Added Information about Vendor and Product Contacts

Electronic resources, their producers, and their interfaces do not fall neatly into subject exclusive categories. This is problematic for managing these electronic resources since our selection, acquisition, and public service staff are currently organized mainly along subject specific lines.

There are, in general, two aspects of long-term management of electronic resources. (1) Those tasks that are more or less associated specifically with an individual resource, and (2) those tasks that are associated with a particular interface/vendor.

The individual resources, while sometimes crossing subject lines, are much easier to categorize and the management tasks can be undertaken by an individual (or team of individuals) whose organizational responsibilities are associated with the subject matter of the resource. This has already developed in a de facto fashion, with individuals accepting responsibility by associating their name with a resource on the footer of relevant descriptive web pages. We will term these individuals, "Product Contacts." [Note: Product Contacts may not be exactly equivalent to those individuals whose names are listed on resource descriptive pages, but as time goes on, the list of Product Contacts will be refined.]

A particular interface or vendor may produce materials in any number of subject areas or disciplines. Our current organizational structure is not equipped to absorb handling all these interfaces and vendors in some central fashion. The "Vendor Contact" system cross-cuts the subject organization of the library to enable support to take place where it is most of interest, where interest and capacity are greatest, or where capacity exists. Under this system, an individual or unit commits to being the "Vendor Contact" for all relevant products produced by a vendor or through a particular interface of a vendor, regardless of subject matter. Over time, the work gets done and is distributed in a relatively equitable fashion. A list of Vendor Contacts will be maintained.

As with any library-wide responsibility, when an individual departs the library system or their current position, interim measures are necessary. For the most part Product Contact responsibility should devolve to another individual within the same unit or subject area, or whomever is temporarily taking on the subject responsibilities of the departing individual. Vendor Contact responsibilities may be handled in the same fashion or may be readjusted elsewhere in the library system based on a self-selecting process, as in the initial assignment of the responsibility.

Items to note:

For small vendors or subject specific vendors, the Product Contact and the Vendor Contact may be one and the same.
Some Vendor Contacts may actually be outside of Yale (as in some consortial deals). There may be slight modifications to the responsibilities in that case.

http://www.library.yale.edu/ecollections/vendorcontactbackg.html