Twelve Step Program for Better Electronic Serials

ManagementJill Emery

Head of AcquisitionsUniversity of Texas Libraries at Austin

Communication

• You hold the power• Vendor tools getting

better• Publishers getting

better• Tools to help

communicate better on the job: e-discussion lists, blogs, chat, alerts, erms

Take Inventory of Access Points

• Google/Ask.com• Courseware Links• Faculty/Department

Web Pages• Journal Citation Pages• Databases• Find Journals Pages• Catalog

No Database of Record

• Today’s computing environment is distributed

• In order to provide access at point of need, librarians, publishers, & vendors need to accept distributed mindset

• None of us are quite there yet

Cannot Do Everything

• There are some print processes that no longer need the same attention to detail

• Look at cost/benefit ratios of activities

• Get buy-in for priorities• Propose re-training

opportunities

Troubleshooting

Understanding the Electronic Publishing Marketplace

• No one way of producing publications anymore

• Various models for purchasing access

• Different models work for different constituents

• Print-on-demand starting to emerge

Make Peace with Google

• Leverage usage of Google thru tools they provide

• Mash-up information streams for researchers

• Provide links to Google Books

Understand & Use Standards

• Distributed computing requires standardization to work

• Become familiar with NISO & their work

• Attend conference sessions & webinars on standards applications

Awareness of New Web-based Tools

• Best place to stay up on new technology is here:

• http://lifehacker.com/

• Other blogs , pick your favorite technology guru & follow their postings

Be Impatient

• Patrons do not wait for access problem resolution, they move on to accessible resources

• Don’t wait long for invoices

• Don’t hesitate to notify staff & patrons about down times

Get to Yes By Saying No

• In a license negotiation, don’t be afraid to say no to terms that do not work for your library

• With publishers & vendors, do not be afraid to politely say service isn’t up to expectations

Embrace the Serials Community• Become a member of

the ALCTS Continuing Resources Section

• Join NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group)

• Read Serials, Serials Librarian, & Serials Review

• Join ERiL e-discussion list

Jill Emery

• University of Texas Libraries at Austin

• J.emery@austin.utexas.edu

• 512.495.4660