Subject: Re: Access from publisher?
George Porter (george@library.caltech.edu)
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 14:53:28 -0700
Message-Id: <0CAA59BF4677D211904D00A0C9EA3676460186@dungeon.library.caltech.edu> From: George Porter <george@library.caltech.edu> To: "'arl-ejournal@arl.org'" <arl-ejournal@arl.org> Subject: Re: Access from publisher? Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 14:53:28 -0700
On Mon, 30 Aug 1999, Anke de Looper <Anke.DeLooper@benjamins.nl> wrote:
>
> 1) Libraries seem to favor IP-controlled access over passwords. Is that
> so, and why? I thought passwords would allow greater flexibility in
> offering access to patrons even if they are off-site. Also, IP
> authentications is problematic (see ARL-EJOURNAL messages in
> February about JANET cache).
As noted previously, although it can NOT be reiterated too often,
usernames and passwords are a major headache for librarians to
distribute in anything approximating a secure manner. In addition,
user behavior indicates that seemingly very minor hurdles are, in
practice, huge barriers to access. Users would like to discover a
direct link from wherever they first hear of an article to the
article proper. Each step which intervenes has a negative effect
on follow through with attrition rates of 25% or more. (Percentage
generated from thin air for purposes of illustration only -- use at
your own risk!) You do the math, whether you choose 10% attrition
or 50% attrition for each step, the fall off from potential audience
for an article to actual audience declines significantly with each
click. Throw in a side trip to the library's website or catalog to
retrieve a username and password, instead of proceeding directly from
a link in an email message or a URL in a printed article, and you
have seriously damaged the economic value of mounting the article
on the web in the first place.
> 2) Do libraries (prefer to) download an issue of an electronic journal
> once, to offer access to patrons from a local server, or is the
> issue/document downloaded from the publisher's server by each
> patron in turn? Does this depend on what the publisher allows?
Library preferences are much harder to pin down than user behavior.
Huge consortia, like OhioLINK, have the efficiencies of scale to support
the massive servers and additional system staff necessary to mount local
versions. Their pay off is in guaranteed and more responsive access.
Individual libraries may not have the technical skills, staffing,
infrastructure (pick as many as you want) to accomplish this end.
George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA 91125
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681
<george@library.caltech.edu>
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