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Re: Keeping print vs. going online (David Goodman) ERCELAA@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu 06 Dec 2000 19:25 UTC

Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 13:37:51 -0400
From: David Goodman <dgoodman@PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: keeping print vs. going online (Steve Black)

Your criteria make a lot of sense to me. I would add two sub-criteria.

1a/2a: This reading is normally done on recent issues. Therefore the
appropriate use to measure is that of unbound issues, not bound vols.  We made
a measurement here for a feew months, and found that for only about 5% of the
titles was the use of current issues significant (even for journals whose
bound vols have articles that are copied many times).

3a: for scientific material, many of these illustrations are originally
produced in formats that reproduce better on line than on print. High
resolution color micrographs are a prime example of material which is
originallly captured as transparencies or direct computer images, and can be
displayed on screen in much higher resolution than they can be printed, and at
much less cost as well.

Could you possibly post your list, or a link to it?

>
> Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 09:41:01 -0500
> From: Steve Black <blacks@MAIL.STROSE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: keeping print vs. going online
>
> My opinion on this is that going into the future, the print journal
> collection should support browsing on three fronts:
>
> 1.  Reading for self-enrichment, as one might do with New York Review of
> Books, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and so forth.
>
> 2.  Being able to see what the important topics are in a discipline at a
> given time.  That is, provide enough print journals so a professor can say,
> "Go look at the [blank] journals, see what researchers are investigating".
> These should represent the best work in the field, i.e. be the top journals.
>
> 3.  Provide the high quality visual content that is expensive to reproduce
> on the desktop, ala National Geographic, Communication Arts, Graphis, etc.
>
> Of course the real challenge is to turn those principles into a list of
> titles.  One thing I've tried that seems like it may be a good starting
> point is to create a list of journals held since a certain date (I picked
> 1970) that receive a certain minimum number of uses.  The list I got for our
> collection looks to be a reasonable list to work from.  Let me emphasize
> that that list would just be a starting point, a step better that starting
> with a blank page.
>
> Steve Black
> Reference, Instruction, and Serials Librarian
> Neil Hellman Library
> The College of Saint Rose
> 392 Western Ave.
> Albany, NY 12203
> (518) 548-5494
> blacks@mail.strose.edu

--
David Goodman
Biology Librarian
and Co-chair, Electronic Journals Task force
Princeton University Library
Princeton, NJ 08544-0001
phone: 609-258-3235
fax: 609-258-2627
e-mail: dgoodman@princeton.edu