Ejournals: opportunities and challenges

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E-journals opportunities and challenges

• Bharati Banerjee

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Valuable Resource

• Electronic journals (e-journals) are valuable
  resources
• They are largest and fastest growing segment of
  the digital collections
• By simple definition, they are any journal or
  serial publication available in electronic format
  
• This publication may or may not have a print
  counterpart

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Advantages

• It enables immediate access to articles
• Articles can be searched by a phrase or keyword
• In addition, it also saves shelf space
• In retrospective search multiple files can be
  accessed simultaneously

4
Evaluation

• The awareness of a new e-journal may originate
  from a readers request
• Recommendation from a subject librarian
• An advertisement on vendor's/publisher's web site
• A message in a forum, or any other source

5
Selection

• Selecting a print journal implies deciding to
  subscribe
• It also means providing access to the selected
  resource
• The selection process of e- journal implies dual
  participation
• A. Subject specialists
• B. Electronic resource specialist

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Pricing

• E-journals are produced by different publishers
  just as print journals
• These publishers can either be professional
  societies or commercial publishers such as
  Lexis-Nexis, Silver Platter
• Publishers follow individual pricing policies
• The publishers offer two tiered pricing
• One for institutional subscribers and librarians
• Another for individuals
• Special offers by some publishers for Developing
  Countries

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Three Pricing Options

• Print and online - Combines print subscription
  with site-wide online access to the title
• Online only This entitles the customer to
  receive site wide online access only
• Print only The customer receives a print copy
  of each issue of the title for the calendar year

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Aggregated Pricing

• An aggregator database is a collection of
  full-text journals published either by
  publishers, such as Elsevier ScienceDirect
  (SciD), Kluwer titles
• Other option is through a third party provider,
  such as Proquest by ABN/Inform Global
• Aggregator journals by vendors provide access to
  different publishers journals

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License Agreement

• When a library subscribes to an e-journal, it
  only licenses it it does not own it
• A license is a contract between the publisher and
  the library
• Many e-journals have a simple online license
  agreement, which is agreed upon by the librarian
• The main issues covered in licensing agreements
  relate to the access

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Providing Access

• The access mechanism for e-journals consists of
  two key components
• user authentication and denial of access to
  non-subscribers
• The procedure is termed as Internet Protocol (IP)
  authentication
• The access is set up by the publisher to the
  license holding library
• The access can also be restricted by password

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12. Staffing

• The amazing growth of electronic journals and the
  large budgets pose biggest challenges for the
  library staff
• The dealing staff needs proficiency in
• evaluating print subscriptions
• negotiating prices of e-journals
• arranging trials
• evaluating package deals
• negotiating agreements
• One major impact of electronic services is the
  growing need for user instruction

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Archiving

• In case of electronic journals, archiving is
  dispersed among many stakeholders
• The major concern is that of electronic access
• Because the publisher may cease to maintain
  access or
• Libraries may cancel a subscription

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Usage Performance

• In a networked environment, the ability to
  monitor usage is complex and time consuming
• Most e-journals are accessible from servers
  maintained and controlled by publishers and the
  aggregators
• For informed decision-making on performance and
  usage

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Usage Performance

• The libraries need
• timely
• reliable
• comparable and
• consistent statistics which can enable precise
  analysis.

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Conclusion

• The future for e-journals is full of change and
  challenge
• While we can be enthusiastic about the advantages
  of this new format, we must also be aware of
  potential problems related to long term
  preservation and future accessibility
• As for librarians, migrating to e-journals
  implies fundamental paradigm shift but at the
  same time holds out tremendous opportunities.