It takes a village (and a lot of documentation): Managing electronic resources

Susan DiRenzo Ashby, Associate Professor, Systems Coordinator, University Libraries, The University of Akron Mike Monaco, Coordinator, Cataloging Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron Academic libraries need to manage multiple collections of electronic resources and it takes cooperation across multiple units such as acquisitions, cataloging, and systems. The collections come from various vendors and the records they supply often need different local edits and these might be most efficiently handled with MarcEdit or the ILS’s load tables and global updates. Who is responsible for calling the vendor when there is a problem with record delivery? Who reviews the records for quality? Who loads the records and what pre- or post-load edits does each collection need?Learn how The University of Akron has created and documented procedures to ensure that each collection is kept up to date in the catalog and everyone knows who is responsible for dealing with the vendors and loading and maintaining the MARC records. We’ll share how we tailor “Loading guides” for each collection that document the nature and source of the collection, who is responsible for each task involved in acquiring and maintaining the collections, the local edits we make, and how to do them. We’ll also discuss how we periodically audit the collections for completeness and consistency, and some other innovations we are working on to improve access.