****update*** check out my May 5, 2005 blog for an article on Millennium's ERM.

I went to a the Eastern Great Lakes Innovative User's Group meeting on Friday. One key module that really grabbed my attention was the Electronic Resource Managment module. It supposed is a new way for librarians and libraries to manage their electronic resources.

The old way (or current way) we manage our electronic resources: We have files with invoice dates, subscription information, contact names, phone numbers, and journal coverage overlap. Or we have an ugly and odd Excel spreadsheet with all of the names, numbers, contacts, notes etc. Either case neither method really allows us to have easy click access to a database of all of our electronic resource vendors containing necessry subscription information and also allowing us to view coverage and overlap analysis to journal titles within the catalog.

The Electronic Resource Management way: It enables libraries to keep track of their e-journal licensing and purchasing details using a single system, streamlining workflows, and eliminating the need to maintain separate databases. You can manage licensing and purchasing details in a single interface, provide additional fields for storage of relevant data (such as URL, username/password, IP addresses, contact information, etc.) You can display information about electronic resources in the Web OPAC for public services staff and patrons. Additionally you can define relationships between aggregators or publishers and the resources they provide to determine an overlap analysis. Finally you could manage payments and other financial and subscription details.

Ok this sounds very cool. It almost sounds too good to be true. I currently manage all of our electronic journal collection (which I am sure will ensure that I will go prematurely gray and lose my mind). How do I manage these little beauties? By no slick method at all. I have a large scary Excel spreadsheet that has every known bit of information known to man about each journal we have electronic access. The coveted subscription number, along with contact information, payment, provider, and admin usernames and passwords. If this file ever dies I might die with it. So as you can see this module might be a wonderful addition to our III lives.

I am skeptical however. First the person demonstrating this gem was the salesperson for III. She kept refering to Science Direct as database that one could search...(where do I start with that?). Next, I was told that you could have all of your journal records linked to the resources records and provide a nice A-Z and subject list of electronic databases and journals. Sounds wonderful (you don't want to know how long it took us to create an A-Z list of databases). However, it was discovered that you must have Serials Solutions in order to do this. Well ok we have that, but she didn't really go into any exact detail as to what we would need Serials Solutions to do and what Millenium's ERM would do.

I am excited by this new module, but I want to know more. I would like to hear from anybody who uses it and can tell me of their experiences.