Electronic Collection Management
One connected workflow to manage e-resources and maximize their exposure
AGGREGATE—In one spot, data about e-resources
SIMPLIFY—The process of adding holdings
COLLABORATE—Drive efficiencies through shared creativity
OCLC provides libraries with the tools to manage and maximize the use of their electronic collections. To complement the e-books, e-resources and digital items already indexed in WorldCat, OCLC is working with libraries and partners to build a comprehensive knowledge base of the e-collections licensed by all member libraries. The WorldCat knowledge base supports a complete set of applications to streamline and automate electronic collection management and put electronic materials in the hands of users wherever they start their search.
The challenges inherent in the management, accessibility and delivery of e-resources are not new to library staff.
Libraries continue to evolve their approach to keep pace with the increasing volume and variety of electronic and digital collections. But much of the technology that has been developed to support these collections is locally deployed and involves the use of multiple systems that each focuses on a single aspect of managing electronic resources. The result is often a complex and siloed set of hardware and software built on closed systems. In addition, the limitations of data licensing and the variation in system capabilities has forced libraries to develop a number of sometimes costly and labor-intensive workarounds to manage their electronic resources.
As the volume and variety of licensed and digital materials increase, it will be impossible for any single library to manage and provide access to everything, alone. OCLC brings cooperation, resource sharing and community-driven innovation to the rapidly expanding world of e-resources.
The goal is to maximize the exposure of e-books, journals, articles, databases and digital materials while reducing the total cost of acquiring, managing and analyzing the use of these collections.
OCLC WorldShare License Manager brings together the two key features of electronic resource management—knowledge about licenses that govern their purchase and use, and linking technology that connects users to needed content in a single place. WorldShare License Manager helps library staff more effectively manage license agreements, rights, access and resolution to full text from the same interface, eliminating the need to devise workarounds to connect disparate systems. A globally maintained vendor information center provides “license templates” for global management of public and shared licensing terms by staff at all participating libraries.
EZproxy authentication and access software is the world’s leading access and authentication solution. EZproxy helps provide users with remote access to Web-based licensed content offered by libraries, and is easy to set up and maintain. More than 2,500 institutions in over 60 countries have purchased EZproxy software. EZproxy is now also available as a hosted solution, giving libraries the option to outsource the set-up and ongoing management of their proxy configuration.
WorldCat Local includes OpenURL resolution functionality, A–Z lists for e-journals and e-books, and a citation finder at no additional charge. This enables OCLC public interfaces to integrate instant link resolution with “View now” links in search results, from which users can link to the full-text resources they need.
Taking a service-oriented approach, several solutions utilize services from the WorldShare Platform to simplify and streamline the processes that accompany the management, discovery and delivery of electronic articles and e-books.
The WorldCat knowledge base enables library users to resolve directly to locally licensed content provided by their library and automates the management of e-books, e-journals and databases across collections. The knowledge base contains collection data, title data, holdings data and linking logic.
All OCLC resource sharing services include Article Exchange, a cloud-based document sharing feature that enables streamlined sharing of documents such as articles and book chapters through OCLC’s resource sharing services.