Comparative Analysis of Electronic Resource Management Systems (ERMS)

Abstract

Electronic Resource Management Systems (ERMSs) have been developed to manage e-resources by several proprietary and open source products, which are now available on the market. The main purpose of these ERMSs is to manage the workflow of e-resources, access, centralize data, and improve administrative interfaces, etc. This chapter compares and analyzes the 16 ERMSs' information available on their respective Websites. The comparison covers on ERMSs' functionality, use of standards and compatibility, distinguish features, modules, etc. These 16 ERMSs are Innovative Interface's Innovative ERM, TDNet's TDNet ERM Solutions, Ex Libris's Verde ERM, OCLC's Web-Share License Manager, SemperTool's SMDB, University of Notre Dame's CORAL, MIT's VERA, SerialsSolutions's 360 Resource Manager, HARRASSOWITZ's HERMIS, The Johns Hopkins University's HERMIES, Colorado Alliance's Gold Rush, WT Cox's Journal Finder, EBSCO's EBSCONET ERM Essentials, Simon Fraser University Library's CUFTS, SIRSI Corp's E-Resource Center, Priory Solution's Research Monitor. This comparison found that basic features and standards adopted are more or less common in all ERMSs. However, the modules, programming language, and platform used in the ERMSs are somewhat unalike. This study concludes with usefulness of ERMSs for librarians and end-users.