Final Reflection

As per the syllabus, this final post will be an "assessment of this reflective experience" and answer the following two questions:

What was your most important earlier entry and why has it been important for your personal development?

I feel that week 10's reflection was my more important entry.  That week's topic was "Finding Content: Discovery Tools" and was when I finally understood how OpenURL and FindIt work.  These tools are very important in libraries today as more and more resources are available electronically.  This understanding was even useful at work several times this semester.  I work at the reference/information desk at MERIT and was able to answer questions regarding why links sometimes go to the publisher's main page and sometimes to the individual article.  Furthermore, I realize now that FindIt isn't perfect and an article could be available electronically even if FindIt does not, well, find it.

How has your thinking about ERM changed over the semester?

I've realized how complicated it is to manage electronic resources such that entire software systems are created to aid in this task.  Prior to this semester, I had not thought much about electronic resource management and did not know that positions devoted entirely to this task existed.  When I used electronic resources as an undergraduate, I mostly took them for granted and did not think about the many difficulties involved in providing electronic resources for patrons. These include the fact that licenses must be negotiated including planning for perpetual access, resources must be linked so that patrons can easily find content with tools such as FindIt, and copyright related policies must be written to help prevent situations such as the Georgia case.  I am not sure if I am ready (or interested) in taking an electronic resource management position as my first professional position, but I feel prepared after taking this class to possibly work in this field in the future.