Following the advent of the Digital Revolution, libraries began incorporating electronic information resources into their collections and services.
The survey revealed that digital collection development was considered the greatest source of anxiety and uncertainty among librarians, and that knowledge regarding the handling of electronic resources was rarely shared outside individual libraries.
[1] In his 2001 report entitled Selection and Presentation of Commercially Available Electronic Resources,[1] Timothy Jewell of the University of Washington discussed the home-grown and ad hoc management techniques academic libraries were employing to handle the acquisition, licensing, and activation of electronic resources.
He concluded that "existing library management systems and software lack important features and functionality" to track electronic resources and that "coordinated efforts to define needs and establish standards may prove to be of broad benefit.
"[1] Writing in The Scholarly Kitchen in 2019, Joseph Esposito noted that in a meeting with the heads of a number of academic libraries of various sizes, there was unanimous expression of frustration with electronic resource management systems.