Presented at the 2010 Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference. Abstract: As electronic resources become more prevalent in Academic Libraries, communication between Electronic Resource Librarians and other departments such as Reference or Interlibrary Loan becomes increasing important. The results of a survey of Academic Librarians regarding interdepartmental communication shall be presented along with a demonstration of the Intranet used by Montana State University Libraries.

1. Remember 3 Weeks Ago
When…
Liz Babbitt
Electronic Resources and Libraries
Austin, TX
February 2010

2. Liz Babbitt
Electronic Resources Librarian
Montana State University
Bozeman, Montana

3. Me Me Me!!
 Librarian for 15 years
 ERL for one year
 Both Academic and Public Reference
Librarian
 Work at the Reference Desk 3 hours
per week
 It’s important to me as an ERL that
other library staff know what’s
happening so they can assist Users.

4. Looking Ahead:
 Survey of communication
between ERLs and other library
units
 Montana State University’s
Intranet
 Questions

5. Questions??
 Askat any time during the
presentation

6. Methodology
 Survey Monkey Professional
 Open December 15 – January 24
 12-18 questions
 Hypothesis: that larger libraries
would be more likely to have
implemented a formal system for
communicating between library units
 565 respondents
 Survey sent to 11 Listservs

7. Survey sent to :
 Acqnet-L
 STS-L (ACRL Sci-tech)
 Collib-L (ALA)
 AutoCat-L
 DigRef-L
 DocLine-L and Odyssey-L (ILL)
 ERL-L
 Lib-license-L
 Serialist-L
 Web4Lib-L

8. Findings:

9. Us and Them ;)
ERLs
25%
Them
75%

10. Primary Department
Serials Other
4% 14%
Systems Acquisitions
6% 30%
ER
3%
Admin
Reference
2%
20%
ILL Cataloging
Public 6% 9%
Services
6%

11. Years in Current Job
All Positions ERLs
> 7 years 35.1 > 7years 20.8
4-7 years 21.6 4-7years 22.2
1-3 years 33.5 1-3 years 39.6
< 1 year 9.8 < 1 year 17.4
0 20 40 0 20 40
Percentage Percentage

12. Is There a System in Place
All respondents
25%
Yes
No
75%

13. Size of Campus by Student FTE
Student FTE
10% < 1,000 FTE
43%
1,001-9,999
FTE
47% > 10,000

14. Is There a System in Place?
All Respondents 74.8 25.2
More than 9999 76.7 23.3
1000-9999 FTE 75.3 24.7
Less than 1000 64.3 35.7
0 20 40 60 80 100
Yes No

15. Size of Library by Staff FTE
Size of Library by Staff FTE
55% Fewer than 10
FTE
11-99 FTE
100 or more
17%
28% FTE

16. Is There a System in Place?
All Respondents 74.8 25.2
more than 99 FTE 76.3 23.7
11-99 FTE 74.4 25.6
less than 10 FTE 73.7 26.3
0 20 40 60 80 100
Yes No

17. Branch Libraries on Campus
Yes No
54%
46%

18. Branch Libraries on Campus
No Branch Libraries 72.5 27.5
Have Branch Libraries 76.6 23.4

19. Universities with Branch Campuses
or Affiliates
Yes No
58%
42%

20. Universities with Branch Campuses
or Affiliates
No Branch Campuses 72.3 27.7
With Branch Campuses 77.5 22.5

21. Outside student and fac
No Yes
44%
56%

22. Primary System Used
100
90 Email
80 80.7
70 1
60
50
40
30
20
Blog Intranet Paper Form Wiki
10
3.7 2.5 0.9 0.9
0 1 1 1 1

23. How many years in place
6%
16% 8%
< 1 year
1-2 years
19%
3-5 years
> 5 years
Do Not Know
51%

24. Information Reported
Other 6.6
Licensing among branch campuses 20.1
Wish list 34.2
Trial evaluation 45.3
Database or journal failure to ERL 72.4
Vendor maintenance 77.8
Database or journal failure from… 78.1
Trials and new databases 85.3

25. Library Units involved
Other 6.6
Circulation 8.7
Branches on other campuses 9.3
Branches on campus 9.3
ILL 12.3
Systems 16.2
Cataloging 18.9
Reference 20.7
All units 73.3

26. Is There a System in Place
All respondents
25%
Yes
No
75%

27. Future Implementation?
No 84.7
Yes 15.3

28. No Plans to Implement
Branch •No: 63.8%
Libraries? •Yes: 36.2%
Branch •No: 48.6%
Campuses? •Yes: 51.4%
•<1000: 9.5%
Student FTE •1,001-9,999: 52.4%
•>9,999: 38.1%

29. MSU Staff Intranet
Since 2005
From Staff Computers or Log in and Password from offsite
Managed by MSU Libraries Systems Department

30. MSU Intranet

31. Collection Development Team

32. CD Discussion Board

33. Error Log

34. Error Log Detail

35. Lessons and a Look Forward:
 Survey worded too closely to our
organizational set up
 Misinterpretation is difficult to avoid
 Interested in perceptions and
perceived effectiveness

36. Questions?
Concerns?
Comments?

37. Liz Babbitt lbabbitt@montana.edu
Electronic Resources Librarian
Montana State University
Bozeman, Montana