Re: Establishing a serials info resource for staff Hutchens, Chad 22 May 2007 18:14 UTC
We were in the same position a few months back. I think the best solution is to use a software ticketing system. However, we had been using an intranet forum (run on Discus) for a variety of other info/news needs. Basically anyone can subscribe to a thread or forum and get an automatic notification email of anything new when it appears...so they don't actually have to go to the forum at all. I set up a new forum just recently where I pretty much track any and all e-resource issues (e-journals, databases, link resolver issues, etc). It fixes two issues; first, I need something to track my work (just so I can remember what I was working on from day to day) and it notifies everyone else in the organization of the problem and lets them know if and when it's been resolved. It's also one of my main conduits of communication with public services folks...they notify me of errors on that forum as well. It's worked very well actually. For title lists, I've been running flat text files through a php script to build title lists by publisher and make them available on our intranet...that way you don't have do all the mark-up manually (you just have to get an updated spreadsheet of titles from your publisher/vendor)...saves lots of time. I'd be happy to share the script with anyone interested...it's pretty simple. The other nice thing about a web-based list of titles with URL's is that you can run a link checker on them and check title-level access. It doesn't work perfectly for all of our hosted content, but it saves time for some. Chad E. Hutchens Electronic Resources Librarian Montana State University Libraries P.O. Box 173320 Bozeman, MT 59717-3320 (406) 994-4313 phone (406) 994-2851 fax chutchens@montana.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Finnerty, Erin Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 11:17 AM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [SERIALST] Establishing a serials info resource for staff The reference staff at my library has expressed interest in establishing some type of staff-side online forum (a website, wiki, blog, or...? ) to house current e-resource and serials info all in one spot. A few examples of what I'm imagining this might be good for: --> Immediate notification of incorrect holdings or access info until larger problem can be resolved --> Announcements of scheduled down-time for various databases, etc. --> Easily accessible list of all current subscriptions --> List of frequent "problem" titles... if a publisher's interface continually causes confusion, etc. --> Vendor tech services contact info in the event of my absence Does anyone else have a similar service in place? I'd love to hear any and all experiences or alternative solutions. Thanks! Erin _____________________________ Erin Finnerty E-Resources/Serials Librarian New Jersey Institute of Technology 323 MLK Blvd. / Newark, NJ 07102 Ph(973) 596-3205 Fax(973)643-5601 finnerty@adm.njit.edu