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University of Maryland, College Park

Automate e-resource management

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"We were looking for a better way to manage our e-resources."

Carlen M. Ruschoff
Former Director of Technical Services & Strategic Initiatives, University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland Libraries' collection is vast, with 4 million volumes, 17,000 e-journals, 600,000 e-books and more than 350 databases. And like most major institutions, the university's electronic resources are growing fast; the library ranks 10th nationally in electronic resources as a percentage of total library materials.

Processing those electronic collections for inclusion in the library's local catalog was proving so time-consuming that the library staff determined they would never be able to keep pace with e-book acquisitions. "We were looking for a better way to manage our e-resources," said Carlen Ruschoff, Former Director of Technical Services & Strategic Initiatives. "We began to really look in depth at the WorldCat® knowledge base."

"We were able to make a very large number of titles discoverable in a very short period of time."

The library configured the WorldShare® Metadata Services to set holdings on matching records in WorldCat and developed a workflow for processing e-book packages. Using the WorldCat knowledge base features, the library processed more than 462,000 e-books in a single year, making them searchable and accessible to students in WorldCat Local.

The WorldCat knowledge base combines data about a library's electronic resources and linking features, enabling fast, reliable access while helping libraries better manage workflows associated with these materials. Unlike traditional knowledge bases, the WorldCat knowledge base isn't tied to a particular application. Instead, it is maintained in a single place for use with many OCLC services and a growing number of partner services.

The University of Maryland, College Park has been working with OCLC, other libraries and content providers to further automate and improve e-resource discovery and access. "We want even more automation in our processes so that we have more time to focus on other projects," Carlen said. As in other OCLC cooperative services, no matter who improves or enhances records, the data in the knowledge base is then more useful for library members as well as partners.

OCLC has formed a Content Provider eQuality Group to create best practices for publishers, knowledge bases and libraries. "We anticipate that best practices will grow and adapt as needs change," Carlen said.

Services used by University of Maryland, College Park

OCLC Cataloging and Metadata Subscription

EZproxy

CONTENTdm

WorldShare Interlibrary Loan

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Library at a glance

  • Located in College Park, Maryland
  • University of Maryland Libraries serve 37,000 students and faculty
  • Ranks 10th in electronic resources as a percentage of total library materials

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