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- ERIN Application reference
- Licenses reference
- Usage Statistics in Alma reference
- Vendor Information for eResources Processesinformation for e-resources processes reference
- Introduction to the Community Zone pre-reading
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High level overview of electronic resources
- Ebooks and electronic E-books and e-journals are ordered just like their print counterparts (See acq acquisitions training), but don't require any item or shelf prep work, hence there is no location in Alma for eresourcese-resources. Individual title purchases may start with patron requests or the work of selectors. New requests are tracked in the Eresources group using ERIN, a workflow management tool. Because there are a lot of pieces to the workflow and certain things have to happen in a certain order, it's very helpful to track each piece and have everything documented.
- In most cases, electronic content lives at the vendor/publisher site, and we essentially lease access to that content via licenses, negotiated in the eresources e-resources unit.
- Generally speaking we purchase Harvard-wide electronic access - authenticated use is via ip IP address. Off campus access goes through the a proxy server, for which challenges users must use for their Harvard credentials (e.g., Harvard Key). Alma facilitates linking via the proxy server so that anyone using Hollis from any location can access eresources e-resources if they have a Harvard Key (no more urns/ernie). We no longer create local URNs in batch or individually. A few resources require users to create an additional user account (e.g., WSJ, Financial Times).
- There are many different purchasing models for eresourcese-resources: like print materials, we create one-time or continuous orders, depending on how the resource is being sold to us. In the case of ebookse-books, there are many different purchasing and access models. Some publishers sell individual books (often purchased via Coutts or YBPGOBI), others only sell packages of ebooks e-books which are purchased directly from the publisher. Some publishers offer frontlists, lists of books that they expect to publish in a given year. In the Community Zone, these will appear as Collections. Similarly for e-journals, we can order electronic subscriptions individually via our subscription managersagents, or in packages, often directly from the publisher. In Alma, packages of e-books or e-journals are called Electronic Collections, and they are either selective packages or aggregator packages.
- Once purchased and available on the publisher site, e-books and e-journals must be "activated" in Alma for users to be able to find them in Hollis. There are multiple ways to activate eresources e-resources in Alma, we would like to emphasize using the task list for this process.
- Disclaimer: there are many ways to accomplish the same task in Alma. Workflows for many of these tasks are still being thought outdeveloped. When in doubt about anything, ask your manager or eresources e-resources staff.
Basic Topics
Overview of pre-Alma workflows: Aleph, SFX, Verde, ERNIE, ERIN (screenshots)
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- Aleph: orders and invoices, bringing in records, creating holdings
- Verde ERM: activating resources, maintaining platform and license info
- SFX KB: activating resources & services, updating coverage, batch changes to packages, generating reports
- Ustat usage reporting
- ERIN: tracking requests, organizing workflow across units
Overview example: all the pieces from ordering through activation - what does the ideal scenario look like? Jamie's video is a good example of ordering & activating a single ebook. (link) Example: Ordering and activation of One-Time eBooks via GOBI : Video link and Script
- Selector selects / Patron request received
- Acq staff places order with vendor
- Acq staff creates order in Alma
- Electronic resource activated in Alma (may involve additional cataloging work, always involves linking)
- Invoice processed in Alma
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