Presentation given 11/11/09 for B. Chad's Adult Resources class at Pitt/SIS. Emphasis is on administration and management of subscription electronic resources,

1. Databases Ain’t Sexy(?) (with apologies to poet Vanessa German) Leigh Anne Vrabel Senior Librarian, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 11/11/09

2. “I don’t want to buy anything, sell anything, or process anything. “ Idealism versus reality. Flickr photo from Josh Smith, Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsmith/

3. Allegheny County Databases 101 Pennsylvania POWER library Electronic Resources Evaluation Committee (EREC) Individual library collection decisions

4. POWER Library Selection = shrouded in mystery… 2010 state budget reduces Library Access line item 57.1% http://palibraries.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=239 Tech support handled by the state Statistics currently gathered by the Electronic Information Network (eiN)

5. EREC Committee made up of librarians / library directors countywide Meets monthly about trials, renewals, tech innovations Products purchased available to all Allegheny County patrons http://articles.einetwork.net Transitioning to a new method of gathering user statistics

6. EREC in a Nutshell Evaluate Negotiate Advocate Charge expanded in 2007 to include free web resources Charge expanded in 2008 to include other emerging formats

7. Individual Purchases Cost-effective versus access restrictive Service “ghettos” Ability to offer specialized resources

8. As electronic resources continue to evolve, librarians’ workloads increase exponentially.

9. Nuts and Bolts Pricing models In-library vs. Remote Access / Authentification Full-text vs. Abstracts Negotiations

10. Dances With Vendors Make friends with Outlook Learn to say NO Negotiate telephone behavior Be organized Advocate for your patrons’ true needs Don’t take anything personally. You can read more here: http://libraryalchemy.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/dances-with-vendors-confessions-of-a-clumsy-alchemist/