Data Hunters, Gatherers and Deliverers: New Role of the Agent as Intermediary in the Drive for E-Access and Usage Data Standards. Alison Roth (Swets Information Services)
As neutral parties serving the subscription needs of libraries and publishers, agents provide a number of important services to support electronic media, many of which facilitate greater efficiency and improved access in the e-resource supply chain. As a result, agents possess essential information needed by libraries and publishers. Our program will look at how agents are uniquely positioned to form collaborations with libraries, publishers, and ILS vendors to drive standards and transparency that enable organizations to better evaluation collection needs and enhance access to e-resources.
We’ll examine the creation of new standards for Electronic Resource Management (ERM) data, automatic retrieval of usage statistics, license information exchange, and automatic e-access registration. Our program will explore how COUNTER compliance standards and new partnerships with usage statistics aggregators are enabling organizations to more efficiently manage and evaluate usage statistics from multiple sources. In addition, we’ll look at how agents are teaming up with ILS vendors and publishers to develop new Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) interfaces to reduce costs and generate greater efficiency.