E-Resources: Best Practices for Identifying &Acquiring for Today's Academic Libraries

Adrian Whatleye-Resources LibrarianAustin Community College

e-resource selection policy

General Objectives• e-Resources considered for acquisition should fall

within current selection guidelines as described in the Core Selection Factors.

e-resource selection policy

General Objectives•All e-materials should be relevant and appropriate to a significant segment of the Libraries’ user community and reflect current academic needs and ACC’s mission.

e-resource selection policy

General Objectives•Special attention should be given to e-resources that provide coverage of underrepresented or high-priority subject areas.

e-resource selection policy• Requests from library staff, faculty or other users

should be directed to the relevant subject librarian.

• The subject librarian must fill out an e-Resource Trial Proposal.

• e-Resource librarian schedules products to trial based on the Procedure for Trialing and Acquiring e-Resources.

• All e-resources must be trialed before acquisition.

homework

•product site•professional journal reviews• institutional history• forums/e-mail lists•contacts at other institutions

e-resource assessment

•Who assesses?• All librarians are invited to give feedback

using the Electronic Resources Selection Criteria as a guide.

• All students, faculty, and staff are invited to give feedback via the e-Resources Trial Review form.

e-resource assessment / content•How does this resource support a

community college learning environment?• Think about ACC's student profile - early

college start, workforce, associate degree, university transfer, continuing education, and adult education.

e-resource assessment / content•How does the information facilitate

collection development on the affected subject area?• Neglected topic?• Newly created department?• Enhances existing holdings?

e-resource assessment / logistics•Response time• Do pages load quickly? Are graphics quickly

downloaded?• Information architecture• What is your first impression of the site? Is it

attractive? Is there information overload? • Would a student know where to begin? Are

appropriate features highlighted?

e-resource assessment / logistics•Content• What format is content available in (HTML, PDF,

JPEG)?• Is it easy to read/view online? • Are images sized appropriately?

e-resource assessment / logistics•Search

• How useful are the options for basic as well as advanced searching?

• Is the search interface intuitive?

• Does the resource offer:

•boolean search

•truncation search

•proximity search

•other helpful search fields/parameters

e-resource assessment / logistics•Browse

• Are you able to browse the contents of the e-resource easily?

•Results

• Do you find the results make sense based upon your parameters?

e-resource assessment

•e-resource librarian collects and tabulates all faculty, staff, student, and librarian reviews and disseminates the results via the wiki.

•e-resource librarian makes recommendation to collection development team (CDT).

•CDT deliberates upon results and selects which e-resources (if any) to acquire.

e-resource acquisition

•The e-resources librarian contacts vendors, negotiates pricing, finalizes the subscription, adds subscription information to the ERM, and links to the new e-resource via the A-Z and subject pages.

negotiation

• relationships•consortia•big FTE = challenging• new customer• valued customer• subscribe by a certain date / pro-rate• deposit accounts

de-selection

•e-resources• low usage stats• patron/librarian dissatisfaction• bad customer service

•consortium• limited offerings• unimpressive discounts• bad customer service

recommendations for tight e-resource budgets?•cooperate with others• seek new partnerships

•prioritize• broad-based content

•be choosy• good vs. great