[Wactclc-alma] Subscription Eresources dashboard

[Elena Bianco]

Thanks so much for sharing this out, Kirsti! It will be very helpful for us at Skagit we are just starting to plan for tracking electronic subscriptions in Alma...

Elena


Elena Bianco

Systems & Technical Services Librarian

Skagit Valley College Library

2405 E. College Way

Mount Vernon, WA 98273




________________________________
From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> on behalf of Thomas, Kirsti <Kirsti.Thomas at seattlecolleges.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2021 2:18 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] Subscription Eresources dashboard

Dear colleagues,

Seattle Colleges recently finished up some work on an Alma Analytics Dashboard to help us keep track of our subscription eresources.  I’ve copied our dashboard and all its reports to a shared folder where you’re welcome to check it out and adapt it for your own use:

shared/Community/Reports/Consortia/WACTCLC/Seattle/Subscription Eresources Dashboard

Wade is going to work on making a simpler version of the report that could be used by libraries that aren’t as complicated as we are. 😊

The dashboard consists of 6 pages:


  *   Current FY subscriptions: a list of all subscription eresources with POL list price, renewal date, 5% est. price increase, Alma fund, institutional budget line, subscription status (active v. closed), and vendor account information

  *   One subpage allows you to select an eresource from a dropdown and see all the funds that are used to pay for the eresource
  *   Additional subpages list all current FY eresource subscriptions for each library



  *   Paid or Not: contains 3 different lists of subscription eresources according to invoice status

  *   Invoice entered in Alma and confirmed paid by institutional accounting dept.
  *   Invoice entered in Alma but not yet paid by institutional accounting dept.
  *   Invoice not yet received/entered in Alma for current FY



  *   Packages: Lists of which electronic collections are in which specific vendor package deals



  *   Price History: graphs

  *   Price History: allows you to select a subscription eresource from a drop down and see a line graph of annual cost over time
  *   Budget history:  allows you to select a ledger from a drop down and see a line graph of annual expenditures for eresources over time



  *   Eresource Description: lists subscription electronic collections and electronic titles, renewal dates, subscription status (active vs. closed), list price, and internal description field. Our internal description field contains notes about:

  *   What the e-resource is
  *   Which college(s) the e-resource is licensed for
  *   How patrons can access content
  *   Who manages the subscription renewal and invoicing
  *   Funding sources outside the normal library budget
  *   Whether the e-resource is part of a package deal

  *   What’s In This Collection: allows you to select the name of an active electronic collection from a dropdown and see a list of portfolio titles in the collection


Some notes about what’s going on behind the scenes to make this happen:

Because we’re a multi-college institution sharing a single Alma instance, each library has their own ledger(s) in Alma.  In situations where an academic department outside the library pays for an eresource, we create a separate ledger and fund(s) in Alma. We use specific funds in Alma to track eresource subscriptions separately from print subscriptions and one-time eresource and print purchases.

We enter the institutional budget line in the External ID field of our Alma funds.  A single institutional budget line may be associated with more than one Alma fund. A single Alma fund is never associated with more than one institutional budget line.

All of the reports that track list prices, invoice status, and price histories use the Funds Expenditure subject area. In these reports, the eresource title is the PO Line Title.

All of the reports in the Packages page are managed manually.  Each report either filters for a specific POL number in the Associated PO Line field, or filters for specific POLs.  When we add new packages or if the vendor changes what’s included in each package, I have to create and/or edit these reports and manually add any new reports to the Dashboard.

We learned that reports in the Funds Expenditure subject area are really tricky because Alma calculates prices and numbers behind the scenes based on what transactions are included in the report.  If you don’t filter your transactions *just* right, you’ll end up with prices that aren’t what you expected or wanted.  That said, to identify eresources that have been invoiced, we filtered for “Transaction Item Sub Type is equal to / is in  EXPENDITURE.”  To identify subscription eresources that haven’t been invoiced, we filtered for “Transaction Encumbrance Amount  > 0” (Side note: “has been invoiced” = “we received the invoice and entered it into Alma”)

*Huge* kudos to my co-workers George Babcock and Chris Muzzin for their work on this dashboard!

Feel free to ask any questions.

It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu<mailto:kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu>



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