Monday Minutes: Agreements in the ERM Module

by Jessie Zairo on Aug 28, 2023

In this week's Monday Minutes, Kelly and Jessie start their 3-part series on the new Electronic Resource Module. This first week, we will break down the agreement portion and how to get started in this new module.

Agreements

In this tutorial, you will find an introduction and overview of Agreements in Koha's Electronic Resource Module (ERM). Agreements consist of one or more packages, subscription information, and licenses. Within Koha's ERM staff can create, find, and manage Agreements

Creating Agreements

Once the ERM module has been turned on through the System Preference, ERMModule, a new option, E-resource Management, will appear on the main page of the Koha Staff Interface.

To create a new agreement, from the left hand side menu, choose Agreement. There are three required fields when creating a new agreement

• Agreement Name -
• Description -
• Status - the current status of the agreement. Staff can customize the options shown in this dropdown from the 'ERM_AGREEMENT_STATUS' in Administration > authorized values. (Read More)

Additionally, staff can also add a vendor, which pulls from your vendor list in the Acquisitions Module.

• Next, Staff can identify the following fields
  1. Closure Reason - If your status dropdown is set to closed, then this field will have drop-down options for canceled or expired. If the status is set to Active or In Negotiations, then the field will be grayed out. Staff can customize these fields in the 'ERM_AGREEMENT_CLOSURE_REASON' in authorized values. (Read More)
  2. Perpetual - yes or no radio buttons (this is set if your library has post-cancellation access and continuing access after the electronic material is no longer accessible or your license has lapsed)
  3. Renewal Period - default values are: cancel, for review, or renew. These periods can be customized in the 'ERM_AGREEMENT_RENEWAL_PRIORITY' authorized values.
  4. License info - basic information about the license that the agreement is associated with.

Periods

Periods can be defined for the time that the agreement is active. When the renewal of the agreement is up, staff can create a new agreement period. This allows staff to look back and plan for the future of the agreement with the vendor. For example, if an agreement is something the library plans to have for years, the agreement can track all historical data for reference.

1. Click the Add new period button
2. Enter a start date using the date picker
3. Define an end date if known using the date picker
4. If a cancellation deadline is provided, enter the date
5. Notes are an optional, free text field

Users

Within this part of the agreement, staff can connect a librarian, staff member, or subject liaison who is involved in managing the agreement. Staff accounts with the 'erm' patron permission selected will show in the search when selecting the user.

1. Click Add new user
2. Click select user
3. Enter the name in the search field or browse by last name to select a staff member.
4. Click the actions button select to add the user to the agreement.
5. Under the role dropdown, you can add information about how they will work with the agreement. Staff can define the 'Role' dropdown in the ERM_USER_ROLES authorized value. (Read More)
6. You can add multiple users by clicking on +Add new user

Licenses

When creating an agreement you can link to a pre-existing license.

1. Click Add new license
2. License - this dropdown will show any pre-existing license in the Licensing Section.
3. Status - define the status of the License. Staff can customize these fields in the 'ERM_AGREEMENT_LICENSE_STATUS' in authorized values. (Read More)
4. Physical location - if you have a physical copy of the license stored somewhere you can define its location. Staff can customize these fields in the 'ERM_AGREEMENT_LICENSE_LOCATION' in authorized values. (Read More)
5. Notes - free text field pertaining to the agreement and license
6. URI - if the license is online staff can enter a url to link out to the license

Related Agreements & Documents

Related agreements allow staff to link to an existing agreement in the system.

• Click Add new related agreement
• Related Agreement - dropdown will link to any existing agreement in the system
• Relationship - will provide a dropdown of options on how they are related. (this is not an editable dropdown connected to Authorized Values).
• Notes - free test field with any additional information about the related agreement

Documents allow staff to attach PDFs or other useful documents containing communications between your library and the vendor about the agreement.

• Click Add new document
• select a file by clicking Choose file
• options for entering additional information include
  • physical location - free text field
  • URL - free text field
  • Notes - free text field

Finally, click submit when finished to save the agreement!

Searching for Agreements

Staff can search and filter when looking for an Agreement.

• Selecting the checkbox for Filter by expired will show staff agreements that expired before the current date. Alternatively, staff could select a date using the date picker to find any agreements expiring before a specific date.
• Staff can search within the agreements table by using the search box. This works just like you would search when you are receiving items in acquisitions (for example). This search will filter agreements by the text or phrase when staff starts typing into the search box.
• In addition, staff can use the Table columns to filter results. The second row of the agreement table contains text search boxes and dropdown fields. Staff can choose any of the dropdowns to activate the columns filtering. For example, by selecting the Closure reason, staff can select canceled or expired to identify the reason. Alternatively, they could use the description search under the description column to identify an agreement.

Staff Permissions

Once you have enabled the ERM module enabled, you can set permissions for your staff to access the module.

• Once you are in the staff member's account, click ‘More’ and choose ‘Set permissions’ to adjust the staff member's permissions.
• If they are not a superlibrarian, select the checkbox for Manage the electronic resources module (erm)
• Click save

Additional Resources

We will be expanding on Licensing and eHoldings over the next two weeks, but here is our existing documentation on these areas within the ERM Module.

Koha ERM Module

Koha ERM Module - Licensing

Koha ERM Module - eHoldings