From Problem to Solution in E-Resource Troubleshooting
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This document discusses e-resource troubleshooting at Columbia University Libraries. It begins by explaining that problems are viewed as opportunities rather than burdens. The nature of common e-resource problems are then described, such as titles dropping from databases or patrons lacking access permissions. Several specific examples of problems are provided, such as missing content or weak catalog records. For each problem, the collaborative solution developed by the libraries is summarized. The document concludes by emphasizing best practices like responding promptly and using problems as teaching opportunities to improve patron experiences and push for changes with vendors.
From Problem to Solution in E-Resource Troubleshooting
- 1. From Problem to Solution in E-Resource Troubleshooting If you don't believe you can fix the issues, you've already given up Susan Marcin & Susan Klimley Columbia University Libraries November 3, 2011
- 2. Why this presentation? We realized that both of us thought problems were opportunities not tiresome tasks But we also realized we had different perspectives in providing solutions to e-resource problems. The collaboration showed us that there are benefits in working together, both for internal procedures as well as for potential patron satisfaction.
- 3. Objectives in E-Resources Troubleshooting Ideally, we'd love it if there were no problems, if all was working as planned. The size & scope of the e-resource collections make it more difficult to monitor e-resource "breakdowns" in an up-to-the- moment manner. So, when we cannot prevent the problems, we work to provide solutions before patrons get on their last nerve. They are priority #1.
- 5. The nature of e-resource problems at Columbia University
- 6. E-Resource Problem Reporting at CUL
- 8. What we see when e- resource problem report is submitted
- 9. Problem reporting wiki https://wiki.cul.columbia.edu/display/cerm/Resource+Troubleshooting
- 10. Problem reports submitted, by year 2008 = 6
- 11. Problem reports submitted, with follow- up emails Follow ups constitute a significant amount of the conversation.
- 12. E-resource problem report traffic Answering problem reports 5 days a week, our daily average in the e-resources department. These numbers only include e- problems specifically sent to one email alias.
- 13. Who is submitting e-problem reports? Students 31% Other 30% Staff 25% Faculty 14% Librarians, self- identified as "other" or "staff," are the top reporters of e- resources problems, reporting 34% of total.
- 14. On or Off-Campus Roughly 60-40 split, on-campus to off-campus.
- 15. Informal problem reporting Problems at Health Sciences can be a: ● Scrap of paper with a PMID ● e-mail to our library contact e-mail ● Phone call ● Patron standing at the door This can result in a formal problem report or it's taken care of locally the incident is simply counted as a public service reference transaction. So, we realized over all Columbia e- resource problem report statistics are incomplete
- 16. Problems that We See & Our Collaborative Solutions
- 17. We don't have access to the problem item ● Titles dropping in and out of aggregator databases. Our records in library catalog, e-journals page, etc. may not be in sync for a few weeks. ○ Examples: ProQuest, ebrary titles dropping out ● Consortial agreements in which we receive access based upon member subscriptions ○ Example: NERL, uniform title lists ● Data from aggregators not always correct ○ "current" doesn't always mean latest issue much less the e-pubs ahead of print Solution = Communication, vigilance correcting data 1.0
- 18. Who are you? Who can use our e-resources? It depends on the license. ● Generally current students, faculty, staff, walk-ins, ● But also possibly alumni It may also depend on patron physical location or "status" within the University. 2.0
- 19. Patron permissions Patrons lack sufficient permissions to use Library electronic resources? 2.1
- 20. How we arrived at a solution Patron permissions are sent in an email when the e-resources problem report is used. Patrons are directed appropriately with a response. Example: ● Direct alumni & friends to alumni & friends e-resources page ● Direct faculty, staff, officers, etc. to their University departments to be entered into the proper system ● Direct students to the Registrar to confirm registration status and to be entered into the proper system Exciting development! HSL now able to have patrons check their own permissions. 2.2
- 21. Missing content link sites: < ProQuest < Gale < EBSCO 3.0
- 22. How we arrived at a solution Took care of the patron. Had patron submit ILL request & to make sure that ILL request was not "blocked." The problem is in the "full text." We contacted ProQuest about the missing pages. Note, however, that multiple vendors have the same missing pages and they need to update their PDFs as well (Gale, EBSCO) 3.1
- 23. Weak paths between indexes and print titles PubMed identifies what looks like an article in a journal. No electronic full text link 4.0
- 24. Weak print records But when title is searched in catlog, promising records come up but with no volume or issue info link 4.1
- 25. link Weak print records A request to cataloging gets table of contents added to records 4.2
- 26. How we arrived at a solution Got in touch with Cataloging to improve the metadata in the MARC records. Records now include tables of contents. Solved! 10/18/11 Question -- will future records be given the same attention? 4.3
- 27. PubMed has the citation correct, but... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=21666833 5.0
- 28. ...openURL links to incorrect article link 5.1
- 29. How we arrived at a solution ● Contacted Serials Solutions about correcting their knowledge base ● Ser Sol informed us that PubMed had the incorrect ISSN assigned that journal ● Problem is in the "citation source." ● NLM said the the publisher data was incorrect, then realized that the issue was tied to their data ● NLM resolved 10/19/11! 5.2
- 30. Confusing User Interface link Patron clicks on "get book"... 6.0
- 31. Where to click for full-text? Many users click on e- Link to get to the full text, as they've been told to do by librarians. 6.1
- 32. This takes them back where they were link Patron clicks on "get book"... endless loop 6.2
- 33. How we arrived at a solution ● We are still working on a solution, but the solution lies with EBSCO ○ We have pointed out to EBSCO that users are regularly confused by their e-book landing pages. ○ We have asked EBSCO to make their full-text links more visible to users. 6.3
- 34. Inconsistent links "Full text" link fails. It runs a journal search, rather than a book search. "All Issues" link works. 7.0
- 35. How we arrived at a solution Contacted EBSCO to reclassify their document as a book, not a journal. They fixed it. And again, we complained to EBSCO that their user interface is not intuitive. 7.1
- 36. Browser issues link 8.0
- 37. How we arrived at a solution Directed patron to use Internet Explorer. It also helps to put the same "IE only" note in various places, such as the library catalog. The best solution for the all of us, however, would be to "push back" with the vendor to make their product accessible in more Web browsers. 8.1
- 38. I want to link to the chapter! link 9.0
- 39. How we arrived at a solution A few things to think about: ● Does the design of the full-text target site support direct linking at the chapter/article level? For Springer, yes. ● If yes, then has the openURL provider (Serials Solutions in our case) configured chapter/article level-linking in their system? ● If yes, then is the data passed from citation "good enough"? C a "match" be found on the full-text site? 9.1
- 40. I want to link to the article! link Users perceive it as a problem that they cannot link at the article level. 10.0
- 41. How we arrived at a solution A few things to think about: ● Does the design of the full-text target site support direct linking at the chapter/article level? Yes ● If yes, then has the openURL provider (Serials Solutions in our case) configured chapter/article level-linking in their system? We do not believe so. ● If yes, then is the data passed from citation "good enough"? C a "match" be found on the full-text site? 10.1
- 42. The problem with supplements Anytime a patron has a problem with a supplement, public service staff know its trouble. . . link 11.0
- 43. PubMed supplement, full text cannot be located 11.1
- 44. PubMed supplement: But the full text is there if we browse for it 11.2
- 45. PubMed supplement, full text cannot be located We see that the search is: 0362-2436.is. and "36".vo. and "21".ip. and S1.pg. 11.3
- 46. How we arrived at a solution ● We first thought that because PubMed is passing letters in the page number field, Ser Sol can't deal with this. But in fact, it is the "issue" that causes the failure. ● A PMID search fails -- it passes an issue number, which Ovid cannot recognize. ● 0362-2436.is. and "36".vo. and "21".ip. and S1.pg. ● A DOI search works -- no issue number. 11.4
- 47. Networks: the VPN issue Example email: ● Apparently some Columbia students cannot gain access to our website, NetAnatomy.com (for which you have a subscription) when using your VPN. They have access through means other than the VPN. Any chance you have changed the IP address that your VPN uses? What is a VPN? (Virtual Private Network) ● VPN is a client software that runs on your off-campus computer. After you log in with an ID and password, VPN establishes a secure "tunnel" to the campus network. The solution is a "teachable moment." 12.0
- 48. "Incomplete" subscriptions Problems arise when patrons perform searches in databases to which we do not fully subscribe: Examples: ● Wiley online library -- Full-text access to the Wiley Online Library which hosts the world's broadest and deepest multidisciplinary collection of online resources. ● Oxford scholarship online -- Classic and newly published Oxford books in Economics & Finance, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, and Religion. Solution: Buy everything? Don't publicly list the entire product as a database? Does it need to be a database, if it's in other sources, such as Summon and the library catalog? 13.0
- 49. It's all in the Timing Titles move from one provider to another, and we don't catch the changes ○ Example: We get 1 email 6 months before the change occurs OR We get 1 email the day of the switch OR the day after... Titles are canceled: When you cancel something, when do you close the record? ● We cancel title and wait to turn it off. But we might not remember to turn it off until we get a problem report. Solution = ● Try to keep good records ● Respond accordingly when problem arises ● Teachable moment 14.0
- 50. Never mind. . . opps! I meant Obesity not the International Journal of Obesity I am having trouble accessing e-resources from Africa. . . I need the registration number for SCOPUS so I can import citations into Papers on my Mac 15. 0
- 51. Lessons Learned in Providing Solutions to E-Resource Problems 16.0
- 52. Best Practices Problem Response ● Respond to all questions promptly ● Resolve patron's immediate problem ○ Send the article ○ Send patrons to ILL ○ Fix broken links ● Use problem answers as a teachable moments ● Think about whether the problem is part of a bigger problem 17.0
- 53. How "pushing back" may create positive change Preventing the "problem" from ever happening often begins with the initial purchasing negotiations. ● Can we influence the provider? When the content/platform changes, we can push back with feedback to create a better user experience When access to certain parts of journals is restricted, we can push back to make it available 18.0
- 54. What would help us to better solve e- resource problems? Whole exercise has helped us to understand what is available and what our expectations are. ● Ability to check off-campus access ● Diagnostic tools for patron permissions Future plans ● evaluate tools for problem report tracking & analysis ● continue regular meetings between central and front line librarians ● identify projects: ○ Document supplement problem in PubMed and discuss with National Library of Medicine ○ Document problem with aggregator listing of journals as "current" when reality suggests they are issues behind 19.
- 55. How can you help? Don't give up. If you notice a problem with a vendor site, let them know. Send corrections to knowledge bases. All of us benefit. 20.0
- 56. Susan Klimley, [email protected] Susan Marcin, [email protected] 21.0