Thanks Sharon.

For information, this list does not accept attachments because of virus concerns.  This is a really useful summary, many thanks.

Louise


Louise Cole
Senior Information Advisor (Collections)
Nightingale Centre, Kingston Hill Campus
Kingston University
Kingston upon Thames
Surrey
KT2 7LB
 
Email [log in to unmask]
Telephone 020 8417 5383
Fax 020 8417 5312


-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sharon Robinson
Sent: 28 January 2010 14:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LIS-E-RESOURCES] Summary: Managing SFX

Apologies for cross-posting. 

Hi everyone,

Please find below my summary of responses from this list and SFX-
DISCUSS-L. I did try to send the summary as an attachment, but the format 
was rejected.

Many thanks to those who responded. It's been really helpful.

Regards,

Sharon

Managing SFX

These questions were posted on two lists (LIS-E-RESOURCES and SFX-
DISCUSS-L). I've summarised the replies from both. There were 11 responses 
from higher education institutions in the UK, Europe and the United States.

How many staff members are directly involved with the maintenance and 
development of SFX? 7 of the institutions had 3 or more staff involved; 3 
institutions had 2; 1 institution had one staff member. For one of the 
institutions, the involvement of 3 staff members equated to approximately 0.9 
FTE.

What are the job titles of the staff member(s) responsible for the following 
tasks?

*	Server maintenance and development
System Administrator;  Systems librarian;  Programmer from IT;  n/a (hosted 
by ExLibris);  Metadata & Systems Librarian; system 
administrators/SFX/Metalib Support Specialist; Library Systems Officer; Library 
Systems Manager;  Server Engineer

*	KB updates
Electronic Resources Access Librarian; Hosted/Electronic Resources & Serials 
librarian (1 person) (target checking only); IT server specialist; Electronic 
Resources & Systems Librarian; Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian (1 
person); SFX/Metalib Support Specialist; Electronic Resources Assistant; 
Library Systems Officer (update, software changes), E-Resources Manager (KB 
changes, activates portfolios etc); Library Systems Manager; Information 
Resources Specialist

*	Work within the admin interface
Electronic Resources Access Librarian; Systems librarian/Electronic Resources 
& Systems Librarian; Technician, graduate student, Electronic Resources 
Coordinator; Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian for stats & reports; 
Electronic Resources librarian, Assistant (activations and thresholds); 
Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian; schools (consortium); Electronic 
Resources Assistant; E-resources Manager; Information Assistants (update 
SFX records); Information Resources Specialist

*	Checking of thresholds
Electronic Resources Access Librarian; Electronic Resources & Serials librarian 
& 3 serials staff; Electronic Resources & Systems Librarian, Assistant; 
Electronic Resources & Serials librarian; schools (consortium); Electronic 
Resources Assistant; E-resources Manager; Information Assistants; 
Information Resources Specialist; student assistants. 1 institution plans to 
have student staff take over the regular checking of thresholds with a regular 
staff member making the amendments.

What processes do you have in place for ensuring the accuracy of SFX 
thresholds?

*	Hotline
Phone and email trouble-reporting line; "Report Bad Link" function in SFX menu.

*	Checking
Manual checking of all relevant update KB reports
Checking SFX against title lists
Inhouse simple python scripts allow staff to compare title lists "semi-
automatically". All variations detected need to be checked manually 
afterwards.

*	Reactive 
Reports from users and library staff
Alerts from publishers/suppliers/subscription agents
If major revisions are noticed in the journal portfolio for a particular publisher.

Do you regularly check thresholds against up-to-date lists of entitlements? If 
so, how often?

2 do a complete check once a year. 4 do a selective check (generally leaving 
out aggregators) annually. 1 checks against other KBs periodically. 2 
institutions don't regularly check thresholds. Lack of manpower was cited as a 
reason for not checking on a regular basis.

When large packages are activated, is a manual check done on all objects/on 
a selected number?

4 institutions do spot checks; 1 checks everything except aggregators; 1 
completely checks small packages, but doesn't check large ones at all; 1 
checks NESLI packages and alters thresholds to reflect institutional holdings; 
1 concentrates on checking for access rather than holdings. 1 of the 
institutions doing spot checks, runs an automatic check via SFX API, if 
frequent errors are found. 

Other comments
1 institution has been promised more staff time for checking because of a 
reduction in print check ins.


Sharon Robinson
Electronic Resources Advisor
Edinburgh Napier University
Craiglockhart Campus
Edinburgh EH14 1DJ
 
e: [log in to unmask]
t: 0131 455 4266

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lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials
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