E-Resources (Electronic Resources)

1. E-Resources (Electronic Resources)

2. Objectives • Describe the different types of e-resource • Contrast their features and functionality • Describe the different access routes for electronic resources • Identify some of the access options available within developing countries • Access scholarly electronic resources

3. What is an ‘electronic resource’? Any information resource that can be accessed via computer, e.g. • Electronic journals • Scholarly databases • Information gateways • The Internet Also e-books, reports, magazines, grey literature

4. Electronic journals • Full-text - whole journal available • Electronic version of print • Electronic only • Examples at www.oup.co.uk/jnls/ • Partial full-text - selected articles only • Table of contents or abstracts only • Examples at www.ajol.info

5. Why use e-journals? • Up-to-date • Convenient: information at your desktop • Value-added features: search facilities, links to other databases, supplementary information, graphics, etc • Access to a wider range of material than might be available through your local library

6. Scholarly databases • Bibliographic: references to published material • Numeric: e.g. statistical tables • Full text: complete publications • Audio: collections of music • Image: e.g. collections of slides • Multimedia: audio-visual, animation etc • Examples:EBSCO Host • licensed, range of electronic information resources, huge volume of information

7. Why use scholarly databases? • Provide information for a specific project or topic • Provide an overview of research activity in a given area • Up-to-date information on a specific subject area through regular scanning • Allow searching over large bodies of data and academic type information

8. Information Gateways • Subject Based Information Gateways (SBIGs): • web sites that act as a gateway to other sites and information resources. • Rely on human creation of meta data • Subject experts select, evaluate, describe, classify • Smaller, subject-focused databases • Lower recall, higher precision • E.g. PINAKES (information gateway gateway!)

9. Why use information gateways? • High quality information – selected by human subject experts • Classification and description of resources • Subject-specific focus • Good starting places that lead to other quality resources

10. The Internet • Huge information resource • 3-10 billion pages of information • Continually growing and changing • No national, political, scientific barriers • Efficient search tools allow relatively easy navigation, e.g. • www.google.com • www.alltheweb.com

11. INTRODUCTION • The evolution of the “information age” in medicine is mirrored in the exponential growth of medical and other web pages available on the internet. • The handful of computers linked by the predecessor of the internet in 1969 has grown to more than 5 million websites today. In spring 1998, the world wide web (www) had at least 320 million web pages of general content.

12. Introduction………. • Electronic resources have exploded in popularity and use • The Internet provides free access to a great deal of the medical and other literature • Intranet also provide in-house information of a particular University/Institution, etc.

13. Internet & Intranet

16. Electronic resources: strengths • Huge range of information available • >8 billion web pages • >20,000 journals • Timely, up-to-date information sources • ‘Value added’ functionality (e.g. searching) • Additional skills development – ICT skills • Large volume of quality, free information

17. Electronic resources: weaknesses • Technical barriers to use • need computers, network connection, software, etc • Infrastructural problems • bandwidth and telecommunications issues • unreliable electricity supplies, etc • Skills and training requirements • Costs can be high: technology and content • Variable quality of information

18. How can we access resources? • Most academic e-resources are fee-based • often very high costs (although variable) • subscriptions to individual/group/organisation/ nation/region • pay-per-view models • Growing movement of “open access” • Authentication via username/password or IP address

19. Preferential licensing agreements • Publishers and development organisations working together to enable access to information to aid development • restricted to specific organisations in low income countries • Range of initiatives, focusing on different users, subjects, geographical areas, etc. • HINARI, PERI, TEEAL, eIFL, AGORA, etc. • Free at point of use

20. Open access initiatives • Significant movement in academic community that information should be “free” to all • Access problems and costs are universal • Author pays versus user pays • Open archiving, pre-prints, open access, self archiving, institutional archives or subject specific archives • Tends to be techno-centric at present

21. Open access examples • PubMed Central – hard sciences • www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ • BioMed Central – medicine • www.biomedcentral.com/ • DOAJ – all subjects • www.doaj.org/ • Bioline – research from developing countries • http://www.bioline.org.br/

22. Unit Costs of Electronic vs. Print Journals

23. Drexel University NonsubscriptionCosts Electronic Journals $ 5,000 $ 10,000 ($2,000) $ 125,000 Current Journals $ 40,000 $ 2,500 $ 600 $ 46,000 Bound Journals $ 205,000 $ 2,400 $ 8,000 $ 42,000 Space Systems Supplies & Services Staff Total Operational Costs $138,000 $90,000 $258,000 Adapted from: C.H. Montgomery and D.W. King, “Comparing Library and User Related Costs of Print and Electronic Journal Collections: A First Step Towards a Comprehensive Analysis,” D-Lib Magazine, October 2002.

24. Drexel University Subscription Costs Total Cost $38,000 $115,000 $334,000 $29,000 $59,000 $537,000 Titles 370 266 2,500 480 10,200 8,600 Cost per Title $100 $432 $134 $60 $6 $62 • Print Journals • Electronic Journals • Individual Subscriptions • Publisher’s Packages • Aggregator Journals • Full-Text Databases (non-unique)Unique Electronic Journals Adapted from: C.H. Montgomery and D.W. King, “Comparing Library and User Related Costs of Print and Electronic Journal Collections: A First Step Towards a Comprehensive Analysis,” D-Lib Magazine, October 2002.

25. Drexel University Conclusions • Operational cost per use for print journals ($15) was much greater than for electronic journals ($0.45); • The highest cost per use ($30) was associated with bound journals, given the cost to house them and their relatively low use; • Full-text database journals were used heavily and were cost effective (at less than $1 per use); • Unit costs for publisher’s packages and aggregator journals were more cost-effective than individual subscriptions.

26. Criteria for Journal Selection for Reviewing • International VS National VS Local • Refereed VS Nonrefereed • Currency • Availability of E-version • Visibility and Market share of the Publisher • Circulation Statistics • Language • Subject • Periodicity • Professional Society Publication? • SCI Covered? • Coverage by I & A Services • Impact Factor

27. Existing Knowledge Base • Organisations • Individuals • Associations • Corporations • Internet and Websites • Document Resources (Print / Electronic) • Books • Technical Reports • Conference Papers • Patents • Standards • Journals • Policy & Plan Documents • Staff Profiles • Video • Course materials • Multimedia • Graphics • Manuals • News Clips • Lectures • E-mail Archive • Photographs

28. Print vs. Electronic Journal Collections • Print Journal Collections: • Holdings under one title and usually in one location. • Access is usually the same for affiliated and non-affiliated users. • Holdings tend to be very stable. • Electronic Journal Collections: • ‘Holdings’ may be distributed over several different publisher sites – even though the title remained the same. • Duplicate holdings often with differences in content/options. • Holdings tend to be more fluid. Reasons: License price changes, aggregator content changes, etc.

29. E-only • No handling of print • No binding of journals • Less storage space required • User satisfaction • Seamless, one-stop access • Individualised for the student • Flexible for the teacher • Universally accessible • Easy to use

30. Variety of E-Resources • E-journals / e-serials • Citation databases • Full-text article databases • Non-serial content such as e-books, government documents, numeric datasets, spatial data, eprints, images, audio, video, websites, etc. • Content manipulation tools.

31. Present Availability of Periodicals • Until some years ago, University libraries subscribed to a fair number of journals in different disciplines. • Now most journals have become unaffordable because increase in grants have not kept pace with increasing costs. • Presently very few periodicals are available even in major University libraries and departments.

32. E-Availability • A huge number of periodicals are now available in databases and can be accessed over the internet. • There is now an increasing presence of computers in Universities and Colleges. • Access to the internet, with reasonable bandwidth, is now available on some campuses. • Initiative by the UGC/INFLIBNET, resulted in a sharp increase in access to e-resources.

33. E-Journals Programme Partners • UGC • ERNET • The Inter-University Centres IUCAA • INFLIBNET • CEC • National and international publishers

34. UGC • Over all monitoring • Constitution of Joint Technical and Tariff committee for smooth execution of project • Providing finance support to the project • INFLIBNET • Decide type of connectivity • Monitoring of Network • Provide the content in terms of Bibliographic database and e-subscription • Help Universities to setting up IT Infrastructure • ERNET • Design & Installation • Maintenance • Providing Backbone • Hosting of Mirror sites • Training • University • Place firm order to ERNET • Provide necessary accommodation • Identify two persons for training • Campus network/ access center

35. E-Resources Subscribed under UGC-Infonet 23 + 6 DB 36 31 72 34 Life Sci. 8 222 19 100 +100 subscribed, Access all 1200 titles 29 319 28 Lib. Sci. In addition - Access to 2 Gateway portal services to 28 univ. each

36. UGC-INFONET E-Journals Programme: Fields • Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences • Physical and Chemical Sciences • Life Sciences • Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics

37. Goal for e-journal

38. E-journals - Pros • Available 7 x 24 • Remote access • Desktop delivery of information • Search / browse functions • Articles available upon publication • Hypertext link to related resources • Space saving • Cost saving

39. E-Journals - Cons • No perpetual access after cancellation • In / out of journals in aggregator databases • Embargo period • Poor image / graphic quality • Content not cover to cover • Loss of access to back issues in case of change of publisher • Not welcome by some readers

40. Pros Desktop access Faster access E-pub ahead of print Downloadable graphics Linking Seamless access via databases Saves time Cons No shelf browsing Quality of graphics Missing articles Missing supplements ‘Dead’ links to articles/issues Publisher’s site unavailable Pros and cons of e-journals

41. Criteria for E-Only Journals Completeness • Does the electronic version include the full cover-to-cover content of the print version – excluding advertising? Quality, ease of use, timeliness, and reliability of online access.  • Does the full-text version offer fast and convenient access to full-text in pdf and html, or –at minimum- pdf only? • Is the electronic version reliably available before the print edition? • Does the publisher have a good reputation for ensuring around-the-clock access? Cost • Is the price of a license commensurate with the need for the journal? • Use data for print and electronic version are available for most journals provided.

42. How do we promote the use of E-journals? • All e-journals are being catalogued • E-journal title list and subject list • E-portal link to Library resources • User education / Online user guide • Alert service • SFX – provides links between citation and e-journals

43. Awareness of e-journals • Visit departments/ institutes • Information on shelves • News service • Support on web pages- FAQ, - troubleshooting • Feed-back forms on web

44. Open Discussion on Promoting E-Resources • Some Feedback From Librarians: • Use Library website – Hot news, New additions of e-resources • Special talks – training, internal seminar, user education, orientation programme etc • Bulletin board service – notice circulation to replace paper • Readers’ Services Counter – in-person consultation • Posters • Intranet • Display List of New journals – with short description, coverage • Get Feedback • Staff Publications • Email Alert on new content updates

45. Promoting your resources • Take advantage of free trial access • Buy-in from senior management • Attend curriculum meetings • Develop close relationships with curriculum staff • Post articles/notices on the Intranet and internal newsletters • Run training sessions for staff and students • Ensure that access to those resources is widely available to reach the maximum audience possible

46. Promoting your resources • Use available marketing materials and / or create your own • Send emails to groups of students (and staff if possible) • Have drop in sessions during lunch-times • Understand and exploit the potential uses of e-resources

47. Who uses e-resources the most? • men use more than women, are more willing to cancel print versions • young (under 35 years of age) use more than older and are more willing to cancel print versions • post-graduate students and researchers use more than lecturers and professors

48. Which disciplines use most e-resources? • use is high: science, economics • use varies: technology, health science • use is low: humanities, culture, social sciences