Subject: Re: Access from publisher?
David Goodman (dgoodman@Princeton.EDU)
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 15:50:10 -0400
Message-Id: <37CC3055.1A5F3A62@princeton.edu> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 15:50:10 -0400 From: David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU> To: arl-ejournal@arl.org Subject: Re: Access from publisher? References: <000201bef2ff$d473e560$2b131bbe@admin-vonbehr>
On Mon, 30 Aug 1999, Steve Black <blacks@rosnet.strose.edu> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 30 Aug 1999, Anke de Looper <anke.delooper@benjamins.nl> wrote:
> >
> > John Benjamins is a small commercial scholarly publisher with an
> > extensive list in linguistics and related topics. At this moment
> > we publish 27 journals and yearbooks. We intend to make our journals
> > available electronically starting in 2000.
> >
> > We are working on the technical infrastructure at our side, which should
> > --ideally-- match the client's side.
> >
> > I would very much appreciate some feedback on the following (direct
> > replies or pointers to relevant literature):
> >
> > 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).
> >
> > 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?
> >
> > Any comments, suggestions or pointers are appreciated.
>
> Since our students find journal articles overwhelmingly through
> citations in indexes, I would recommend that your company make your
> journals accessible through existing online journal aggregators.
> If EBSCOhost, Lexis-Nexis, InfoTrac, ProQuest, et. al are willing
> to add your content, that would be a *much* easier way for us to
> make your products available. The proliferation of access points
> is a very real problem for us and our students. Each gateway can
> individually be straightforward and simple, but when there are
> dozens of them, all different, it's a problem. Besides, if the
> vendors are willing to add your content and pay you enough to pay
> the bills, your company won't have to worry about database, access,
> and archiving issues -- you'll just have the first copy costs.
Speaking for myself, I do not think relying only on aggregators is a
good idea. There are several very different kinds:
Some, like Lexis-Nexis, do not provide true full articles, just the
plain text without the illustrations.
Some, like InfoTrac and Proquest, will incorporate full page images,
but the individual titles in them are unfortunately not listed in
most library catalogs (we have long been looking for an efficient
way to include them), so users will only know their library has them
if they first look for say Proquest, not if they have a reference
for the journal. There's no reason not to use them as a supplementary
mode of access, though, especially if your material is oriented to
undergraduates, who do use these services extensively here and
elsewhere.
Services like Ebscohost, OCLC, Swets, Blackwells, etc. are simply
an additional layer; they provide a common interface. Most of them
charge the libraries extra for this. This library has so far seen
no reason to use them; we feel it adds to the complexity of an
already overly complex arrangement, and that the available service
are untested, expensive, or both; some other libraries do find them
convenient. So if you made the journals available only through one
or more of them, we and other libraries that feel this way would
probably not subscribe. (On the other hand, there's no reason not
to make the journals available through these services for those
libraries that like this route.)
What I would recommend is that you use the services of HighWire Press
or its equivalents. They act essentially as the electronic equivalent
of a printer: they charge you for it, but they handle the physical
details. Many major journals (and many smaller ones) use their
services, and all the agents listed above are happy to work with them.
Libraries are used to working with them. I think this would give
better results than doing it in house, especially if you do not
currently have the hardware and the qualified staff.
There are much better ways of linking articles to bibliographies.
-- David Goodman Biology Librarian, and Co-Chair, Electronic Journals Task Force Princeton University Library dgoodman@princeton.edu http://www.princeton.edu/~biolib/ phone: 609-258-3235 fax: 609-258-2627
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a16 : Mon Dec 20 1999 - 18:02:16 EST