly proportional to the robustness of coverage (106)," which, to me, smacks of self-promotion. She also mentions that a benefit of DOI is to create opportunities for article or chapter-based sales; this is the real reason that the scholarly publishers were interested in creating CrossRef, I'm guessing. One shortcoming is discussed in the article: CrossRef and DOI do not take user's institutional access rights in to accounts. This means it is not like our Find It button, rather, you may be prompted for a login. This is later discussed as a future upgrade to the system, near the end. Another upgrade that was thrown out near the end was forward linking. This is where a user could tell what also linked to that article, not just what linked from that article. Cool!
The system was set up to be a cross-publisher citation linking system and also a DOI registration agency, originally mainly for STEM research. Brand also mentions the term "deep web" resource discovery, which, at its most basic, means searching and accessing websites that require a login through the World Wide Web that cannot be found through normal search engines. Authors read articles online, and then can click on a citation, which takes the user to a linked article. CrossRef is necessary, due to the fact that URLs change often. DOIs are more stable than URLs.
Factoids about DOI
- NISO Standard
- Alphanumeric
- Published in place of a URL so that it doesn't break a link
- DOI does not need to be descriptive or transparent
- Made of a prefix and suffix
- Updating is very easy, DOI doesn't change
- Prefix: assigned to content owner by DOI registration agency, all start with 10, then 4 digits
- Once a DOI is assigned to an article or book, it does not change, even if the item changes ownership, DOI doesn't reliably name the publisher, since this could change.
- 2-3 million DOI records being made per year, most to backfile
- At the time of publication of this article, 3 million DOI clicks a month
How CrossRef Works
Publishers use batch process to update metadata records. Then CrossRef stores XML metadata about the article or work; this can be called up with DOI. Simply put, they provide a database of DOIs and metadata that allow articles to be looked up. They make linking possible at any level, such as the book, chapter, or article, without having to worry about URLs being broken (109).
One thing about Brand's article that I found very helpful is that she explains that OpenURL and DOI are not competing technologies: this wasn't clear to me after class, so it was good to read this and get clarification. Brand describes how they work together, and that they are streamlined when they do work together.
Much of the article sounds like an advertisement for CrossRef and DOI technology. For instance, Brand reports that the "usefulness of the system is directly proportional to the robustness of coverage (106)," which, to me, smacks of self-promotion. She also mentions that a benefit of DOI is to create opportunities for article or chapter-based sales; this is the real reason that the scholarly publishers were interested in creating CrossRef, I'm guessing. One shortcoming is discussed in the article: CrossRef and DOI do not take user's institutional access rights in to accounts. This means it is not like our Find It button, rather, you may be prompted for a login. This is later discussed as a future upgrade to the system, near the end. Another upgrade that was thrown out near the end was forward linking. This is where a user could tell what also linked to that article, not just what linked from that article. Cool!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Library Standards and E-Resource Management
Pesch, Oliver (2008). Library standards and E-resource management: A survey of current initiatives and standards efforts. The Serials Librarian, Volume 55, Issue 3, 481 - 48.
The main thing I really liked about this article were the abundance of graphical images. The first image is especially compelling, and I believe it should be used on the first day of this course to show the absolute complexity of this field. The image shows a hexagon with 6 areas of working with E-Resources. Those sections are entitled Acquire, Provide Access, Administer, Support, Evaluate, and Renew. Each of these sections could be considered a job sector at a large university like UW. Perhaps one person's job would bleed in to the next piece of the puzzle, or someone may take care of two portions of the puzzle, but with so many databases and E-resources to administer, there are likely many people handling these different tasks in our large-scale libraries.
Pesch makes the comment that administering E-resources can be far more difficult than managing their print counterparts. This point also cannot be driven home enough in this course. Although the job of managing paper serials has many facets, E-resources are made more complex by the introduction of technology. Thus, pieces of the hexagon such as "Support" are introduced. This support takes a greater deal of technological know-how than the upkeep of paper journals.
Another slick thing about this article is how Pesch breaks down each section of the hexagon in to a more detailed section below, replete with information such as standards that affect that area of the field. This is a great reference for anyone who is a graphical learner. Another important part of the breakdown is the naming of the parties involved with each section. Along with the short, accurate, and succinct description of some of the biggest standards, I feel this section is incredibly informative. Even after being in the course for a while, I now understand the relationships in ERM more.
A quick aside about this class: while at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference this last week, I took part in a speed networking session. While there, I met a student from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's SOIS program. We began to swap stories about classes we are currently taking. I told her about this course, my interest in the subject matter, and my feeling that it will be applicable to jobs on the market when I graduate. She expressed disappointment that there were not more courses like Electronic Resources Management at SOIS. I feel really glad that I took this course when it was offered now, and positive about the experience overall. SLIS and SOIS, take note!
The main thing I really liked about this article were the abundance of graphical images. The first image is especially compelling, and I believe it should be used on the first day of this course to show the absolute complexity of this field. The image shows a hexagon with 6 areas of working with E-Resources. Those sections are entitled Acquire, Provide Access, Administer, Support, Evaluate, and Renew. Each of these sections could be considered a job sector at a large university like UW. Perhaps one person's job would bleed in to the next piece of the puzzle, or someone may take care of two portions of the puzzle, but with so many databases and E-resources to administer, there are likely many people handling these different tasks in our large-scale libraries.
Pesch makes the comment that administering E-resources can be far more difficult than managing their print counterparts. This point also cannot be driven home enough in this course. Although the job of managing paper serials has many facets, E-resources are made more complex by the introduction of technology. Thus, pieces of the hexagon such as "Support" are introduced. This support takes a greater deal of technological know-how than the upkeep of paper journals.
Another slick thing about this article is how Pesch breaks down each section of the hexagon in to a more detailed section below, replete with information such as standards that affect that area of the field. This is a great reference for anyone who is a graphical learner. Another important part of the breakdown is the naming of the parties involved with each section. Along with the short, accurate, and succinct description of some of the biggest standards, I feel this section is incredibly informative. Even after being in the course for a while, I now understand the relationships in ERM more.
A quick aside about this class: while at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference this last week, I took part in a speed networking session. While there, I met a student from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's SOIS program. We began to swap stories about classes we are currently taking. I told her about this course, my interest in the subject matter, and my feeling that it will be applicable to jobs on the market when I graduate. She expressed disappointment that there were not more courses like Electronic Resources Management at SOIS. I feel really glad that I took this course when it was offered now, and positive about the experience overall. SLIS and SOIS, take note!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Electronic Resource Management Systems
- Collins, Maria (2006). ERM systems: Background, selection and implementation, Managing the transition from print to electronic journals and resources.
Collins' chapter from 2006 mentions a figure of 50% of most libraries' collections being electronic. With recent budget cuts and journal subscriptions, I wonder what the figure for 2010 would be? I believe it would be higher than the 50% figure offered in today's article. There are now E-Books to contend with, as well as an increasing amount of online-only journals.
Collins considers the most difficult part of the process of implementing an ERM system as selecting the system. This may be true for the administrative team, who would be in charge of the decision-making process. After planning the in-class exercise for this week, I believe the hardest part for the librarians responsible for the ERM would be implementing the system through data entry and changing over the system. This process requires hours of manual data entry, or the ability to write scripts to accurately map the information to the correct fields. One situation requires time and mind-numbing effort for the librarian or student workers, the other a higher level of software and programming knowledge. Since many of the pieces of information may be spread out over different files, formats or documents, this process is anything but easy, even when using a script.
I believe Collins' article was a very good introduction to this week's topic and I would recommend parts of it to anyone needing a primer on the subject of ERMs.
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