This document discusses e-resource troubleshooting at Columbia University Libraries. It begins by explaining that problems are viewed as opportunities rather than burdens. The nature of common e-resource problems are then described, such as titles dropping from databases or patrons lacking access permissions. Several specific examples of problems are provided, such as missing content or weak catalog records. For each problem, the collaborative solution developed by the libraries is summarized. The document concludes by emphasizing best practices like responding promptly and using problems as teaching opportunities to improve patron experiences and push for changes with vendors.

1. From Problem to Solution in
E-Resource Troubleshooting
If you don't believe you can fix the
issues, you've already given up
Susan Marcin & Susan Klimley
Columbia University Libraries
November 3, 2011

2. Why this presentation?
We realized that both of us thought problems were
opportunities not tiresome tasks
But we also realized we had different perspectives in providing
solutions to e-resource problems.
The collaboration showed us that there are benefits in working
together, both for internal procedures as well as for potential
patron satisfaction.

3. Objectives in E-Resources
Troubleshooting
Ideally, we'd love it if there were no problems, if all was working
as planned.
The size & scope of the e-resource collections make it more
difficult to monitor e-resource "breakdowns" in an up-to-the-
moment manner.
So, when we cannot prevent the problems, we work to provide
solutions before patrons get on their last nerve.
They are priority #1.

5. The nature of
e-resource problems at
Columbia University

6. E-Resource Problem Reporting at CUL

7. The
Problem
Report
Form

8. What we
see when
e-
resource
problem
report is
submitted

9. Problem reporting wiki
https://wiki.cul.columbia.edu/display/cerm/Resource+Troubleshooting

10. Problem reports submitted, by year
2008 = 6

11. Problem reports submitted, with follow-
up emails
Follow ups
constitute a
significant amount
of the conversation.

12. E-resource problem report traffic
Answering
problem reports 5
days a week, our
daily average in
the e-resources
department.
These numbers
only include e-
problems
specifically sent to
one email alias.

13. Who is submitting e-problem reports?
Students 31%
Other 30%
Staff 25%
Faculty 14%
Librarians, self-
identified as "other"
or "staff," are the
top reporters of e-
resources
problems, reporting
34% of total.

14. On or Off-Campus
Roughly 60-40
split, on-campus
to off-campus.

15. Informal problem reporting
Problems at Health Sciences can be a:
● Scrap of paper with a PMID
● e-mail to our library contact e-mail
● Phone call
● Patron standing at the door
This can result in a formal problem report or it's taken care of
locally the incident is simply counted as a public service
reference transaction. So, we realized over all Columbia e-
resource problem report statistics are incomplete

16. Problems that We See &
Our Collaborative Solutions

17. We don't have access to the problem
item
● Titles dropping in and out of aggregator databases. Our
records in library catalog, e-journals page, etc. may not be
in sync for a few weeks.
○ Examples: ProQuest, ebrary titles dropping out
● Consortial agreements in which we receive access based
upon member subscriptions
○ Example: NERL, uniform title lists
● Data from aggregators not always correct
○ "current" doesn't always mean latest issue much less the
e-pubs ahead of print
Solution = Communication, vigilance correcting data
1.0

18. Who are you?
Who can use our e-resources?
It depends on the license.
● Generally current students, faculty, staff, walk-ins,
● But also possibly alumni
It may also depend on patron physical location or "status"
within the University.
2.0

19. Patron permissions
Patrons lack
sufficient
permissions to
use Library
electronic
resources?
2.1

20. How we arrived at a solution
Patron permissions are sent in an email when the e-resources
problem report is used.
Patrons are directed appropriately with a response.
Example:
● Direct alumni & friends to alumni & friends e-resources page
● Direct faculty, staff, officers, etc. to their University
departments to be entered into the proper system
● Direct students to the Registrar to confirm registration status
and to be entered into the proper system
Exciting development! HSL now able to have patrons check
their own permissions.
2.2

21. Missing content
link
sites:
< ProQuest
< Gale
< EBSCO
3.0

22. How we arrived at a solution
Took care of the patron. Had patron submit ILL request & to
make sure that ILL request was not "blocked."
The problem is in the "full text." We contacted ProQuest about
the missing pages.
Note, however, that multiple vendors have the same missing
pages and they need to update their PDFs as well (Gale,
EBSCO)
3.1

23. Weak paths between indexes and print
titles
PubMed identifies
what looks like an
article in a journal.
No electronic full text
link
4.0

24. Weak print records
But when title is searched
in catlog, promising
records come up but with
no volume or issue info
link
4.1

25. link
Weak print records
A request to cataloging gets table
of contents added to records
4.2

26. How we arrived at a solution
Got in touch with Cataloging to improve the metadata in the
MARC records.
Records now include tables of contents.
Solved! 10/18/11
Question -- will future records be given the same attention?
4.3

27. PubMed has the citation correct, but...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=21666833
5.0

28. ...openURL links to incorrect article
link
5.1

29. How we arrived at a solution
● Contacted Serials Solutions about correcting their
knowledge base
● Ser Sol informed us that PubMed had the incorrect ISSN
assigned that journal
● Problem is in the "citation source."
● NLM said the the publisher data was incorrect, then
realized that the issue was tied to their data
● NLM resolved 10/19/11!
5.2

30. Confusing User Interface
link
Patron
clicks on
"get
book"...
6.0

31. Where to click for full-text?
Many users
click on e-
Link to get to
the full text,
as they've
been told to
do by
librarians.
6.1

32. This takes them back where they were
link
Patron
clicks on
"get
book"...
endless
loop
6.2

33. How we arrived at a solution
● We are still working on a solution, but the solution lies with
EBSCO
○ We have pointed out to EBSCO that users are regularly
confused by their e-book landing pages.
○ We have asked EBSCO to make their full-text links
more visible to users.
6.3

34. Inconsistent links
"Full text" link
fails. It runs a
journal search,
rather than a
book search.
"All Issues" link
works.
7.0

35. How we arrived at a solution
Contacted EBSCO to reclassify their document as a book, not
a journal. They fixed it.
And again, we complained to EBSCO that their user interface
is not intuitive.
7.1

36. Browser issues
link
8.0

37. How we arrived at a solution
Directed patron to use Internet Explorer.
It also helps to put the same "IE only" note in various places,
such as the library catalog.
The best solution for the all of us, however, would be to "push
back" with the vendor to make their product accessible in more
Web browsers.
8.1

38. I want to link to the chapter!
link
9.0

39. How we arrived at a solution
A few things to think about:
● Does the design of the full-text target site support direct
linking at the chapter/article level? For Springer, yes.
● If yes, then has the openURL provider (Serials Solutions in
our case) configured chapter/article level-linking in their
system?
● If yes, then is the data passed from citation "good enough"? C
a "match" be found on the full-text site?
9.1

40. I want to link to the article!
link
Users perceive
it as a problem
that they
cannot link at
the article level.
10.0

41. How we arrived at a solution
A few things to think about:
● Does the design of the full-text target site support direct
linking at the chapter/article level? Yes
● If yes, then has the openURL provider (Serials Solutions in
our case) configured chapter/article level-linking in their
system? We do not believe so.
● If yes, then is the data passed from citation "good enough"? C
a "match" be found on the full-text site?
10.1

42. The problem with supplements
Anytime a patron has
a problem with a
supplement, public
service staff know its
trouble. . .
link
11.0

43. PubMed supplement, full text cannot be
located
11.1

44. PubMed supplement: But the full text is
there if we browse for it
11.2

45. PubMed supplement, full text cannot be
located
We see that the search is:
0362-2436.is. and "36".vo. and "21".ip. and S1.pg.
11.3

46. How we arrived at a solution
● We first thought that because PubMed is passing letters in
the page number field, Ser Sol can't deal with this. But in
fact, it is the "issue" that causes the failure.
● A PMID search fails -- it passes an issue number, which
Ovid cannot recognize.
● 0362-2436.is. and "36".vo. and "21".ip. and S1.pg.
● A DOI search works -- no issue number.
11.4

47. Networks: the VPN issue
Example email:
● Apparently some Columbia students cannot gain access to
our website, NetAnatomy.com (for which you have a
subscription) when using your VPN. They have access
through means other than the VPN. Any chance you have
changed the IP address that your VPN uses?
What is a VPN? (Virtual Private Network)
● VPN is a client software that runs on your off-campus
computer. After you log in with an ID and password, VPN
establishes a secure "tunnel" to the campus network.
The solution is a "teachable moment."
12.0

48. "Incomplete" subscriptions
Problems arise when patrons perform searches in databases to
which we do not fully subscribe:
Examples:
● Wiley online library -- Full-text access to the Wiley Online
Library which hosts the world's broadest and deepest
multidisciplinary collection of online resources.
● Oxford scholarship online -- Classic and newly published
Oxford books in Economics & Finance, Philosophy, Physics,
Political Science, and Religion.
Solution: Buy everything? Don't publicly list the entire product
as a database? Does it need to be a database, if it's in other
sources, such as Summon and the library catalog?
13.0

49. It's all in the Timing
Titles move from one provider to another, and we don't catch
the changes
○ Example: We get 1 email 6 months before the change
occurs OR We get 1 email the day of the switch OR the
day after...
Titles are canceled:
When you cancel something, when do you close the record?
● We cancel title and wait to turn it off. But we might not
remember to turn it off until we get a problem report.
Solution =
● Try to keep good records
● Respond accordingly when problem arises
● Teachable moment
14.0

50. Never mind. . .
opps! I meant Obesity not the International Journal of Obesity
I am having trouble accessing e-resources from Africa. . .
I need the registration number for SCOPUS so I can
import citations into Papers on my Mac
15.
0

51. Lessons Learned in
Providing Solutions to
E-Resource Problems
16.0

52. Best Practices Problem Response
● Respond to all questions promptly
● Resolve patron's immediate problem
○ Send the article
○ Send patrons to ILL
○ Fix broken links
● Use problem answers as a teachable moments
● Think about whether the problem is part of a bigger problem
17.0

53. How "pushing back" may create
positive change
Preventing the "problem" from ever happening often begins with
the initial purchasing negotiations.
● Can we influence the provider?
When the content/platform changes, we can push back with
feedback to create a better user experience
When access to certain parts of journals is restricted, we can
push back to make it available
18.0

54. What would help us to better solve e-
resource problems?
Whole exercise has helped us to understand what is available
and what our expectations are.
● Ability to check off-campus access
● Diagnostic tools for patron permissions
Future plans
● evaluate tools for problem report tracking & analysis
● continue regular meetings between central and front line
librarians
● identify projects:
○ Document supplement problem in PubMed and discuss
with National Library of Medicine
○ Document problem with aggregator listing of journals as
"current" when reality suggests they are issues behind
19.

55. How can you help?
Don't give up.
If you notice a problem with a vendor site, let them know.
Send corrections to knowledge bases. All of us benefit.
20.0

56. Susan Klimley, klimley@columbia.edu
Susan Marcin, smarcin@columbia.edu
21.0