Tools for Mature Management of Electronic Resources Lifecycles in Libraries

1
Tools for Mature Management of Electronic
Resources Lifecycles in Libraries
Kimberly Parker Head, Electronic Collections Yale
University Library

• IFLA 2007
• 16 August 2007

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Outline for Today

• 1. Background and e-resource management functions
  with DLF ERMI history
• 2. The uses of the DLF ERMI report
• 3. An exercise in using the workflow piece
• 4. DLF ERMI 2
• 5. Maturing of the concept

3
On the Road to ERM Systems

• Mid 1990s E-Journals on the web
• Late 1990s E-resource positions in large
  libraries
• 2000 DLF Spring Forum
• 2001 DLF Study on Acquiring E-Resources ALA
  informal gatherings
• 2002 NISO workshop DLF ERMI charged
• 2004 DLF ERMI Report issued

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Context for E-resource Management

• High demand for 24x7 access
• E-resource budget shares continue to grow
• (when do you expect to go over 75?)
• Budget and other issues driving a shift to e-only
  journal access
• Dynamic marketplace business models
• Google-ization (Digital Ambience)
• E-resources are complex (to describe, fund, and
  support)
• Impact of licensing

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Some E-resource tasks not supported by current
integrated library systems

• Generating and maintaining alpha and subject
  lists
• License term negotiation, tracking, and
  communication processes
• Wide staff involvement in selection support --
  communication and workflow
• Problem tracking
• Escalation/triage support
• Planned, cyclical product reviews
• Systematic usage reporting
• Result creation of many separate documents
  and/or applications

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The DLF E-Resource Management Initiative

• Tim Jewell (University of Washington)
• Ivy Anderson (Harvard)
• Adam Chandler (Cornell)
• Sharon Farb (UCLA)
• Angela Riggio (UCLA)
• Kimberly Parker (Yale)
• Nathan D. M. Robertson (Johns Hopkins)

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ERMI Deliverables

• Problem Definition/Road Map/Final Project Report
• Workflow Diagram
• How do tasks inter-relate
• Functional Requirements
• What do the systems need to do or support
• Entity Relationship Diagram (Tree)
• How do pieces of information interact
• Data Elements and Definitions
• Data Element Dictionary (Leaves)
• Data Structure (Where the Leaves Go)
• XML Investigation

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Use of ERMI Deliverables

• Workflow Diagram
• Re-examining organization approaches
• Functional Requirements
• Local and Vendor system planning
• Source for RFPs
• Entity Relationship Diagram (Tree)
• Local and Vendor system planning
• Data Elements Dictionary
• Local and Vendor system planning
• Implementation planning
• Data Structure
• Local and Vendor system planning

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Functional Specifications

• Support the Life Cycle of electronic resources
• Selection and acquisition
• Access provision
• Resource administration and support
• Renewal and retention decisions

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Functional Requirements Outline

• Introduction and Goals
• Guiding Principles
• Functional Specifications (47 main points)
• General (4)
• Resource Discovery (7)
• Bibliographic Management (2)
• Access Management (5)
• Staff Requirements (29)
• General interface requirements (4)
• Selection and evaluation processes (9)
• Resource administration and management (11)
• Business functions (5)

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Functional Specifications (Excerpt)

• 38. Support the administration of e-resources
• 38.1 Store administrative URIs, IDs and passwords
  and associated notes, and make these available to
  authorized staff
• 38.2 Store subscriber numbers used to register
  online journals that are tied to print
• 38.3 For configuration options including but not
  limited to features such as institutional
  branding, hooks to holdings, Z39.50, OpenURL
  support, and live reference links
• 38.3.1 Identify whether a given title supports
  the feature and whether it has been implemented,
  with associated notes
• 38.3.2 Generate reports of all materials that do
  or do not support the specified feature,
  including implementation status
• . . .

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Entity-Relationship Diagram
13
ERD Major Entities and Relationships
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ERD Major Entities and Relationships
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Data Element Dictionary
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ERMS Data Structure
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The Work of E-Resources

• Workflow (lifecycle)
• Functional Specifications (how do we need to do
  our work)
• Data Dictionary (what do we need to keep track of)

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Checking Our Thoughts Against Real Life

• Parts of Workflow
• who does it in the real world at your
  institution?
• Questions about Functional Specifications
• the hows for your institution
• Questions about Data Dictionary
• the whats for your institution?

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What is Workflow Good For?

• Facilitating the work that must be done
• Facilitating the rest of the work of the library
  that may not directly involve handling
  e-resources on a daily basis.

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Product licensing
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Product Licensing Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who reviews the license? Who negotiates the
  license (if necessary)? Who signs? Who handles
  the paperwork?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary from unit to unit in a large library system?
• How?
• How does the communication about the license
  happen? How are license negotiations facilitated?

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Product Licensing Discussion (2)

• What?
• What do you record for the license process? What
  happens when a license is unacceptable?
• Do you record with whom the current change
  request is?
• What are your default definitions or alternative
  wordings?

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Product Technical Feasibility
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Product Technical Feasibility Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who assesses the technical requirements? Who
  analyses how much work it would take to make the
  product work in your environment? To whom is the
  information communicated?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary from unit to unit?
• How?
• How does the communication about the technical
  feasibility happen?

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Product Technical Feasibility Discussion (2)

• What?
• What are your standard pass definitions?
• Do you record negative decisions?

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Product Business Issues
price, archival needs, interface trajectory,
vendor quality, branding capability, usage
statistics, MARC record availability and price
(if appropriate), instructional ports/accounts
(if appropriate), OpenURL compliance,
deep-linking capability, etc.
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Product Business Issues Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who reviews the vendor and any attendant issues?
  Who weighs the business issues against each
  other? Who communicates concerns to vendor or
  asks for details from vendor?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary within different parts of the library?
• How?
• How does the communication about the business
  issues happen?

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Product Business Issues Discussion (2)

• What?
• What are your whats? That is -- which business
  issues do you care about?
• What do you record about the business issues?
  What happens when a desired feature is coming
  soon?
• Do you record negative decisions?
• What are your dealbreakers?

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Product Information Gathering Communication
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Product Information Gathering Communication
Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who are the catalogers and service
  administrators?
• Who are the contact people (externally and
  internally) for different aspects of the product?
• Whos responsible for recording what about the
  product?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary within the library?
• How?
• How and when does the communication happen?

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Product Information Gathering Communication
Discussion (2)

• What?
• What administrative information will you record?
• NOTE There is a major part of the element
  recording that is license terms, but this is just
  one component of data that needs to get recorded
  about a product

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Product Preparation for Public Use
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Product Preparation for Public Use Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who activates or installs the product? Who
  customizes the interface? Who creates the
  instruction guides? Who announces and does PR?
• Who catalogs? Who inserts in other public
  displays?
• Who manages e-resource services? (e.g. proxy
  server manager, OpenURL resolver manager,
  broadcast search service manager)
• How?
• How does the communication happen?

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Product Preparation for Public Use Discussion (2)

• What?
• What are the typical components of an
  instructions guide?
• What public displays will this product be added
  to?
• What are the standard interface design
  preferences?
• What information is needed for special services
  (e.g. proxy)

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Product Routine Maintenance
troubleshooting and resolving problems, routine
product changes from the vendor (such as URL
revisions), revisions to public documentation,
etc.
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Product Routine Maintenance Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who is involved in troubleshooting? Who records
  (or processes) routine product changes? Who
  revises documentation? Who are the caretakers?
  Who knows what?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary within the library?
• How?
• How does communication occur efficiently?
• How are changes populated to all the right places?

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Product Routine Maintenance Discussion (2)

• What?
• Where are changes recorded? What changes are
  recorded?
• How much needs to be communicated? What does not
  need to be communicated?

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Product Renewal Processes
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Product Renewal Processes Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who reviews the product? Who deals with license
  revisions? Who decides about interface changes?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary within the library?
• How?
• How does communication occur efficiently?
• How are updates or extensions recorded in all the
  right places?

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Product Renewal Processes Discussion (2)

• What?
• What pieces are part of a package renewal? What
  pricing model is in effect now?
• What changes do we want to the pre-existing
  arrangement? What changes is the vendor asking
  for?

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Product Expiration/Cancellation
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Product Expiration/Cancellation Discussion (1)

• Who?
• Who decides? Who deals with PR? Who withdraws
  from all public access points or edits closed
  holdings? Who removes from various service
  offerings? Who pays attention to archival rights?
• What types of job groups are involved? Does this
  vary within the library?
• How?
• How does communication occur efficiently?
• How are revisions or deletions recorded in all
  the right places?

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Product Expiration/Cancellation Discussion (2)

• What?
• What history do you want to hang onto?

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Does It Ever End?

• When a product no longer has a life in any form,
  then our work if finally considered done.
• This almost never happens.

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DLF ERMI Completion
http//www.diglib.org/pubs/dlfermi0408
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DLF ERMI 2

• Usage Statistics
• SUSHI
• License Expression
• Work with EdiTEUR
• Interoperability issues
• Core elements

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Future Assumptions (adapted from ACRL)

• There will be an increased emphasis on digitizing
  collections, preserving digital archives, and
  improving methods of data storage and retrieval.
  
• The skill set for librarians will continue to
  evolve in response to the needs and expectations
  of the changing populations that they serve.
• Patrons will increasingly demand faster and
  greater access to services.
• Debates about intellectual property will become
  increasingly common.

• The demand for technology related services will
  grow and require additional funding.
• Distance services will be an increasingly common
  option and will co-exist but not threaten the
  traditional bricks-and-mortar model.
• Free, public access to information stemming from
  publicly funded research will continue to grow.
• Privacy will continue to be an important issue in
  librarianship.

What's to come, is still unsure William
Shakespeare. Twelfth Night, ACT II SCENE III.
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Researcher's Use of Academic Libraries (April
2007)

• a sharp fall in the number of researchers who
  visit their institution's library regularly
• researchers use digital finding aids to locate
  both digital and print-based resources
• growth of collaborative and inter-disciplinary
  research teams

And, as you journey on your ways Serves as a
road-map in your chaise George Keate. The
Distressed Poet. 1787
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Recap

• 1. Background and e-resource management functions
  with DLF ERMI history
• 2. The uses of the DLF ERMI report
• 3. An exercise in using the workflow piece
• 4. DLF ERMI 2
• 5. Maturing of the concept

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Discussion and Questions
kimberly.parker_at_yale.edu
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Transforming Libraries

• 100 years developing library practices in
  support of traditional formats and publications
• 15 years adjusting to transformed formats and
  communication trends
• Building on our strengths without becoming
  chained to the past (traditions as touchstones,
  not millstones)

teach us how to teach, that we may sow thy
truth, broadcast, o'er all the fields below
John Critchley Prince, Miscellaneous Poems.
Address Spoken at a New Religious and Literary
Institute, Ashton-under-Lyne.
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A Few Cautions

• Those who will not risk cannot win (John Paul
  Jones)
• Those who try to do everything, find they have
  done nothing well.
• You can please some of the people all of the
  time, and all of the people some of the time, but
  you cannot please all of the people all of the
  time (variant of Abraham Lincoln).

Make not your thoughts your prisons William
Shakespeare. Antony and Cleopatra, ACT V SCENE II.