Desperately Seeking an ERM Librarian

Key Points

In this section, you will:

1. Understand the evolution of ERM librarianship: You will be able to describe how the role of electronic resource management (ERM) librarians has evolved over the years and identify the key technological and organizational changes that have shaped this evolution.
2. Analyze job advertisements for ERM roles: You will learn to critically analyze job advertisements for ERM (or adjacent) librarian positions, compare historical and current qualifications, and understand the implications of these trends.
3. Evaluate core competencies: You will reflect on the NASIG core competencies for electronic resources librarians and assess your personal strengths and areas for improvement in relation to these competencies.
4. Identify key skills for modern ERM librarians: You will identify and discuss the key skills and knowledge areas required for modern ERM librarians, particularly in the context of cloud-based solutions and the increasing importance of vendor negotiations and technical expertise.
5. Reflect on personal development: You will engage in self-assessment and reflection to determine your current standing in relation to the skills and knowledge required for ERM roles, and develop strategies for further growth and development in this area.

ERM: Many Roles and Tasks

There are many studies that analyze librarian job ads and especially jobs ads related to electronic resource management. The impetus for these studies is to understand, in particular, those positions in libraries that are more fluid, like electronic resource management. In addition to providing an overview of these positions at any point in time, over time and taken together, these studies provide historical overviews that are helpful in understanding how specific roles, like electronic resource management, have changed. Gathering such studies together is helpful in highlighting which qualities remain consistent and which evolve.

For example, Murdock (2010) found trends in various electronic resource management duties over a nine year period during the early 2000s. In Murdock’s findings, electronic resource librarians consistently work with e-resource acquisitions, licensing, and cataloging. And they found various up and downward trends in other areas of this work, including e-resource evaluation, access/troubleshooting, statistics (usage of e-resources), website maintenance/development, ILS administration, digitization/digital project involvement, and e-resource trends (monitoring).

One of the useful aspects of Murdock’s (2010) article is in section 4.3, which lists a “timeline of commercial ERM developments and standards.” These technologies and standards continue today, and have, via hindsight, strongly shaped how electronic resources currently work. This timeline includes what’s now referred to as the A-Z list of serials, which started in 2000, OpenURL linking technology from 2001, the combining of both integrated library systems (ILS) and electronic resource management systems (ERMS) in 2004, federated searching from 2005, SUSHI usage statistics protocol from 2006, and SERU from 2007.

ILS and ERMS systems later merged into what are today called Library Service Platforms (LSP). These include newer technologies, like discovery systems, that are designed to search more than the traditional collections. We cover this in chapter two.

Murdock’s (2010) analysis also shows that some duties started to wane in the early years, likely as the position became more clearly defined. Website maintenance and deployment (see Fig 13), for example, dropped off the radar. This was likely due to the development of content management systems, i.e., turnkey website solutions, that are still in use today. For example, Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, all content management systems (CMS) that can work as library websites, started to take off around 2007 to 2009, around the time that Murdock shows this area of activity declining. Using these CMSs entails much less web development, which involved working directly with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, relational databases, etc., instead focusing more on adding and curating web page content and web site structure.

Highlighting the still evolving nature of this area of librarianship, one of Murdock’s (2010) conclusions is that employers sought to hire those who are able to perform traditional librarian duties, such as reference and instructional service, in addition to e-resource specific tasks (p. 37). Based on what we see in job advertisements today, this is much less the case today. Electronic resource librarians have become more specialized and defined as the dominance of e-resources have grown, as this dictates more time and more specific skill sets to work with these resources.

Hartnett (2014) analyzed electronic resource librarian job ads, also with a focus on the early 2000s. In their study, the most common qualities found include e-resource management/maintenance, reference, collection development, and likewise. Harnett’s study also captures a broader range of more general skills, including soft skills. For example, they found in their ad study an importance on communication skills, collaborative work, supervision, leadership, and like. The importance of these soft skills were further highlighted by Sutton and Collinge in a later study (2018), indicating most importantly the professionalization of this work, as well as librarianship in general.

Soft skills are central to all professional jobs.

As mentioned in Hartnett (2014), some of these early studies helped form the list of NASIG core competencies for electronic resource librarianship, which was first published in 2013. The list of core competencies focuses on the e-resource life cycle and highlights five key areas of e-resource management: acquire, provide access, administer, provide support, and evaluate/monitor. And each of these areas is further broken down into specific tasks. For example, under providing access, e-resource librarians might work with proxy servers, link resolvers, and A-to-Z lists. Under the evaluate/monitor area, tasks include analyzing downtime issues, examining usage statistics, and gathering user feedback. In larger libraries or library systems, there might be ERM positions dedicated to specific parts of this life cycle. In smaller libraries, one person might be responsible for all of this work.

While NASIG’s 2013 list is still relevant, NASIG announced during the summer of 2026 that they were recruiting a task force to revise these competencies in order to capture “current practices, emerging technologies, and the changing roles of e-resources professionals.”

A big change since 2012, when Hartnett’s (2014) research ends, is that more technology has moved to the cloud. This means that we rely less on on-site servers, where those servers might be managed by library IT (or other IT). Switching from local IT infrastructure to cloud based IT infrastructure requires different types of technological skills. For example, it is less common today to set up and maintain on-site servers to run web applications (e.g., ERM software and local EZproxy servers). This means a decline in legacy local skills in favor of skills with working with servers on the cloud (i.e., in some data center). Modern ERM librarians now will focus on work flows, metadata rules, and webhook endpoints within a vendor’s web portal. This also suggests working with different types of software. As an example, instead of working with local authentication configurations, ERM librarians more commonly work with broader IT departments to set up federated identity management (e.g., SAML, Single Sign-On [SSO] integration. This entails a skill shift toward managing user attributes and privacy rules so patron credentials securely pass between cloud identity providers and publisher platforms. Case: when you request off-campus access to a journal article, in a SSO system, you have to login via the institution’s identity provider just once. We cover more examples in chapter two.

Cloud-based solutions have changed the field in other ways. Hosted software means the software isn’t purchased but leased, and leasing involves outside vendors who must have the technological skill sets and resources to manage and provide the technology. So we rely, in important ways, and are more dependent on other actors in the publishing and e-resource provider ecosystem. That involves a lot of trust. It involves more negotiations between librarians and vendors and the ability to collaborate and develop good, ethical relationships. The kind of work that may increase, as more software and data are hosted on the cloud, might be the kind of work that requires strong communication skills, strong negotiating skills, and knowledge of how licensing works, how copyright and contract law work, and how electronic resource collections work and inter-operate across platforms. This may explain why Macaulay (2018) found that collaboration and shared responsibilities are the key aspects of an ERM workflow. However, this can be complicated. A few years ago there was an email on the SERIALST listserv by a librarian that asked whether librarians have retained powers to negotiate and sign contracts. The responses were mixed. Some librarians had the jurisdiction but many had lost it, per the email responses (i.e., the data was limited). Even under this scenario, technological understanding is necessary in order to negotiate the best deal for a library’s stakeholders and to acquire the best and most seamless product needed by library users.

Even though IT continues to be outsourced, this doesn’t mean that we become lax in our understanding of how the technology works, just as we can’t become lax in how librarianship works even though librarians answer fewer reference questions than they did in previous years (i.e., you still need to know how to respond systematically and thoroughly to research and reference questions). What I mean is that, in order to communicate this topic well, to negotiate well, and to sign licenses that are beneficial to our communities, it helps to understand and be adept at the tech so that we are not bamboozled in those negotiations. Also, if something goes wrong, e.g., with the link resolver technology, we have to learn how to identify the problem; that is, whether the technological issue is the link resolver technology and not something else, like the OPAC technology. Knowledge of these systems is fundamental to identifying and clarifying a problem, which is prerequisite in finding a solution.

Macaulay (2018) provides a more updated list of duties by surveying the field. Their overview of electronic resource management duties describes how these duties are shared among various librarian roles and are divided into four categories: collection development, communications, technical, and data management. Macaulay (2018) finds that e-resource librarians (whose job titles vary considerably) work on the expected tasks: troubleshooting, holding records, licensing, selecting, and more. And this involves working with librarians in administration, user experience, technical services, collection development, and more. Furthermore, and of particular interest, they find that many of these duties are shared with librarians from other departments and outside the library. The most common shared duties include:

• selection: perhaps with collection development librarians
• troubleshooting: perhaps with systems librarians, technical services librarians, and others
• licensing and price negotiation: perhaps with legal departments

In short, ERM librarianship is a highly collaborative position and requires working with librarians of all types and at all levels as well as with non-librarians. ERM librarianship requires both a generalist mindset and a specialized one. That is, while ERM librarians may focus on a special area (e.g., technical aspects versus licensing aspects), given the integration of electronic resources throughout libraries, they must be capable of working with many and understanding the entire information ecosystem.

Electronic resource management librarian job titles vary considerably in part because, as Sutton and Collinge (2018) note, librarians working in these positions “are sometimes combined with other major responsibilities”. In the future, we might find less variation as this area of librarianship increasingly becomes more solidified.

ERM: Today

To follow up on more current advertisements for ER librarians, we can see that current job ads for ERM librarians remain broadly consistent with past descriptions. The results are consistent with years-past qualifications because the overall goal remains: to provide access to electronic resources. That is, the following duties in these ads may be independent of the specific technologies used and therefore hold fairly stable. Based on selected e-resource position advertisements in recent years, I’ve curated the following list of quotes about what employers are looking for in this area of work:

• provide “consistent and reliable access to the Library’s electronic resources and establishing workflows that maintain discovery and use of all Library collections”
• analyze “feasibility of technical platforms”
• “resource licensing and contracting”
• “copyright compliance”
• “vendor negotiations”
• “Acts as a bridge across multiple Library units”
• enhance “access and use”
• design a “system of access”
• analyze “staff and user issues with discovery of resources”
• coordinate “system administration responsibilities for integrated library system (Ex Libris Alma/Primo VE) with Technical Services Librarian”
• “create reports in Alma and individual databases as needed, including but not limited to usage statistics, user experience statistics, collection analysis and overlap”
• monitor “listservs for Alma and Primo VE”
• manage “administrative and troubleshooting functions for EZproxy and e-resource vendors for access and authentication”
• evaluate “the scope and quality of research resources available”
• “reviews and negotiates licenses for […] purchased resources and manages the acquisition, activation, and troubleshooting of all purchased and subscribed electronic resources for the Library.”
• gathers and analyzes “serials, e-books, database usage, and other related assessment data”
• oversees “the activities of the serials acquisitions unit”
• maintain “responsibility for licensing and the management of electronic information resources […] as well as the shared consortial resources”
• assist in “planning and developing policies and workflows”
• partner “with the Acquisitions Librarian and staff on the ordering and payment activity of electronic resources”
• establish and “documents library procedures and best practices for the acquisition, licensing, implementation, assessment, and budgeting of electronic resources”
• work “with colleagues […] to optimize resource discovery”
• work “with vendors to resolve technical issues and manages EZproxy for remote access”
• “collects, analyzes, and presents use, purchase, and availability data of electronic resources”
• “works collaboratively to support metadata maintenance for electronic resources and both print and digital serials”
• develop and implement “submissions to a shared University institutional repository”
• works “under the supervision of the Associate Director for Technical Services”

To stay current about the position overall and about the specific duties involved, I encourage you to bookmark and stay abreast of ERM journals. In addition to the publication titles used in this section’s readings and to the SERIALST list I have asked you to subscribe to, I recommend that you bookmark relevant journals, like the Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, Against the Grain, and Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries

Library Types

Most of the analyses described above focus on ERM librarians in academic libraries. But as Sutton & Collinge (2018) find, the position has made its way into other library types, including health, law, and public libraries. Even though Sutton and Collinge find that many of the same qualifications are shared among library types, positions for ERL type public library ads also included more “general technologies and applications and project management skills.”

That said, it’s likely that in public libraries, these tasks and duties are simply more spread out among more traditionally titled library positions. It’s not like the work isn’t there. Public libraries still work with digital collections, in particular vendors for e-books, audiobooks, and other media (OverDrive, Libby, Hoopla, Kanopy), still work with integrated library systems, still have websites (many of which are powered by CMSs), still create digital libraries (cf. DPLA), and do offer bibliographic databases (e.g., Gale, EBSCOhost), even if less than the number found in many academic librarians, on average.

When searching for jobs in non-academic libraries, it might be helpful to look for specific keywords:

• collection development
• digital content / digital materials / digital services
• electronic libraries
• virtual services
• web resources

It might also be useful to focus on broader technical and systems titles:

• integrated library system (ILS) administrator
• metadata and discovery librarian
• systems librarian / library applications specialist
• technical services

Or, focus searches on platforms and task-specific keywords:

• Platforms and vendors: OverDrive, Libby, Hoopla, Kanopy, Cloud Library, EBSCOhost, Gale, Axis360/Boundless, Koha, Evergreen
• Operations and tech: EZproxy, OpenAthens, COUNTER reports, usage metrics, vendor licensing, e-book licensing models

In more public sector positions, titles can be even more opaque.

• Librarian II / III - technical services
• Library program specialist - electronic collections
• Senior librarian - digital systems

And as Williams & Saunders (2020) note, the skills as described in the first part of this section, with a focus on academic libraries, are applicable to public librarians:

• soft skills: interpersonal communication, knowledge of professional ethics, writing, cultural competence, organizational partnerships
• specialized skills: managing network systems, preservation of digital sources
• content skills: collection management and development

Questions for Discussion

Think about these studies of ERM positions in relation to what you are learning about librarianship more broadly (e.g., in your jobs, other courses, etc.). In essence, think about where you see yourself in these descriptions of ERM librarianship and how they impact you. Although it might be the case that most of you haven’t had a chance to learn electronic resource back ends, that doesn’t disqualify you from attempts to start reflecting on this part of librarianship. As library users of these technologies, you have gathered enough abstract and practical knowledge to know enough to begin, simply by using OPACS, discovery systems, bibliographic databases, digital archives and libraries and by checking out audiobooks, ebooks, and more.

We’ll soon move away from reflective questions and get our hands dirty with specific technologies, licensing, etc., but for now begin by search job advertisements for work in this area, and then reflect on the following questions:

• Where do you think you stand in comparison to ERM job ads and to NASIG Core Competencies?
  • Where are you strong?
  • Where would you like to improve?
• What can you (and we, as a course community) do to help each of you get there?
  • What’s your path?
  • What can you practice?
• Do a job search for electronic resource management. How do the job ads align with the how the position is described in the readings?

Readings / References

Hartnett, E. (2014). NASIG’s Core Competencies for electronic resources librarians revisited: An analysis of job advertisement trends, 2000–2012. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40(3), 247–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.03.013

Macaulay, D. (2018). Sharing the load: Distribution of electronic resources management responsibilities among U.S. academic librarians. Serials Review, 44(4), 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2018.1553089

Murdock, D. (2010). Relevance of electronic resource management systems to hiring practices for electronic resources personnel. Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 34(1), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcats.2009.11.001

NASIG Core Competencies Task Force. (2021, April 5). NASIG Core Competencies for e-resources librarians. https://nasig.org/Competencies-Eresources

Sutton, S. W., & Collinge, R. (2018). Competencies for e-resource librarians redux: What do they look like in 2017? The Serials Librarian 74. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2018.1428029

Williams, R. D., & Saunders, L. (2020). What the field needs: Core knowledge, skills, and abilities for public librarianship. The Library Quarterly, 90(3). https://doi.org/10.1086/708958