More than a decade ago, Weeks (2001) wrote in The Washington Post, “In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us how to swim”. This metaphor is still valid; however many librarians now feel that they, themselves, need guidance on matters related to electronic resources, ranging from purchasing and cataloguing to offering them to the library users. Anne C. Elguindi and Kari Schmidt's book Electronic Resources Management: Practical Perspectives in a New Technical Services Model can be seen as providing much needed support for librarians who want to cope in the sea of electronic resources. Their book presents, in a nutshell, the range of issues concerning the handling of electronic resources in libraries. It is enriched by a series of case studies which illustrate how particular institutions made decisions related to electronic resources.
The book focuses on the management of electronic resources of various kinds – digital collections, e-books, e-serials – and presents clearly the differences between electronic resource management and the workflows that were successful when dealing with traditional, analog resources. The inclusion of electronic resources in the library workflows results in a hybrid environment and requires setting up workflows that address the particular nature of such resources. New workflows are needed. The differences in cataloguing and the necessity to accommodate new formats are leading to new developments in the field.
The first chapter of the book, “Emerging technical services models in the context of the past”, is particularly successful in presenting succinctly the changes in technical services fostered by an ever-increasing volume of electronic resources. It shows an initial stage of “accommodating” electronic resources in a print-centric structure; later there was “reorganizing” to accommodate the growth of electronic resources; and finally we arrive at new organizational models and “holistic” electronic resource management.
The next five chapters look into the practical issues of dealing with electronic resources. The second chapter, “Electronic resource management: staffing and workflow”, looks at the how electronic resources influence serials librarianship and at the role of the new specialisation in the library profession: electronic resource librarian. It also presents workflow models and staffing consequences of the change in the nature of library holdings. The third chapter, reviews electronic resource management systems, looking at areas such as digital libraries and cloud computing, which influenced the resource management solutions. The fourth chapter, on discovery systems, addresses in detail the change in the thinking and expression of the discovery process. It covers OPACs, catalogue overlays, and federated searching, and looks at the anticipated future developments in the area of accessibility and discovery of digital resources.
A very helpful chapter is the fifth one: “Academic library consortia and the evolving role of electronic resources and technology”. This addresses the issue of access to electronic resources acquired through membership of consortia, which will be of significant interest in countries where consortia are possible. Smaller countries such as Malta (where I work) cannot benefit from consortia to the same extent as countries with a greater number of libraries; nevertheless it is useful to be familiar with the current opportunities which might also evolve into larger international consortia.
The final chapter offers a conclusion that looks at e-books and the future of technical services. A range of related issues is again addressed here, including topics such as what e-books are; the use of e-readers; and user preferences. This chapter also looks at digital rights management, and e-book acquisitions.
The book has a very clear structure, and each chapter provides an explanation and includes case studies that illustrate the issues as they are addressed in practice. These case studies come from different countries which is another very useful feature, because this gives a flavour of how common issues are being addressed in different environments around the world. Each chapter also provides its own lists of references for further reading.
The authors are practitioners with extensive experience. Anne C. Elguindi is the Director of Information Delivery Services, and Kari Schmidt is the Electronic Resource Librarian and Head of the Electronic Resources Management Unit at the American University Library in Washington, DC.
What readers will benefit mostly from this book? It is definitely written to answer some of the most burning questions that librarians have about electronic resources. This covers the full range of information professionals in acquisitions and technical services, as well as librarians dealing with library systems and digital repositories. This book will also be an informative read for students in Library and Information Science; as a lecturer in topics related to the use of ICT in the memory institutions this book will be a useful reading for my students. It helps us to understand the evolution of technical services and approaches in the current library practice due to the growth of electronic resources, and from this point would also be useful for those who are currently obtaining or improving their professional library qualification.
