Reorganizing E-Resources for Efficient Management: Stockholm University Library Case Study

1. A New Organization Built on a New Tool? Wilhelm Widmark Head of Department of E-resources Stockholm University Library Sweden

2. Stockholm University • Will in 2008 become Swedens largest university, when we merge with The Stockholm Institute of Education

3. Stockholm University • 4 faculties och 75 institutions • Humanities • Social Science • Law • Science • 40 000 students • 4 700 employees

4. Stockholm University Library • One main library, 12 branch libraries • 120 employees • 1,5 million visitors per year • 1,5 million web visitors per year

5. Stockholm University Library • 2,5 million printed books and journals • 12 000 e-journals • 30 000 e-books • 150 databases

6. My presentation • Reorganization of the work with e-recourses • Implementation of an ERM system • Conclusions

7. Library organization in year 2004 • At Stockholm University Library we had a traditional organization with four faculty groups • In the faculty groups they handled all library work concerning their subjects • It was an library organization completely built upon the printed environment • We had made minor organizational adjustments in order to handle the e-recourses

8. SUBs organization 2005

9. Organization of e-resources 2005

10. Problems with the organaization • 15 persons from seven different departments working with e-resources • Different how much actual time they spent working on e-resources, from 5% till 100% of a full time • The faculty group leaders had the responsibility for the staff • We could manage the daily work • Difficult to make any progress in organizing and administrating e-resources

11. Investigation of the working process of the e-recources • The e-resource coordinator got a commission to investigate the work flow • He activated a process group containing the heads of the faculty groups • The result should be a working flow chart on the work concerning e-recourses • We drew a chart during our discussions

12. Working flow chart in progress

13. Gå vidare? Ja, nej Förlag, test och pris Avd. chef nat/geo Nat biblgrp Geo biblgrp Avd. chef. Ja, nej Birgit, ip nr, teknik e-ansv. avdelning Db ansv. grp Lägger in i db över db/bort Glenn Samordningsansvarig e- Aktuellt redaktionen Institutioner Avd chef Förlag chef. budg Ja, nej E-ansv avd Ämnesbiblio E-ansv avd Samord e- Samord. e- Avtal Faktura Samord. e- E-ansv avd Aktuellt red. Diariet Förhandlare Öb undert. Raindance Utb. Int/ext Marnadsf. Db ans avd Maria Katlog Katalogchef Betalningsmot. Scanning Betalning Attest. Förvärv av e-media processkarta 1 050407/WW Förslagsställare: Leverantör, Användare, Biblioteket Inköpsförs-lag

14. Analyzing the working flow chart • When we came to an agreement of the working flow chart we started to analyze it • Time-consuming • To many persons involved in each step • The performance differed between the faculty groups • Making a wishing working flow chart

15. Gå vidare? Ja, nej Avd. chef nat Nat biblgrp Geo biblgrp Avd. chef. Ja, nej Förlag, test och pris ”e-enhet” Lägger in i db över db Aktuellt redaktionen Institutioner Avd chef Förlag Ämnesbiblio Öb undert. chef. budg Ja, nej Avtal Faktura Diariet Raindance Utb. Int Lägger in i db Katalogchef Marnadsf. Betalningsmot. Aktuellt red. Katlog Betalning Attest. Förvärv av e-media processkarta 3 050519/WW Förslagsställare: Leverantör, Användare, Biblioteket Inköpsförs-lag

16. Quality safe the work with e-resources • One problem that we discussed was how we could quality safe the work with e-resources • Information about licences were scattered in different spreadsheets and e-mails • We were two persons with much of the information and know how in our minds • We needed some sort of electronic system to handle the administrative work • Should we build one or acquire an ERM-system?

17. New organization for the work with e-resources • June 2005, proposition to the library management group on how to reorganize • Form a central department with specialists that worked full time with e-resources • The staff should work on all subjects • The budget for the subject specific resources should remind in the faculty groups • The e-resource department should handle the actual managing • Acquisition of an ERM system was a condition of the reorganization

18. Aims with the new organization: • get a limited number of skilled personnel to work more concentrated on e-resources • get better possibilities to work with the progress of administrating the e-resources • work more efficiently • emphasize the importance of the e-resources • better quality safe the e-resources • get stronger mandate to manage and develop the work concerning e-resources • to build the new organization on a new tool

19. Acquire ERM system • Choose between Meridian and Verde • Endevour offered us a price as early adaptors • Signed contract in October 2005

20. Implementation of Meridian • Received software in February 2006 • While we where waiting we discussed how to work with the implementation • Which elements should we populate and how • Possible to fill in over 400 different data elements when you are describing resources • You cannot be a good librarian and fill all fields • Decide which elements that were most important for our library and patrons

21. Organization of the work • Different persons in the new department were responsible to gather and find out how to fill in the different e-recourse types • Only the staff at the new department got training in the system • The e-resource staff will in the future train the rest of the staff that need to use the system

22. Bibliographic data to import • E-journals • E-books • Databases

23. Gathering of data • license start, end and execution dates • ill, course reserve, course pack and other permissions • authorized users and locations • walk in use • concurrent users • administrative pages • passwords and usernames • contact information • urls, IP-ranges

24. To fill in manually • Neither of this information was available in one place • We had the data in e-mails, spreadsheets and word document • Collect licenses and scan them • Pricing information

25. Problems with the implementation • Every thing took much longer time than we had expected • We signed the contract in October 2005 and went into production phase in November 2006 • We had different technical problems with the imports • Still we had a lot of data to fill in manually in Merridian but this was expected • We could not use Meridian to keep track of the budget • Even though we have a ERM system we had to keep track on information via spreadsheets

26. Ex Libris acquire Endevour • In December 2006 we recieved information about the acquisition • Ex Libris will only continue with Verde • We will migrate from Meridian to Verde during this year • We had to many problems with Meridian to continue working in it • It is better to migrate and learn the system you will be working in the future

27. Conclusions • The new organization has becomed solid • The new tool hasen’t been as successful as I hoped • We have learnt a lot about ERM systems the last year and how we can work with one • There are always problems as early adoptors that you can’t predict • We where first in Sweden with an ERM system and it can be hard to stand alone • It is important to talk to your providers how you can recieve information in electronic format • I hope that much information in the future can go via electronic feeds from the provider to our ERM system

28. Quality safe the life cycle of e-resources Renewing access Conducting a trial Negotiating a licence Evaluating resources Life cycle of e-resources Troubleshooting problems Acquiring content Providing access