Checklist Manifesto for Electronic Resources: Getting Ready for the Fiscal Year and Beyond

Abstract

Organization of electronic resources workflow is critical in the increasingly complicated and complex world of library management. A simple organizational tool that can be readily applied to electronic resources management (ERM) is the use of checklists. Based on the principles discussed in The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, the electronic resources staff at University of Maryland University College Library developed checklists for transitioning electronic resources each fiscal year and maintained them in a Springshare LibGuide. The benefits of checklists and principles of good checklist design, based on the literature from several fields, are also discussed. Following the application of checklists, issues reported by library staff and patrons decreased significantly.

Keywords:

• Checklist
• business process management
• electronic resources management
• Springshare LibGuides
• University of Maryland University College