Electronic resource management (ERM) is the practices and techniques used by

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

s and library staff to track the selection, acquisition, licensing, access, maintenance, usage, evaluation, retention, and de-selection of a library's electronic information resources. These resources include, but are not limited to,

electronic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

s, electronic books,

streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

databases In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

, datasets,

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...

s, and

computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

History

Following the advent of the Digital Revolution, libraries began incorporating electronic information resources into their collections and services. The inclusion of these resources was driven by the core values of library science, as expressed by Raganathan's five laws of library science, especially the belief that electronic technologies made access to information more direct, convenient, and timely. By the end of 1990s, however, it became clear that the techniques used by librarians to manage physical resources did not transfer well to the electronic medium. In January 2000, the

Digital Library Federation The Digital Library Federation (DLF) is a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) that brings together a consortium of college and university libraries, public libraries, museums, and related institutions with the stated ...

(DLF) conducted an informal survey aimed at identifying the major challenges facing research libraries regarding their use of information technologies. The survey revealed that digital collection development was considered the greatest source of anxiety and uncertainty among librarians, and that knowledge regarding the handling of electronic resources was rarely shared outside individual libraries. As a result, the

created the Collection Practices Initiative and commissioned three reports with the goal of documenting effective practices in electronic resource management. In his 2001 report entitled ''Selection and Presentation of Commercially Available Electronic Resources'', Timothy Jewell of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

discussed the home-grown and ad hoc management techniques

academic libraries An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic libra ...

were employing to handle the acquisition, licensing, and activation of electronic resources. He concluded that "existing library management systems and software lack important features and functionality" to track electronic resources and that "coordinated efforts to define needs and establish standards may prove to be of broad benefit." Writing in '' The Scholarly Kitchen'' in 2019, Joseph Esposito noted that in a meeting with the heads of a number of academic libraries of various sizes, there was unanimous expression of frustration with electronic resource management systems.

Data analysis

In the 2020s, libraries have expanded the usage of

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

data analysis tools like the non-profit

Unpaywall Journals OurResearch, formerly known as ImpactStory, is a nonprofit organization which creates and distributes tools and services for libraries, institutions and researchers. The organization follows open practices with their data (to the extent allowed by ...

which combines several methods to help librarians analyze data that can be used to select electronic resources.

References

Library management Library automation {{library-stub

History

Data analysis

See also

References