Welcome to the baffling world of electronic resources. I don't have an ERM set up yet, but here are the answers that I can provide.

1. The easiest way to see if vendors are COUNTER compliant is to go check their usage statistics. If they are, they will provide COUNTER reports. And/or visit the home page for the vendor and database. Usually, they will let you know if they provide COUNTER statistics in their promotional materials.

2. For packages of databases that you receive from a vendor/consortium, well, this is a conundrum. This is also why most ERMs do not work well. I am contemplating adding the package (as the "database" and then listing the individual database titles in a Notes field (as I would do for journal packages). The rationale is that we will not cancel an individual database in a package. Depending on your ERM, it does make individual titles of databases in packages unfindable, but there may be a way around this problem.

3. For licensing, I always ask for copies of licenses from my consortia and vendors. You might want to get a hard copy of the license for your files and then put license terms in the ERM (e.g. ILL rights, e-reserve rights) and not the actual license to get around this problem.

If you have any other questions, please let me know. If your library has any funds for workshops, ALCTS has a great online course on electronic resources management called "Fundamentals of Electronic Resources Acquisitions". http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webcourse/index.cfm

Judith M. Nagata

Serials/Electronic Resources Librarian

Harrisburg Area Community College

Library Central Services

One HACC Dr.

Harrisburg, PA 17110

Ph: 717-221-1300, x 1624

>>> "Coakley, Lynn" <lcoakley@STCC.EDU> 4/1/2011 10:07 AM >>>

I am working on setting up an ERM for our electronic items. I have not been involved with managing our e items before and am feeling a bit overwhelmed and a lot baffled.

I've not been able to find out if certain vendors are counter compliant. I have emailed and have not been answered. I do have a list from the counter project but it does not contain big vendors like Facts on File or LexisNexis and many others.

Most of the databases we have access to have been purchased through consortial agreements, so we do not have personal relationships with the database vendors, altho we do with the consortium folks.

When you pay for a huge package negotiated by your consortium with a large vendor (ebscohost for instance) and the price is all inclusive of all the titles and there's no individual price listed for each title, what do you put for cost? zero? leave it blank?

I have gotten copies of some of the licensing agreements but have not been awfully successful getting URLs to link to from vendors. I have been emailed some and have been asked by one consortium not to link to it. Do you ignore the licensing fields in your ERM?

I know that when I get all these questions settled that the data entry will be a breeze. This is just my attempt to educate myself re: the management of electronic databases/serials.