Hello.

I've had a request to post responses to the list regarding the Gold Rush
Mgmt system. I've asked permission from all three respondents below and
they have agreed to let me share their posts with the list.

Thanks,

Julia Todd

----------
We have been using Gold Rush for over a year, however, we just
implemented Gold Rush Linker (OpenURL) a few months ago.  At this point
we use all aspects of Gold Rush, however, the Subscription area is used
the least.  The article linking feature (OpenURL) is working really
well.  We don't have a ton of online journals but this service is
getting people to our online full text much quicker and more
consistently than ever before.  We believe that Gold Rush is helping us
use our resources to a greater extent.

We have loaded two different lists of our own into Gold Rush, one is a
list of those journals that we get online but are not a part of an
aggregation.  The titles represent things we get free with print or
other subscriptions that are online only and directly with a publisher.
The second list we loaded was our currently received print journals.
The addition of these two local lists has been invaluable and once
again, helped us to better use our very expensive resources!  It took
quite a bit of time for me to compile these lists the first time.  Every
time you embark on a catalog related project it is amazing how many
issues you find.  I had to work with our technical services department
to work out problems with our journal records in our catalog, however,
that work will only have to be done once.  I decided that all of the
titles included in these two local lists would come from our catalog.
This way, we just update things in the catalog and then output those
records to update Gold Rush.  We have a III system and I can give you
more details on how I formed the final lists, if you are interested.

We use the reports for a variety of things, collection development,
consortial comparisons, ISSN and URL checks, etc.  There are many
reports available and we have had a variety of staff use them for a
variety of applications.  Between the reports and the public interface
to the database, we can get almost any piece of information we need.

I am very pleased with Gold Rush.  They recently released a version of
the software that deals with embargos, moving walls and other date
oddities which has made the product fit our needs perfectly.  The title
lists in Gold Rush are updated frequently and if there has ever been an
issue with a list, all I do is let the Gold Rush folks know and the list
gets updated.  The customer service has been outstanding.

I hope this helps.  Please let me know if you would like any more
details.

Melissa Stockton
Electronic Services Librarian

Regis University Libraries
Phone:  303-964-5213
Fax:  303-964-5497
Email:  mstockto@regis.edu

----------
Hi, Julia--

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and OU-Tulsa (where I am)
have been using GoldRush for about six months.  I love it--and our
students love it, too.  They had no idea we had so much available
electronically.

We haven't been able to use a great many databases with Article
Linker--because of the way the providers identify individual articles,
not because of GoldRush.  Linker works fairly smoothly with EbscoHost,
JSTOR and Blackwell Synergy.  It just depends on how the provider sets
things up.  (I recently looked at other linkers, and they don't work all
that smoothly, either.)

You can add your paper holdings.  You just put them into an excel file
and email them to tech support.  But titles have to be identified by
ISSN.  The excel file we've been using to produce our paper/html list
doesn't have ISSNs, and we just haven't gotten around to spend the time
to research 1300 ISSNs.  I think some of the Colorado libraries have
loaded their paper holdings--and it's something I really intend to do.
Soon.  So you should be able to see an example of how it looks to the
user.

There are three things I really, really like about GoldRush that I
didn't see in other Electronic Serials Management packages we reviewed.
One is the ability to search journals by subject.  I can make a list of
the journals we have full-text in...say...computer science instantly.
This was one feature that our students and faculty thought was very
important.

A second is the ability to compare titles in two or more databases, to
see how many unique titles you are really buying when you choose
something new.  And if you have your paper holdings (which is considered
to be your own personal 'database' in GoldRush)loaded, you can compare
titles you take in print with other packages.

I personally like the fact that I can update titles and holdings myself
and have the changes take place instantly.  No waiting a month for the
next upload.  It's easy--but it does take time to do--especially at the
beginning.

The tech support is as fast and responsive as any I've ever dealt with.
And when you point out a bug--they fix it.  Usually today.

No, they haven't paid me to say nice things.  I just like the product,
and price-wise, I think it's very reasonable.

Did I answer most of your questions?  If not, I'll be glad to go on and
on...

Junie C. Janzen
Technical Services Librarian
OU-Tulsa

----------
Hello.

I am reviewing the Gold Rush Electronic Resource Management product and
wondered if you could tell me your assessment of the tool?

Overall we are very pleased with Gold Rush. We had two inhouse
databases--one for subscription management and one for link management.
Both were Access databases and did not have a lot of features.
Nonetheless, it took lots of staff time to keep them (particularly our
link management database) updated. We were getting Serials Solutions
data every 60 days, but our IT people had to manipulate that and insert
it into our existing holdings database.

Do you use the article linker feature?

Yes, not across the board, but we are using it in all of the FirstSearch
databases and in our SciSearch and Social SciSearch databases
(vendor=Los Alamos National Lab).

Does it work well?

Yes, except when there is a difference in ISSNs. When a vendor reports a
different ISSN than what GR retains as the "key", the Linker will not
find the article or article source.

The thing to be aware of is every vendor pretty much does things their
own way. FirstSearch was very easy to set up--all we did was drop in our
BaseURL and the URL to our Linker image. LANL configured it for us, so
we just sent them the information and then tested it before going live.
Other vendors require that you go in and define the tags you want pulled
from the citation to send in the OpenURL--those are not as
straightforward and require more staff time. We have postponed doing
those until next year.

How do you use the reports and which do you use?

The reports that I think you are referring to are in the Reports Module.
It is very intuitive--it involves clicking and selecting. Our subject
selectors like to use the comparison reports that compare different
products and show title overlap and uniqueness. Also, there is a
multiple database comparison report that is very powerful (but is
processed on a Gold Rush server and then e-mailed to an account
specified).

Can you integrate your paper Journals into Gold RusH?

Yes, we have not done this--although I believe some of the Colorado
Alliance folks have.

If so, is it time consuming--how do you integrate items from the OPAC?

How often are the title lists updated?

Depends on the lists--I do not have the schedule for all lists. I know
that the bigger aggregator lists are done more frequently than smaller
publisher journal lists. If we find something is out of date, we e-mail
support and ask them to put it in the queue. There is one person at Gold
Rush that is in charge of list loading and it is a continuous process.

Any information you might be able to provide would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

You are welcome. I am getting ready to leave for vacation tomorrow, but
I will be back in early December if you need to chat or follow-up.

Regards,
Twila

p.s. If they would like to look at our public interface, you can point
them to:
http://unm.goldrush.coalliance.org/index.cfm?inst_code=UNM      (they
will only be able to access the OA articles--others are IP
authenticated).

Twila Firmature
Resource Acquisitions
University Libraries
MSCO5 3020
1-University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505.277.0277
twila@unm.edu