Electronic Resources Interest Group

ALCTS Electronic Resources Interest Group
Saturday, January 24, 2009
10:30am-12:00pm
Ritz Carlton Salon 3

"The URL doesn't work anymore. It worked earlier today." "Why are we being prompted for a password now?" "Aren't we supposed to have access to the ENTIRE run of this e-journal?"

Sound familiar? If so, the ALCTS Electronic Interest Group panel discussion on troubleshooting e-resources is the place for you to be on Saturday morning, January 24, 2009! The panel will feature four presentations covering troubleshooting tricks and tips and useful tools for keeping track of things. PLUS, participants will have time to ask questions and share their own troubleshooting secrets!

The Panel:

Troubleshooting E-Resources with a Crystal Ball: What Works and What Doesn't - Regina Koury (Electronic Resources/Reference Librarian at Idaho State University)

Just as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, needs of our patrons are evolving in response to the latest technological developments. From basic to advanced: faculty and students want access to searchable resources online and they want it now. Lost online access can be extremely frustrating in a library instruction lesson or reference transaction. Successful troubleshooting of exponentially growing e- resources involves "detective" work, knowledge of computer technology, good people skills and last but not least sense of humor. Some of the problems will follow a general pattern and can be fixed within minutes, others will require work with library acquisition and IT departments, vendor and publisher technical and customer support. This presentation will discuss skills and techniques necessary to troubleshoot e-resources, with examples of what worked and what didn't in the past.

Regina Koury is an Electronic Resources/Reference Librarian at Idaho State University (ISU), a position she has held since September 2008. In her previous position she had worked as an Electronic Resources Assistant at the University of Southern California. At ISU Regina is a point person for e-resources troubleshooting and a member of Database Evaluation & Selection Committee. She received her MLIS from University of Pittsburgh.

AurProblem Blog: Using Web 2.0 to Troubleshoot E-Resources - Denise Pan (Director of Technical Services, Auraria Library, Denver) and Gayle Bradbeer (Distance Support Librarian, Auraria Library, Denver)

Blogs are not just social networking software; rather they can be modified to meet the needs of librarians. To help troubleshoot their electronic resources, librarians at Auraria Library created the AurProblem blog. Auraria Library is a unique academic library serving about 40,000 students and faculty from three institutions -- University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and Community College of Denver. The library subscribes to approximately 30,000 e-journals and 300 databases. Nearly 60% of the library materials budget is spent on electronic materials.

To help manage these resources, the librarians implemented a new Electronic Resource Management system. Unfortunately, instead of helping, this new application required them to develop new processes and procedures and overwhelmed them with access issues. Too many problems and emails messages inundated the troubleshooters. The librarians quickly customized a blog into a centralized tracking system to record reported problems, identify workflow, assign responsibility, and document steps taken to achieve solutions. The software immediately met their needs because it is free, easy to use, and fast to setup. Blog freeware comes with several essential features that facilitate documentation, such as automatic email notification, adding "created by" dates to posts, and searching capabilities.

Participants will learn how simple it is to setup blog labels and templates, and establish problem solving protocol with colleagues. Presenters will focus on the steps they took to convert a generic blog into a customized troubleshooting management tool. Far from a panacea, the librarians will also describe the limitations of free blogs and how the AurProblem blog's purpose has evolved over time.

Denise Pan is Director of Technical Services at Auraria Library and facilitates the workflow processes between acquisitions, cataloging, and electronic resources. She works to improve back office management to enhance students' experience discovering and accessing learning materials.

Gayle Bradbeer is Distance Support Librarian at Auraria Library. She fields technical access problems from students, staff and faculty of the three associated higher education institutions and works to enhance access to resources using new and different tools.

Resolving E-Access Problems – Critical Information for Timely Turnaround - Geoffrey Timms (Electronic Resources Librarian, Mercer University)

Mercer University's Jack Tarver Library experiences occasional issues with access to databases and e-journals, particularly at the beginning of the academic year when incoming freshmen are faced with new resources and access procedures. We successfully resolve access problems of varying complexity both by providing guided self-help diagnosis and direct intervention from Electronic Resources staff. Many access problems are the result of user choices or local computer settings which users can resolve with basic information. We created an online self-help guide to enable users to quickly and conveniently overcome the most common access problems, including browser configuration issues.

The increasing complexity and diversity of electronic resource platforms and support/discovery services magnifies the potential for breakdowns somewhere in the delivery system. One of the greatest challenges we face in diagnosing problems and providing resolution is the inadequate information often reported by users. We created a web-based form to guide users to provide the necessary information for investigation and diagnosis by Electronic Resources staff. We capture users' IP addresses and browser details automatically upon form submission to help scan error logs. Information is both emailed to troubleshooters and deposited into a MySQL database with a web-based interface for delivering cumulative access problem reporting.

Geoff Timms, Electronic Resources Librarian at Jack Tarver Library, will share the development process which resulted in the creation of both a self-help user guide and a web-based reporting tool. Geoff will discuss the reasoning for soliciting specific information items and explain the steps taken to create the reporting system. Attendees will gain an insight into information needs and possible designs and methods to establish an effective tool for resolving electronic resource access problems.

Crisis Negotiator/Skilled Diplomat: Ebrarian - Ryan Weir (Serials and Electronic Resources Librarian at Murray State University)

If you have worked in e-resources for any amount of time, you know that there is usually at least one crisis a day. These issues range from the 5 minute fix to the week-long email conversations back and forth with a vendor or publisher.

In the past year and a half that Ryan has worked with e-resources as a staff member and librarian, he has found that troubleshooting e-resources is all about: communication, diplomacy, and negotiation.

Communication: Odds are you, in the role of electronic resources librarian, are only going to be able to single-handedly fix a small percentage of the problems that come up on a daily basis. Establishing a network of known contacts is vital to your success. A known contact is the go-to-person for a specific type of issue. Develop relationships with your known contacts!

Diplomacy: When will you have it fixed? A question you will most likely get quite often. Knowing how to answer this question in a way that will reassure your patrons is vital to your success. Make sure they know the issue is important to you and keep them updated. Know how to talk down the faculty member in crisis!

Negotiation: In many cases presentation and execution of you request to a support team is vital to a quick resolution. Knowing how to present an issue's importance to a vendor is paramount. Explain the problem and the need for a quick resolution clearly and precisely. Know when to push them, and the most effective means of communication. Follow-up if they do not!

Ryan Weir is currently the Serials and Electronic Resources Librarian at Murray State University. He holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and Special Education from Indiana State University and an M.L.S. from IU SLIS Indianapolis. He has been working in the field of electronic resources for the past year and a half. Ryan refers to himself as an Ebrarian, or the combination of the classically trained librarian with the skills and mindset to successfully navigate the world or e-resources and Web 2.0.