Continuous publication

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Steve

A colleague informed me of the following interesting news from BMJ: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/336/7659/1450.

Basically BMJ will be presenting articles continuously as they become available. At first this sounds ho hum, not a big deal. But then I got to thinking about it and I think this turn of events is significant. One of the things I talked a bit about in my chapter on the future of e-resource management (written two years ago) was this very thing, referring to the disaggregation of journal content and likening it to how iTunes changed the way we think of music albums. I’m not patting myself on the back here; it’s not an original idea or concept because others have talked about this for a long time. But I’m intrigued by the possibilities and implications.

Upcoming book on e-resource management in libraries

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Steve

I was interested to read Organization Monkey’s post today about getting her author’s copy of a book with a chapter written by her. The book sounds very similar to the one to which I contributed some time ago but still hasn’t seen the light of day (sigh): Electronic Resource Management in Libraries: Research and Practice, Holly Yu and Scott Breivold, eds. (ISBN 9781599048918). Congratulations to her on that!

Here is a table of contents list for the book to which I contributed (E-journals Access and Management, Wayne Jones, ed. and published by Haworth, ISBN 9780789033857):

Electronic resources : the new frontier for academic libraries / Kathleen Shearer

Copyright, ejournals, and libraries : points of intersection / Brett Waytuck

Open access journals : the global movement and local publishing / Wayne Johnston

Preserving the outputs of scholarly communication for the long term : a review of recent developments in digital preservation for electronic journal content / Michael Day

Current challenges in licensing negotiation : an academic library perspective / Joy Kirchner

Developing a model license : a Canadian consortium’s experience / Scott Gillies, Tony Horava

Ejournals, budgets, and collection policies : managing the serials / Will Wakeling

Redefining service roles in the e-environment / Rollo Turner

Decline of print journals / Tinker Massey

The collaborative journey from print to electronic / Karen Pifher

When print doesn’t fade / Christa Easton

Access revolution : the birth, growth, and supremacy of electronic journals as an information medium / Norm Medeiros

RDA and ejournals / Chris Oliver

The need for electronic resource management systems in libraries / Stephanie H. Wical

Shopping in the ERM aisle : vendor and open source offerings and hints for the busy shopper / Andrew Waller, Helen Clarke

Knowledgebase maintenance and its impact on electronic access tools / Peter McCracken

Electronic resource management using a vendor product / Janet Chisman, John Webb

A homegrown contract database / Charlene N. Simser

Ejournal workflow, staffing, and collaboration in technical services : a taste for coffee, a tolerance for ambiguity, and a happy ending / Ladd Brown

Ejournal management in the small academic library / Krista M. Reichard, Brent Alan Mai, Judy Anderson

Thoughts on the future of ejournal management and access / Steve Oberg.

Proposal for e-resources management course

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Steve

One of the things that came up in conversation a few times when I was at NASIG this past weekend was that last year I made a proposal to UIUC GSLIS for a new, advanced course on electronic resources management. My intent in proposing this new course was that an existing course that I taught, Technical Services Functions, would be a prerequisite as would perhaps one or two other existing courses. More than that, however, my goal with this course is to get GSLIS students some much-needed focused exposure to the increasing dominance of e-resources (especially serial e-resources) in libraries of all types. Such a course is, in my view, long overdue. And the students themselves are clamoring for it.

Several people I spoke with at NASIG showed interest in what I had proposed so I have dug the following draft syllabus outline out of my email (thanks, Gmail, for making it so easy). If you have a moment and are interested in this topic, let me know what you think about it, either by commenting on this post or sending me an email.

Electronic Resources Management: A Suggested Course Outline
—————————————————————————
I. Definitions and Distinctions
a. What is an e-resource?
b. How does it differ from and how is it similar to other, more traditional library materials?
b. Overlap with integrated library systems work, serials management, acquisitions, collection development, etc.
II. Conceptual Framework
a. Access vs. ownership for libraries
b. Effect of living in an Amazon/Google/iTunes worlds
c. Relevance and authority issues for e-resources vs. other library material
d. Virtual vs. in-person library service
III. Types of E-Resources
a. E-journals
b. Websites
c. E-books
d. Databases
e. Other
IV. Management Challenges
a. Diversity of selection and workflow processes
b. Explosive growth in availability
c. Preservation issues
d. Issues for intellectual access (e.g. website lists or links vs. traditional cataloging vs. other methods for organization)
e. Licensing and copyright
f. Fiscal resources
g. Balancing “traditional” vs. e-content
h. Rapid change and high user demand
i. Evaluation of use vs. cost and other metrics
V. System Tools for Managing E-Resources
a. Locally developed
b. Commercial tools
c. Classes or categories of tools (e.g. OpenURL resolvers vs. ILSs vs. ERMS vs. Other)

Course on e-resource management

Posted on December 15, 2005 by Steve

Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: Library Schools Must Teach E-Resource Management (& What Else?)

I couldn’t agree more with the need for library schools to integrate a course on e-resource management into their curriculum. Furthermore, I think it should be a required course. The course I teach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in their LEEP curriculum, Technical Services Functions (LIS578LE), focuses on e-resources quite a lot. But there is so much ground to cover in the course that it seems that there never is enough time to adequately address this important topic.

Because of that, several months ago I approached the associate dean with a proposal for a new course on e-resource management. She was quite receptive to it and asked me for a formal course outline and a proposed syllabus. Unfortunately I haven’t written that up yet. Any suggestions or thoughts about this would be appreciated.

Catching my breath and other ruminations

Posted on February 3, 2005 by Steve

I have a lot of guilt and I’m not even Catholic…One of the things I feel guilty about is not posting more often and more regularly on this blog. It’s not for lack of things to write about, that’s for sure. I am just trying to catch my breath most days. There is so much to do, so little time (how unoriginal of me to write that, but it’s true). I have been preoccupied with many interesting yet stressful things. One of them is MetaLib training. For those who aren’t familiar with this product, let me just say that it is an example of a metasearching tool, sometimes also known as federated search. My library is part of a consortium that purchased this software in a package along with an integrated library system called Aleph 500, and a context-sensitive linking software called SFX. MetaLib is really cool and this kind of tool can help libraries like mine to offer a much more user-friendly way to find information for our users.While thinking of MetaLib and the issues of metasearching (or federated searching), I was reminded of the fact that I created a pretty barebones webliography of articles, reports, etc. on this topic here. I originally created this webliography as a companion tool for a presentation at last year’s NASIG conference, and have had several requests from people who want to share it with others, link to it, whatever. This a.m. as I was watching the kids while Michele went to her MOPS meeting, I was thinking that I desperately need to update that webliography. I have saved over 100 additional article citations in RefWorks (another neat new e-resource that I have purchased for our library users) and I need to figure out a time to look through them all and select those that I want to add into the webliography. Then, lo and behold, one thought led to another, and I had a “Doh!” kind of moment: Why don’t I reformat the webliography so that I can offer it as an RSS feed? That way, anyone who wants to do so can subscribe to the feed and automatically keep informed about any additions or changes I make to it. Why on earth hadn’t I thought of this before? How stupid of me…So, here goes with another thing to do…Anyone who thinks life as a librarian is boring doesn’t know their head from a hole in the ground.

Preprint article on journal management solutions

Posted on April 25, 2004 by Steve

Just finished webifying a preprint version of an article I wrote for the summer 2004 issue of Serials Review . It’s entitled “Which Route Do I Take? A Viewpoint on Locally-Developed vs. Commercially Available Journal Management Solutions” and I hope it’ll garner at least a bit of interest in terms of the focus on a locally developed e-resource management system into which I’ve put a lot of effort.

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Tag Archives: e-resource