As the aim of this project is to produce a list of requirements for an ERM system, we first had to establish our existing processes and all the people involved, hence my interviews with various people across the Library. We discovered that a large number of people/teams are involved in the process of looking after Electronic Resources, or have an interest at least.
Obvious people are those responsible for the acquisition of resources and setting up access, as well as Academic Support staff who will nominate resources for trial/purchase in the first place, and who are consulted on renewals etc. We also discovered that there is work going on in our Customer Service team to improve electronic access for external borrowers, and the staff involved need as much information as possible on which resources might be available, what level of access they might have etc. Customer-facing staff on the Enquiry Desk etc need to be able to help and advise our users when they have problems using/accessing our electronic resources.
A lot of the information around electronic resources can be difficult to find - we keep information in various locations, like spreadsheets, filing cabinets, and inside people's heads. Also, we have recently had some staff moves and transferring of certain responsibilities, so it can be difficult to know who to ask and where to look for certain information.
Looking at our current processes turned out to be a worthwhile exercise, as it gave us a chance to review and update processes where necessary, and has prompted people to think about how procedures might be improved.
After going over our current procedures and updating our flowcharts, we're now working on one 'process map' detailing the entire process in stages, and going into more detail where appropriate. The original flowcharts are very specific to Salford, so the new format may be more useful to other institutions.
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