Branding and the idea that ebooks are still essentially books are important concepts to keep in mind, especially when confronted with all there is to oversee and consider in the arena of electronic resources; it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the torrent of change and the intricacies of the business. The author states that electronic resources…

Cross-campus collaboration for library website design and management can be challenging, but the process can produce stronger, more attractive, and more usable library websites. Collaborative library website design and management can also lead to new avenues for marketing library tools and services; expert consultation for library technology…

Web 2.0 seems to be all the rage these days. One cannot go to a library conference and attend presentations or stroll down the halls without hearing some mention of it in magical tones reserved for some great discovery. The excitement surrounding Web 2.0 reminds the author of the frenzy that gripped the country between 1848 and 1855, when…

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at the University of Florida, the Price Library launched the first stage of a project to digitize an important, special collection of anniversary editions of Jewish newspapers from around the world. This article provides the history of the collection, need for…

This paper provides an overview of EBSCO's new Usage Consolidation product designed to streamline the harvesting, storage, and analysis of usage statistics from electronic resources. Strengths and weaknesses of the product are discussed as well as an early beta partner's experience. In the current atmosphere of flat or declining budgets, libraries…

Welcome to the new "Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship" column entitled "ERM Ideas and Innovations," which will appear in each issue of JERL for the next 2 years, and possibly more, beginning with this issue. The overall focus of each column will be to introduce and expand ideas, discuss innovations, and ultimately encourage and foster…

In 2010, the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries opened a bookless satellite library, the Applied Engineering and Technology (AET) Library. AET librarians wanted to offer a new service: lending e-readers loaded with academic content and other e-books of interest to engineering and science students. Librarians chose three e-readers for the…

The increasing costs of science, technology, and medical journals, combined with decreasing or stagnant budgets, have forced libraries to take a hard look at current journal subscriptions. Even when budgets remain stable or increase, they may not keep pace with the escalating costs of subscriptions from various publishers. In the face of potential…

Online music research resources took center stage at the second plenary session "Wrangling the Information Universe: Moving From Institutional Portals to a Shared Resource for Online Music Sources" held on Friday, February 17, 2012, at the Music Library Association (MLA) 2012 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. The Reference Sources Subcommittee…

The absence of a well-defined space for library resources within course-management systems has been well documented in library literature. Academic libraries have sought to remedy this deficiency in numerous ways. This article describes how a "library nugget," or module, was added to the Buffalo State College course-management system, ANGEL. The…

This report covers a panel discussion on the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, published in January 2012 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The panel was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on March 23, 2012, and was hosted by the MIT Libraries. Panelists were Patricia…

The Joint Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP) (jusp.mimas.ac.uk), created by five U.K. libraries in 2009, gives participating libraries a single point of access for electronic journal statistics. It provides its more than 160 participants, including 140+ academic libraries in the United Kingdom, as well as 21 publishers and 3 intermediaries, with…

Librarians frequently utilize product trials to assess the content and usability of a database prior to committing funds to a new subscription or purchase. At the 2012 Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference in Austin, Texas, three librarians presented a panel discussion on their institutions' policies and practices regarding database…

Despite the old-fashioned view of the academic library as a static institution, libraries can and do change in response to the needs of users and stakeholders. Perhaps the most dramatic shift in services has been the transition from a purely physical to a combination physical/virtual or even virtual-only environment. This article examines how…

In this column, the author discusses how the management of e-books has introduced, at many libraries and in varying degrees, the challenges of maintaining effective technical services workflows. Four different e-book workflows are identified and explored, and the author takes a closer look at how particular variables for each are affected, such as…