ALCTS Symposium at ALA Midwinter Meeting. Managing Electronic Resources: Meeting the Challenge, January 24, 2002, Philadelphia, PA

Citation

Sowers Wrubel, L. (2003), "ALCTS Symposium at ALA Midwinter Meeting. Managing Electronic Resources: Meeting the Challenge, January 24, 2002, Philadelphia, PA", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 20 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2003.23920cac.003

ALCTS Symposium at ALA Midwinter Meeting. Managing Electronic Resources: Meeting the Challenge, January 24, 2002, Philadelphia, PA

Laura Sowers Wrubel

As electronic resources make up a growing proportion of libraries' collections and budgets, the problem of managing this varied assortment of databases and e-journals has become a pressing concern. The packed house at ALCTS's full-day symposium demonstrated the topic's timeliness and the urgency of the need for solutions to the complexities of e-resource management. A diverse panel of experts from academia and the private sector provided both a view from the trenches and glimpses of promising future developments.

Daniel Greenstein of California Digital Library opened the symposium with a discussion of cooperative strategies libraries are adopting to manage collections and meet scholars' needs. With exorbitant serial price increases and the increasing demand for online access, libraries are finding ways to work together to improve service and make the most of limited resources. For example, sharing print journal collections as well as licensed online content among many institutions allows libraries to make better use of their materials budgets, while providing researchers with a broader range of titles. Greenstein sees cooperative models of collection management and resource delivery as key to libraries' ability to effectively serve their constituents.

Beth Warner, from the University of Kansas, explored the role of the integrated library management system (ILMS) in managing electronic resources. She first reviewed the many areas of information that libraries must collect and track to administer their electronic resources. While the ILMS is still the central piece in the jigsaw puzzle of resource management, Warner argues that it cannot alone fulfill all of libraries' needs for managing electronic resources. We should instead focus on interoperability between systems, allowing the ILMS to work with tools designed specifically for electronic resources. The development of standards would promote this interoperability and allow faster progress towards fully-fledged systems for libraries.

Tim Jewell of the University of Washington reported on current e-resource management standards initiatives, such as the one supported by the Digital Library Federation. As his presentation of five home-grown electronic resource management systems demonstrated, there is a complex and sizeable set of data elements and functions these standards will need to address. Some of these local systems, such as Johns Hopkins University's HERMES, emphasized interoperability in their development and e-resource standards will be crucial for continued progress.

Information industry consultant October Ivins guided participants through the decision-making process for choosing a commercial stand-alone e-journal management system. Several available systems provide customized databases of e-journal information that can improve access to full-text and provide a consolidated access point to e-journal titles and holdings. Dan Tonkery of Ebsco Subscription Services represented the subscription agent's viewpoint and described the services that a vendor might provide in the electronic resource management cycle. In particular, he saw a role for vendors in the management of registration and license data.

Other presentations spotlighted several institutions' approaches to managing electronic resources. In his overview of linking services, Jim Mouw showed how the University of Chicago is using Ex Libris's SFX to improve access to their electronic resources. Joe Zucca shared the University of Pennsylvania's solutions to tracking usage statistics and how these results compared positively with vendor-compiled statistics.

Trisha Davis closed the symposium with a look at some of the thorny problems libraries will need to confront in managing online information sources. Linking diverse types of content, addressing copyright and digital rights management issues, and developing new authentication technologies will remain pressing concerns for libraries.

Navigating the jungle of electronic resources can be challenging, and it was reassuring to hear other librarians discuss their often-similar experiences and share their local approaches to complex problems. The speakers' themes of interoperability, partnership, and cooperative development suggest a promising future path towards meeting this challenge.

Laura Sowers Wrubel(laura@itd.umd.edu) is the Electronic Resources Systems Librarian, Information Technology Division, University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, Maryland, USA.