The University of Houston Libraries serves over 40,000 users across its main library and 3 branches, housing 2.2 million volumes and 400,000 e-titles. It manages electronic resources using Serials Solutions, outsourcing cataloging of individual e-journals. The old process of managing individual e-journals through help desk tickets was inefficient. A new workflow was developed using a spreadsheet, Outlook emails, and color-coded statuses in Serials Solutions to track e-journals from license negotiation to cataloging. This streamlined process improves tracking, communication, and transparency across acquisitions, electronic resources, and cataloging units.
Science 7 - LAND and SEA BREEZE and its Characteristics
In with the new out with the old castro-wu-final-3-30-2012
1. Jeannie Castro and Annie Wu
University of Houston Libraries
Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference, 2012
2. University of Houston
Libraries
Main library with 3
branches
160 staff members
2.2 million volumes
400,000 e-titles
Serve cliental of over
40,000
3. UH E-resources Management
Use Serials Solutions for almost all
ejournals and ebooks management
Individually subscribed ejournals used
to be cataloged in house, now
outsourced to Serials Solutions
4. Individual Ejournals Management
History
Utilize Help Desk Ticket for newly subscribed
ejournals
Add additional info for title(s) in ticket
Download and export OCLC records for the newly
subscribed title
Close Help Desk Ticket
5. Barriers for the Old Former Process
HelpDesk Ticket system is not designed for
ejournal management
Adding note for detailed ejournal data can be
cumbersome
Data about ejournals are not consistent or not
sufficient, thus confusing to catalogers
There was no way to track the process in lagging
subscriptions
There was no resource history of subscribed titles
6. Making the Change
Self-initiated team
Work out the new
workflow
Build the spread
sheet and set up
status in SS
Carry out the
designated work by
different units
8. Initiation of Individual E-journal
Process
Process begins with the Serials Review by
Acquisitions.
New e-journal titles are ordered based on SR
analysis.
ER staff take care of licenses if needed.
Individually subscribed titles go through the
designed workflow process
9. Old Workflow Process
HelpDesk Ticket sent to ER
by Acquisitions
ER verified the HelpDesk
Ticket info and forwarded it
to Cataloging
Cataloging cataloged the
new title and closed the
ticket
21. License Negotiation - Actions
Taken by ER
Request license from publisher
Mark up the license according to
University Policy
Negotiate the license
Create the Spreadsheet and update
the action log and summary note
Change status to Ready for Order in
SS
26. Ready for Order – Actions Taken
by Acquisitions
Create the order record
Verify that the information in the order
is correct
Pay the invoice
Change the status to ER Setup in SS
and the spreadsheet
32. ER Setup – Actions by ER
Input script into EZProxy
Verify access and test URL
Ensure that the coverage dates are
correct from the license
Change status to Coverage
Verification in SS and in spreadsheet
37. Coverage Verification – Action
Taken by Serials
Check several issues of the
subscribed journal to confirm the
access
Change status to Ready for
Cataloging – Individual eJournal in SS
and the spreadsheet
42. Ready for Cataloging – Action Taken by
Cataloging
Cataloging staff verify coverage
Changes the Serials Solutions record
to reflect correct dates and URL
Changes Status to Subscribed at
individual record level
46. Serials
Solutions
(status change)
Spreadshe
Outlook
et
(email alert)
(title info)
47. Challenges
Use of color
Work overlap
Tracking unsolved problems in
process
Communication among different
groups
48. Success Points
Shared process
Easy to integrate additional changes
in process
Transparency
Decent tracking of subscription
Collaboration
Process reusable for other formats
workflow
(collection size: 2.2 million volumes, 125 staff, 4 branches)Climate survey indicated people need more training for their job.
This presentation is about UH’s workflow. Let me give you a very brief synopsis of how the process begins. UH’s ACQ department does an annual serials review, which runs though November - the end of May. Around the middle of August, I’m give the finalized list of new serials titles to license or titles that are moving from print to either print + online or online only.I license all new titles if needed.The selection part of the workflow is the only part of the process that has remained the same between the old workflow and the new workflow
Old Workflow processAfter payment of new titles, helpdesk ticket sent to ER by ACQ Helpdesk ticket info verified by ER and forwarded on to cataloging. ER added some additional info to the ticketCataloging catalogs new title and closes the ticketThere were three departments involved with the process
This is a example of the usual helpdesk ticket sent by ACQ. Sometimes they had fewer titles, most of the time, they had quite a number more. It wasn’t uncommon to work with tickets that had about 40 titles on them.
ER would break the titles down and add the following information to each title,URLCoveragePrint ISSNDid ER add it to the proxy server?Tickets got unwieldy. It was very easy for titles to “fall of the ticket” and not get processed either because when ER worked on it, there was no access available or in the case of a platform change, the platform change had not yet occurred.Also, if you didn’t change the status of a ticket to “waiting on vendor” the ticket would escalate creating nasty alerts to the Helpdesk administrator. We didn’t find out until right before we had ceased using the helpdesk that we could halt the escalations.
New Process:There are 4 departments involved with the new process.During the selection process of the new ERM, Serials Solutions was specifically chosen because of the ability to utilize and create statuses. Early on, it was decided that a workflow could be developed using the statuses to push through new subscriptions.We use colour codes on spreadsheets to correspond to specific statuses that are created within Serial Solutions whose function is to send email alerts to notify staff in different departments that work is ready to be done on individual titles on a spreadsheetYellow - License Negotiation - Process Initiated by ER - Work completed by ERRed - Ready for Order - Process initiated by ER - Work completed by ACQOrange - ER Set - up - Process initiated by ACQ - Work completed by ERPurple - Coverage Verification - Process initiated by ER - Work completed by SerialsGreen - Ready for Cataloging - Process initiated by Serials - Work completed by catalogingWhite - Subscribed - Cataloging changes the final status to subscribed and the work for the specific title is completed
We use what Ssol has labeled the Database name, or what we refer to as the Collection level record, to entitle our spreadsheets which we keep on the library wide server. The directory where the spreadsheets are located has read/write privileges for everyone in Tech Services, and the share feature has been activated in the spreadsheets to allow mulitple people access to the spreadsheet at one time. Read only permissions have been give to the rest of the library. We wanted to give the selectors the opportunity to track their subscriptions, if they wanted to do so, thus increasing transparency between departments.In this example, we subscribed to a group of titles from the publisher Versita, which is hosted by MetaPress.
This is an example of the blank spreadsheet template we use with multiple tabsSummary TabPermanent accessProxy informationAny other information relevant to the publisher, for example, is the provider giving us “free” access to a few years of content for a specific period of time or rolling backfile informationAction LogWho has done what action in the spreadsheet on what date.Year tabsThe year the subscription beganFields: Title line number on the spreadsheet, Whether it is subscribed, coverage change, or not tracked, ISSN, Full Title, Year Range, URL, order number, Permanent access, proxied, Provider history (where we input platform change information), and any additional notes. The Permanent Access and Proxied columns are usually deleted since each collection level name usually corresponds to one specific license. But, for example, in the case of the collection level record called Single Journals, it contains journals from multiple publishers, so we need that information to be title specific.
The new workflow begins with ER creating a resource history note with the collection level record name and the publisher or provider in parentheses after it. We do this to distinguish which collection level record we are going to use. We input the location of the spreadsheet and spreadsheet name, attach the collection level record to the note and add a comment about which particular year’s serials review has added titles to the spreadsheet. We do this to preserve the institutional memory that disappears every time someone leaves employment or retires.
The first step in the workflow process is license negotiation. ERChanges the status to license negotiationEnsures that the 4 boxes in the Display In: section are unchecked. If we leave the boxes checked, it cues serials solutions to activate the title in 360 Core, 360 Link, send us the MARC records before we are ready for them, and input the titles into Summon.Ensures that the Title Coverage box that says “We only subscribe to some titles in this database” is checked. If we don’t check this box, the status is changed to License Negotiation for all titles in the collection level record
By changing the stats to license negotiation, it automatically sends an email alert though Outlook to select people in the library. Currently, an alert goes to Acquisitions to let them know action is forthcoming on this collection and to Collection Development so they are aware that new subscriptions are being processed
ER creates the spreadsheet, with the Title number (which is different from the line number in the spreadsheet), whether the title is a new subscription, coverage change, or if the title needs to be set to not tracked, Ssol’s terminology for deactivated in the system, the ISSN, the Full title, and the year range or coverage which is taken directly from the license.
The action log is updated with the date the action has taken place, the person who did the action, and a notation which is the year of the tab colon the title numbers that were worked on comma and the status the person doing the work set it to in serials solutions.In this example, on November 18, 2011, I worked on the 2012 tab in this spreadsheet on title numbers 1-6 and I set the status to license negotiation
Since I did the license, I input the permanent access into the summary tab. The summary tab contains all pertinent information from the license that relates to any work that ACQ or Cataloging may do. So, things like permanent access or rolling backfile information would be found on the summary tab.
In License negotiation, ER specificallyRequests the license from the publisher, marks it up according to University Policy, and negotiates the licenseCreates the spreadsheet with the new subscription information, updates the action log and summary tabsWhen finished with the work, ER hands it off to ACQ by changing the status to Ready for Order in Ssol
You can see here that the status has been changed to ready for order
The email alert which is sent by ER to ACQ specifically states that the collection level record, in this case Versita, has been changed for Ready for Order and that the title is ready for ACQ to work on it.
ER has changed the colours on the 2012 Tab in the spreadsheet to RED
ER has updated the action log that the status has been changed to Ready for order
Once ACQ receives the alert they Create the order record, if one needs to be createdVerify the info in the order record is correctPay the invoiceWhen finished with the work, ACQ hands it off to ER by changing the status to ER Setup in Ssol
You can see here that the status is changed to ER Setup.
The alert has been sent by ACQ to ER Staff alerting us that action needs to be taken on a specific spreadsheet
ACQ has changed the colour to orange and added the order numbers to the spreadsheet
Once ER receives the notification, we immediately either add a new Ezproxy script or verify that the existing proxy script is in synch with OCLC’s latest version and note it on the action log.
Once ER receives the alert, weInput or verify the Ezproxy scriptEnsure the URL worksVerifies that the coverage dates are correct from the licenseWhen finished with the work, ER hands it off to Serials by changing the status to Coverage Verification in Ssol
You can see here that the status has been set to CV
You can see the email alert which has been sent by ER to Serials notifying them that work needs to be done on titles in a spreadsheet
ER has changed the colour to purple. IF the URL is different than what is in Ssol, ER adds the corrected URL to the URL column. Serials staff use that URL when checking coverage.This is an important step in the university’s auditing process. It is viewed as similar to checking in an issue, where we are verifying what we pay for.
ER has added the status change to the Action log
Once Serials receives the alert, theyCheck the coverage to ensure we are getting what we are paying for.When finished with the work, Serials hands it off to Cataloging by changing the status to Ready for Cataloging in Ssol
You can see here where the status has been changed to ready for cataloging
Here is the alert sent by Serials to cataloging notifying them that work needs to be done on a spreadsheet
Serials has changed the colour coding to green
Serials has updated the action log with the status change
Once Cataloging receives the alert, theyReverify coverage to a deeper levelChange the dates and URL in Ssol if necessaryWhen finished with the work, Cataloging finishes the workflow process by changing the status to Subscribed in Ssol
As you can see in the subscribed record,All the boxes in the Display in: section are checked, making the title available in all of our Serials Solutions services, requesting MARC Updates, and making the title available in SummonIf custom dates were necessary, they would go into the Custom Coverage dates sectionIf a custom URL was necessary, it would be reflected in the Custom URL section
Allcolour has been removed from the spreadsheet
Cataloging staff have added the status change to the action log
It is a cyclical process, using 3 main systemsSerials SolutionsMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft ExcelWhen a person finishes their work in the workflow, they change the status in Ssol, which generates an email alert to the next person responsible for continuing the workflow, who is then notified to take some action on the spreadsheet.I will turn it over to Annie to discuss the Challenges and our many success points.