Hi Hugh- You may want to check out CORAL http://erm.library.nd.edu/
It is an open source MySQL/PHP system that seems like it would do most of what you want it to do, and could probably be modified to do it all. Jeff Dycus Library Specialist, Electronic Resources University of Kentucky William T. Young Library 500 S. Limestone Lexington, KY 40506-0456 (859) 218-0678 jeff.dy...@uky.edu -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Barnes, Hugh Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 10:27 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Tool for managing subscription content metadata Hi An exercise we've just been through (don't ask!) has revealed a dire need to track information about subscription service vendors (e.g. serials, databases, e-book publishers) in a better way than Office documents. I am looking for a tool, ideally one to rule them all. Throwing it out here. The sort of information I am wanting to manage and give everyone an easy reference to is: * name * previous and variant names (they do like to re-brand) * login details (I can probably live with this being in a separate tool) * contact names and numbers * remote host URLs and URL patterns * ways we interact with them (e.g. do we change registered IP addresses by online form or by email notification?) * license information, maybe copies of them * how we authenticate our users * conditions of access (e.g. on/off campus, students/staff/alumni/walk-ins) * a simple activity log or just notes field Excluded or at least hidden from ordinary users: * invoicing and financial information * passwords (seems risky, happy to use a password safe for this) Essentially it's a catalogue/inventory of subscriptions we have. In some respects it's a lightweight CRM. Bonus points, I think, for having citable entries that we can share in emails (URLs probably, so a web interface). It would be brilliant if salient information was structured enough to export summaries or, say, generate EZProxy configuration files. I have been thinking along the lines of Mediawiki, maybe with a good template. From experience though, I worry about the willingness of new users to edit wiki content, especially in templates with lots of curly braces. I don't know if there is an actively maintained plug-in to turn a template into a non-threatening online form. Evan Prodromou's extension seems long abandoned [1]. Solving that issue, I think Mediawiki would be a good fit. So what do folks in this list use for the above functionality and how does it work? Or what _would_ you use? All insight appreciated. Cheers [1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Form Hugh Barnes Digital Access Coordinator Library, Teaching and Learning Lincoln University Christchurch New Zealand p +64 3 423 0357 ________________________________ P Please consider the environment before you print this email. "The contents of this e-mail (including any attachments) may be confidential and/or subject to copyright. Any unauthorised use, distribution, or copying of the contents is expressly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please advise the sender by return e-mail or telephone and then delete this e-mail together with all attachments from your system."
