I’ve been waiting for this moment to happen for 3 years, since i first began working at this library. We’ve finally e-tipped. E-tipping is when a library has enough electronic resources in its collection that the distinction between print or electronic isn’t as important as the content the resource holds. The process of e-tipping is as elegant as it sounds, kind of like cow-tipping or knocking over a pitcher of milk; everything’s going along fine, then there’s a jolt, a slow-motion flail, then BAM.
I’m the first electronic resources librarian my library has ever had and some of the concepts I brought with me were obviously strange to the library. We’ve been doing some major thinking and talking about e-content since I arrived, getting our staff and librarians comfortable and familiar with using electronic resources. Obviously not all of our staff are newbies in this arena, but building confidence to a certain level has taken some doing. We’ve been working steadily at it as a team, committing to an ERM, and then implementing all the features.
How did I know we had e-tipped? For about a month I had been steadily adding usage rights/restrictions into the license portion of the ERM — the last feature of the ERM to be implemented — so that information about the ways patrons can use the material gets filtered down to the e-journal title level, the streaming video level, and the e-book level. One of our librarians didn’t like the way the information was displaying, and overnight it seemed that everyone in the library had Questions About E-resources. They were vocal that it was very important that we make access to our licensed resources as seamless as possible. In other words, after years of keeping e-resources separate (on a separate page on the website, even) they wanted the e-resources to look and act just like any other library resource.
As I answered the Questions I mentally cheered to myself, “We’re there! We should be celebrating!” It’s really hard to celebrate a cultural shift like this. It’s hard enough to even explain a cultural shift like this. I know it happened, though, and I guess this blog post is celebration enough.
I wonder if the readers of this blog have experienced something similar at your institutions? Have you e-tipped? Do write and let me know.
