When ERM Met Alma: The Intricacies of Content Management in a Shared Consortia Landscape

Authors

Siôn Romaine, University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Jian Wang, Portland State UniversityFollow

Published In

Serials Review

Document Type

Post-Print

Publication Date

2-2017

Subjects

Information resources management, Electronic information resources -- Management, Library science

Abstract

In 2013, after nearly two decades of operating in a distributed legacy Integrated Library System (ILS) environment on local servers, the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of public and private academic libraries in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, began a two-year-long process to migrate its 37 members to a shared implementation of Ex Libris's cloud-based Alma library management system (LMS) and Primo discovery interface. Although much has been written on electronic resource management (ERM) functionality at an institution level, little has been written on serials and ERM functionality and workflows within a shared consortial environment. This article discusses the challenges and opportunities of implementing a consortial-based LMS, with particular emphasis on serials and ERM functionality. Key migration issues related to serials control, acquisitions, licensing, administration, cataloging, statistics, and interoperability are examined at the institutional and large-scale networked levels. Benefits and limitations of using a shared consortial cloud-based LMS are explored, and the overall capabilities of the Alma LMS for electronic resource management are reviewed.

Rights

© Siôn Romaine and Jian Wang

Description

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Serials Review. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Serials Review, 43:1, 17-271 and can be found online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2017.1279896

DOI

10.1080/00987913.2017.1279896

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19704

Citation Details

Romaine, Siôn and Wang, Jian, "When ERM Met Alma: The Intricacies of Content Management in a Shared Consortia Landscape" (2017). Library Faculty Publications and Presentations. 221.
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19704