Electronic resource management: staffing and workflow

Abstract:

Electronic resource management as a distinct workflow employing professionals with a specialized skill set emerged with the advent of e-journal acquisitions. The traditional technical services workflow dependent on accumulating legacy print collections did not fit the dynamic environment of electronic resource collections and had to be modified to accommodate the unique needs of these resources and the increased focus on user access. This shift in workflow also created the need to shift staffing, a challenging undertaking in many libraries and a transition that is far from over.

Key words

electronic resource management

serials

staffing

workflows

acquisitions

technical services

electronic journals

licensing

cataloging

electronic resource librarians

All decisions about electronic resources must take the idea of increasing user satisfaction into account. (Hurd, 2006: 5)

During the late 1990s e-journal acquisition in libraries began, with many large university libraries actively collecting both print and electronic formats. E-journals presented an exciting new opportunity, and technical services units, particularly serials units, reacted to this new format by lobbying for or reallocating funds to accommodate duplicative collecting. Initially, as there was not a critical mass of purchasing to force change, technical services units fairly effectively shoehorned the management of e-journals into existing print serials workflows. Although e-journal acquisition often required negotiating complex license agreements that did not have a comparable place in the traditional workflow, the ILS infrastructure and print serials workflow could accommodate the basic acquisition process of single-title ordering and invoicing. Similarly, at first, when libraries were only purchasing direct subscriptions to a limited number of titles, a bibliographic record describing a title (in either a separate or a combined record) or a static webpage that listed available e-journal titles did a fairly adequate job of enabling patron access while ensuring inventory control.

Soon, however, it became clear that the traditional approach to acquisitions and cataloging could not solve the problems presented by the e-journal environment. With the introduction of full-text aggregator databases from abstracting and indexing services and e-journal collections from large academic publishers, and the subsequent shift to e-only serial collecting that started in earnest in the early 2000s, electronic serials management as an add-on to the print workflow began to break down. Basic print serials processes, like ordering through a subscription agent, checkin, claiming, binding and cataloging, were not wholly suited to electronic serials. There were also new processes to consider, such as setting up trials, negotiating complex pricing models directly with publishers, interpreting licenses and setting up and maintaining access.

The linear process of selecting, ordering, invoicing, receiving and renewing subscriptions on a title-by-title basis was gradually replaced by a multifaceted, cyclical workflow of managing "packages" of content that the ILS and existing workflows could not accommodate. It became clear that ejournal management was simply more complex than print serial management. Ellen Duranceau (1998: 90), for example, stated in her comparison of the print and electronic serials workflows at the MIT Libraries:

The digital world is cyclical, and involves high-level staff almost exclusively; the process is different each time and is completely unstandardized. Communication, coordination, and team effort is required at almost every stage. More than twice as many players are involved, and non-library staff may be involved. In a minimum of fifteen steps, many involving extensive documentation, the purchase process is a long, complex, winding dirt road filled with potholes.

This new workflow first blurred the traditional technical services functions such as acquisitions, collections and systems, but also eventually blurred the full range of technical and public services, as the distance between the user and the library units constructing the resource environment steadily decreased.

Serials librarianship shifts electronic

As the format shift occurred first for journals acquired as continuing resources, the challenges of the electronic environment initially affected serials departments, with these units bearing the greatest burden of staffing pressures, especially at the professional level. Susan Gardner (2001) conducted a survey of serials librarians at ARL (Association of Research Libraries) member institutions to understand how the shift to an e-only serials collection impacted staffing, and found a majority of respondents, 73 per cent, reported that the number of staff working on e-journal management had increased; 97 per cent reported that staff time spent on e-journal management had increased; and 88 per cent reported that e-journals required more professional librarians participating in acquisition than print journals.

This also meant that the serials librarian often became the electronic resources librarian. Hanna Kwasik (2002) reviewed position announcements for serials librarians found in SERIALST, American Libraries, College & Research Libraries News and Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2001 to understand how electronic resources changed the sought-after skills listed in these vacancies and identify areas of possible competency development. Her analysis highlighted the increased need for those experienced with Dublin Core, current technologies, markup language and cataloging e-resources. In addition, she found an increase in announcements with the title "serials/electronic resources cataloger". No positions were advertised with this title in 1999, but by 2001 46 per cent of vacant professional serials positions had the title. Kwasik (ibid.: 36) writes of the new positions, "Although quite new, the serials/electronic librarian is permanent and will be an important position in most libraries."

Although serials librarians felt the initial brunt of the electronic revolution in technical services, the dynamic nature of ERM workflow also pulled in staff from across technical and public services. Much of the new work involved high-level staff to negotiate licenses and pricing with a variety of vendors and publishers, evaluate coverage and overlap, and set up systems and technical requirements. This broad impact was evident at Drexel University Library, which embraced e-journal acquisition early on with a nearly full shift to collecting serials in e-only format in 2000 (Montgomery and Sparks, 2000). The decision, based on user preference and budgetary pressures, initially impacted the serials unit, but by the end of the migration it had affected all areas of the library. Drexel librarians discovered that "The selection/ordering process is a team effort involving professionals with subject knowledge, traditional serials ordering experience, negotiating expertise, and computer and technical skills" (ibid.: 8). At Drexel, as at many libraries, savings expected from decreasing staffing for print serials check-in, claiming, binding, stacks maintenance and photocopying were counterbalanced by increased staffing needs for high-level professionals in the areas of license and price negotiation, collection development and systems.

Electronic resource librarians: the public face of technical services

With e-journal acquisition came the issue of access: not only the technical requirements the library needed to set up access, but also how public services staff and end users would gain access to new acquisitions. Packages were often bought in bulk through abstracting and indexing vendors offering full-text aggregator databases or via "Big Deal" licenses wherein a publisher's entire collection was licensed based on a library's subset of historical subscriptions. How reference librarians directed patrons to this content was dependent on technical services workflow and processes. Joni Gomez (1999: 109), in her article "Human factors in the electronic technical services", noted:

Work being performed on the internet has widened the circle of contact to public service staff who must interpret records and to systems staff who maintain equipment and software. Decisions made on how to handle check-in of electronic journals and internet resources impact every library unit as well as the users of the online catalog.

Deeper collaboration with public services ushered in new competencies for serials librarians and technical services librarians working with electronic formats in the areas of interpersonal communication, teamwork and flexibility. These competencies pushed the traditional boundaries of technical and public services and posed new challenges for library professionals who were often more comfortable working in the "back of the house".

Claire Dygert (1998), in her seminal article "New challenges behind the scenes", mapped out the skill set required of a serials librarian dealing with...