1. Managing Access to E-Resources: Links and Chains Amira Aaron Brandeis University Library and Technology Services aaaron@brandeis.edu ACRL-NEC Serials Meeting March 16, 2007

2. Overview Managing e-resources today – emphasis on access Link resolvers – benefits, selection, implementation, maintenance Troubleshooting & support Statistics & collection development Financial & staffing concerns Looking forward – improving access

3. Managing access to e-resources today http://www.library.yale.edu/ecollections/eresmanage.html Difficult time of transition – both print and electronic workflows Still retraining staff – new skills, workflows, emphasis on what’s important – let some go Goal of updating only one database – need it to be stable and up to date – not there yet ERM’s have some promise – not there yet Need better tools to make discovery and access easier for the user – link resolvers, federated searching, LibX, etc.

4. Link Resolvers - Benefits Allows users to link directly to full text & holdings from external databases Recognizes institutional access rights Solves “appropriate copy” problem Allows for institutional/library branding Brings back some of the serendipity of browsing Allows library staff to be creative in selecting and presenting links Links are dynamic and up to date

5. Impact of Link Resolvers - Patrons Patrons are the big winners – research time has been significantly reduced Ability to link increasingly to full text for both e-journals and e-books – also potential for dissertations, proceedings, book chapters, related resources, reference works Ability to capture citation or save citation in citation managers such as EndNote and RefWorks and then link out again Ability to link from references in an article Ability to access populated ILL forms Ability to link out to full text from search engines

9. Impact of Link Resolvers - Staff Solves general problem of linking and resulting maintenance – reduces troubleshooting Knowledgebase is maintained by vendor – significant reduction of staff time (e.g. aggregator database holdings) Handles authentication such as EZProxy Generate A-Z lists & MARC records Support unmediated document delivery and ILL services Citation Linker use – reserves staff Links to Copyright Clearance Center for technical services staff to obtain copyright permissions Linking to vendor databases (example to follow)

11. Impact of Link Resolvers – Collection Development Significantly improves and increases use of electronic resources Statistics & reports are collection development tools – examples: Most used journals with no. of hits Most used sources & targets Report of full text requested and not found Consortial uses – e.g. acquisitions vendor databases – out to virtual catalog If no SFX buttons, not as heavily used… If not an SFX target, not as heavily used…

12. Link Resolver Selection - General SPEAK TO COLLEAGUES AS WELL AS TO THE VENDORS!! Is the company stable and a major player in the field? Is it well known enough that all publishers, vendors, course management systems will pay attention? How large is the customer base? Is there an active library community that can support each other? Lists? How long has the product been used and how has it been updated/enhanced? Does the product use all applicable standards? Does the product require other software or is it stand- alone? What platforms does the resolver run on? What are the hosting and purchase options? What is the pricing structure based on? How does the pricing structure differ between remote and local installation?

13. Link Resolver Selection – General (Continued) If applicable, how well does the product support various consortial arrangements? How well does the service handle authentication and does it work with all major proxy servers? How good is the vendor technical support? Are there service level agreements? What kind of training is offered? Is there a cost? What specific ongoing maintenance is required? How long is it taking your colleagues with similar-sized collections? How is the support for new versions and how smooth are the transitions? What can you find out about the rate of successful article- level linking? How well does this link resolver integrate with systems and services – both from this company and outside? SPEAK TO COLLEAGUES AS WELL AS TO THE VENDORS!!

14. Link Resolver Selection - Content How extensive is the knowledgebase? Is it comprehensive, kept up to date, timely? How often is it updated – can you pull information? Are there sufficient data elements? E-ISSN’s? What types of materials are covered – only journals? E- books? Facilitates links to Eric documents, proceedings, book chapters? Are there subject assignments for all titles? Their source? What is the library allowed to do, add, change in the knowledgebase? Sources, targets, URL’s, objects? How easy to use is the management interface? Does it have good knowledgebase tools – debugging, managing thresholds, granular security for staff? How are the knowledgebase update reports? Are they easy to work with? How much time do they take? What export formats are supported? How does the product handle embargoes and moving walls? How well does it handle related titles – previous, continued?

15. Link Resolver Selection - Functionality How user-friendly is the interface? How flexible? Customization and branding – allowed, necessary? Can end users personalize the interface (language, etc.)? Can library use display logic to order links on menu or block links from appearing? If full text is available, can library decide to bypass intermediary menu? Statistics – What is available? Do they carry over from one version to another? Can queries be scheduled and run on a regular basis? Does the product link to extended services – ILL, citation managers, etc.? How many? Increasing? Can library export holdings to Google Scholar?

16. Link Resolver Selection – Integration and Related Products A-Z lists – subjects? MARC record service – how exactly does this work and how well Federated search products - integration ERM’s – different knowledgebase? Works with others? ILS systems – works with your particular system? Local databases – can these be configured? 3d party databases – e.g., Syndetics? Is there an API or XML interface?

17. Link Resolver Implementation - Decisions What to link to – what “services” – full text, holdings, table of contents, ILL, citation managers? Display logic – order of targets, display at all? Direct linking versus menu display Include e-books? “Free” e-journals? What to call it Graphics, buttons Menu display – organization and contents – “see more”? Activate targets without granular linking? (Factiva, Lexis-Nexis?) Configuration of A-Z lists and citation linkers

18. Link Resolver Implementation – Some Tasks Collect journal/ebook holdings Activate targets & objects in knowledgebase (check “thresholds”) Customize menus, buttons, citation linker, A-Z list Test and/or set up parsers Set up linking in vendor administrative modules or notify vendor Train staff (and users?) Document and develop help screens Market the service

19. Link Resolver Maintenance Ongoing (labor intensive) Add, change, maintain, delete holdings Report new titles to vendor and wait Load regular updates Work with content update reports Produce statistical reports Troubleshooting Run MARC records updates?

34. Link Resolvers – MARC Record Services & Impact Libraries can use link resolver data to change entire workflow for cataloging e-journals, not only for aggregator titles Based on holdings & coverage in SFX, Harvard used Ex Libris service to obtain CONSER records on an ongoing basis for all serial titles in SFX If no CONSER records, creates brief records Puts openURL in 856 field Records loaded regularly – new, updated, deletes Serials catalogers don’t need to catalog, add or maintain holdings or links for e-journals MARC information is also loaded into MetaLib Maintain information in only ONE place! UTTER DEPENDENCE ON LINK RESOLVER!

38. Citation Linkers/Article Finders Allows users to input known citation data for a specific article or journal into a web form & retrieve a menu of links from the link resolver Very heavily used by patrons and staff Example: widely used by staff in reserves

40. E-Resource Troubleshooting Takes an enormous amount of staff time Hard to determine where the problem is We need better tools for diagnosis & repair Vendors don’t seem to have adequate staff or sometimes concern – there’s a patron waiting! We need notification of access to be turned off How proactive do we need to be – check all links? Do subscription agents help? Broken resources need to be pushed to public directly – not on a link resolver menu!

41. Support for E-Resources We need to give equivalent good service for electronic resources Our libraries are open evenings and weekends – books are on the shelf Our resources need to be available at least on evenings and weekends – sometimes all night (like our buildings) Problem – we’re not funded for this!! And, even if we were…..

42. Off-Hours Vendor Support For E-Resources Our information providers are not there off-hours – we need both technical assistance and subscription help Our link resolver vendors are not there off-hours So unless it’s a library problem and we can reach our IT people, if necessary, we can’t provide equivalent support right now And we’re discarding our print….

43. Content is Critical! Users want & need the content immediately Not sufficient to load content, updates and fixes on a regular basis – sometimes months If something is broken – whoever’s responsibility it is – it needs to be fixed ASAP! We all need to agree on a priority list for top resources which should be covered off-hours Libraries need to be able to add new titles (with ISSN’s), update thresholds, URL’s immediately – CONSER model Ideally, universal knowledgebase ala OCLC

44. Licensing & License Breaches Licensing – hasn’t diminished much – a few clauses are now more standard Some publishers saying take it or leave it Elapsed time is too long! Access is withheld meanwhile from patrons Display license information to public… OVERT – not on a link resolver menu License breach management and vendor shutdowns NISO - Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) – Best practices document

45. Drowning in Statistics (too much of a good thing?) Link resolver statistics & reports EZProxy logs Circulation statistics Reshelving statistics ILL statistics & reports Vendor usage statistics – e-journals, e-books Collection analysis statistics (e.g. WorldCat) Federated search statistics Cost analysis reports New type of niche vendor services

46. E-Resource Evaluation & “Weeding” Making time for e-resource evaluation Is it enough to look at usage statistics? Do people know about the resource? Have we promoted it enough? Do library staff know what it can do? Do we know if something is now URL-compliant or can be cross-searched? Will faculty complain if it’s removed? Do we have access to the years we purchased – and how? Electronic journal archiving - Portico Can we get document delivery?

47. Managing E-Resources – Other Tasks & Concerns Collection development – who’s doing it? Library? Vendor? Overlap of content? Renewals – license? E-journal package renewals, swaps, etc. Transfers of journals between publishers Embargoes and moving walls – e.g. JSTOR Perpetual access – how? Electronic journal archiving – Portico, etc. Troubleshooting, troubleshooting, troubleshooting

48. Standards Make It Possible We all need automation to manage access to e-resources and need to automatically populate data in systems We all need standards to make this automation possible All vendors need to work together with libraries and follow standards – publishers, system vendors, e-resource management vendors, subscription vendors Some important related standards: Project Counter 2 – Usage statistics Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) NISO/DLF Digital Rights Expression initiative NISO Metasearch Initiative Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) ONIX for Serials – Exchange of Serials Subscription Information Group looking at ERM interoperability with other ILS modules Project Transfer – for journal transfers between publishers Working Group on Versions of Journal Articles (NISO/ALPSP)

49. Financial & Staffing Concerns Faculty and students expect access to all databases – some prohibitive We can’t afford all databases – ILL doesn’t necessarily work here We need to accommodate new media - infrastructure We used to pay for a reference book once – now there are annual fees which add up Staff is stretched thin handling print & electronic workflows Now we need to staff and fund digital projects

50. The Promise of ERM’s Comprehensive tools for staff to effectively manage expanding electronic collections – should include e-journals, e-books and databases Manage data and workflows from evaluation, selection and acquisition through renewal and cancellation Mechanism for recording licensing permissions and restrictions and communicating these to faculty and other library users Automated harvesting and reporting of usage statistics from e-resource vendors Integration with ILS, link resolver and hopefully federated search systems (e.g., broken resource) Faster and more reliable access to electronic resources for library patrons

51. Some Conclusions – Link Resolvers Link resolver is one of the most powerful, practical and exciting pieces of technology introduced in the scholarly information community Link resolvers have increasing impact on both library patrons and staff Maintaining the link resolver is time-intensive for both vendor and library – suggest that this maintenance evolve into more of a shared task among libraries and vendors Need full participation of vendors and providers to participate and follow standards! Future initiatives such as Shibboleth – simplifying mangement of identity and access - will increase effectiveness of the technology

52. Providing the Best Access – Looking Forward One-stop shop – search, link, access to institutional repositories and local digitized collections as well Powerful searching made easy and placed where the user is Better integrate e-journals and databases – all electronic resources – as well as print Federated searching vs. harvesting How do patrons use this information once they find it? Saving, tagging, sharing, RefWorks, etc. TOC’s and alerts – vendors need to work together Promoting e-resources & training – go where users are When can we eliminate print workflows? Up to date content with total shared responsibility True 24/7 support – what will that mean?

53. QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION aaaron@brandeis.edu