ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO RESOURCES (CCL-EAR) COMMITTEE | Council of Chief Librarians

Darryl Swarm (Feather River College): Committee Chair

The CCL-EAR Committee held their virtual teleconference meeting on December 4, 2015. Members of the Discovery Systems review team provided an update on the upcoming Discovery Systems meeting scheduled for February 5, 2016 in Sacramento. The meeting will include a general discussion of the five leading discovery systems, survey results from the CCL-EAR discovery systems survey, and an interactive panel discussion where facilitators and panel members will enlighten attendees and CCL-EAR members with meaningful insight. Carefully selected librarians with a deeper level of experience with each respective discovery system will serve on the panel to provide perspective on key topics such as implementation, customization, functionality, and librarian and user experience with the interface.

The consortium director, James Wiser, brought up a long-standing issue with some of the historic reviews becoming outdated as changes occur in the products reviewed. The group decided to provide a disclaimer about the time-sensitive nature of our reviews and to include instructions on how interested parties can comment with updates on product improvements (or even deleterious changes that may help others learn more about particular concerns).

The review of web-based language products (Mango Languages, Rosetta and Duo Lingo) is now complete and published on the CCL-EAR website. Review teams for LexisNexis, Swank Digital, and JSTOR in the completion stages in their reviews. Please check our website for reviews that are of interest to you: https://cclibrarians.org/consortium/reviews. Our reviews feature an interactive component where you can post comments, feedback, and share your experiences with the database and we would appreciate your feedback.

New products being considered for the consortium include: Rittenhouse ebooks, Mometrix Test Preparation and Kanopy Streaming Service. Our consortium director expects these to be available in the Spring. Ideas on any electronic databases you would like the CCL-EAR Committee to consider reviewing may be sent to the CCL-EAR chair Darryl Swarm (dswarm@frc.edu) or to your regional representative (CCL-EAR Committee Roster https://cclibrarians.org/committees/electronic-access-and-resources-committee#members). If you would like to attend any of our virtual or in-person meetings as a guest, please contact Darryl Swarm (dswarm@frc.edu) and he will forward you the details.