SCONUL welcomes shared service in Electronic Resource Management

8 February, 2011

The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) has today welcomed the announcement by HEFCE of a new investment to deliver a shared service in electronic resource management (ERM) . This forms part of a wider £12.5 million investment in shared services.

SCONUL has been working with JISC and others on the development of a shared Library Management System for UK Higher Education, including ERM. As e-resources become the norm, a shared service such as this has the capacity to produce a cost-effective service tailored for members needs.

Ann Rossiter, Executive Director at SCONUL said:

"SCONUL is delighted to see HEFCE and JISC working together to deliver a shared service in electronic resource management for HE libraries. This has the potential to deliver real benefits for academic libraries in the UK. This is an important milestone in the development of shared services in higher education and SCONUL will be working with HEFCE and JISC to make the project a success."

The programme will be include:

• Shared systems and electronic resource management information
• Support for the management of licensing information for libraries and the resources they provide
• A service for the secure distribution of electronic documents including official graduation documents, transcripts, status letters and the Higher Education Achievement Report