Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 13:59:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pamela Bluh <pbluh@umaryland.edu>
Subject: ALCTS Midwinter Symposium *** announcement ***
Managing Electronic Resources: Meeting the Challenge
Philadelphia, Friday, January 24, 2003
8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Acquiring electronic resources can be a mixed blessing. With the click of
a mouse, a wealth of information is accessible, yet managing this
abundance of riches can be overwhelming and confusing. The one-day
symposium "Managing Electronic Resources: Meeting the Challenge" will
offer practical information and alternatives for dealing with these
valuable and extremely expensive resources. Librarians in all types and
sizes of libraries will find this symposium informative and worthwhile.
Registration information may be found at:
www.ala.org/events/midwinter2003/registration.html
<http://www.ala.org/events/midwinter2003/registration.html>
Fees:
ALCTS members: $ 195.00
ALA member: 245.00
Retired member: 245.00
Non-member: 295.00
Full time student: 95.00
Schedule
8:00 Introductions
8:15 - 9:00 Daniel Greenstein, University Librarian for Systemwide
Library Planning and Scholarly Information and Director, California
Digital Library - Managing Electronic Resources: Cooperative Strategies for
Meeting the Challenge
9:00 - 9:45 Beth Warner, Director, Digital Library Initiatives,
University of Kansas - Managing Electronic Resources in Today's ILMS
Environment
9:45 - 10:15 Break
10:15 - 11:00 October Ivins, Information Industry Consultant, Boston,
MA - There Has To Be An Easier Way: Stand-Alone Ejournal Management Services
11:00 - 11:45 Tim Jewell, Head, Collection Management Services,
University of Washington - If There's a Fork in the Road, Take It! (Can we
Develop Standards for E-resource Management Systems While We're Busy
Building Them?)
11:45 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 1:45 Dan Tonkery, Vice President, Director of Business
Development, Ebsco Subscription Services - Aggravation, Agitation, and
Aggregation - the Three A's of E-Resources Management: Using the Subscription
Agent's Solution for Improved Control and Management
1:45 - 2:30 Jim Mouw, Acquisitions Librarian/Electronic Resources
Officer, University of Chicago - Resource Linking
2:30 - 3:00 Break
3:00 - 3:45 Joseph Zucca, Assessment, Planning and Publications
Librarian, University of Pennsylvania - Traces in the Click-Stream: Coping
with the Imperfections of Measuring Electronic Use
3:45 - 4:30 Trisha Davis, Head, Serials and Electronic Resources, Ohio
State University - An Uneasy Balance: Walking the Tightrope of Change
While Managing the E-Resource Chaos Below?
We gratefully acknowledge Swets Blackwell for their support for
the symposium.
***********************
Abstracts
Managing Electronic Resources: Cooperative Strategies for Meeting the
Challenge -Daniel Greenstein, University Librarian for Systemwide Library
Planning and Scholarly Information and Director, California Digital Library
The talk will do three things. First, with reference to data that have been
gathered in a number of independent studies, it will infer a scholarly
user's vision for the 21st century academic library. Second, it will
demonstrate how the scholar's vision challenges today's academic libraries
forcing them to think extensively about shared approaches to the assembly,
management, and dissemination of electronic resources. Third, the talk will
look at ways in which libraries are confronting these challenges and building
cooperatively toward the scholars' vision. Although reference may be made in
this last section to a range of institutional experiences, recent developments
at the University of California will absorb the lion's share of attention.
This focus is chosen, not because the University of California is exemplary,
but because the eleven UC university libraries have been involved in a
strategic process to explore cooperative models to support the development
and delivery of scholarly electronic information and as a result have derived
considerable experience with electronic information but also valuable data
with which to assess various strategies for managing it.
*****
Managing Electronic Resources in Today's ILMS Environment - Beth Forest Warner,
Director, Digital Library Initiatives, University of Kansas
The integrated library management system (ILMS) has been the traditional
electronic tool libraries have used to track and provide access to selected
resources. As collections move increasingly from print to electronic, this
tool, and the library's internal processes, are being challenged in new ways
to provide comprehensive, integrated, accurate, timely, and user-accessible
information on these resources in an efficient manner. Coupled with the
blurring distinction between the ILMS and evolving Digital Library systems
and tools, today's environment and choices are becoming increasingly complex.
This presentation will attempt to help managers identify the range of issues
involved and determine appropriate choices for their institutions. Resource
management issues, for a variety of electronic resource types, from both the
library's and the user's perspectives will be addressed. Given the rate of
change in systems development, the presentation will focus on potential
approaches and system functionality trends rather than addressing specific
vendor solutions in detail.
*****
There Has To Be an Easier Way: Stand-Alone Ejournal Management Services -
October Ivins, Information Industry Consultant, Boston, MA
JournalWebCite, Openly Informatics, Serials Solutions and TDNet are
companies who offer stand-alone ejournal management services. The basic
service is a customized list of the client library's current full-text
ejournals, whether received as part of an aggregated database or directly
from the publisher, with available dates and links to the appropriate
aggregator's or publisher's site for each title. The list can be supplied
in several formats and is used to create a web page on the library web site
or portal to provide a single location for current ejournal access, and/or
loaded into the library OPAC. A key vendor service is maintenance of the
ever-changing data about the titles and dates covered by aggregators and
publisher, as well as the necessary links for access. This presentation
will help managers determine whether a stand-alone system would be an
appropriate choice, given the needs and budget of their institution, and the
potential value of the additional services. Given the "moving target"
nature of these products, rather than describe each system in detail, the
presentation will suggest criteria to use in comparing basic and additional
services and will outline pricing models and typical price ranges for each
service. The effort required to integrate services into the library
management system and descriptions of staff time required to maintain the
service will also be addressed.
*****
If There's a Fork in the Road, Take It! (Can We Develop Standards for
E-resource Management Systems While We're Busy Building Them?) -
Tim Jewell, Head, Collection Management Services, University of Washington
A number of libraries have devoted considerable time and effort to
developing local systems for managing their growing collections of
electronic resources, the licenses that go with them, and their internal
processes. While these pioneering systems exhibit valuable and unique features,
they also have much in common. This presentation will summarize the state of
the art of local e-resource management systems and then explore both the
promise and practical dilemmas of developing working standards for this highly
changeable environment. The presentation will close with a status report on an
initiative being supported by the Digital Library Federation that aims to
identify model e-resource system functions, data elements, and schemas.
*****
Aggravation, Agitation, and Aggregation --the Three A's of E-Resources
Management: Using the Subscription Agent's Solution for Improved Control
and Management - Dan Tonkery, Vice President, Director of Business Development,
EBSCO Subscription Services
The rapid transition from print to electronic resources has had a major
impact on the library, publishers, the subscription agent and the end users.
While the end users have eagerly accepted the transition, the workload to
support the electronic resources has become a major drain on library
staffing resources. With the new workflow, new acquisitions or leasing
procedures, and new distribution channels the library staff has been swamped
with an extra processing workload while at the same time trying to manage
the process in an efficient manner. The subscription agent with a suitable
amount of re-engineering is still in the best position to assist the library
in managing these resources. Bibliographic control, licensing support,
payment, link management, title aggregation, cross publisher searching, help
desk and usage statistics are all possible support functions that the agent
is capable of supporting. A careful review of the evolving role of the agent
and functions they are qualified to support will be undertaken.
*****
Resource Linking - Jim Mouw, Acquisitions Librarian/Electronic Resources
Officer, University of Chicago
An increasingly important topic is that of linked resources, including
proprietary links as well as those based on standards such as the
Digital Object Identifier (DOI), CrossRef, and the OpenURL (one
implementation of which is SFX). This presentation will address the
question of the importance of providing our patrons with contextual links and
well as issues related to the establishment and maintenance of inter-resource
links. The presenter will also cover the ever-increasing number of places in
which resource information resides and the complications that presents when
trying to keep various links current.
*****
Traces in the Click-Stream: Coping with the Imperfections of Measuring
Electronic Use - Joseph Zucca, Assessment, Planning & Publications Librarian,
University of Pennsylvania
Across North America and Europe, librarians are increasingly concerned
about the inability to measure the use of electronic resources--and they have
good reason to care. In 2001, ARL libraries alone collectively spent close to
$900 million on electronic information. On most campuses, traditional
indicators of library service are declining amid signs that digital resource
use is rising exponentially. The ability to assess and describe how
scholars work in a digital environment is becoming vital to resource
management and service quality. However, the assessment tools at our
disposal are fraught with problems. These include the absence of counting
standards, and uniform counting practices; the unwillingness or inability of
vendors to provide statistical services; the hostility of access and
authentication technologies to measurement; and the labor-intensity of data
gathering and analysis. In addition, there is a decided ambivalence among
some librarians about usage data in decision-making. This presentation will
review prominent initiatives, such as Project Counter, that begin to address
the statistical concerns of libraries. It will also include a live
demonstration of a management information system designed at Penn to help
collection managers and public service librarians access usage data and apply
it to their work.
*****
An Uneasy Balance: Walking the Tightrope of Change While Managing the
E-Resource Chaos Below? - Trisha Davis, Head, Serials and Electronic Resources,
Ohio State University
