Re: Confirming E-access dates Melissa Behney 18 Nov 2010 16:54 UTC
Hi Cyndi, You can certainly do as Sarah suggests and contact EBSCO with any changes that should be made globally. "If the coverage change affects all subscribers globally, then we report the new dates to our vendor so that the change can be made in the central/global knowledge base for all users. If the coverage change is the result of a local subscription change (ie, you cancel an e-journal subscription and lose access to backfiles, maintaining access only to subscribed content), then we make the change in our local system and maintain it on an ongoing basis." " To jump on an even taller soapbox, NISO and UKSG have a joint initiative to address this issue by recommending a standard format for the exchange of holdings metadata between content providers, knowledge base vendors, and librarians. More information on the initiative can be found on the KBART (Knowledge Bases And Related Tools) site at: http://www.uksg.org/kbart/endorsement The recommended data fields can be found at: http://www.uksg.org/kbart/s5/guidelines/data_field_labels" As she also mentions, EBSCO and other vendors are dependent on information from publishers. EBSCO endorses the KBART Recommended Practice and is committed to ongoing support of the KBART initiative. Standards would allow EBSCO to provide more accurate holdings information in the knowledge base. As Sarah notes, it is a three way partnership between the content providers, vendors, and librarians. I don't usually jump in on discussions but thought I'd share the perspective from this side. Melissa -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Cynthia Adamo Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 2:03 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Confirming E-access dates This whole issue of trying to determine the access we actually have to our electronic journal titles is definitely frustrating. This is an issue I face, which I would love some advice/input on: Once I find out the information listed on my A-to-Z list of ejournals is incorrect - then what should I do? I can manually change it myself on our A-to-Z admin site, but I've been told by our vendor that once I enter "custom holdings" onto a title, they'll no longer continue to update our holdings, (which they would otherwise do, whenever publishers send them updates). So if I do enter a manual change, it becomes my responsibility to stay on top of this title and make sure I'm aware of any future changes in coverage... which kind of defeats one of the benefits of working with a subscription vendor. Should I make a request that the vendor change the dates each time I find a discrepancy, and then wait for the changes to be made? What are you folks doing in this situation, if you're ever faced with it? Thanks for any input you can send! Take care, Cyndi On Tue, 2 Nov 2010 16:17:54 +0000, Skwor, Jeanette <skworj@UWGB.EDU> wrote: >Daniel said: >Your best bet is to go into the interface for the journal and see what you can get into. > >I do this consistently. In fact, it's how the situation came up, in that I regularly have different access than we think we have or should have or SFX states we have. > >So . . . you accept whatever is there until it changes, then accept that? > >And believe me, you don't sound any more pessimistic than I feel! 15 or so years of serials librarianship does strengthen the skeptical muscle. :-) >Thanks, >Jeanette Skwor