Abstract Only 19% of accredited LIS programs appear to have a course on ERM. Thus, for continued evolution of online resource management, we need to determine how to share our expertise. This presentation explores using TERMS and NASIG’s Core Competencies for staff development as well as teaching a library science course. As the demand for convenient, accessible, and relevant information access rises while funding remains flat, it is critical that libraries have the skilled workforce necessary for the extreme stewardship required to manage online resources. In this session, the presenter describes using the Techniques of Electronic Resource Management (TERMS) as a framework for developing an ERM Team and as a blueprint for teaching an online e-resource management course for University of Wisconsin – Madison SLIS. Then the presenter will invite participants to discuss the future of e-resource management knowledge transfer and skill distribution by establishing partnerships with SLIS programs, establishing paid e-resource management fellowships, or...?

1. March 18, 2014
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Human TERMS of Engagement
Galadriel Chilton
galadriel.chilton@lib.uconn.edu
Abstract
Only 19% of accredited LIS programs appear to have a course on ERM. Thus, for continued evolution of
online resource management, we need to determine how to share our expertise. This presentation
explores using TERMS and NASIG’s Core Competencies for staff development as well as teaching a
library science course.
As the demand for convenient, accessible, and relevant information access rises while funding remains
flat, it is critical that libraries have the skilled workforce necessary for the extreme stewardship required
to manage online resources.
In this session, the presenter describes using the Techniques of Electronic Resource Management
(TERMS) as a framework for developing an ERM Team and as a blueprint for teaching an online e-
resource management course for University of Wisconsin – Madison SLIS.
Then the presenter will invite participants to discuss the future of e-resource management knowledge
transfer and skill distribution by establishing partnerships with SLIS programs, establishing paid e-
resource management fellowships, or...?
Part of the discussion includes the necessity of, and ideas for, practicing ERM librarians to work with
library administrators not only to ensure adequate staffing for resource management, but also to
encourage and support librarians who teach credit and continuing education courses in collection
development and management for the evolution of skills in this core, but intensely complicated area of
managing all library resources.

2. March 18, 2014
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Introduction
As the demand for convenient, accessible, and
relevant information access rises while funding
remains flat, it is critical that libraries have the
skilled workforce necessary for the extreme
stewardship required to manage online
resources.
So, in this session, I’ll be sharing how I’ve used
Techniques of Electronic Resource Management
(TERMS) as a framework for developing an ERM
Team and as a blueprint for teaching an online e-
resource management course for University of
Wisconsin – Madison SLIS.
Then I’d like for us to talk about the future of e-
resource management, knowledge transfer and
skill distribution through means such as…
establishing partnerships with SLIS programs,
establishing paid e-resource management
fellowships, systematic distribution/reskilling of
ERM work amongst current library staff or...?
So, to get started, I’d like to share why this topic
is of such an interest to me…
Not unlike most academic libraries, UConn
spends 75% of their collections budget on
electronic resources – e-books, databases, e-
journal packages, etc.
When I came to UConn in Fall 2011, only 3.25 FTE
worked on managing and acquiring e-resources.

3. March 18, 2014
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Now, as of January 2014, there is an official ERM
Team that brings people working on acquisition
and management of e-resources together, and
there are 5.65 FTE managing and acquiring e-
resources. It should be noted though, that
everyone on the team has split responsibilities,
such as 50% subject librarian/50% ERM; 20%
IT/80% ERM. When the team was formed in July
2012, I was the only one with ERM experience.
Now, with the newest team member, two of us
have extensive experience wrangling e-resources.
The fall after the team was formed, I began
teaching an online course for UW Madison’s
School of Library and Information Studies: LIS755
Electronic Resource Management & Licensing.
As I was working to build a team and develop a
course, the primary recurring question I had was:
How in the world do I teach e-resources when
just one e-resource workflow or one day in the
life this work is as chaotic, layered, and scattered
as a Jackson Pollock painting?
Why in 2014 is e-resource management still a
specialized skill set outside of the “collection
development” responsibilities of a subject
librarian at many libraries?
Why does “collection development” for non-ERM
staff remain a term applied primarily to selecting
and submitting orders for print and e-books?
But even a Pollock painting is encased by the
parameters of a canvas so I decided to use the 6
TERMS and NASIG Core Competencies as
frameworks for both team and course
development.

4. March 18, 2014
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Team Development: TERMS – reviewed one
TERM per team meeting for six weeks
Teaching:
6 TERMS and my job description are among the
first three course readings for LIS755 in Fall 2012
and 2013.
6 TERMS is the foundation and framework for the
class for the subsequent 1-2 week modules for
each of the TERMS: investigate, acquire,
implement, evaluate, and review.
Team Development: NASIG Core competencies
was used to see what skills people might have
had that they didn’t necessarily associate with
“ERM work.” Also used as part of justification for
training and staff development requests (e.g.
staff shadowing/job sharing with acquisitions
staff, business/technical writing course, SQL/PHP
for work in CORAL).
Teaching: One of the first-week course readings
along with 6 TERMS and my job description.
The response?
Team Development: from my perspective, it was
good to use TERMS and the Core Competencies
and I will be referring back to them during team
retreats and ongoing team development. TERMS
is especially good as a lighthouse for us to help
highlight where we’ve made progress among the
storms and to help show us further obstacles we
need to overcome.
Excellent for communicating with library
administrators.
Teaching: TERMS worked very well as a
framework for the course; however, students
were overwhelmed by the core competencies.

5. March 18, 2014
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<QUOTE>
And this was a student taking an elective course
dedicated to ERM when…
My colleague Chenwei Zhao and I looked at the
course descriptions on websites for ALA
accredited library science programs and also
reviewed jobs ads posted on ALA job list, ERIL-L,
and LIBLICENSE-L between September and
December 2013
For course descriptions, we looked for courses
with e-resource management in the title or
description and we looked at collection
development course descriptions to see if the
description encompassed e-resources, e-
journals/packages, e-books, etc.
For job ads, it was a small sample and short
period of time: 21 ads posted between
September and December 2013. This limited
sample and time period give perspective, but I do
think it would be important to review more ads

6. March 18, 2014
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over a longer period of time for a clearer, more
accurate picture.
Anecdotally, from talking with colleagues in the
field, most perceive that the financial resources
spent on e-resources and work to manage these
collections continues to increase and that the
human resources allocated are not adequate.
Austin we have a problem.
So, if, as the core competencies note that e-
resource librarian positions are not entry level
and potential new librarians interested in e-
resource management librarianship are
overwhelmed by ERM near the end of their
program, and yet we still have 75% percent of
collections budgets going towards e-content….
How are we expanding the pool of human
resources that are willing and able to manage e-
resources?
How do we grow the ERM skill set?
Not only to adequately staff current need, but
also to continue to evolve are work and make
sure that the pool of folks with a core job of ERM
is a vibrant, growing one.
Well, what does the literature say about what
we’re doing…
An ARL Library first posted a position relating to
management of e-resources in 1990. So this work
and e-resource management specific positions
are not new.

7. March 18, 2014
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Anyone want to guess what year these two
quotes were published?
Duranceau, E. F. (2002). Staffing for Electronic
Resource Management: The Results of a Survey.
Serials Review, 28(4), 316–320.
doi:10.1016/S0098-7913(02)00224-1
So, this isn’t a new problem….
In fact it’s in middle school.
Let’s look at the results of the Ithaka survey
results announced last week: “The IthakaS+R
Library Survey 2013 examines strategy and
leadership issues through the eyes of academic
library deans and directors. In fall 2013, we
fielded the Library Survey to the dean or director
of the general or principal library at each four-
year college and university in the United States.
The survey did not include community colleges.
We received 499 responses, or a response rate of
33%.”
Results confirm that well over 50% of materials

8. March 18, 2014
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budgets are on electronic materials.
Confirm the prevalence and focus on electronic.
And that if electronic collections work well,
respondents would be happy to see print
discarded.
As we know, that part about working well
requires human power, and yet…
…the Ithaka survey questions related to functions
of the library only focused on one part of e-
resource acquisitions and management (licensing
e-resources).

9. March 18, 2014
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So, what do we do?
To encourage, support, and not overwhelm
current colleagues and those new to the
profession even if we ourselves are feeling rather
overwhelmed.
It’s going to take all of us.
…and work to evolve ERM as a library
competency rather than just the work of 1-2
people.
Make sure “e-resource manager” is “e-resource
managers” – plural!
We need to work to eliminate – not just bridge -
the delineation between print and electronic
instead of an all-encompassing, robust collection
development view in LIS courses *and* in the
profession that has become our digital divide.
Because with < 60% of collection budgets going
towards e-resources, the entirety of managing e-
collections should be a core library function
rather than a fragile, unsustainable add-on.

10. March 18, 2014
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When I think about e-resource management,
scholarly communication, and now data
management, and digital scholarship/humanities,
it seems like you have many organizations with
the old functions as part of a core structure and
instead re-skilling/changing/transitioning the
whole structure, little pieces of Legos are added
around the edges. Now I love Legos, they are
quite strong, and you can do a heck of a lot with
them, but you can't continue adding around the
edges without unfortunate consequences like
divisions, chasms, and silos wreaking havoc
amongst the human architecture of a library.
Some ideas…
Establishing partnerships with SLIS
programs, establishing paid e-resource
management fellowships*
Practicing ERM librarians work with
library administrators not only to ensure
adequate staffing for resource
management, but also,
Encourage and support librarians who
teach credit and continuing education
courses in collection development and
management for the evolution of
resource management skills.
Make sure that when it comes to
strategic surveys of library functions
that all pieces of resource management
that require human resources are
represented not just one segment such
as licensing.
*However, librarians need to look at their own
structure, their core functions, their staffing and
reskill, reallocate human resources to match
needs and not rely on LIS programs and new
librarians to bear the yolk of evolving the library.
Those are just a couple of ideas…

11. March 18, 2014
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So that one seed at a time, we end up with a
whole library - instead of just one or two in the
field – understanding the work and managing all
of the libraries’ resources.
But what else can/should we do?
It’s time to start this conversation and then work
towards change even if it is slow.
Thank you for attending this last session of they
day, and I’d also like to give a shout-out of
appreciation to my colleague Chenwei Zhao for
her work with me on collecting information for
this project and the Library Society of the World
(LSW) for always being a great place to share
thoughts, get feedback and incubate ideas.
Without Chenwei and LSW this presentation
wouldn’t exist.