Peter
Webster
Systems Librarian, St. Mary's University
Patrick Power Library
St. Mary's University Halifax, NS B3H 3C3
Telephone: 902.420.5507 Fax:
902.420.5561 
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http://www.stmarys.ca/administration/library/
Peter Webster has more than 20 years experience with library systems, the last 11 of it at Saint Mary's University, and the Nova Scotia provincial library consortium Novanet. He is an occasional author and speaker on library automation topics. His interest in recent years has focused on the development of the full-text virtual library.
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E-content database administrative services. A critical and comparative review. |
-- October 15, 2004 2:15 pm - 3:00 pm |
Web accessible administrative services are an essential management tool for serials databases and online library resources offered by vendors like Gale, Ebsco, Proquest, CSA and Elsivier. These administrative services offer basic resource linking, off-site validation, and interface customization. Their statistical capabilities largely determine what information we have about usage of online services. These built in administrative tools are often our first point of contact with existing and immerging standards, from Z39.50 to "Counter compliant statistics", to Crossref and Open URL Linking, or Digital Object Identifiers.
This session will present a review, and comparative critique of many popular databases' administrative services. It will look at the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of these tools. The session will look at the growing standardization of administrative services, which vendors are falling short and which are taking services to new levels.
It will consider the scalability, and versatility of these products. The session will explore the features which will be necessary to library management as the number of online products grows greatly in the next few years. It will look developing capabilities which might profoundly change the management of online resources in the future.