Terms in Electronic Resource Management

Scope:

Unit: Metadata & Discovery Strategy

Date last reviewed: 03/07/2012

Date of next review:

Knowledgebase – specialized database for knowledge management. For ER Librarians, this refers to the tool used to collate information about available e-journals – those subscribed to and those available. These kbs are tools subscribed to by libraries, where the kb vendor works with publishers and providers in order to maintain links to e-journals and increasingly, e-books. The kb holds data about the general availability of a resource, but more importantly, the dates of coverage that the library has subscribed to.

The knowledgebase populates the A-Z lists found on libraries websites. These are simply lists of titles, usually with dates of coverage, that the library has access to. (http://web.nccu.edu/shepardlibrary/) (http://library.duke.edu/).

Coverage statements simply list the years and/or volumes of a serial that the library subscribes to. Often the library does not subscribe to every issue that is available, and so the coverage statements in the kb have to be altered to reflect the individual library’s holdings.

The Link resolver functions on the data provided in the kb in order to link the patron to the most appropriate resource from a Citation index, Google Scholar, etc. The tool compares the data in the citation clicked on and in the kb in order to direct the patron to those resources that the article cited is contained in AND the library has access to. In the days before link resolvers, the only thing we could do is show the patron all of the places the article was available, but not necessarily if the library subscribed to them.

The OpenURL standard is designed to enable linking from information resources such as abstracting and indexing databases (sources) to library services (targets), such as academic journals, whether online or in printed or other formats. The linking is mediated by link resolvers, which parse the elements of an OpenURL and provide links to appropriate targets available through a library by the use of a knowledgebase. The Open URL standard is a NISO standard, accepted in 2006 as Z39.88.

Authentication is based on the concept that a library licenses use of electronic resources for the benefit of it’s patrons. Therefore, the library has to make sure that those using its licensed electronic resources are legitimately part of its defined community. Generally, any person “on-campus” is considered an authenticated user (there are some exceptions), this is determined by the IP address of the computer used to access a resource. IP address ranges are registered with vendors and show the limits of the campus IP addresses. This is called IP authentication. Anyone outside the campus IP ranges are considered off-campus, but many academic libraries have off-campus authentication set up so that students, faculty, and staff can access electronic resources by means of an ID and password. (EZProxy and Shibboleth). At Duke, we call this the NetID, at Carolina it’s the Onyen, at NCCU it’s myEOL.

Title lists are provided by the vendor or publisher and contain the titles that have been licensed. These are important in making sure that the knowldegebase data accurately reflects what the library has subscribed to.

A&I indexes Abstracting and indexing services that provide citation data of interest to researchers. Examples of such databases include Ovid, Web of Science, SciFinder and Modern Languages Association Bibliography and Google Scholar.

Perpetual Access is the licensed right to access the years of a resource that have been subscribed to once the subscription has been cancelled.

Archival Rights refer to right to permanently retain an electronic copy of the licensed materials, generally negotiated in the license agreement.

Subscriptions are pretty easy to understand, I think. These are usually single-title ejournals or database purchases that have to be renewed regularly. These generally have to be licensed and often include “perpetual access” to the years subscribed to if the subscription is cancelled.

Aggregators these are databases of full text articles where the vendor manages which journals and books to include. This means that at any given time, a title might drop out of the aggregator, but the library has no recourse since they don’t own or license the journal it.self, but simply have access to portions of journal from the database. These sorts of article databases do not usually provide “cover to cover” access to the eresources (se LexisNexis, Factiva, EbscoHost)

Packages are collections of full-text ejournals or ebooks that the publisher has put together to sell as a group. Also known as an acquisition package, they are collections of materials that uusally have a common theme or subject. Packages of titles are usually acquired together, but should come with a title list, so that individual titles in the package can be described and managed individually.

Big Deals can be thought of packages which are “locked in” for multiple years. Generally, there are limitations to the number to the number of titles that can be added or dropped for the term of the license.
These can be purchased by the library, but are often licensed at the consorita-level.

Backfiles are issues of ejournals from prior to 1997 (or whatever date the publisher has decided “current access” begins.. Individual titles were probably originally issued only in print, but have been digitized and put on the publishers platform or website. 1997 is the generally accepted “start date” for electronic journal publishing, when many journal became e+p.

Open Access and Free – unfortunately, these are not always synonymous. Free is fairly self-explanatory, but you should know that in terms of managing resources, free might end up being more like a free kitten than you’d like to imagine. Open Access titles could be completely freely available, or there could be rolling wall access to issues older than a certain time period. There are such things as Open Access platforms that host titles that could be open access, but also are really meant to help what could be considered small press type publisher to manage their publications. There are tools for accepting articles, conducting peer review, and also for managing subscriptions to the journals. Publishers may choose to make the titles freely available, or may not.