E-Resources: Best Practices for Identifying & Acquiring for Today's Academic Libraries Adrian Whatley e-Resources Librarian Austin Community College

e-resource selection policy General Objectives e-Resources considered for acquisition should fall within current selection guidelines as described in the Core Selection Factors.

e-resource selection policy General Objectives All e-materials should be relevant and appropriate to a significant segment of the Libraries’ user community and reflect current academic needs and ACC’s mission.

e-resource selection policy General Objectives Special attention should be given to e-resources that provide coverage of underrepresented or high-priority subject areas.

e-resource selection policy Requests from library staff, faculty or other users should be directed to the relevant subject librarian. The subject librarian must fill out an e-Resource Trial Proposal.e-Resource Trial Proposal e-Resource librarian schedules products to trial based on the Procedure for Trialing and Acquiring e- Resources.Procedure for Trialing and Acquiring e- Resources All e-resources must be trialed before acquisition.

homework product site professional journal reviews institutional history forums/ lists contacts at other institutions

e-resource assessment Who assesses? All librarians are invited to give feedback using the Electronic Resources Selection Criteria as a guide.Electronic Resources Selection Criteria All students, faculty, and staff are invited to give feedback via the e-Resources Trial Review form.e-Resources Trial Review

e-resource assessment / content How does this resource support a community college learning environment? Think about ACC's student profile - early college start, workforce, associate degree, university transfer, continuing education, and adult education.

e-resource assessment / content How does the information facilitate collection development on the affected subject area? Neglected topic? Newly created department? Enhances existing holdings?

e-resource assessment / logistics Response time Do pages load quickly? Are graphics quickly downloaded? Information architecture What is your first impression of the site? Is it attractive? Is there information overload? Would a student know where to begin? Are appropriate features highlighted?

e-resource assessment / logistics Content What format is content available in (HTML, PDF, JPEG)? Is it easy to read/view online? Are images sized appropriately?

e-resource assessment / logistics Search How useful are the options for basic as well as advanced searching? Is the search interface intuitive? Does the resource offer: boolean search truncation search proximity search other helpful search fields/parameters

e-resource assessment / logistics Browse Are you able to browse the contents of the e-resource easily? Results Do you find the results make sense based upon your parameters?

e-resource assessment e-resource librarian collects and tabulates all faculty, staff, student, and librarian reviews and disseminates the results via the wiki. e-resource librarian makes recommendation to collection development team (CDT). CDT deliberates upon results and selects which e-resources (if any) to acquire.

e-resource acquisition The e-resources librarian contacts vendors, negotiates pricing, finalizes the subscription, adds subscription information to the ERM, and links to the new e-resource via the A-Z and subject pages.

negotiation relationships consortia big FTE = challenging new customer valued customer subscribe by a certain date / pro-rate deposit accounts

de-selection e-resources low usage stats patron/librarian dissatisfaction bad customer service consortium limited offerings unimpressive discounts bad customer service

recommendations for tight e-resource budgets? cooperate with others seek new partnerships prioritize broad-based content be choosy good vs. great