Breakout session 2a: Adapting workflows to acquisitions of e-resources

My second briefing session was led by two periodicals librarians from Sweden. They had realised that dealing with print journals was taking up a disproportionate amount of time – 96% of was spent on electronic materials but only 45% of staff time which needed to be increased to deal with increasing electronic access problems. The focus on customer queries about access also meant that communication from publishers and agents wasn't given high priority which meant that information about access and title changes got missed, compounding the problems.
The situation was resolved by defining workflows for each process - Decisions, Purchasing, and Making Available for both print and e-resources and providing on-going workshops and staff training in all areas. Currently the print resources take up 32% of time and e-resources 68%, still not in line with the budget but it was felt that print takes longer to deal with, although in many cases it is more straightforward.
The session made me consider how we worked at Hull - is our time balanced between print and e-journals? It was also interesting to find out how frequently suppliers were contacted about problems - every four days initially. Maybe we should be pushing our suppliers harder.
Kathryn