This morning, I received an e-mail from one of our electronic resources suppliers inviting me to add their subject collections to my Christmas wish-list. As much as I would very much like to be expanding our provision from this particular supplier, I think I will give it a miss. However, the message did get me thinking about what I actually would like for Christmas for our electronic resources collections, and here’s what I came up with:
- I would like maintenance and down-times properly communicated, so that all of our users know what to expect when they try to access electronic resources. I’ve already mentioned this morning that one of our resources will be subject to such maintenance over the weekend. So we’ve had enough notice, but there is nothing on the resource itself to let us know.
- I would like all resources to be accessed in the same way, both on- and off-campus, so that no matter where you are or what you are trying to access, you know exactly what to do. An end to my very lengthy access notes on the library website – wouldn’t that be great!?
- I would like all holdings to be completely and absolutely accurate at all times. The sheer volume of electronic research material available to us means that there are times when there are bound be inaccuracies – behind every resource there are humans, and human errors to happen – but it would be wonderful to think that if a resource says that we have access to the Journal of Brilliant Research from 1985 to 2009, that this is indeed the case…
And these are just a start. There are more – many, many more – but these are the main things that I think would really enhance our experience of using electronic resources. If I could get hold of a huge pot of money, there would probably be a million more!
As for what the Electronic Resources Librarian would really like for Christmas, with two children under five, a lie-in is all that my heart desires! That and maybe a couple of nice bundles of electronic journals… 
