Reflection on the semester

Now that the class is starting to wrap up with student presentations and a quiz this week, I feel like this is a good time to end my blog. This was my very first blog, hopefully not my last, and I feel like it was a good experience. I liked having a very focused, topic driven post each week where I was also allowed to be a little more informal and express my likes, dislikes, and write about the concepts that I had a hard time grasping. I typically wrote my posts (or started to) every Sunday or Monday, which gave me time to think about the class and reading information from a few days earlier. Overall, I think my blog posts show an accurate reflection of how I connected with each unit. Some weeks went better than others, and there were definitely some weeks that I did not want to post at all.

My favorite blog post, and also my favorite time during the semester, was on 11/12/10 ("A little more with SFX"). Following my initial read-through of the syllabus, I expected to enjoy the first half of the semester because the second half consisted of concepts that were brand new to me and "scary" because they pertained to the technology side of ER management. However, I think this post shows a turning point in my attitude towards the link resolver, DOI, and OpenURL technology in libraries. I automatically assumed that I would have a difficult time understanding the material, but after I forced myself to present on Find It (about which I previously knew nothing), I gained a deeper understanding than I ever thought I would. Between my notes from class around this time (first two weeks of November) and my blog posts, I feel like I could stand in front of a group of people and teach these concepts. It's interesting how the topic I feared most ended up being my favorite.

My overall thoughts about ERM have drastically changed. The first half of the semester was filled with some personal challenges which slightly distracted me from my school work, but I also didn't feel connected to the material. I also went into this class with low confidence in my ability to understand some of the technology that ER librarians work with on a daily basis. I now know that work with electronic resources for future librarians is a necessary skill and there are so many different facets to it (just thinking back on all of our presenters) that there is bound to be a favorite work area. Some librarians may like the licensing and negotiating (the business side) of electronic resource management, whereas others may be more drawn to the various technologies that are used to keep everything running smoothy, like management systems and link resolvers.

Even though I struggled through parts of the class, the work (reading, presenting, writing, etc) made me feel like I have really added to my skills as a librarian and my ability to understand and work in a rapidly growing section of the industry.

Reading Notes for Unit 13: ERM Librarian

I want to get a few of my reading notes down before I go to class tomorrow. An electronic resources librarian often shares some of the same task as his/her collegues (reference work, biobliographic instruction), but must treat the electronic resources management with more business sense and build relationships with vendors outside of the library setting.

Marian Through the Looking Glass...
- This is a newer position for the library profession meaning that directors/boards have to carefully design the ER position to make sure that all aspects of it are accomplished. This can be difficult because many librarians may not know much about the ER realm of librarianship.
- In a matter of five years, ER spending went from a reported 8.85% to 22.01%
- Description of the ER management position: "an increasing number of...position announcements, a greater diversity of functional areas involved, a wider variety of types of institutions placing advertisements, and the emergence of distinctions between 'electronic' and 'digital' positions in terms of job responsibilities."
- Three common position jobs: purchase management; renewals and cancellations; pricing negotiations; AND covering technical problems (additionally, ER librarians will work with link-resolver software, federated searching software, and managing usage data).
- All of the above areas of the position point to a tech services librarian instead of a service-focused librarian. However, the job of an ER librarian really differs from library to library depending on their needs and current staff.

-There still aren't many opportunities for training for an ER librarian. We can take a class like Electronic Resource Management, but otherwise, it is up to the librarian to look for learning opportunities and take the initiative to learn the material themselves.

How to Survive as a New Serialist
- This was more of an article that I would keep around for good references (websites, webinars, blogs, workshops, etc).
- One interesting fact: try to look at the job of the ER librarian from the ILS - what already exists and what will be needed for training? How can you improve the current system? What is going to be needed to make it run smoothly?

Process Mapping for Electronic Resources

- Because the ERM landscape rapidly changed in the last decade (and still is changing) many libraries are at different points in how they choose to approach managing their electronic resources and are attempting to define the skills and role taken up by the ER librarian.

- Process Mapping:

- "synonymous with business process reengineering (BPR)"

- rooted in Total Quality management (TQM)

- process maps help an organization better visualize workflow and the functions of a particular process. Moreover, they can help employees understand what areas need improvement or need to be changed all together.

- Even though libraries technically aren't businesses, they are organizations with many areas of work with budget constraints. Especially in the ERM realm, librarians need to take a business approach. It's an area of librarianship where a service oriented field merges with the corporate world of vendors and publishers.

- Process maps not only show what areas need change, but they also show what sections of work are already working well for the organization.

- Communication is key with process mapping. Once the map has been created and analyzed, effective communication will carry the project to the next step and is necessary to make the necessary changes happen.

- "They [libraries] are increasingly turning to proven business practices that allow them to evaluate and design new methods of delivery of resources and services." (103)