These are the slides from the first part of Michael Santangelo's ALA TechSource workshop.

1. Managing Electronic Resources in
Public Libraries
Presented by Michael Santangelo
Session #1: March 7, 2012

2. Session #1
 Responsibilities
 Organizing the work
 Governance Models and Collaboration
 Identifying Needs
 Locating Products
 Making Selections
 Product Set-Up
 Electronic Resources Webpages
 Promotion and Marketing
 Training
 Maintenance and Troubleshooting
 Electronic Resources Management Tools

3. Session #2
 Usage Statistics and Evaluation
 Vendor Negotiations
 Contracts
 Renewals
 E-Journal Discovery Services
 Federated Searching
 Electronic Resources Collection Development
Policy
 Keeping up-to-date and keeping active

4. Introduction
Who Am I? Who I Am Not?
 Web Designer
 Web Developer
 Publisher
 Contract Attorney
 Statistician
 Copyright Expert
 Economist
 Accountant
 Technical Writer
 Copywriter

5. What do we mean by Electronic
Resources?
 Databases
 Aggregators
 Gale, Ebsco, Proquest…
 Original Content
 World Book Online, Student Resources in Context, Teen
Health and Wellness
 eBook Platforms
 Overdrive, Gale Virtual Reference Library, eBooks
on Ebscohost
 Online Learning Tools
 Learning Express Library, Mango Languages,
Bookflix, tutor.com, Brainfuse

6. E-Responsibilities (duties, tasks)
 Identifying Needs
 Locating Products
 Making and Finalizing Selections
 Conducting and Organizing Product Trials
 Vendor Relationships
 Contract Negotiations
 Budgeting
 Procurement
 Set-up
 Marketing/Promotion
 Internal (To Staff)
 External (To Public)

7. E-Responsibilities
 Training
 External (To Staff)
 Internal (To Public)
 Tech Support
 Internal (To Staff)
 External (To Public)
 Usage Statistics Collection and Analysis
 Creating Digital Policies, Procedures, Strategic
Plans
 Maintenance
 Renewals

8. Who is primarily responsible?
 Tech Services/Collection Development
 Reference Services
 IT
 Age Level Coordinators: Children’s, Teen, and
Adult
 Stand Alone Department
 A wholly unique configuration that no one has
ever thought of before and for which you will win
numerous accolades from the library world.

9. Governance Model
 One person does it all.

10. Governance Models
 Committee
 Chair
 Rotating Chair
 Permanent Chair
(Electronic Resources
Manager or other
Manager)
 Committee Charge
 Decision-making Body
 Advisory Group
 Working Group

11. Governance Models
 Assigned to a specific  Total Chaos
manager (in addition
to other duties)

12. Partners for Collaboration
 Collection Development/Tech Services/Cataloging
 Reference Services/Information Services
 Branch Staff or Public Services Staff
 Age Level Coordinators: Children, Teens, Adults,
Seniors
 IT
 Marketing
 Outreach Services
 Literacy Services
 Chat/Telephone Reference Staff

13. Partners for Collaborations
 Specialty Departments: Historical Collections,
Business Services, Ethnic Collections, Local
Archives
 Development
 Finance
 Procurement/Contract Services
 Administration

14. Partners for Collaboration
 Not all partners are created equal
 Prioritize the partners you think will be most
effective in helping you to manage electronic
resources
 Some partnerships will only be necessary in
specific or specials circumstances
 Let partners know of your expectations
 Make everyone involved aware of the final
decision making process and who is involved

15. Collaboration Partners Match Up
 Promoting a new database:
 Marketing, Branch Services, Public Service Staff
 Setting up a new online learning tool:
 IT, Web Services
 Public Training:
 Reference, Adult, or Information Services, Public
Service staff, Marketing
 Negotiating a contract
 Procurement staff, library counsel, Finance dept.

16. Tools to Organize Collaborations
 Meetings
 Frequency
 Agendas
 Invitees
 Intranet/Workspace/Google Docs
 Keep relevant documents
 Post minutes
 Post trial usernames and passwords
 Email Discussion List
 ERM—Electronic Resources Management
System

17. Organizing Your Electronic
Resources

18. Organizing
 Inventory List of Current Holdings
 Database Name
 Company Name
 Subject(s)
 Subscription Dates
 In Library/ Remote Access
 Vendor Contact List
 Sales Representative(s)
 Account Representative(s)
 Tech Support Representative(s)

19. Organizing
 Username/Password Information for Administrative
Accounts
 Technical Support Log
 Database
 Date of Incident
 Resolution
 Technical Support Contact
 URLS/Usernames & Passwords
 Budget
 Product
 Company
 Funding Information
 Invoice Numbers
 Amount
 Subscription Dates

20. Organizing
 Collaboration Chart/Committee Chart
 Members
 Responsibilities
 Electronic Resources Strategy/Policy
 USAGE STATISTICS

21. Tools for Organizing Your Information
 Electronic Resources Management Systems
 Database Management System
 Microsoft Access
 Open Office Database
 Spreadsheet
 Microsoft Excel
 Open Office Spreadsheet

22. Identifying Needs or Prioritizing Your
Electronic Resources Collection
 Review your current collection
 By Vendor
 By Subject
 By Age Level
 By Usage
 Review your print/media circulation
 Top Nonfiction Areas(CollectionHQ)
 Reviewing your reference collections and reference
standing order plans
 Local school curriculums
 National Governor Association’s Common Core State
Standards

23. Identifying Needs
 Overlaps and gaps in Journal Coverage
 Survey and discuss with public service staff
 Coordinate sample studies with public service
staff
 Reference desk queries
 Frequent collection gaps
 Survey Educators
 Institutional Goals

24. Locating Products
 Catalogs of major vendors
 Ebsco, Gale, Proquest, ABC CLIO, Scholastic
Grolier, Alexander Street Press
 Reviews
 Conferences—conference floor
 Observe the collections of other libraries
 Yearly “Best of” lists
 Award winners
 Query to listservs
 Journal Coverage: who has what? Exclusives
and embargoes.

25. Making the Selection
 Vendor demonstrations
 In person
 In collaboration with other library systems, county
and state agencies.
 Through a consortium program
 By webinar/conference call
 One person
 Multiple staff members
 Scheduling can be a problem, so space out different
demonstrations.
 Theme mornings: career databases, language
learning

26. Making the Selection
Trials
 Trial Audiences
 Local Advisory Committee
 All Public Service Staff
 Patrons
 Trials can be by username/password or by IP
authentication
 Staff feedback is essential
 Ask staff to compare competing resources
 Create a submission form for staff feedback
 Trial free resources as well as paid resources

27. Setting Up New Products
 Quick Technical Terms Vocabulary Lesson
 Referring URL: Helps new product’s webpage to recognize
that the user is coming from your website.
 Inside the library, user brought directly to the resource’s start page.
 Remote access, user brought directly to login page
 Library’s login page
 Vendor’s login page
 Example: http://misc.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/remote/?res=abi. This
tells the database that this user is coming from the Brooklyn Public
Library.
 IP Address: Stands for Internet Protocol Address. Unique
numerical identifier assigned to every machine (device) in a
computer network. It takes the form of four numbers
separated by dots. Example: 101.32.11.264. Give vendor IP
ranges.
 IP Authentication: Grants access to recognized IP addresses
so that users at your institution will not have to provide access
credentials, such as username and passwords.

28. Setting Up New Products
 Login Page or Authentication Page: Webpage on
which your patron enters library barcode and PIN
information.
 Proxy Server: a product that helps authenticate
and connect your remote users to your
subscription services. It is part of a group of
products called middleware. Examples: OCLC’s
EZ Proxy and 360 Access Control.
 Content Management System: allows multiple
users access to the administration of an
institution’s webpages. Users with proper
usernames and passwords can create, change,
and publish content on specific webpages.

29. Setting Up New Products
 Be aware of start dates
 Make sure vendor has your proper IP addresses
and referring URL
 Receive product’s URL from vendor
 Test URL prior to posting, both in library and
remotely.
 Enter information into your electronic resources
information management tool
 Username/passwords
 URL
 Inventory List

30. Setting Up New Products
 Select subject categories for new resource
 Request cataloging (MARC records) for OPAC
 Write description of new resource
 Enter information into content management
system
 Test link

31. Electronic Resources Page
 Easy to get to (don’t hide it)
 Simple straightforward descriptions
 Two listings
 Subject
 Alphabetical (Database A to Z)
 Database Spotlight
 List of Popular Databases
 Links to instructional documents and videos
 Funding information
 Content Management Systems flatten the work

39. Promoting and Marketing Electronic Resources
 Public:
 Electronic resources webpage is the first and best
place to promote.
 Database spotlight
 List of popular databases
 Webpage tout
 Newsletters
 Social Media: Twitter and Facebook
 Internal
 Electronic resources updates
 New product announcements and cancellations

44. Training
 Staff Training
 A great reminder
 Regularly scheduled
 Older products as well as newer products
 Great way to promote staff involvement
 Promote database trials
 Vendor hosted as well as staff hosted
 Share vendor emails with staff and encourage
public services colleagues to sign up for vendor
announcement emails
 Promote staff excellence in specific resources

45. Training
 Public Training
 In person
 Central location and branch locations
 Open sessions
 Work in collaboration with public service managers and staff
 Video
 Handouts for branch staff
 Outreach events
 Fairs
 Schools
 Community Events
 Job Centers

47. Maintenance/Troubleshooting
 Schedule check ups
 Check each link regularly
 Remote as well as in library
 Use committee members to check links and
authentication
 Make sure staff know to contact you and/or
appropriate IT colleague
 Email
 Telephone call for emergencies (access shut off)
 Record issues in tech support log
 Keep informed of all maintenance issues
 Update your e-journal discovery service
 Update your federated search product

48. Electronic Resources Management Tools
 Helps to organize all aspects of Electronic Resources
 Allows multiple staff in remote locations to record,
collect, and view data.
 Allows for continuity despite staff changes.
 Popular products
 Serials Solutions: 360 Resource Manager
 Ebscohost’s ERM Essentials
 ILS systems
 Innovative Interfaces Inc. (Millennium): ERM
 Open Source
 ERMes: University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse
 CORAL: University of Notre Dame

50. Questions