The Tri-College Consortium's
Electronic Resources Tracking System (ERTS)

Mission | Scope | Technical information | Element Set | Workflows
Public Services Interface | Technical Services Interface | Reports
Cataloging Information | ERTS Group | Additional Resources | Download

ERTS is a database of administrative metadata about electronic resources purchased by the libraries at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore colleges.

Mission

A growing need exists for information management of issues related to e-resources that is not accommodated through integrated library systems. Some of these data include license restrictions, authentication means, technical contacts, and statistics availability. Paper files maintained by Serials Librarians have proven inadequate in both accessibility and organization. Making e-resource metadata available to Interlibrary Loan Specialists, Reference Librarians, and Department Heads requires an online gateway of the ERTS model.

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Scope

Electronic resources purchased by any Tri-College Library are entered in ERTS. In the case of volatile journal aggregators, collection-level records will be entered for the licensed resources. ERTS defines volatile as any of the following:

Except for exceptional cases, freely-available electronic resources are not entered in ERTS.

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Technical Information

ERTS is mounted on a FileMaker Pro database at Haverford's Magill Library. This database is made available to Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore using FileMaker's sharing feature. The system is segmented into four relational files:

  • Licensors: entities from whom we license resources

  • Items: individual resource titles

  • Purchases: acquisitions data about the resources

  • Vendors: entities from whom we purchase resources)

The database is web-accessible and password-restricted.

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Element Set

Elements are grouped here as they are in screens presented to the user.  Where portals display elements from other tables, those are shown in {}.  Screens given here are those used by staff rather than the few simpler public views.

Table: Licensor

Our intent is to have one licensor record for all libraries that use that license, even if our terms differ slightly.  There is a different field for each library to reference the complete license by URL to a vendor site or a local pdf file.  Any differences in terms for ILL, printing, etc. would be described in the appropriate text fields.

Data displays on three separate displays - Opening display with license conditions, technical information display, and statistics collection information display.

 

Field

Field Type

Purpose

Opening Display

 

 

 

 

Licensor

Text

Organization which controls the license; chief link among the main tables

 

License URL Bryn Mawr

Text

URL to vendor license location or to local pdf of printed license.  Bryn Mawr License

 

License URL Haverford

Text

Same: Haverford License

 

License URL Swarthmore

Text

Same: Swarthmore License

 

License URL Consortium

Text

Same: Consortium License (for joint licenses)

 

Online Documentation URL

Text

URL location of online documentation for the licensor's products

License Conditions Section

 

 

 

 

ILL Allowed?

Values: yes, no, N/A, unknown

Quick info on ILL rights

 

ILL Detail

Text

Explanation or exceptions if needed

 

Simultaneous User Restrict

Text

Terms or limits on simultaneous use

 

Print Restrictions

Text

Terms for Printing

 

Remote Access Restrictions

Text

Terms for Remote use

 

Reserve Restrictions

Text

Terms for Reserve use

 

SDI availability

Text

Notes on SDI services offered

 

Archival Guarantee

Text

Long-term availability guarentees

 

Negotiation Contact

Text

Licensor contact for contract negotiations

 

General Comments

Text

Free text comments

 

Last updated

Date - autofill

 

 

Updater Initials

Text - initials

 

Technical Information Display

 

 

 

 

Technical Contact

Text

Licensor technical contact for product access issues

 

{Service Comments}

{Portal to Service Table}

Date, Location and beginning of each comment; link to Service table

 

Authorization

Values: IP address, Passwords, Other

Type of authorization used for access

 

Authorization Details

Text

Details of authorization

 

Content Note

Text

Coverage, e.g., journals include letters, advertisements, etc.

 

Publication Lag

Text

Lag time (or advance publication) vis-a-vis any print or other versions.

 

Linking Service

Values:  Silverlinker, SFX, none, other

Which link servers are used with the product

 

Linking Service Note

Text

Linking service details

Statistics Information Display

 (Four sets of these fields, one for each library)

 

 

 

 

Statistics URL

Text

URL or other location to get use statistics

 

Schedule

Text

Statistics pickup schedule

 

Responsibility

Text

Person assigned to statistics

 

Instructions

Text

Special instructions for access or manipulation

Special Function Fields

 

 

 

 

See Ref

Text

Creates a See reference in search results lists

 

LibraryChoice

Values: Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Consortium

Facilitates retrieval of titles for one license and one library

 

Create Date

Date - autofill

 

Table: Title

Title table includes information about individual titles subscribed through collections, titles of collections themselves, and titles of other electronic services such as indexes.  The intent is to create a single place to search any electronic resource by its title and retrieve it.

The intent is to have one entry per title on which each library records which licensor they use for the title.  The title information links back to the license table through the licensor name.

 

Field

Type

Purpose

Main Title Display

 

 

 

 

Title

Text

Title of individual journal, of collection, of aggregation or of electronic service

 

Tripod Title URL

Text

URL to search the Consortium OPAC by the title

 

Consortium Licensor

Values: Licensors

Licensor source for Consortium

 

BMC Licensor

Values: Licensors

Licensor source for Bryn Mawr

 

HC Licensor

Values: Licensors

Licensor source for Haverford

 

SC Licensor

Values: Licensors

Licensor source for Swarthmore

 

{License detail}

{Portal}

Displays selected fields from selected licensor record; links to complete licensor record

 

Format

Values:  E-Journal, E-Book, Database, Collection, Aggregation, Other

Specifies type of title.  Collections are groups of titles from a single publisher; aggregations are groups of titles from several publishers.

 

{Current Purchase Records}

{Portal}

Library and Amount paid from each related purchase record; link to purchase record

Collection Cataloging Information

 

 

Instructions for cataloging constituent titles of collections and aggregations.

 

 

Tripod Collection URL

Text

URL to search the collection title on the OPAC

 

Tripod Titles URL

Text

URL to retrieve all cataloged constituent tiels on OPAC

 

OPAC Search Index

Values: Author, Title, JournalTitle

Type of OPAC search for constitutent titles

 

OPAC Search Text

Text

Text of OPAC search for constitutent titles

 

Title Level Cataloging

Values: Yes, No, Other

Whether title-level cataloging is done for the collection

 

Cataloging Decision Note

Text

Details on decision

 

Cataloger

Text

Name of responsible library and cataloger

 

Cataloging Method

Values: MailMerge, OCLC, Other

Whether cataloging is done on OCLC, or MARC records created through MailMerge process, or other method.

 

Excel File Location

Text

Workstation and file lcoation of MailMerge Excel file and Word template.

 

Cataloging Method Note

Text

Details of cataloging method

 

Overlay Tag

Text

Tag and content used to overlay/update title cataloging records.

 

Marc Tag

Text - repeating

Standard fields for cataloged titles in this collection

 

Marc Indicators

Text - repeating

Indicators for the fields

 

Marc Data

Text - repeating

Data for the fields

 

Cataloging Content Note

Text

Additional cataloging notes

Publisher-related information

 

 

 

 

Title List URL

Text

URL for the collection/aggregation title list supplied by the publisher

 

Title List note

Text

Details about title list

 

Title List Update Frequency

Text

Frequency of title list updates

 

Vendor Local Contact

Text

Vendor contact information if different for this title.

 

Table: PurchaseInformation

This table tracks payments for electronic services.  Each record is for only one library, and links back to the title table through the title, and to the licensor database through the licensor name.

Basic Information

 

 

 

 

Title

Text

Copied from Title Record

 

Library

Value: BMC, HC, SC or Consortium

Library or Consortium for this purchase

 

Licensor

Value: from Licensor table

Initially copied from Title Record

 

Vendor

Value: from Vendor file

 

5 Years of Purchase data, set of fields repeaated for each year:

 

 

 

 

 

Purchase Type

Values: Aggregation/Collection, Free w/Print, Extra w/Print, Electronic only, Other

Purchase arrangement in relation to print

 

Price

Number

Subscription price; if extra with print, generally the extra amount.

 

Paid Date

Date

 

 

Expiration

Date

 

 

Order Number

Number

Order ID in IOLS

 

Price change from prev yr

Calculation

 

Single fields

 

 

 

 

Price Change Percent

Calculation

Calculated for most recent and previous price

 

One-Time Charge

Number

Any one-time charge involved in purchase

 

One-Time Charge Paid Date

Date

 

 

Purchase Notes

Text

Details of payment, price structure of purchase

Special Function Fields

 

 

 

 

Time before Expire

Calculation

Fields used to calculate and send email alerts 60 days before expiration.

 

Expiration email sent

Date

 

 

Time Since email sent

Number

 

 

Email Notification Subject

Concatenation

 

 

Email Notification Text

Concatenation

 

 

Table: Vendor

This table tracks very basic information about Vendors - organizations we make payments to for the electronic resource.

 

 

Broker

Text

 

 

General Contact Information

Text

 

 

Consortium Contact

Text

Used if different from General information

 

Bryn Mawr Contact

Text

Same

 

Haverford Contact

Text

Same

 

Swarthmore Contact

Text

Same

 

Notes

Text

 

 

Table: Service           

This table was intended to allow users to enter comments on service problems, and to track the reports. 

 

Licensor

Text

Copied from Licsensor or Title database

 

Comment

Text

 

 

Date

Date

Date of incident

 

Location

Values: BMC, HC, SC, Remote

 

 

Submitted by

Text

Initials or name

 

Table:  Admin

This table holds addresses used for email notifications sent from the PurchaseInformation database.

 

Library

Values:  Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Consortium

 

 

Email Address

Text

 

 

cc Address

Text

 

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Workflows

Electronoic resource purchasing follows two distinct models. The consortium purchase workflow pictured below involves of a number of staff members from each college:

 

Although single library e-resource purchases differ slightly for each library, the illustration below is a typical workflow:

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Public Services Interface

Public services staff access to ERTS is via the web. The database is restricted by IP address. The following screen captures show ERTS' title and licensor search features. Click the image to enlarge it.


Licensor Record


Title List for Licensor


Title Record

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Technical Services Interface

Technical services staff access to ERTS is via FileMaker Pro's "open remote" feature. The database is password-restricted. The following screen captures show ERTS' home page and views for each of the four files. Click the image to enlarge it.


ERTS Home Page


Licensor Record


Title Record


Purchase Record


Vendor Record


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Reports

A leading initiative of the ERTS database is to generate reports and notifications not available in the Consortium's integrated library system. As a result of this work, we have developed a module that delivers a number needed statistical reports. These include:

  • 60-day expiration alert (email notification of impending e-resource expiration sent to a pre-determined staff member, typically the Serials Librarian)
  • Report by purchase type
  • Report by pay date
  • Expenditure comparison by purchase type
  • Acquisition count

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Cataloging Information

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ERTS Group

Bryn Mawr College
Haverford College
Swarthmore College
Tri-College Consortium

Jeremy Blatchley jblatchl@brynmawr.edu

Marilyn Creamer mcreamer@haverford.edu
Jacqueline Magagnosc jmagagn1@swarthmore.edu
Berry Chamness bchamnes@brynmawr.edu
Christee Pascale cpascale@brynmawr.edu

Mike Persick mpersick@haverford.edu

Scott Silverman ssilverm@brynmawr.edu
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Additional Resources

A number of other e-resource projects similar to ERTS are underway. Adam Chandler (Cornell University) and Tim Jewell (University of Washington) maintain "A Web Hub for Developing Administrative Metadata for Electronic Resource Management." This web site features descriptions of other academic license-tracking projects, working documents, and a link to the eresourcestudy listserv.

PowerPoint slides from ACRL presentation held on April 11, 2003 in Charlotte, NC.


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Download

The Tri-College Consortium is happy to make ERTS available as freeware to all interested parties. We cannot provide technical support, however, beyond the instructions that are included in the download package.

 

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Last updated 2003-10-15 by Norm Medeiros and Christee Pascale
Please direct inquiries to Norm Medeiros (nmedeiro@haverford.edu)