How do you "integrate" updating multiple sources of data on electronic resources?

Hi class,

There is a very interesting discussion going on currently at the LITA listserv on electronic resources management system integration. Below is the excerpts of some of the dialogues:

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On Feb 24, 2010, at 6:50 PM, "Hoyte, Daniel" wrote:
Unless one of our colleagues is holding out on us and has written an awesome piece of middleware to handle these tasks, we are stuck with multiple entries. The problem is that access to e-resources seems to require three sets of data that no one has figured out how to bring together in a ways that makes management simple.

ERM – great for keeping top level data and license information.
ILS – great for keeping the financial data.
Link resolver – great for providing access and access data. (Assuming the resource vendor puts out good metadata in the title lists.)
Proxy – great for authentication.

I can almost picture running all of these functions from a single application. The issue is that even if all of the functions are housed in a single app, either the data entry forms would become a nightmare of navigation attempting to evade duplicating data entry or some level of data duplication would have to be tolerated.

If e-resource data was standardized this could be the kind of a project that an automation vendor might take up or this could be an opportunity for the open source library community. I know that, at one point, there were long-range plans for one ERM/link resolver to be able to exchange data with a III box. I suspect that those plans may be on hold for a while.

BTW, even though our current setup is good, we still have triple entry.
III for the financials
Ezproxy for authentication
CUFTS/GODOT for ERM / A to Z / link resolving


Daniel Hoyte, M.R.S.
Senior Library Systems Technician
Chapman University Leatherby Libraries
(714) 532-7745
hoyte@chapman.edu
AIM/Yahoo IM: chaphoyte
In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion,

From: Landesman, Betty (NIH/OD/ORS) [E] [mailto:landesb@ors.od.nih.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 1:30 PM
To: 'lita-l@ala1.ala.org'
Subject: [lita-l] How do you "integrate" updating multiple sources of data on electronic resources?

As is the case with many of you, maintenance of our electronic resources requires updating multiple knowledge stores/databases/what have you. We are currently maintaining data in our ILS (Innovative, includes ERM module), a homegrown SQL database that powers our A-Z lists, an open URL link resolver (SFX), and EZProxy. With one exception everything has to be updated separately, they don’t talk to each other. The exception is our ability to enter EZProxy information in the SQL database and run a script that uses it to update EZProxy.

We still have to enter data at least 3 times when we get a new journal. We have 10,000 electronic journals and, for all intents and purposes, no print. And no aggregators. So you can see this is a real problem!

If any of you have found ways to get data to and/or from your ILS, open URL link resolver, A-Z list, and/or proxy server (one-stop shopping is the ultimate, but if you have implemented ways to update only twice instead of 4 times I’ll take it!), can you please contact me so that I can follow up with you on the details? We’re doing an environmental scan to find out what others have done so that we can decide on what to do and get out from under the staff-intensive way we’re working now.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Betty Landesman, M.A., M.L.S., M.S.
Digital Resources and Metadata Coordinator
National Institutes of Health Library
Building 10, Room 1L05
10 Center Drive, MSC1150
Bethesda, MD 20892-1150
Phone: 301-496-3527
Fax: 301-496-0254
E-mail: landesb@mail.nih.gov
http://nihlibrary.nih.gov/
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