Electronic Resources Committee

February 10, 2003

Attending: Nan Hyland, Bill Kara, Marty Kurth, Steve Rockey, Scott Wicks

Census 2000 Adjusted Data. This resource requires a zip utility and additional viewing software, such as American FactFinder. To help catalog users access the data, we considered: 1) providing an intermediate help screen, or 2) providing a more-detailed Technical Requirements (538) note. There is precedent in similar cases requiring additional software, e.g., the CUGIR records in the catalog, for using Technical Requirements notes to spell out access complexities. We felt a note would suffice in this case, too, so Marty will pass along to the cataloger of the resource the access specifics that Holly identified for ERC.
EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) Research Publications. This resource requires individual users to log in with a user i.d. and password to access documents on the site and to take advantage of user customization features, including an SDI service. We contacted EDUCAUSE and were unsuccessful in securing IP access or access through a scripted generic user i.d. and password. We discussed Clifford Lynch’s recent comments that libraries are going to have to come to terms with more resources requiring individual user log-ins. In that spirit, we agreed that an Access Restrictions (506) note that identified the need for individual log-ins would suffice. ERC meets the second and fourth Mondays of the month as needed to address issues related to CUL access to networked electronic resources.

Meeting notes by Martin Kurth

02/21/03, vwb