The Many Hats of the E-Resources Librarian: Present Challenges and Possible Futures

THE MANY HATS OF THE

E-RESOURCES LIBRARIAN:

PRESENT CHALLENGES AND

POSSIBLE FUTURES

Jane Strudwick, Electronic Resources Librarian

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida

Institution Background

Florida Atlantic University, a doctoral degree-

granting university

17,300 FTE

Part of a 12 institution state university system

As of July 2012, the FAU Libraries is part of the

Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC)

Library Background

Three locations

ILS – Aleph (Managed for SULs by FLVC)

Electronic Resources Services – Serials Solutions

360 Core

360 Link

360 ERMS

Summon

Materials Budget – $3,250,000

Why E-Resources Librarians?

New Features of Acquisitions

Licensing

Packaging

New management and management tools

Changes in Access

Different then a catalog (based on a knowledge base)

Unmediated searching

Teaching other librarians

Why E-Resources Librarians

Changes in Workflows

Different or added processes for selection, purchase,

access, and evaluation

Cross – departmental workflows

Skill set developed specific to these needs

“The electronic resources librarian understands

the life cycle of electronic resources in its

ongoing complexity of multiple stages and

processes.”

(NASIG, 2012)

The Hats & the Competencies

Wonder Woman 03

photo by bbaltimore on Flickr

The Hats & the Competencies

Manage the Life Cycle of Electronic Resources

Acquire and maintain subscriptions

Establish and manage procedures to ensure access to

electronic resources and provide support

Manage evaluation processes to support cancellation

and retention decisions

The Hats & the Competencies

Acquire and maintain subscriptions

Understand collection development and knowledge of

librarianship

Negotiate contracts and maintaining advantageous

relationships with vendors

Review and negotiate licenses

The Hats & the Competencies

Provide Access to Electronic Resources

Knowledge of computing hardware used to access

electronic information

Authentication systems

E-resources software and services

The admin functions of proprietary databases

Fundamentals of Web design and markup languages

Ability to provide technical and reference support

The Hats & the Competencies

Manage evaluation process

Understand complex range of data generated by and

related to electronic resources

Ability to collect, analyze, manipulate and provide

meaningful interpretation of data and apply to real

and timely decision making

Evaluate or manage the creation of databases to store

relational data

The Hats & the Competencies

Other Skills

Effective Communication

Prompt, consistent, verbal and written communications with a broad audience

Supervising and Management

Supervise, train and motivate

Trends and Professional Development

Including publishing and library marketplace

Personal Qualities

Flexibility with change

The Challenges…all of the above

The Challenges

Silos

Managing acquisitions

ILS v. ERMS v. homegrown

Access to Electronic Resources

Multiple access points and interfaces

Data Collection and Analysis

Tools not yet adequate for analyzing and reporting

The Challenges

Marketplace v. Budgets

Journal cost increasees v. everything full text

Flux in publishing industry

Consolidation of companies

Rights of Licensee: archival, access, sharing

The Challenges

Transitioning to Web Scale

Changes in search and discovery

Discovery service & catalog

Advocacy of metadata contribution by publishers and

vendors to all discovery services

Collection development impacts, especially

prioritization of formats

Waiting for the full realization of web-scale

management services

The Possible Futures

The Possible Futures

Reorganization of workflows and departments

Complete transition to one access point

Web scale management and the end of the ILS

No more local cataloging

The print hangover is over

Multiple e-resources librarians

The Possible Futures

Changes in publishing

The breakup of journals and the end of the big

database purchase

Demand driven articles and book acquisitions

Indexes native to discovery services

No more need to develop federated interfaces per

product, especially aggregators

The e-resources librarian managing a single interface

The Possible Futures

E-resources funding transitioning to academic departments

Open access initiatives gaining momentum – cost shifting to authors

Data curation

Compete for e-resource funding with other departments?

The e-resources librarian position under

Division of Research

The Possible Futures

Results of permanent library budget reductions

Increased collaboration, purchasing at state level

Decreased staff, new skill set

Virtual Campuses

The e-resources librarian employed by state system

And in Conclusion

?...

Jane Strudwick

Electronic Resources Librarian

Florida Atlantic University

jstrudw1@fau.edu

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