“Serials Solutions has reached a significant milestone in the advancement of ERAMS: the first ERM that enables libraries to define collections and associate costs.”Jeff Aipperspach , Product Manager, Serials Solutions
Now you can manage resources and their costs more effectively to optimize the usage and value of your electronic collection
Since introducing 360 Resource Manager, Serials Solutions has maintained a commitment to helping you manage and optimize your e-resource collection. Over the past year we have continued to develop and enhance both the technology platform and features of this service. Our new technology platform has enabled us to deliver new Cost and Collection Management features that help you better share information throughout your organization and make better decisions at all levels.
Benefits of Cost and Collection Management
- Centralize e-resource information in one place
- Organize e-resources in ways that make sense for your library
- Share e-resource information throughout your organization and reduce duplication of efforts
- Eliminate time-consuming spreadsheets
- Leverage best practices
- Make better decisions
- Prepare for integration with 360 Counter (formerly known as COUNTERcounter) assessment tools in late 2007
Cost and Collection Management are the first step in a series of new features being developed by Serials Solutions that will improve usage reporting and cost analysis. These features include enhanced usage reporting features throughout Serials Solutions. Later in 2007, 360 Counter will integrate Project COUNTER usage statistics with 360 Resource Manager Cost and Collection Management.
“Cost and Collection Management features enable libraries to centralize and share information throughout the organization.”
Collection Management makes it easy to share journal information
With the new Collection Management feature, you can organize and manage e-resources as meaningful collections that relate to the way your library obtains and uses those resources.
Collections are the primary entity within Resource Manager, “containers” holding resources that share common subscription metadata that you define. Component resources can be grouped together regardless of their provider, platform or package - you determine the information they share in common such as costs, licenses, contacts, notes, or admin information. Metadata attached to the collection is inherited by each of its components.
All collection and resource information can be shared by library personnel who have access to the Resource Manager system. All levels of access, of course, are controlled by the system administrator.
Each journal, too, can have specific metadata, such as notes, attached. The only limitation is that a resource only can be located in a single Collection so that it shares only one set of metadata.
As an example, you might want to group resources to match the way you receive them. If you receive collections of journals from a consortia, you can assemble these titles into a common collection that shares metadata relevant to that collection and source. There are many types of circumstances where it will be useful to create a collection and attach information to the entire collection, for example:
- Subscription agent collection
Resources obtained via a subscription agent; attach agent contact information, collection cost with individual itemizations, license information - Resources offered as a package
Attach cost, license, and notes - Resources with an electronic subscription price tied to print subscription
Attach cost information (with notes about print/cost relationship) - Resources obtained through a consortium
Attach cost (with discount information), license, contact, notes on trials/offers - Resources paid from a particular fund
Attach cost information
Cost Management helps your library to optimize e-resources
Cost Management enables you to associate costs with a collection or any resource within a collection. You can attach up to four budget or fund codes to each item, enter a single cost for that item, or enter unlimited number of line items.
For example, you could enter a single cost for a publisher’s package or enter information for each journal within that package. The primary benefit is that you will have one interface to access all details surrounding e-resources including licenses, terms and conditions, status, renewal status, cost, usage, and more.
Cost Management enables you to track cost and subscription information and provides functionality to manage the full lifecycle of your e-resources. You can associate and track subscription cost-related information with each defined resource: the resource can be as broad as a top-level collection or as limited as a line item. Once you have entered all of the data related to the resource, you can track and report the data and make better fiscal decisions based on actual cost and usage.
Integration drives effective e-resource access and management
Cost and Collection Management features are just one more step in Serials Solutions’ ongoing commitment to helping your library be the best partner for research so you can provide your patrons with the most effective research experiences.
Our recent investments in the latest technology architecture and infrastructure enable us to continue delivering the most effective e-resource access and management service available. By integrating 360 Resource Manager with the Serials Solutions knowledgebase, integrating Cost and Collection Management with 360 Counter, and integrating superior usage reporting features with all of our Serials Solutions 360 applications, we are enabling you to achieve the level of cost and usage analysis and reporting that will help you make the best decisions for your e-resource collection.
We hope that you will explore the advantages of the Serials Solutions approach and experience our commitment to e-resource assessment and reporting and e-library implementation and support.
