HERMES:An integrating approach to

managing electronic resources

Sue Woodson

Johns Hopkins University

ACRL 2003 – Charlotte, NC

HERMES

HOPKINS

ELECTRONIC

RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

SYSTEM

The Challenges

• What do we have?

• Where do we get it?

• Who can use it? Where? How?

• Who bought out what company last week?

The Challenges (contd)

• Multiple sources of data about what we have

• How do we get all that in one place?

Hopkins environment—not quite a consortium

Multiple LibrariesGeographically dispersedDistinct budgetsDistinct clientele

Scattered IP ranges

HERMES — Institution-wide system for sharing data

• Patrons: aids identify and access online resources

• Staff: facilitates stewarding– Select– Acquire– Support

Birth of HERMES

Public Display Project

Resource Tracking Project

Integrating the 2 projects

• Extensive conversations

• Staff from across libraries

• Led by Web Developer/Librarian

• Discovering what we wanted

Before we built it…

• Clarifying the workflow

• Defining relationships among data elements

Key Features—beyond the data

• Web based (view & edit)

• Role based access

• Integrates with other systems

Key Features—beyond the data (contd)

• No duplicate data entry

• Catalog is authority for bib data

• Ability to migrate data and grow system

What’s new?

• Auto load from catalog

• New roles

EXAMPLE– Publisher – Modern Language Association

– Provider – SilverPlatter

– Vendor – PALINET

HERMES — current state

• Coding complete

• Successfully extracted catalog data

• First round of testing complete

• Database moved from development to production server (testing again)

• Reviewing subject classification procedures

OK…So What?

Beyond ‘How I Did it Good’

Q #1: What is the librarians’ role in product development

• Identifying and articulating needs

• Advocating for standards

• Efficient and effective sharing of projects in development– e.g., Web Hub project

Q #2: What kinds of management systems do we want?

• Buy the whole thing

• Select by modules

In other words…

• Integrated Systems

• Integrating Systems

ILS – Are they past their prime?

• Overly complex

• Not standards based

• Tie librarians to a single system with modules of varying quality

• Migration nightmares

Integrating Systems

• More choices—cafeteria style choosing

• Easier migration of data

• More flexible integration with a variety of data sources

• Better bang for our bucks

Stand alone systems?

• SFX

• E-resource management system

• Next?

Sue Woodson

woodson@jhu.edu

Johns Hopkins University

ACRL 2003 – Charlotte, NC