Library Technical Services

Communication Plan
Innovative Interfaces, Inc.
Electronic Resource Management System
(III ERM)

Product Description

The III ERM is a tool for digital resource and license management and can be used as a stand-alone product with any library management system, including our Voyager LMS. Cornell’s existing system (a few key individuals, assorted paper files, e-mail archives, and loose data in Voyager acquisitions records) is not sustainable over the long term and makes CUL vulnerable to permanent loss of information and interruption of service to eresources that are important to its users and for which the Library has committed significant financial resources. In fact, much of this information needs to be shared beyond those few key individuals. The existing system does not promote the sharing of this information.

The ERM tracks access restrictions, registered IP addresses, negotiation details, contract data and permissions for resources. When coupled with a Web OPAC, the ERM can display some of this information to end-users as well as staff, giving details about system availability, restrictions on access, holdings data, or printing permissions.

For additional information about Cornell’s implementation of ERM, see the project FAQ at: http://lts.library.cornell.edu/lts/who/com/erm/ermfaq.cfm 

Communication Objectives

• Gain awareness and support of key stakeholders in CUL for the ERM; explain how each group will be affected
• Prepare each group of stakeholders for the changes
• Explain the process and timeline for rolling out the product

CUL Departments and Functional Groups Affected

Formats of Communication

• Individual or small group meetings
• Informal communication, phone calls or e-mail messages to selected individuals
• Presentation and/or demos for targeted groups
• Cornell ERM Implementation: Project Web Site (http://lts.library.cornell.edu/lts/who/com/erm/index.cfm)
• E-mail to listservs (IRPC-L; CUCD-L; CU-LIB)

Key Messages - Message To All

Starting on March 7, 2004, library users will notice a remarkable improvement with their Find e-Journals experience. III’s Electronic Resource Management system (ERM) will begin supporting Find e-Journals seamlessly, but with a cleaner, simpler, faster, “look and feel” from our current Find e-Journals web page.

While unusual to introduce a change in mid semester, ERM is such an improvement and use is so intuitive for patrons, delaying implementation for even a single day would be a disservice to users. In the unlikely event that ERM is unstable, we will be able to redirect users to the Find e-Journals feature of ENCompass.

You are welcome to make your own comparison by directing your browsers to: http://erms.library.cornell.edu/

The Future of ERM

Over the next six months, ERM will be expanded

• to support Find Databases
• to provide more license information to all user populations (Library patrons, Library staff at all campuses, Campus Store staff)
• to support use statistics gathering
• to gain a clearer view of Cornell’s commitment to e-resources

Key Messages - Message To Reference and Instruction Services Staff

Maintaining the “look and feel” of the current Endeavor-based system, the new III-based system provides some desired improvements.

Library users will enjoy:

• Speed – The speed of searching and displaying results will be greatly improved for users.
• More Search options – In addition to the current keyword searching we will be able to offer left-anchored title searching and subject searching.
• Integrated Holdings Information – Multiple subscriptions to a single e-journal title will be combined under one e-journal record.
• More information – Title-specific messages can be added to the e-journal records to alert staff and patrons to such issues as journal provider technical problems.

For those who perform basic troubleshooting support to patrons, the Resource Record view in the WebOPAC will collect more information together in one place than previously possible. Staff will be able to see such information as number of simultaneous users and which users are included in the license.

ERM has been browser-tested in both a Windows and Mac environment and supports Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, Netscape, and Firefox.

Task List and Timeline