Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing, US, has announced the release of ERM Essentials, an electronic resource management (ERM) solution that seeks to help libraries manage e-resources.
According to the company, the system features auto-population of holdings and data, making a highly effective ERM solution. The Digital Library Federation’s Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI) has reportedly influenced the development of ERM Essentials. However, EBSCO has stated that its role as part of the “e” supply chain would allow ERM Essentials to go beyond the offerings of other ERM systems.
EBSCO claims to provide all the features one would expect from a comprehensive ERM system in a single, centralised source where data is readily available for complete e-collections management. This includes key services like simple searching and browsing of the library’s e-collection and orders, workflow management via reminders and tasks, management of trials and renewals, and the ability to gather data for analysing and evaluating holdings.
According to the company, ERM Essentials differs from other ERM systems due to its integration with EBSCO’s subscription management tools and services. The combination is projected to result in a powerful e-resource solution for libraries. ERM Essentials can automatically update holdings and coverage for a library’s e-resources plus auto-populate approximately 100 data elements pertaining to a library’s e-journals and e-packages. This in turn is expected to simplify the management of licence details, access information and other order-specific information.
ERM Essentials is designed to work directly ‘out of the box’ with very little start-up effort. It is claimed to offer true integration, sharing the EBSCO Integrated Knowledge Base with EBSCONET, EBSCO A-to-Z, LinkSource, EBSCOhost Integrated Search (EHIS) and EBSCOhost databases with SmartLinks linking technology. Resources that are purchased through EBSCO are automatically updated in the EBSCO Integrated Knowledge Base, which means multiple systems are updated once, saving time and resources on the library end.
The new product is expected to evolve with libraries’ evolving needs for e-resource management. A usage consolidation module is in development and additional releases to ERM Essentials are planned for enhanced workflow management and consortia management.
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