The Electronic Resources Group: using the cross-functional team approach to the challenge of acquiring electronic resources

The acquisition of electronic resources presented many new issues for staff at the Texas Tech University Library. Traditional communication pathways between acquisitions and other departments were inadequate to address the increasingly complex questions that were raised in the process of acquiring the electronic resources that were increasingly in demand by the university community. While it was possible to handle decision making for electronic resources through the library’s departmental structure, the process was hampered by a lack of speed and focus. To resolve this problem, six library staff members were brought together to form an electronic resources group (ERG). This cross-functional team is composed of library staff from four different departments, each of whom had experience with different aspects of acquiring electronic resources. Members continue to work within their departments and report to their functional managers, but they also report to the ERG project manager and are expected to contribute substantially to the accomplishment of group goals. This paper describes how Texas Tech has successfully used the cross-functional team approach for managing the acquisition of materials in electronic formats.