Digital Disruption and Electronic Resource Management in Libraries

Nihar K. Dr. Patra

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780081020456
• eBook ISBN: 9780081020463
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Digital Disruption and Electronic Resource Management in Libraries identifies issues in the management of e-resources. The paradigm shift from Electronic Resources to Electronic Resource Management (ERM) has meant significant change for libraries and their users. One of the most important functions of a library is to provide information in electronic format. Libraries provide access to a wide variety of resources. A major challenge for libraries and librarians is therefore the management of this diversity of e-resources. ERM has emerged in this context. This book gives theoretical and practical information to assist librarians with ERM. It discusses broad trends and specific topics in the current landscape. It is devoted to theory, history, lifecycle, ERM systems, and the management of e-resources. - Presents current theory and practice of Electronic Resource Management (ERM) - Offers comprehensive coverage of ERM, including lifecycle, systems, standards - Includes case studies for ERM - Provides an international perspective on this critical topic

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

With the evolution of technology, libraries today are beginning to adopt many parallel changes, starting from automation to electronic resources (e-resources). It has therefore become mandatory for library professionals to possess technical skills and redefine their roles in the process, so as to meet the technologically advancing scenario. Adoptability and acceptability are concepts that are used in the case of both users and library staff. A librarian thus becomes an electronic resource manager or digital librarian. This chapter discusses the importance of e-resources, and how the concept of electronic resource management (ERM) has emerged over time. To understand the background of e-resources and how it relates to management, some related research work has been detailed. This chapter also discusses the role of e-resources in higher education, the role of an e-resource manager, the parity of e-resource management in library management, and other emerging thoughts on the new dynamics of ERM.

Keywords

Electronic resources; e-resources; e-resource manager; higher education; electronic resource management

1.1 Introduction

Rather than stating that the world is changing, it would be more appropriate to state that the world has reached a state of holistic change, the reason being digital disruption. Digital disruption refers to advances in digital technologies that occur at a pace and magnitude that disrupt established ways of creating value, either within or across markets, social interactions, and more generally, our understanding and thinking. Digital disruption is essentially an opportunity, although it is often seen as a threat. Digital disruption occurs on many levels, such as in people’s personal lives (e.g., mobile connectivity disrupts established work−life boundaries), work practices (e.g., new ways of communicating via social media changes the ways in which work is self-organized), business practices (e.g., workplace social media disrupts the way information travels in the organization and induces shifts in power relationships), industry structures (e.g., new digital intermediaries exploit information asymmetries in ways that reshape traditional value chains), societal (e.g., social media participation disrupts traditional practices of public opinion making, journalism, and politics) [1].

Libraries cannot be exempted from any changes that are affecting society, alongside other technological changes that are pervading the globe. The library world has also been hugely impacted by the disruptive technology phenomenon. The arrival and enormous growth rate of digital contents have fundamentally changed the way in which content is made available to library users. In recent years, libraries have been acquiring more and more electronic resources (e-resources) because of perceived benefits, such as easy access to information, and its comprehensiveness. Due to the influx of e-resources in libraries, the collection, acquisition, and maintenance of these resources have become complicated issues to deal with. This has forced libraries to devise strategies to manage and deliver e-resources conveniently. Therefore, “Management of E-resources” or “Electronic Resource Management” (ERM) has become a challenge for library professionals that needs to be addressed through research and practice. To meet these challenges, library professionals and content providers have decided to develop an “Electronic Resource Management System” (ERMS) for management of e-resources in a more systematic way. Breeding [2] defined two aspects of managing e-resources. They include: (1) the front-end details of delivering the content to library users, and (2) managing the business details of back-end staff functions related to acquisition, payment, and licensing.

Being on the verge of transition from an old method to a new method, libraries are in need of clarity on different aspects of e-resource management. In order to bring clarity and acceptability, there is a need for research and innovation into different aspects of ERM. The adoption of ERM will lead to systematic management and optimal use of library resources. With this background, it is assumed that there should be no differences in the adoption and practice of e-resource management across libraries in business schools/institutes in India, which is discussed in Chapter 7, Implementation of Electronic Resource Management in Libraries: A Case Study. This homogeneity is assumed because of two reasons: (1) competitiveness, and (2) capacity to adopt new ideas.

1.2 Background

The use of the latest form of e-resources in libraries began with the development of the machine-readable catalogue (MARC) format in the 1960s. E-resources have been increasingly accepted in Indian libraries and other libraries around the world since then. Their usage has been increased due to the accessibility, portability, and storage capacity of MARC. The last decade has witnessed a phenomenal increase in the use of e-resources such as e-journals, e-books, full-text/aggregated databases, digitized and born-digital documents, digital images, streaming video, sound, audio books, and internet/web resources in Indian libraries, because of their merits over print resources. As a result, e-resources have a significant impact on libraries and their users in both operational and organizational aspects today, besides bringing changes in library usage pattern and budgets. The increasing acquisition of paid e-resources providing seamless online access to users have posed major challenges, which include changes in a library’s workflow such as selection, acquisition, copyright, license agreements, negotiation, cataloguing, and development of access interfaces, etc. The management aspect of e-resources mainly cover five areas such as: (1) collection development policies, (2) workflow/lifecycle, (3) license agreements, (4) usage statistics, and (5) an e-resource librarian. In this context [3–6] opined that a library collection includes licensed as well as open access information resources. They suggested that the maintenance of a strong library policy ensures decision-making is consistent and the collective development of e-resources is more efficient and thorough. They also put forth the idea of formulation of an e-resources collection development policy that would ensure consistency in approach, appropriateness of e-resources requirement, and assessment of economic feasibility. The entire process of management of e-resources is known as lifecycle/workflow/discovery. Following this line [7–10], discussed that the concept of the lifecycle of ERM begins from selection, trial, evaluation, license agreement, acquisition, and access system, to troubleshooting. They have also addressed the major steps, processes, procedures, and issues involved in the lifecycle of e-resources that can serve as teaching tools for librarians. On the other hand, one of the important components in the lifecycle of e-resources is the reviewing of license agreements. In this context [6,11–14], listed some important deal-breaking factors while reviewing license agreements. These are access concern, i.e., authorized site, authorized users, breach cure period, confidentiality of business terms, dispute resolution and governing law, electronic reserves and course packs, indemnification, interlibrary lending and scholarly sharing, licensee’s responsibility for action of authorized users, modification of license terms, perpetual use/archival rights, remote access, usage statistics, and many more. Another essential component of the lifecycle of e-resources is the usage report of e-resources. In this context [15,16], discussed that usage statistics are valuable tools that can be used to assess the frequency of usage of e-resources, which in turn can help during the time of renewal/cancelation of e-resources. Apart from the e-resources that are available on a paid basis, there are also some others that are available freely through open access content providers which have a positive impact on the organization’s research work. However, a librarian needs to identify additional open access materials that systematically include those resources that are present within the scope of the institutional curriculum. They must be integrated within a local discovery service, so that there is a significant enhancement in e-resource collection which can be offered to users.

It has been observed that publication of books and journals have largely moved out of the print world, and have taken the electronic publication route. The question remains that, in the case of e-books, how do they fit within workflows and automation systems that were initially designed for print? New models of acquisition have emerged which pushed the customary strategies to the back foot, and have made resources available “just-in-time,” rather than anticipating interest through the traditional “just-in-case” selection and acquisition process. Thus the patron driven acquisitions concept has been currently considered a model for selection and purchase of e-resources. It has gathered significant interest among librarians, as it offers benefits to users in the form of seamless and immediate access to e-collections. Another factor, such as Cost–benefit analysis, should also be considered when libraries begin to invest in e-resources which can help in strengthening the value of its subscriptions.

In addition to the above, there is a further factor that deserves immediate attention. It is about devising efficient ways to ensure the optimal access to users (students and faculty members) of resources before library professionals. To address this issue, methods, norms, and standards are being developed for the management of e-resources in libraries through continuous research and innovation. The Digital Library Federation—Electronic Resource Management Initiative (DLF−ERMI) took the initiatives in research and innovation which led to the development of common specifications, standards, and tools for managing license agreements, related administrative information, and internal processes associated with collections of licensed e-resources [17]. Implementation of standards is indispensable for the development of ERM. The report produced by the ERMI in August 2004, which was sponsored by the DLF, has become the de facto standard for development of ERM. In the context of standards used for ERM [18–20], have described the best practice ERM standards as being divided into five categories such as: (1) link resolvers and knowledge bases which include OpenURL, KBART, and IOTA; (2) the work, its manifestations and access points covers DOI, MARC21, ONIX for Serials, ONIX for books, PIE-J, and TRANSFER; (3) integration of usage and cost-related data includes CORE, COUNTER, and SUSHI; (4) coding license terms and defining consensus includes OLT and SERU; and finally, (5) data exchange using institutional identifiers includes I², WorldCat Registry, Shibboleth, and vCard. Similarly [21], discussed two important standards to provide usage statistics, which are COUNTER and SUSHI.

Due to the influx of e-resources coupled with recent technological innovations like Google search, Google scholar, amazon.com, etc., library users often compare these services and their e-resources with services offered by libraries, and expect similar simple and convenient access to e-resources from libraries. As a corollary, these developments make it a challenging job for librarians to manage the collection and development of e-resources. Many librarians found the management of e-resources difficult and cumbersome, because existing integrated library management systems are not capable enough of supporting the management of e-resources. The development of ERMS, either through in-house expertise or a commercial/proprietary product, is a ground-breaking innovation in the line of library management that has the right resources to be adequate. ERMS is basically a tool for libraries, and it directly caters to the needs of end-users. It is a one-stop solution for managing and accessing e-resources which develop with specific standards and compatibility. Refs. [22–24] have explained that the main purpose of ERMS is to manage the workflow of e-resources, to access and centralize data, and to improve administrative interfaces, etc. They have discussed different software available in the market, both from commercial and open sources. Some of these ERMS include Innovative Interface’s Innovative ERM, TDNet’s TDNet ERM Solutions, Ex Libris’s Verde ERM, OCLC’s Web-Share License Manager, SemperTool’s SMDB, University of Notre Dame’s CORAL, MIT’s VERA, Serials Solutions’ 360 Resource Manager, HARRASSOWITZ’s HERMIS, The Johns Hopkins University’s HERMIES, Colorado Alliance’s Gold Rush, WT Cox’s Journal Finder, EBSCO’s EBSCONET ERM Essentials, Simon Fraser University Library’s CUFTS, SIRSI Corp’s E-Resource Center, and Priory Solution’s Research Monitor. There are also different tools available today that can help users easily access e-resources by different authors. Refs. [19,25–27] discussed that e-resources can be given access through online public access catalogues (OPACs), A-to-Z lists, subject indexes, link resolvers, one-stop search through federated or discovery search engines, browsing lists such as database lists, embedded lists such as links to web pages, and remote access such as Shibboleth, EZproxy, and Athens.

It has been observed that the involvement of e-resources has reshaped all aspects of organization and management strategies in libraries. “Acquisition librarians” evaluate, negotiate, and acquire the collections; “reference librarians” provide end-user support; “technical librarians” or “web librarians” develop or implement tools that provide remote access to users; “subject specialists” and “collection development teams” take decisions on the new resources that need...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Biography
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. From Electronic Resources to Electronic Resource Management
• Chapter 3. Lifecycle of Electronic Resource Management
• Chapter 4. An Electronic Resource Management System and Its Best Practice
• Chapter 5. Standards, Compatibility, and Best Practices for Electronic Resource Management
• Chapter 6. Electronic Resource Management Systems: Pros and Cons
• Chapter 7. Implementation of Electronic Resource Management in Libraries: A Case Study
• Bibliography
• Index