Confessions of a Mad Librarian

Richard Boss -- The Role of Automated Library System
Electronic materials are high priorities for academic AND public libraries
For every cent spent in designing a system to hold/store/maintain electronic collections, you will spend .5 cents each year to maintain the system itself
How to choose a package? What are the details of the turnkey system you have/decide to buy?
Features/issues to consider:
* Scope of coverage * Can you put into the database a copy of the contract? * Costs? -- What's the pricing structure? Is a payment history available?* Access methods (terms, restrictions, actual process) * Administrative details -- How easy is it to renew? How is notification sent out? * Contact history * Usage statistics -- the aggregator or database producer usually work on this (Important element -- ascertaining cost-per-use; usage statistics and ERM costs must be merged/analyzed together on an individual basis [is not a standard functionality of current turnkey solutions]

Vendor survey

Out of 5 vendors surveyed (the speaker's outline mentioned a 6th - Endeavor - but I didn't catch the details of it), only one (Innovative) had an ERM product in the market at the time of the presentation; another product (by VTLS) was to be unveiled at the conference.

What to do in the meantime:
Current products that handle some ERM functions --
Goldrush,
Ebsco (focused on e-journals nearly exclusively)

Requirements development:
Lack of association-wide standards
Aggregated standards document: "Report of the DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative. Appendix A: Functional Requirements for Electronic Resources Management"

Conclusions:
Right now, there's no one product that meets all of the specs laid out in the above document; As library automated systems move to XML, interfaces for ERM will get easier; 2005 should be a better year to ascertain the state of ERM and one that vendors should be focusing on

Q&A: Goldrush is not efficient or effective for patrons/end users

Standards being developed for these systems: DLF Initiatives; standards based on NISO standards; XML standards; APIs

Sandra Hull -- Positive Reinforcement, or, A Primer in Tiger Taming
If we're thinking about ERM, beyond one journal or one module ... consider the information environment we are operating in
The information environment: the library is only one but an integral part of the community
There is more than just licensed products to take into account: Demands and expectations have changed enormously and continue to change rapidly; people are working in different groups than they used to (intra and inter-collaboration by faculty
Resources are shrinking, but needs aren't
Extremely important -- user interface: the metaphor is instant gratification (think remote control) - easy navigation, easy to understand, smooth integration of access points, good search and retrieval; authentication; mechanics: printing, downloading, ILL
Back office pieces: UI, search, retrieval, display, link "out", authentication; mechanics (printing, downloading, ILL); TCO - total cost of ownership; resource management (time, data, infrastructure, people, money)
Build it yourself or buy a turnkey solution (remember maintenance costs, time, labour, etc.)?; how do you go forward?; smart buying decisions

Management interface: customizable (though it will never be a perfect fit for any one customer/library); ease of use
Search: powerful and sophisticated search options, federated searching (across multiple resources of various types -- full-text, e-journals, A&I databases, local interest databases); integrated and linked results lists (for example, via resolvers)
OpenURL linking -- important piece of the puzzle
ERM -- managing electronic resources
Beyond the ILS -- what else is happening within our institutions; what are the information needs of the broader community we serve? We're not addressing the collaboration space; information is being shared between institutions -- how is the library impacting/assisting that?
Future developments
-- Adding data sources (that are increasingly diverse and specialized)
-- Further integration into the library portal
-- Integration beyond the library portal
Challenges: multiple, non-standard, fluid, data formats from hundreds of sources -- how to keep up; realities of present technology choices, current limitations to apply uniform relevancy ranking, taxonomy and auto-classification to results; political realities -- balancing multiple entities within the larger organization; staff; budget

Norm Medeiros -- House of Horrors - Exorcising Electronic Resources
"We are all just prisoners of our own device" -- "Hotel California," The Eagles
Access / Administration / Control
Access - electronic resources are problematic, but so is print to some extent (ex.: serials); Michael Gorman got it wrong when he predicted that e-journals would be a minor, if not dying, aspect of the serials landscape
Problems: What is the role of the catalog? (what's the access point); redundant effort; thousands of e-journals; single-record vs. multi-record approach
Solutions: automated MARC-record creation; purchase of MARC record sets; database-driven web lists; personalized web sites
Administration:
Administrative metadata (use statistics, license details, payment/subscription details, etc.): who cares about it? -- Tech services staff, reference librarians, ILL staff, statisticians
"E-journals are a pain in my ass." - Marilyn Cramer
Administration areas : Licensing, purchasing, administration
* Licensing: ILL, remote access, course management use, concurrent use
* Purchasing: Vendor name, expiration date, pricing model, consortial agreement
* Administration: OpenURL compliance, availability of usage stats, passwords, contact info
Pioneering systems: MIT's Vera, Penn State's ERLIC, John Hopkins HERMES
Tri-College's ERTS: Electronic Resources Tracking System (developed by Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges); database that stores and provides access to administrative metadata; limited duplication with ILS -- 4 categories: licensors, purchases, titles, vendors
DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI) -- a standards initiative for ERM
Libraries have been enticing users to e-resources and are close to losing control; there's a bunch of problems: issues late; access turned off; users discover problem before the library
Solutions: dispatch data
E-journals have not solved the serials crisis, but has in some aspects exacerbated it
Many faculty view e-journals as complements, not replacements to print journals
Divorcing the 'big deal'
Open access: the answer to our prayers? -- ex.: Public Library of Science; big money: Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute will fund PLoS authorship; author fees: sustainable pricing model?; high impact
Medeiros (paraphrased)- 'I'm concerned with long-term preservation, but I'm VERY concerned with balancing my budget today. I can't look 10 years down the line when I can't balance my serials budget'.
As we go more a la carte and break from the 'big box' packages, usage stats will become important, if not essential, in deciding what to keep and what to let go.
DIY database systems for administrative metadata-- not recommended by Medeiros as of today: there are traditional and open-source products already on the market or in the pipeline

Tim Bucknall -- Keeping electronic resource management user-centered
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid: Why aren't libraries more KISSable
User-centered design - Google?
User-centered - empowering users do find the results they want/need
UC principles:
1) offer tiered search options, and keep advanced options on an advanced search page
2) display information in friendly and advanced formats; limit the basic display to the info that meets the need of most of your users
3) user can metasearch one place with simplified interface, but still has access to more powerful search tools
4) if you categorize, do it on the basis of something the users understand and care about
5. make the system match user behaviour , don't try and make the user match the system's behaviour
6. don't make the user jump thru any extra hoops
7. make sure and put what the user is looking for where they look for it
8. find popular and successful features elsewhere and emulate them

Understand how your patrons use your system!

Assessment: anecdotal evidence, web log files and other statistics (must look at them carefully, might be misleading), usability testing

Keeping Database Access User-Centered
Put links everywhere (you'll have to use some sort of system/turnkey product to maintain/check all the URLs); must count stats
Implementing a link-resolver cause a major change in the way in which patrons access databases
Make remote access as seamless and as context sensitive as possible
pet peeve - dividing resources into poorly defined categories

Keeping Journal Access User-Centered
1) comprehensive - a single simple search interface ALL options for finding full-text journal literature
2) integrated - ALL options are available to you, no matter what

Friedemann Wiegel (Harrasowitz) -- Taming the Tiger Technologically: Through the Standards Jungle in 30 Minutes (and Out Against Unscathed!)

The ERM Standards Jungle
The Challenges: information and access = a coppice (complicated dance) of standards, a real jungle; standards don't work; a 'map' is needed
ERM model 1a: content -the raison d'�tre, access, acquisition (licensing not mentioned)
Model 1b: Content (includes storage and archival material), Identification (indentifiers and metadata), Licensing, Access, Acquisition
Model 2: resource evaluation; selection; licensing; ordering; payments; receiving; access and control

Model 1b and standards: Content -- SMGL (such as XML); Acquisitions -- ONIX & EDIX; Access -- ONIX (Online Networked[?] Information eXchange); Licensing -- MGPEG (MPEG 21 -- multimedia framework), a licensing standard?

EDI cycle: working for the big players, not working for the small ones; 95% of Fortune 1000 companies use it; 98% of SMEs don't