Making It Look Easy: Maintaining the Magic of Access

Abstract

Given the continued rise in both cost and complexity of electronic resource management, the authors have researched how Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the U.S. and Canada are tracking the effectiveness of managing ongoing access to electronic resources. This research describes the various methods ARL libraries are using to track and manage access, both proactive and reactive, through survey and case study analysis. Based on a survey of ARL librarians, the authors conclude that the current state of electronic resource troubleshooting is almost entirely reactive and often unevenly coordinated. Some of the reasons for the reactive and uncoordinated approaches to troubleshooting include relying on a range of disparate systems for managing and storing electronic resource information that make tracking and resolving problems difficult, staff members working across Technical Services departments organized on print-based models, and workflows that have grown in response as new electronic resources (ebooks, streaming media) have been acquired.

Keywords:

• troubleshooting
• electronic resources
• electronic resource management
• Association of Research Libraries
• library collections
• ebooks
• ejournals
• electronic access
• academic libraries
• organizational change