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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