Relating to this problem, I
would like just to mention the KB+ Project by JISC Collections http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Shared-UK-Academic-Knowledge-Base-KB/.
The KB+ Project aims to the
resolution the problems mentioned by Diane W. “the
staff updating link resolver KBs don’t have time to check 10,000 titles in a
list”, “bad URLs”, “inconsistent title listings”, etc.
What the KB+ Project proposes is to build a foundation of data and metadata to support the management,
selection, analysis, licensing and review of e-resources. This knowledge base
of data and metadata would be available for use and re-use by existing service
providers, both commercial and open source, as well as other services provided
by and for teaching, learning and research globally.
As part of this project we are
interested to know about library community initiatives for sharing the work
(i.e. of the verification of title listings). Does anyone know any example of communities sharing the work and how it's co-ordinated?
Thank you,
All the best,
Magaly
Bascones
Project
Manager
JISC
Collections
m.bascones@jisc-collections.ac.uk
KB+Project mailing
list. https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=KBPLUS
From: SERIALST: Serials
in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Sarah
Glasser
Sent: 18 October 2011 21:19
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] titles dropped from Serials Solutions
Relating to this problem I would
just like to mention the joint UKSG/NISO initiative KBART, which has published a
NISO Recommended Practice aimed at improving this very problem. More
information can be found at http://www.uksg.org/kbart.
Sally
****************************************************
Sarah (Sally) Glasser
Serials/Electronic Resources
Librarian
022B Axinn Library
123 Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11549
Tel: 516-463-5959
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Diane Westerfield
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 4:02 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] titles dropped from Serials Solutions
I thought I would reply on-list,
as I think you are referring to a common issue: bad data in link resolvers.
Where does the bad data come
from? One prime source is bad vendor data. That is, error-prone
title/holding lists provided by vendors. The staff updating link resolver
KBs don’t have time to check 10,000 titles in a list from XYZ aggregator.
Possible issues include, in no
particular order:
·
bad URLs
·
inconsistent title
listings (initial articles, capitalization, ampersands, etc.)
·
inconsistent treatment
of non-standard characters
·
inconsistent treatment
of non-English titles (or whatever language is standard to the journal
platform/database)
·
incorrect holdings
information
·
not listing the ISSN
·
incorrectly listing
titles as full text, when the full text has been yanked
·
omitting titles that
do have full text
There may be also time lags where
something changes, but it’s not reflected in the vendor’s official holdings
list until weeks or months later. Then the link resolver staff have to upload
it and perhaps they are not notified when the vendor list is updated, or it
takes awhile to clean up the list for import, or what have you.
We have used the Millennium ERM to
import data from link resolvers to create brief bibs and checkins, which means
our ejournals are in our catalog. The ERM Coverage Load process has made
me acutely aware of how “unclean data” can really make life difficult for people
downstream. (as when I have had to clean up dozens of journal records from a
certain aggregator, because of inconsistent capitalization and title listing on
the part of that aggregator).
Anyway it’s at least partly a
quality control issue with vendors, but how much we can influence them is
another question.
--
Diane Westerfield, Electronic
Resources & Serials Librarian
Tutt Library, Colorado College
diane.westerfield@coloradocollege.edu
(719) 389-6661
(719) 389-6082 (fax)
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Schaffer, Marysue
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 12:21 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] titles dropped from Serials Solutions
We have been using Serials Solutions for our electronic
journals and books for about a year now. Recently a significant number of
subscribed titles have been dropped without warning from our Serials Solutions
databases and we are trying to trace the true source of the problem. We
suspect that the publishers are not providing complete information to Serials
Solutions, and when Serials Solutions updates those packages these titles are
simply removed from their site. We have no way to discover the loss until
our patrons voice their complaints. Specifically, in the past two days
this issue has occurred with Informa Healthcare (31 titles, all preceding
current journal titles but where we have continued access to the former title)
and with MD Consult Expanded Clinics Series (where 39 titles, active and inactive,
just disappeared from the original 65 tracked titles). This is a very
serious situation and defeats the purpose of relying on Serials Solutions
for our electronic resource functions.
Surely we are not the only library experiencing these
difficulties. If anyone else has noticed similar problems, would you
please contact me off-list?
Thanks,
Marysue
Marysue J. Schaffer
Associate Director, Collection Management
Bernard Becker Medical Library
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
660 S. Euclid Ave., St. Louis MO 63110
(314) 362-0997
fax (314) 454-6606
schaffem@wusm.wustl.edu
The materials in this message are private and may contain
Protected Healthcare Information or other information of a sensitive nature. If
you are not the intended recipient, be advised that any unauthorized use,
disclosure, copying or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of
this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in
error, please immediately notify the sender via telephone or return mail.