This document discusses electronic resource management (ERM) tools and databases, their procurement, usage, and challenges in law libraries. It begins by outlining the expected outcomes of learning about ERM definitions, types, procurement processes, proprietary and open access databases for legal research, and challenges. It then defines ERM, describes various types of ERM like MARC, databases, and institutional repositories. It discusses ERM workflows, acquisition processes, policies, proprietary and open access databases. Finally, it addresses usage statistics, user preferences for print, technical difficulties, budget constraints, and increased resources and user expectations as challenges in ERM.

1. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT (ERM)
TOOLS/DATABASES PROCUREMENT:
USAGE AND CHALLENGES IN LAW
LIBRARY
21st National Workshop On Legal Information Services
In Law Libraries
11th – 12th October, 2021
Venue: Nigerian Institute Of Advancement Legal
Study, Unilag. Akoka

2. Presented
By
Dr. OKIKI, Olatokunbo C, CLN,
Head, Automation Unit
University of Lagos Library
University of Lagos
cokiki@unilag.edu.ng

3. EXPECTED OUTCOME
At the end of this workshop, we should be able to sharpen our
understanding of:
 What do we mean by Electronic Resources Management?
 Types of Electronic Resources Management
 Electronic Resources Management- Databases Procurement Process
 Proprietary Electronic Resources Management/Databases For Law
Library
 Open Access Electronic Resources Management/Databases For Law
Library
 Usage of Electronic Resources Management- Databases
 Challenges Facing Electronic Resources Management- Databases

4. EXPECTED OUTCOMES - ACCESS
After the course all workshop participants will:
 have been introduced to a range of electronic resources
management and databases available online for legal research.
 understand the concept of electronic resources management.
 have hands-on experience of using full range of electronic resources
management and databases available online for legal research
available

5. EXPECTED OUTCOMES - USE
After the course all workshop participants will have examined:
 tools, tips and techniques to effectively and efficiently use
electronic resources management and databases available online
for Legal Research.
 legal implications for e-resource use electronic resources
management and databases available online for Legal Research.
 issues surrounding e-resource management in law library.

6. QUESTIONS?
Please pause me and ask any question
during the presentation

7. —Walter Savage Landor
(1775-1864. English writer and poet)
“Nothing is pleasanter than
exploring a library.”

8. PREAMBLE
 Libraries have witnessed a prominent transition from print to
electronic resources that have not only impacted their services, but
users too.
 Inflow of resources in electronic format and subscription of library
software, e-books, e-journals, e-databases and other have totally
changed the library operations.
 In this age of rapidly changing technologies, it is essential for all
library professionals to keep abreast of the latest developments,
emerging trends & techniques in the area of Electronic Resource
Management (ERM) in libraries especially in law libraries as certain
issues and challenges faced in these areas need to be taken care of
with probable solutions.

9. WHAT IS ERM
 Electronic Resource Management AKA E-resource Management, or simply
ERM)refers broadly to an evolving array of problems, tasks, processes and
practices associated with the management of electronic resources such as
databases, electronic journals and electronic books in libraries (Anderson
et al.2004).
 Digital Library Federation (DLF), an electronic resource management
system should facilitate “management of the information and workflows
necessary to efficiently select, evaluate, acquire, maintain, and provide
access to e‐resources” (Jewell et al. 2004).
 A broader concept like a content management system to create Web
pages, provide administrative functions, and track license agreements
(Brown, Nelson, & Wineburgh-Freed, 2005; Robbins & Smith, 2004).

10. Investigate
Acquire
Implement
Evaluate
Review
Cancel /
Replace
Six TERMS
Techniques
for Electronic
Resources
Management

11. TYPES OF ERM
 Machine Readable Cataloguing: MARC, MARC 21
 Shared Catalogue: Ohio College Library Centre (OCLC)
 Online Public Access Catalogue/Web-based Catalogue
 Database
 Bibliographic Database
 CD-ROM Database
 Online Database
 Web-based databases
 Institutional Repository
 Emerging Types of E-resources: Blogs Wikis etc

12. ERM WORKFLOW
 Today, no single approach to the management of electronic
resources management prevails.
 The genre of library services platforms that offer combined
capabilities for managing print and electronic resources has
gained considerable acceptance most especially in academic
libraries and continues to attract other libraries.
 The growing number of electronic resources requires more
sophisticated workflows.

13. OTHER ERM WORKFLOW
 Beyond the cataloging part of the electronic resources
workflow, there are other workflow functions unique to
electronic resources management.
 These tasks include Licensing, Access, Set-up,
Troubleshooting, Link Maintenance, Interdatabase
Linking (e.g., between catalogs, abstract and indexing
databases, federated search tools, openURL resolvers),
Vendor Negotiation And Management Staffing.

14. LAW LIBRARY HOLDINGS
Law library holdings include the following, hence these must influence the type
of ERM to be deployed;
 Federal Legislations
 Foreign Law Publications
 Digest & Treatises
 Law Journals
 Textbooks, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
 Law Dictionaries
 Law Encyclopedias
 Newspapers & Magazines
 Commonwealth Publications
 Casebooks Bibliographies & Directories
 Indexing & Abstracting Materials, etc

15. POLICIES GUIDING ACQUISITION OF ERM TOOLS
Before acquiring ERM tools/databases you need to be guided by the
following policies or principles:
 State that only those resources that are openURL compliant will be
added to your collection (time can be saved by not adding
nonopenURL resources).
 Who can contact vendors and under what circumstances?
 What sorts of troubleshooting should be done prior to contacting
vendors?
 Should you go with the lowest cost vendor every year or should
you try to stay with fewer vendors?
 What will you do about password-protected resources? Provide
access via OPAC and/or Website?

16. ACQUISITION PROCESS OF ERM TOOLS/DATABASES
 Selection
▨ Recommendation
▨ Trail offer
▨ Demonstration from publishers/vendors
▨ User recommendation
▨ Discussion lists
▨ Peer Library website
▨ Publisher’s catalogue
▨ From other Library of similar nature
▨ Colleagues suggestions
 Trial Use
▨ Consistency /
Uniformity
▨ Functionality
ACCESS NEED / BUDGET

17. ACQUISITION PROCESS & METHOD OF ERM (Cont.)
 Evaluation
▨ Recommendation
▨ Content
▨ Updates
▨ Quality – reputation of publishers
▨ intellectual level
▨ Indexing Up-gradation
▨ Authority – scholarly or not
▨ Accessibility
▨ Cost factor
▨ Technical support
▨ Licensing agreement
 Authentication
▨ Verify coverage, content
provider of the product,
frequency of updates and
cost

18. ACQUISITION PROCESS & METHOD OF ERM (Cont.)
 Price Negotiation
 Product type: aggregator/full
text database
 Product available through
yearly subscription, one-time
purchase or multi-year deals
with fixed price caps
 Article choice model
 Rental model
 Institution size
 Number of uses
 Price of consortia deal
 Patron-Driving Acquisition

19. ACQUISITION PROCESS & METHOD OF ERM (Cont.)
 Reviewing and Negotiating Licensing
Agreements
 Authorized users and sites
 Archiving policy and perpetual
access
 Institutional / self archiving
 Copyright and fair use
 Usage statistics
 Liability for unauthorized use
 Cost
 Technical consideration
 Indemnification
 Terms of payment and
termination
 Governing law of the land
 Ordering and paying

20. PROPRIETARY ERM DATABASES FOR LEGAL RESEARCH
PRODUCT
TYPE OF
SOURCES
PROS CONS URL
LexisNexis
Best Overall
Primary/Sec
ondary
Sherardize Citation
service to verify
good law
May be too
expensive for
smaller library
https://www.lexis
nexis.com/en-
us/gateway.page
Westlaw
Best for Primary
Sources
Primary/Sec
ondary
Well established
with top reputation
& User-friendly,
interface
Ditto
https://www.tho
msonreuters.com/e
n.html
Bloomberg Law
Best for Search
Features
Primary/Sec
ondary
Fast and
comprehensive
query results
Ditto
https://news.bloo
mberglaw.com/
HeinOnline
Best for
Secondary
Sources
Secondary Extensive secondary
source database
No primary
sources
https://home.heino
nline.org/

21. PROPRIETARY ERM DATABASES FOR LEGAL RESEARCH
PRODUCT
TYPE OF
SOURCES
PROS CONS URL
Fastcase
Most Affordable
Primary
Straightforward and
low-cost pricing
No secondary
sources
https://www.fastca
se.com/
Casetext
Best for Law
Students
Primary
Straightforward and
affordable pricing
regime
Doesn’t include
secondary
sources
https://www.thoms
onreuters.com/en.ht
ml
Lawpavilion
(Local)
Primary/Sec
ondary
Largest collection of
Judgments of the
Supreme & others
https://migrate-to-
primsol.lawpavilio
n.com/verify
Legalpedia
(Local)
Reference
source
https://legalpediao
nline.com/
Google Scholar
Scholarly
and caselaw
Scholarly search
landscape
All common
https://scholar.goog
le.com/

22. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

23. Discovery
Service
for Single
Search
Web
OPAC
Institutional
Repositories
Teaching
Lab
Digital
Library
DATABASE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

24. Discovery Service for Single Search
Discovery Service for Single Search

25. WEB OPAC
Discovery Service for Single Search

26. INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY
Discovery Service for Single Search

27. SUBSCRIBED DATABASES
Discovery Service for Single Search

28. GOOGLE SCHOLAR
Discovery Service for Single Search

29. Discovery Service for Single Search
• Growing trend in academic community that
information should be “free” to all
• Open archiving, pre-prints, post-prints, open access, self
archiving, institutional repositories, OER

30. This is provided as appendix
Open Access
Resources

31.  Identify
 Trial
 Negotiate
 Approve
 Fund sourcing
 Purchase / receive
 Renew
 Maintain
 Preserve
SELECTION AND ACQUISITION OF ERM
Most important benefits
 Identifying the right materials
 Saving time and money by sharing
and communicating information
(workflow) concerning trials, terms and
conditions, renewal, usage statistics
 Keeping holdings information up-to-
date
 Ensuring that electronic resources are
available

32. AUTHORIZATION AND ACCESS
NEED TO KNOW
 Type of USER
 Number of USERS
 Type of USE
 Course packs, ILL, printing, electronic storage, reserve room
 Type of material
 Including legal deposit
 Format
 Duration

33. LICENSING AND ACCESS
NEED TO CARRY OTHERS ALONG
 Inform patron about full terms and conditions of the
available resources and services.
 As Librarian enforce access for what can be easily
enforced (e.g. block databases where the user does not
have access) and inform where easily informed


34. INTEGRATION OF ERM WITH TOOLS/DATABASES
Digital Asset Management
System
Managing digital rights
and permissions (IR).
Catalogue and
Acquisitions Modules
Integrated library
system
Library Portal
An interface to access library
resources and services through a
single access and management
point for users
Link Resolver
Work in tandem with
discovery services
Proxy Server
Remote access to
databases. (EZProxy)
Consortia
systems
Coordinate activities, share
resources, and combine expertise
with libraries.

35. ERM DEPLOYMENT IN LAW LIBRARY
Law librarians could start considering:
 How much time should a library invest in its Website for
displaying its electronic resources.
 Whether to add OPAC or a federated search tool upon reaching a
threshold for electronic resource interfaces.
 Do note when librarians and patrons start complaining
frequently, the library has probably reached the threshold.
 Which tool(s) are needed to improve services, access, and
management; migration to these tools; and internal and external
training.

36. Low ERM
USAGE
STATS
USAGE
DO USERS
PREFER
PRINT?
How do we
resolve this?

37. What hosting
fee?!
The page isn’t
loading.
Can you find this
article for me?
Can we buy
1 e-book?
I don’t like e-
books. I want
print!
Off-campus
access is
down!!!!!
We have 10 new
products! Do you
want a trial?
My library
barcode
doesn’t work.
Why don’t we
have access?
404 ERROR
Is that
access-only?
How often are
MARC records
updated?
Platform
migration!
Who is your
vendor rep?
HOW
much?
Do we have
a license?
Which content
SHOULD we
have?
Why hasn’t
the vendor
been paid?
Is this a hybrid
journal?
What’s our
Universal ID?
Where are
the invoices?

38. COLLECTIVE CHALLENGES
 Budgets constraints
 Increased scale/number of e-resources
 User expectations: “instant” access

39. CHALLENGES FACED WHILE USING E-RESOURCES
Difficulties and barriers faced by scholars in using e-resources have
been explored in many studies. These include:
 lack of awareness of e-resources
 poor information retrieval and searching skills
 poor information technology infrastructure
 limited access to computers,
 unstable network connectivity and slow download speeds
 limited access to e-resources, including limited access to relevant
titles and contents on specific subjects

42. Queries may be sent at : cokiki@Unilag.edu.ng

43. References
• Anderson, E. K. (2014). Electronic resource management systems and related
products. Library Technology Reports, 50(3), 30–42.
• Collins, M. & Grogg, J. E. (2011). Building a better ERMS. Library Journal,
136(4), 22–28.
• Blanchat, K. & Verminski, A. 2015. Making it your own: transitioning into a
new electronic resources role. Available:
http://www.slideshare.net/amverminski/making-it- your-own-
transitioning-into-a-new-electronic- resources-role-blanchat-and-
verminski-erl- 2015?qid=520e5933-e90a-4df2-aca1-
7a5f953ba4d8&v=default&b=&from_search=1
• Weir, R.O. 2012. Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide