This is an interim blog post, to refelct on the progress of the project so far, and discuss the exciting new developments for the project. Over the past 6 months, we have been looking at electronic resource management, and have had the opportunity to examine our workflows, and present these for the various scenarios that we currently operate. From the workflows, we have created a preliminary set of requirements for an ERM, which can be used by other institutions. We have applied the MoSCoW methodology to the requirements document, in order to prioritise our needs.

We are now in a position where the Salfmeri work is being further developed by the University in the SCONUL Shared Services strand of the JISC LMS programme, The current ERM Requirements and Workflow deliverables be will enhanced as part of that process. We aim to have 3 open source ERMs operational, in order for us to assess how easy they are to install, and also to walk through their functionality. We will continue to blog here, and also on the SCONUL project blog once it has been established.

E-resources procedures

The flowcharts for our current Electronic Resources processes can be found below:

Overall process:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bxug72ZifwRlZmU1MDA2ZjgtMzFmZS00ZjY3LThlNDUtM2IwMTBkM2RmMDg2&hl=en&authkey=CO3n03o

New orders:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bxug72ZifwRlY2Y5ZDAzNjYtYTk2NS00MTkyLWIxYjItNDI0M2I2MDZkMTg3&hl=en&authkey=CPmEssAO

Renewals:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bxug72ZifwRlOTdiYTExYzYtZTg3Zi00NDRmLWFlZmYtZjk4YTYwYjlmZjAz&hl=en&authkey=CLyO9bwH

Cancellations:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bxug72ZifwRlOTQ2ZjkyYmUtM2Q0Ni00YzlmLWFmOGEtMDc1MDIwOTlkNDQy&hl=en&authkey=COTo5KQL

Our current procedures - more information

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.

ERM demos

For the past few weeks we have had some demos of various ERM systems. Some brief descriptions are below:

Swetswise ERM as a Service: This system builds upon services already available through Swetswise; a benefit for existing Swets customers is that a lot of the subscription information, including licensing and financial information, is already in the system. This can also get usage statistics from publishers and present them in user-friendly formats

TDNet Core ERM: looks after the ‘core’ processes of electronic resource management – acquisition of resources, licence information, access, statistics and contact information. It's possible to link to licences from their A-Z list; we were shown the front-facing element of this system. It is possible to import and export data to/from other systems

Innovative Interfaces ERM: designed to manage the whole life-cycle of electronic resources, from identification and trials, to purchasing the resource (or subscribing to it), and then managing access and harvesting of usage statistics using SUSHI, providing information such as cost per use for renewals decisions etc. The system can be populated using data from e.g. an SFX knowledgebase.It can be used as an integrated part of Millennium LMS or as a stand-alone system; at the moment there are no sites using the ERM module with Talis,

Serials Solutions 360 Manager: tracks changes in titles and licences; deals with trials including reminders when the end of the trial period is approaching; The system can include retrieval of statistics which will work with SUSHI and COUNTER. It’s possible to display key points from licences; also to search for resources using alternate titles (abbreviations etc) There is also an online community/support centre

Ex Libris Verde: Can be a stand-alone system, integrates with other Ex Libris products (SFX etc). This system can manage trials, with the option to add notes on reasons to subscribe etc. Licence details can be added manually or a link to website, pdf etc can be added. Uses SUSHI when collecting stats

EBSCO NET ERM: This system works best with resources purchased through EBSCO; it can be automatically populated with all the subscription information. This system is fully customisable, enabling users to match field titles etc in the ERM to existing systems (LMS etc). it is able to work with a library’s catalogue, link resolver etc. Stats are collected using SUSHI/COUNTER; licence and financial information can be tracked; reminders can be set for individuals to perform certain tasks within workflows

Our current procedures

I spoke to colleagues across the Library, to discuss our current procedures regarding electronic resources – looking at acquisition, licences, statistics and access.

Some things that we currently do, or would like to, are as follows:
Run trials and advertise them on the E-library blog
Licences checked at trial stage – this will be done in future by E-resources co-ordinator (recently appointed)
At the minute, we keep paper copies of licence agreements in filing cabinets – we want to start scanning licences and keeping copies on the V drive instead (this is part of the work being undertaken by our E-resources co-ordinator)
We put information on the intranet e.g. passwords page on the Library website; enquiry desk manual is updated.

At present we collect stats on an ad hoc basis, usually when Academic Support Librarians request them (for renewals, journal reviews etc) – usually we get stats through suppliers, sometimes via SFX; we compare price-per-view
We want to look at collecting stats more regularly & storing them in one place that is easy to find, so that it’s easy to get information when someone requests it. We also have to supply stats externally (SCONUL) so it would be beneficial to collect them ‘as we go’
Currently this can be quite a laborious task; would be beneficial if an ERM could make collection of stats quicker and easier

There are a couple of problems with Talis:
Does the ‘basics’ very well – setting up a record, paying invoices etc.
However, it doesn’t handle pro-rata payments, credits, 2 payments in one financial year etc very well – expected cost is worked out using the final amount spent in a year (doesn’t look at individual payments or period covered)
Doesn’t show changes in format very well – we usually cancel an old record and set up an entirely new one for E-upgrades etc
Hopefully an ERM could deal with issues like these and make it easier to track payments etc

I spoke to some colleagues about access to resources, particularly for external borrowers (Access Salford, partner colleges, SCONUL etc):
External borrowers currently have access to a very limited number of resources on walk-in access PCs. Anyone can use these; there is no difference in Electronic access for reference, SCONUL, Access Salford etc.
There is currently work going on to put together a list of more resources that can be accessed by external borrowers – a significant number of licences allow External Borrower access; it’s a matter of finding out what these resources are, then making them available via the walk-in PCs
There are essentially 2 types of partner college student - if students sign up at the University but study at the college, they are UoS students and have access to all our resources including electronic. If they sign up at the college, they are treated as any other external borrower when using our library, so have the limited access.
We would like to see licence agreements recognise different ‘levels’ of user and make some resources available to external borrowers; however we realise this is down to the licence provider rather than an ERM system. However, if different levels of access could be made available, a system that can deal with this and inform us of those different levels would be desirable.
If a resource is available to external users, we need to know this and make the resource available – we want to be accessible to students on foundation courses for example, in order to get them enrolling on degree courses

Following on from the JISC LMS workshop on the 7th and 8th September, this post looks at why our project is important to the HE community. The first part of the project is basically unpicking all the different processes that are involved in the management of electronic resources. There is a wide range of processes in use including the use of spreadsheets, maunally checking items, and use of existing library business systems. We are then examining the commercial products on the market to see if they fulfill our Electronic Resource Management needs, along with meeting users of ERMs to discuss if the system they use fully meets their expcetations, and if they find that there are processes that they still have to carry out, outside of the ERM. Following this review, we will be producing a preliminary set of requirements which will look at an ERM system that can be used by other HEIs, we will also produce a case study examining the process we have gone through, and documenting our findings