Behind the Scenes with an E-Resources Librarian

I am an E-Resources Librarian, part of the team that looks after UCL’s access to e-journals, e-books and databases. Managing the huge range of e-resources that UCL Library Services provides access to is really interesting – there are always new developments to get to grips with! I have been working in libraries since 2002, in universities but also in government departments and a Magic Circle law firm.

My main responsibility is UCL’s growing collection of e-books – working with subject librarians to expand and develop the collection; making sure the e-books can be found in Explore and through SFX@UCL; looking at usage and other statistics to see where we need to increase e-book coverage; and evaluating different purchase models and e-book websites.

UCL’s usage of e-books more than doubled in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14 and 2015-16 looks set to be even higher. I look after the day-to-day running of the various E-books on demand@ucl projects and it is exciting to see how popular these have been – for example, between September 2015 and April 2016 there were nearly 140,000 chapter accesses through our Cambridge University Press evidence-based acquisition project.

There are two other E-Resources Librarians: Mike Jones who looks after e-journals and Sarah Gilmore who looks after databases. We are more than ably supported by two Senior E-Resource Assistants, Anun Rodriguez and Mark Kluzek. If you have any questions or problems relating to e-resources, you can contact us using our online form.

Anna Sansome, E-Resources Librarian