Can’t I Just Get This Online Somewhere?
User issues with electronic journals
Sarah BeasleyPortland State Univeristy Library
What our users assume
Famous article from Atlantic Monthly in 1945: “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush
Shouldn’t that be available full text online?
Comprehensiveness of content issues
Incomplete content – article appearing in the paper included a side bar with recipes from the bakery described.
Impact from the Tasini decision
The United States Supreme Court (in Tasini v. NYT) ruled that print publishers such as newspapers and magazines may not use material in online databases to which they had previously obtained only print rights from independent contractor creators. The Court’s ruling establishes that such online and electronic uses are separate uses from that of print.
Format Issues
PDF, TIFF Plug-ins required Learning curve and training issues related
to additional applications
Generation Gap
PDF created from scanning print copies – one generation away from original printing.
Can be quality issues -- alignment
Infrastructure Issues
Remote authentication Speed of network connections Size of pdf files – What happens when you cancel and the
publisher provides you with your archival material? What format? What will you have to do to support it?
Pricing
Could spend a whole day on these issues alone, but from users: perspective: Why don’t you have more? Options for pay per view
More questions
Published online – estimated scholarly value?
Peer reviewed? Identified via the discipline’s I & A
databases?
Link Rot
Rumsey, M. (2002) “Runaway Train: Problems of Permanence, Accessibility, and Stability in the Use of Web Sources in Law Review Citations” Law Library Journal, 94, 27-39.
www.aallnet.org/products/2002-02.pdf
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