Re: Full text e-journals: how do you handle them? Carole R. Bell 20 May 1996 22:26 UTC
Regarding e-journals being offered on the internet: We are struggling with these issues along with everyone else. We have recently put together several task forces to deal with the various aspects of all electronic materials. One group is looking at the bibliographic access issues, another the policies and procedures. We have an ongoing committee who deals with the purchase of materials for the LAN, and another who is addressing menu and homepage decisions. Currently we are purchasing (or accessing for free) a few full-text e-journals. We are only making notes in our online catalog and making them accessable through the library homepage. We are not checking them in, nor are checking them periodically. I do like Donna Packer's idea of checking quarterly. I may set that up. Also we are about to be audited this year, so Donna's other point is very timely for us. I can't address the patron questions, since I'm in tech. serv. and have not gotten any feedback on this. We are not cancelling print subscriptions yet and yes, one main reason is the archiving issues. The main problem I've come across has to do with the information we have to send to the publishers regarding IP addresses, etc. Some publishers allow IP address ranges, others expect that we have one computer to access these things. the real benefit to acquiring these journals is to allow students and facutly access from there offices and dorm rooms. We need to be able to give the publishers IP addresses to allow this access. I'm looking forward to better forms and communication from the publishers to allow the librarians to make ordering these items easier and less complicated. Hope this helps. *************************************** Carole R. Bell crbell@nwu.edu Head. Serials & Acq. Northwestern Univ. Library 1935 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 (847) 491-8978 - Office ****NOTE New Number**** (847) 491-7637 - Fax -------------------------- JoAnne Griffin wrote: >I would love to get some information from you folks on how you are >handling full text e-journals, or see a general discussion on the subject. >I have in mind those journals which are offered full-text on the Internet >and for which a print copy is also being received. What has been your >experience in getting them going? How do your patrons like them? What about >downloading articles -- does the patron do it, or does the librarian? (I've >heard that it can be tricky to download unless the user is a more >sophisticated computer user) Are you cancelling your print subscription? >Are you concerned about a lack of archival copies when you do so? Most of the >materials I've seen are TOC's, abstracts and selected articles -- these are >of limited use, I feel. A journal that is truly "full-text" sounds >promising, but I wonder if the reality comes close to the promise (I >understand that this is a rapidly-evolving field). > >Anyway, if you have any comments/experiences you'd like to share on >this topic, I'd be glad to see them. > >Thanks in advance. > >JoAnne Griffin >Tufts Health Sciences Library >145 Harrison Ave. >Boston, MA 02111 > >joanne_g@library.tufts.edu