Hello,

Even if you’re just interested in CORAL, I encourage you to join the CORAL discussion list (send an email to listserv@listserv.nd.edu. Leave the subject line blank and include ‘SUBSCRIBE CORAL-ERM Your Name’ in the body; ex. SUBSCRIBE CORAL-ERM John Smith) to also pose your question there. You might get more complete answers relating to that particular system. Also note that the CORAL-ERM discussion list’s archives are available without subscription. Just go to https://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CORAL-ERM

We use CORAL in several ways: to inventory all of our e-resources (in the case of journal packages, down to the individual title level in addition to package level), to input license details (including scanned copies of all licenses along with extracted terms, e.g. for the definition of authorized user), for usage statistics, as a central place for keeping information about each vendor with whom we work (e.g. credentials for accessing admin pages, individual contacts for licensing, support, and more). We are also using CORAL as the place where we focus requests for new resources or resources we no longer want to subscribe to. In other words, it’s becoming integrated into our collection development process particularly for continuing resources. Finally, we have tightly integrated CORAL with our Drupal-powered website such that our Databases A-Z list comes directly from CORAL data. If we need to fix something in an entry for Databases A-Z, we edit info. in CORAL and it automatically updates our Databases A-Z. Same thing happens for new entries, which we input into CORAL and then they will appear in our Databases A-Z.

Some libraries go further and integrate CORAL with SFX such that licensing terms (what CORAL calls expressions) display automatically within the SFX menu to give end users a clear idea of what they are. Notre Dame does this, for example. You can see this in action at the journal title by going to https://link.library.nd.edu/azes3 and looking toward the bottom where there are links to “ILL Terms” and “Course Pack Terms”. Clicking on those requires you to authenticate so you can’t see what Notre Dame users see, but I think that’s pretty cool.

I also encourage you to investigate the documentation for CORAL that’s available for download at http://coral-erm.org/documentation/, because it gives you a broad sense of all of the different data elements that can be tracked. There is even a Glossary of Terms and Fields (at https://github.com/ndlibersa/CORAL-Main/wiki/Glossary-of-Terms-and-Fields).

Steve