ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ December 2003 /  705

An a p p lication  p ro file  and 
prototype m etadata m anagem ent 
system  fo r licensed electronic 
resources
In the fall of 2000, my supervisor Karen 
Calhoun asked me to look into the possi­
bility o f building a local database system 
to help manage electronic resource licens­
ing and also mentioned that the deadline 
for the ACRL Samuel Lazerow Fellowship 
proposals was approaching. I set to work 
writing the proposal, w hich helped me 
collect my thoughts on the issue. My in­
tention was to do some research and start 
constructing a system that could be used 
at Cornell and perhaps adapted for use in 
other libraries, as well. Around the same 
time I learned that Tim Jewell, head of col­
lection management services at the Univer­
sity of Washington, was pursuing a similar 
research thread. We communicated by e- 
mail and agreed to share information.

Jewell had already gathered a good deal 
o f inform ation and m ade contacts with 
pioneers w ho w ere involved with build­
ing local electronic resource management 
systems for their libraries. That w inter I 
began working on a Web site that would 
tie w hat Jewell was uncovering with in­
formation I was finding. The Web site be­
cam e kn o w n  as th e W eb H ub (www. 
library.comell.edu/cts/elicensestudyZ), and it 
has served the exact function intended by 
drawing together people w ho are working 
on this problem.

That spring I was aw arded the Samuel 
Lazerow Fellowship, w hich helped to sup­
port travel and subsequent important con­
ference calls related to this project.

In the summ er of 2001, Jewell’s report, 
“Selection and Presentation of Commer­
cially Available Electronic Resources: Is­
sues and Practices" (available online at 
w w w . c l i r . o r g / p u b s / r e p o r t s / p u b 9 9 /  
contents.html), was published by the Digi­
tal Library Federation (DLF) and the Coun­
cil on Library and Information Resources 
(CLIR). This seminal docum ent defines

the main m anagem ent issues facing li­
braries as serials content migrates from 
print to digital, from ownership to access.

In the course of writing the DLF/CLIR 
report, Jewell developed a relationship with 
the very supportive Dan Greenstein, then 
h ead  o f DLF. G reenstein was instrum en­
tal in helping us bring together other li­
b ra rie s a n d  in te re s te d  v e n d o rs, p lu s 
NISO’s Pat Harris, for the “NISO/Digital 
Library Federation W orkshop,” held on 
May 10, 2002, a half-day prestandardi­
zation w orkshop to examine standards 
n eed ed  to facilitate the m anagem ent of 
electronic resources. The workshop broke 
new  ground and made clear that the li­
brary community was ready to put some 
work into trying to standardize the way in 
which w e handle electronic resources.

A core steering group of librarians was 
assembled and a proposal for the Elec­
tronic Resource M anagem ent Initiative 
(www.diglib .org/ standards/dlf-enn02 htm ) 
was submitted to DLF and accepted. Mem­
bers of the hard-working steering group 
are Ivy Anderson (Harvard), Sharon Farb 
(UCLA), Kimberly Parker (Yale), Angela 
Riggio (UCLA), an d  N athan Robertson 
(Johns Hopkins), plus Jewell and myself.

The project will culminate with a pre­
sentation at the 2003 DLF Fall Forum, 
w here the steering group will present a 
num ber of deliverables designed to fa­
cilitate the management of electronic re­
sources. These deliverables will define 
functional requirements, elements, and a 
model system, along with research into 
the possible use o f XML as a markup stan­
d a r d  (w w w .lib r a r y .c o r n e l l . e d u / c t s /  
elicensestudy/dlfdeliverables/hom e. htm ).

Although I haven’t built a local system 
for Cornell, to a significant extent the 
w ork w e have contributed to the DLF ini­
tiative is setting the framework for the 
creation o f electronic resource m anage­
ment systems that will be built for Cornell 
and others.—A dam  Chandler, Cornell Uni­
versity, Jalc28@cornell.edu

© 2003 Adam Chandler

library.comell.edu/cts/elicensestudyZ
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub99/
http://www.diglib
http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/
mailto:alc28@cornell.edu