HERMES: The Hopkins Electronic Resource Management System

Abstract

This article describes a project undertaken by the Johns Hopkins University libraries to develop a systemwide, Web-based application to facilitate the selection, procurement, implementation, and management of electronic resources and their licenses. The authors detail the history of the project, the function of each of its main application modules, and the various security roles required for administration of the application as well as note similar initiatives and other activities within the library profession to streamline and automate the management of electronic resources. ********** The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) libraries are nearing completion of a university-wide electronic resource management system. This application, the Hopkins Electronic Resource Management System (HERMES), will provide an easy and time-saving means for patrons to identify and access the electronic resources of JHU libraries, as well as facilitate the process of selecting, purchasing, and managing these resources. The scope of resources managed by HERMES will include all electronic resources to which JHU libraries provide access. * Description and Functional Requirements Early in the project, the following functional requirements were identified: * provide a full workflow and approvals process to support the selection, procurement, and implementation of e-resources; * enable dynamic generation of e-resource information for public display; * provide automatic notification to appropriate staff of changes of status and scope in e-resource ordering and licensing (including such items as when to renew and action required after a certain number of days); * provide for link management for e-resources, including the automatic updating of URLs in the backend database, on the campus proxy server, on library Web sites, and so on; * provide staff with a unified, Web-based means for viewing, updating, reporting, and administering e-resources, including custom report generation; * document and maintain information about e-resources; * be accessible to all staff and patrons in JHU libraries with appropriate restrictions for use of administrative modules; and * be interoperable with existing and future systems, including the integrated library system, the campus proxy server, and Web sites of the various campus libraries. * History of the Project In the spring of 1999, the electronic resources librarian at JHU's Milton S. Eisenhower Library approached the Web application developer and related her need for an easier way to manage the hundreds of links to both licensed and unlicensed electronic resources on the library's Web site. Her problem is probably familiar to anyone who must manage a significant number of Web pages: if a URL changes somewhere on the Web site, the administrator must then track down and update that URL wherever it appears throughout the entire site. This process was tedious and error-prone. The creation of a simple database-enabled Web application was proposed that would allow the administrator to create a bibliographic record for a particular e-resource and to subject-index the record using multiple subject headings. The public display for this application would pull data directly from the database and would dynamically generate subject-specific lists of e-resources, along with their corresponding URLs. And because the URL, as part of the bibliographic record, would be stored in a single place, any updates to that URL would automatically appear within each of the individual subject lists on the site. In this way, the need for locating and updating multiple instances of the same URL whenever a change to that URL occurred would be eliminated. An application was constructed and tested that accomplished this task, and a student was hired to perform data entry to populate the backend database. …