What is the Network Zone (NZ)?

The Network Zone is a centralized location for electronic collections and their associated portfolios to be activated and shared with member institutions that have current subscriptions to the content, either through Open Access, eLM, or their own institution’s purchases. The Network Zone also contains bibliographic records representing physical materials.

What electronic collections are in the NZ?

The electronic collections that are in the Network Zone include eLibrary Minnesota collections and databases, high-quality Open Access collections, and electronic collections that individual institutions subscribe to that are true aggregator collections in which the institution has access to all content, not a select number of titles or individual purchases.

What benefits are there to having the electronic collections in the Network Zone instead of each Institution Zone?

Institutions benefit in several ways:

·       Reduced time spent managing the collection- the PALS E-Resources team activates and manages the collection once for all the institutions.

·       Reduced cost: The total number of portfolio bibs is reduced.

How is access for patrons at each institution impacted?

There should be no impact on your patrons. The search results for the collections activated in the Network Zone appear the same in Primo as those activated in the Institution Zone. Links go through your institution’s default proxy server.

What kind of functionality is allowed in the Network Zone?

Is purchase information still linked to the electronic collection?

Purchase orders remain in your Institution Zone, but when an electronic collection is moved into the Network Zone, the collection is deleted from the Institution Zone and is no longer linked to purchase information. PALS staff can work with the institution to re-link the purchase information to the collection in the Network Zone after it has been moved. The institution can also create a new PO linked to the collection in the NZ.

What kind of notes can be added to collections in the NZ?

We can add collection and service-level notes. However, if you have portfolio-level notes, it would be better for that collection to remain in your IZ.

Can I modify the name of the collection?

Yes, the PALS office can create a custom name by using a public name field.

Can I create a special collection with bibliographic records in the Network Zone?

No, you cannot create a collection that aggregates bibliographic records that are in the Network Zone.

What kind of analysis tools can we use for collection comparison?

The Overlap Analysis tool now allows users to analyze collections in both the IZ and NZ. You can read the Overlap Analysis documentation and watch a video showing Overlap Analysis for NZ and IZ content.

How would Analytics reports work for NZ e-collections, such as title counts gathered for the IPEDS and ACRL surveys?

Can COUNTER data be harvested using SUSHI for collections in the Network Zone?

Ex Libris' SUSHI documentation states that each institution can be assigned a separate subscriber for harvesting COUNTER data as a consortium.

However, since the usage information comes from the vendor, which functionally doesn't consider where the collection is activated, setting up SUSHI in your IZ will still include the usage information of NZ collections as well.

Are electronic collection-level bibliographies visible or suppressed?

Many electronic collections have their collection-level bibliography suppressed, depending on what settings are available for the collection. eLM databases are not suppressed.

Do display logic rules encompass collections in both the IZ and NZ?