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Information Resources Management Committee

E-journals Workflow

Prepared by IRMC, 2005

This document outlines procedures involved in obtaining and establishing/maintaining access to e-journals*. Procedures listed under each category are numbered for ease of reference, but this does not necessarily represent a sequential flow -- in some cases two or more procedures are followed simultaneously.

* The procedures listed here primarily relate to journals for which we have subscriptions or for which we have purchased backfiles. Please see section headed Free and Open Access Journals for related procedures.

Decision Making

  1. Patrons or liaison librarians express interest in a subscription
  2. Liaison librarian confirms that the resource is appropriate for UW
  3. Points considered before making a final decision:
    • usability, ease of use (Librarian, in consultation with others as appropriate)
    • funding (Librarian, IRMC)
    • license (Susan Routliffe)
    • technical issues (Systems)

Ordering

Individual Titles

  1. The liaison librarian completes and sends to IRMC a Request for a New Journal or Change of Format form.
  2. Susan reviews the license and, if necessary, contacts the vendor for clarification or revision of some terms.
  3. When Susan approves the licence, Debbie selects a vendor, places an order sends a copy of the licence to the vendor. Debbie files one copy of the licence in the Acquisitions files and gives Jo a copy with area of interest to ILL clearly identified (Susan identifies the area of interest to ILL when reviewing the licence). Jo updates the EJournals ILL Permissions on ERM. If the licence refers to electronic reserves, Susan sends a copy to Alex McCulloch. Plans are underway to send copies to Graphic Services when a licence refers to course packs.
  4. Debbie or Susan asks the vendor to notify Heather, or the liaison librarian listed as a contact person in the license, when access is available. If the librarian is notified about access, the librarian notifies Heather. Note: liaison librarians are usually listed as the contact person only in instances of single titles specific to their disciplines.
  5. The title is added to the New Additions and Deletions list which librarians may check regularly (the list is updated automatically and in real time).

Packages

  1. Most, but not all, subscriptions to packages are done through OCUL. Decisions to subscribe to a package are made by Susan in consultation with liaison librarians and Debbie. Primary considerations are interest in the titles and affordability.
  2. Susan advises IRMC of the package subscription and Christine notifies the TUG E-journals group to learn if Laurier or Guelph is also subscribing.
  3. Packages generally include a substantial number of titles that we currently get in print. Debbie cancels the print subscriptions.
  4. Susan or another member of IRMC notifies ISR so that the department knows that the package is coming. The notification includes a list of titles currently received in print, organized by fund.

Providing Access

Individual Titles

  1. Heather receives notice from the vendor, publisher, or librarian that access is available.
  2. Heather registers the journal with one or more providers (TUG E-Journals group regularly reviews providers and discusses performance).
  3. Heather, Jo or other members of TUG E-journals add titles to the E-journals database.
  4. Jo notifies Cataloguing when public access is enabled.

Packages

  1. If Laurier or Guelph is also participating, TUG E-journals shares the work required to ensure access.
  2. When the list of titles within the package is available, Linda Day (Guelph) notifies Betty and TUG E-journals so that the titles can be added to the e-journals page and TRELLIS. Jo notifies Baiba so that she has the list for statistical purposes.
  3. When the titles are available on Scholars Portal, Linda Day notifies TUG E-journals so that links can be made to Scholars Portal.
  4. Jo notifies IRMC and ISR when access is available.

Cataloguing

Individual Titles

  1. Jo notifies Cataloguing of new titles and to which TUG libraries have access.
  2. Cataloguing staff (Larry Helfand or one of the Cataloguing associates):
    • Either updates or adds a bibliographic record with appropriate owning library to TRELLIS.
    • Adds holdings record for appropriate owning library, with holdings and the URL.
    • Checks access and confirms holdings.
    • As appropriate, Heather notifies the federated and affiliated colleges and universities so that they can add their titles to the e-journals page or to TRELLIS.

Packages

TUG CAT:

  1. Determines which of the TUG libraries have participated in the purchase
  2. Determines if cataloguing records are needed and if so how to get them
  3. Determines how many records are involved and how they be divided amongst TUG participants
  4. Ensures that access is available to the e-journal on all the TUG records for that title.

Maintenance

  1. The TUG E-journals Group checks for new and dropped titles and other changes and performs regular maintenance.

Free or Open Access Journals

Liaison librarians apply the same criteria for selection of free or open access journals as for fee-based journals. Once a decision to include a journal is made the liaison librarians sends Jo Heimpel and Heather Schaaf an email message that includes the name of the selected journal along with the URL where it can be accessed, the holdings available (start year and volume and issue number), publisher, and any other information available, e.g. ISSN (both print and electronic if available), etc. The selector also identifies the service provider, if it is other than the publisher. Jo lets cataloguing know that the title is to be added to TRELLIS.

Trouble Shooting

Problem: Lost Access

  1. A patron or staff members notifies TUG E-journals when access is lost. A member of TUG E-journals investigates.
  2. If necessary, Heather and Debbie investigates the order status with the vendor.
  3. When the vendor advises of the reason for our lost access, Acquisitions takes the necessary steps to reactivate the order.
  4. If through negotiations with vendors, we determine access will be delayed, Debbie sends notification to LibPInfoDesk@library.uwaterloo.ca, LibDavisInf@library.uwaterloo.ca and others as appropriate.

Problem: Server Down

  1. Desk staff normally advise the patron to wait for a short while and try to access the site then. If the problem persists, TUG E-journals will be notified.
  2. Sometimes, the publisher sends notification that the site will be unavailable for a specified time. The IRMC rep for Porter or Davis notifies staff as appropriate. As well, if appropriate, the IRMC member asks Jo or Heather to post a notice on the e-journals page.
  3. If we are aware that a server will be down for an extended period, Heather or Jo put an appropriate message beside the title on the e-journals page. This option is not possible on Trellis. (Not yet possible, but coming soon.)

Problem: Dropped titles

  1. Librarians can learn about dropped titles by checking the New Additions and Deletions list regularly.
  2. If the selector desires continued access, and if the title had been previously subscribed to in print, they should inform Debbie, who will order a new subscription through electronic resources. (Selectors needing to know if a dropped title was subscribed to in print should check TRELLIS.)
  3. If the title was not been previously subscribed to in print, the selector must cancel a serial of comparable value or permanently transfer money out of their mono fund if they desire continued access.

Problem: Access cut by supplier because of excessive use by an individual

Procedures on the IRMC web page explain how this problem is addressed. See: http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/inappropriate.html

Glossary of some terms used above

Access Provider
a service that provides Internet access, for example, a service that provides a Web interface to journals. There are various types of providers such as publishers that provide their own access, full text journal indexes, and aggregators.

Access to a journal can be available through several providers. The TUG Ejournals Group uses a major service provider such as Scholars Portal or Ingenta Select first. Publisher as provider, if available, is linked as an alternate access.
Examples:
Publisher as provider: ScienceDirect (for Elsevier)
Aggregator as provider: IngentaSelect
Journal index as provider: ABI Inform

Aggregator
A service that pulls together specific kinds of information on behalf of another party, for example, a company that provides access to ejournals on behalf of a publisher.
Examples:
Ingenta Select, Highwire, JSTOR, Project Muse
Note: Full text databases such as ABI Inform are sometimes referred to as aggregator databases.

ERM
Acronym for Electronic Resource Management, the TUG database that includes three components: Electronic Reference, E-Journals, and Research Databases (i.e. indexes and databases).
The E-Journals component of ERM is maintained by the TUG E-Journals Group using the ERM maintenance interface.

Eventually, each of the TUG libraries will have a distinct public interface to ERM.

License
agreement between publisher or access provider and institutional subscriber.

Publisher
an organization whose function is to commission, create, collect, validate, host, and distribute information online and/or in printed form.
Examples: Wiley, Springer

Vendor
serials subscription agent that manages a library’s subscriptions and consolidates billing and claiming for titles from various publishers. A vendor serves as intermediary between library and publisher.
Examples: Swets Blackwell, Coutts

Information Resources Management Committee
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August 4, 2005