Advisor Op Ed CatchWord & ingentaJournals: What Were They Thinking? Comparative Review Betrayed By Britannica? EVIEWS CatchWord Composite Score: ★★★★ by David A. Tyckoson (Head of Reference, Henry Madden Library,
R ★★★★ ingenta Composite Score: California State University – Fresno)
Reviewed by: K. Mulliner (Collection Development Coordinator, Ohio University OMPARATIVE Over the last six months, the manage- One reason that this change hit so hard the eighteenth century was dominated Libraries, Athens, Ohio 45701-2978)
A tainly gave me (and many other refer- lished. For over 200 years, it has been cover the entire range of human knowl- CatchWord ence librarians) a couple of big shocks. one of our most respected reference edge. Pricing Options “Free” Access to E-Journals: CatchWord and ingenta First, there were rumors that no new tools. Born in a time of great explora- Overview print edition of the Encyclopedia tion and discovery, the Britannica Britannica has made several bold busi- From a library or user perspective, CatchWord ness decisions over the years. Most Britannica would ever be published. quickly became the single starting point is free. That means that the cost of the ser- Yes, there is no such thing as free lunch and comparatively few free readers do not even know that the vice is paid by publishers rather than sub- e-journals. But many journals do offer “free” electronic access for Next, they opened a new public Website for readers wishing to learn about a offering “free” access to the electronic person, place, or topic. In a sense, the Britannica is not British. It was sold to scribing libraries. As operated in February institutions with print subscriptions. Others include a surcharge American interests almost 100 years version of the encyclopedia. Then, they Britannica was our very first reference 2000, subscribers to a print journal receive for access to an electronic edition or have “decoupled” subscrip- ago and is based in Chicago. Despite access to an electronic version. Some pub- tions; that is, subscriptions to the print and electronic editions are decided to support that new Website tool. As the Britannica grew, it gained by selling advertising. Finally, they increasing respect, reaching its schol- its American publisher, it retains the lishers (such as Plenum) may have a sur- separately priced. Regardless of publisher pricing models, the British spelling conventions and point decided to bribe us into using that arly pinnacle with the 11th edition pub- charge, paid to the publisher for the bottom-line question is, “how does my institution get access to of view. The Britannica electronic edition. For articles not covered those journals and what will it cost?” In some cases (Cambridge Website by offering to make a chari- lished in 1911. My table donation for every use of the site. library (and many of still calls the Revolu- by an institutional subscription, online University Press and Wiley Scientific as examples), a publisher may tionary War the “United yours as well) still keeps document delivery service based on credit offer access through its own site. Representing a transition is the As a librarian, my initial emotional re- States War of Indepen- card payment is available. American Institute of Physics (AIP) which offers its own titles but this edition on its refer- “Britannica has sponse to all of this news was a sense ence shelves, along with dence” and still treats also serves as an aggregator by hosting titles published by schol- bewilderment and betrayal. I was be- this topic from the los- Product Description the current (15th) edi- made several bold arly organizations in related fields. wildered as to why a publisher would ing side. The most re- Formed as a private-sector company in 1995 tion and a replica of the eliminate two known revenue streams business decisions cent change, and by Simon Inger and Peter Trevellick, This latter approach, offering a site providing access to titles from original. No other work (print purchases and electronic sub- probably the most an- CatchWord has been a pioneer in publisher- many publishers, is termed aggregation. For any institution with in our reference collec- over the years.” scriptions) in favor of an entirely new noying to us reference supported aggregation. CatchWord’s Re- substantial numbers of subscriptions, an aggregator can facilitate tions has served us so funding mechanism (advertising). I librarians, took place in search Journals is one of three services electronic access by reducing the number of interfaces that its us- well for so long. also felt betrayed in that Britannica had 1974, when the 15th offered from the CatchWord site and the fo- ers encounter. Among general aggregators, there are those that somehow sold the soul of the product While we have projected a scholarly im- edition was split into the now infamous cus of this review. Business Journals is pri- impose a surcharge on users and those that place the charge on in the name of crass commercialism. age onto the Encyclopedia Britannica, Micropedia and Macropedia. Based on marily a defined subset of Research Journals, publishers. Examples of the former include OCLC and Faxon That this was done by Britannica, one we need to remember that it is and al- the recommendations of Mortimer focusing on those titles of interest to busi- RoweCom’s Information Quest. In the user-pay model, subscribing of the oldest and most respected ref- ways has been a commercial product. Adler, this classified approach to orga- nesses (omitting more specialized research institutions may pay a fixed price for each title and use-sensitive erence publishers, only added to my The recent change in the focus of its nizing information was intended to titles). Now buried in secondary pages, sheet pricing (i.e., paying for simultaneous users). Such charges are in confusion. Had it been Gale or Reed or marketing is only the latest in a long make the Britannica a better educa- music has been a CatchWord feature. addition to any surcharges that a publisher may levy for access someother mega-publisher, I might not and sometimes strange chain of busi- tional tool. All it really did was make Through special software called MusicPage, rights to its electronic editions. Any institution with an unlimited have been so surprised, but this was ness decisions. The very first edition the Britannica harder to use, since top- sheet music can be printed (but not down- subscription budget may well find this approach attractive. Britannica! What were they thinking? was done on a subscription basis and ics could no longer be found in one loaded) on a fee-per-title basis. For the rest of us trying to offer print and electronic information was funded by advanced payments simple alphabetical order. Probably a more important question to Research Journals offers access to the re- sources without breaking the bank, the aggregators depending on from purchasers. When the project got ask is “What was I thinking?” The The move to free public Web access is sources of a number of publishers with a publisher payments are the obvious choice. At present, this prima- behind schedule, the editors rushed the Britannica situation is a microcosm of just the latest in this long series of un- common interface and/or a standard way rily means two British companies: CatchWord and ingenta. De- remainder into production in order to the changes in our profession and in usual business moves. Economically, to link to titles from an OPAC. It provides spite offering much the same kind of access, these companies are minimize costs. If you take a good look our society. We may not always ap- this one benefits all of us. Whereas a searches of its resources from its site and not really competitors in the library market for the simple reason at your first edition, you will notice that prove of these changes, but we cannot print set would cost a library almost access through abstracting and indexing (A that each offers a unique array of publishers. Thus, if one wishes there are more pages devoted to top- control them and we will have to learn $2,000 and a subscription to the old & I) services. It also offers a fee-based access to a Blackwell journal, one may turn to ingenta, and if one ics beginning with the letters A-C than to live with them. Examining my reac- Internet Britannica at www.eb.com document delivery service for articles to wishes access to a Taylor and Francis journal, one may turn to to everything from M-Z. In fact, the tion to Britannica has helped me to would cost about $0.50 per head per which an institution or individual holds no CatchWord. For this reason, each is reviewed independently. While six pages devoted to “Annuities” pro- work through some of the issues that year (or about $7,500 in my case), the valid subscription. As a comparison, a test they may compete to host publishers, from a library’s perspective, vide more information than all of the this dramatic and unexpected change new arrangement requires no direct article through Research Journals cost they are complementary. entries from the end of the alphabet brought to the surface. investment by any library. All we need $23.50 compared to $29 through UnCover, (X-Z). This odd balance is not because 6 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 59 Advisor Reviews — Comparative
with the former being available Delivery formats. RealPage and PDF “Malaysia Near10 Indonesia” would online and the latter delivered by fax. Document Format are available. PDF find an item only when “Indonesia”
D A Librarian’s Concerns Page Format (page at a time and hence appeared within ten words on either Access is also possible through various faster for preview) with PGML (to be side of “Malaysia” in the title or ab-
E subscription agent gateways (such as offered by Adobe as a plug-in) and stract (depending on the selected P about CrossRef Ebsco Online, SwetsNet, Blackwell’s EJN, VML (format used in Microsoft Office field). Substituting “Then10” would and RoweCom Faxon’s IQ), making it 2000) are promised. find only items in which “Indonesia” possible to pay for what would be free occurred within ten words after “Ma- O by Chuck Hamaker (Associate Director for Technical Services, University of North Carolina from CatchWord directly. Current Awareness. Individuals may laysia.” register (using an e-mail address) to re- at Charlotte and Senior Editor, The Charleston Advisor) [email protected]> Number of titles: 650+ ceive tables of contents of selected jour- Fulltext searching offers even more CatchWord’s Research Journals is nals as they are added to the site (see: capabilities, although against a severely Librarians and several for links to articles. The long process an integral piece of these initial plans fundamentally an aggregation of full- www.catchword.com/journalalert.htm). circumscribed database. The default text electronic editions of print jour- is to the title of the journal most re- other active communities of acceptance of the Copyright Clear- if there is going to be any real accep- Searching. CatchWord offers both in the scholarly journals ance Center (CCC) is another example tance of this as a meaningful way to nals. Rather than needing to link cently searched; otherwise a subject DVISOR browsing and highly sophisticated from a drop-down list needs to be se- field, with significant in- of an initiative without whole-hearted navigate rights in cyberspace. No dozens of publishers, Research Jour- searching options. Browsing offers ac- nals provides a central site and inter- lected and may be limited by earliest A vestments, agendas and community support from libraries and “payor” will willingly give up the right cess to journal titles alphabetically, and perspectives, are being related organizations that has been to select a “best source” for content, face for access to the publications of and/or latest dates. Searches can be by subject, LC class, or publisher. Us- refined with Boolean operators “and, excluded from discus- only partially effective in its original whether that is the paper copy in the the publishers it hosts. Publishers cur- ers can also request those titles for rently covered are listed in a separate or, near, then, exclude, and not.” In sions and decisions in goals, while creating concerns about library, a document delivery system which an institution has subscriptions. the initial development of CrossRef, the lack of representation among some with preferential pricing, or an ILL box in this review (see pg. 9). Limited the examples, “exclude” would nor- Three levels of searching are available. mally be used to avoid an article in linking service that will permit linkage communities served source, especially offerings of a few other publishers are A basic search is the beginning screen, available; an example is the 1997 AIAA which the term following “exclude” from references in scholarly articles by its mechanisms. given what many see which offers a box to enter keyword across publisher platforms. as astronomical Journal from the American Institute of occurred in an article, while “not” CrossRef, created (such as “Ohio”) or words (automati- would be used for specific instances; “If the primary GOAL for prices being charged Aeronautics and Astronautics. cally linked by “or”) or phrases (iden- There are a large number of issues that without support and as an example, “cost* NOT costs” by publishers for di- Registration. To use Research Jour- tified by quotation marks, i.e., “Ohio excluding librarians, A&I services, involvement of pri- CrossRef is additional rect access. would find articles with cost or cost- OPAC and other ILS vendors, as well mary constituencies nals, an institution’s representative University”) that are searched against ing but not costs. Truncation and wild author(s), article titles, journal titles, as aggregators from the initial discus- who could actually income for publishers, Do publishers creat- completes an online registration form card possibilities include “*” to mean and text in abstracts. A keyword may sions will leave unresolved, weakening USE (and in the end then it’s unlikely to be ing this service rec- on behalf of the institution and re- zero or more letters and “?” to mean the potential of CrossRef and leaving it will pay) for the ognize that, as one ceives a “CatchWord Identification also be truncated with a “*”. A sophis- one letter. Examples include “am*z*” ticated variation, identified as “ad- far short of its potential benefit to the product, will like- of the consequences Number (CID).” Individuals may also which would identify amazing, amaze, successful and will vanced” search, offers five lines that scholarly community. Peter Boyce of wise be slow on the of the serial wars, register for titles to which they sub- and others and “am*z*t which would the American Astronomical Society, uptake and could represent yet more they have lost a lot scribe and define a username and may be Boolean linked through check find amazement but not amazing, boxes for “and,” “or,” and “not.” The speaking at the recent North Carolina well remain a mar- of goodwill in the password. amaze, etc. Even more specific terms library purchasing dollars box in each line can be limited to a Serials Conference, has stated the is- ginal effort. I believe marketplace and are Access. Access is IP controlled, with can be limited to where they occur in sue succinctly: “I cannot overempha- the potential for the not a trusted source specific field (author(s), article titles, the text, such as abstracts, picture cap- sunk in a wasteland of direct connection through an source journal titles, text of abstracts, size the importance of links.” service to be high as they were even a tions, notes, references, and others. institution’s OPAC to a specific title or keywords, and ISSN) or may include for the end user and publisher arrogance.” short decade ago? If titles on the site to be searched. A Fortunately, the help screens really are CrossRef is an attempt in part to use the library commu- they have any inten- all fields. Beyond the clickable Bool- DOI as a structure to link at the ref- sample OPAC link from the 856 field helpful in explaining these capabilities. nity, A&I services, tion of regaining ean categories are “near” and “then,” erence level to articles or abstracts in a MARC record for Urban Studies, with the former offering adjacency ei- CatchWord reportedly also offers link- and a host of other their role as re- from Carfax Publishers, is: http:// across (and perhaps within) publisher communities with stakes in this field. spected intermediaries in the scholarly ther before or after the selected term, ing from A & I services, such as ISI’s platforms. Its purpose, unabashedly www.catchword.com/rpsv/catchword/ Indeed, the possible utility is so high communication process, and if they and the latter offering adjacency only Web of Science, Cambridge Scientific commercial for the non-profit orga- carfax/1360063x/contp1_1.htm. Pass- after the selected term. For example, Abstracts’ IDS or SilverPlatter’s that even initial development must in- want changes to be accepted rather words can also be used. In addition, nization created to support it, is to clude library representation. than seen as more that libraries must drive business to publisher content, access is available through some A & pay for, then it is past time to include to increase publisher revenue and A few “library” issues come to mind: I links, and through subscription the many other institutions with a stake agent gateways. As tables of contents awareness of publisher content, and in the discussions. Or, do they think to provide an income stream for sup- What library would pay per-use at the and article pages have enduring URL “At a Glance” publisher site when the potential (a they can “force” us to use their systems port of DOI linking. addresses, authors can cite a specific very real one given the multitude of for access to materials we purchase? section, and users can bookmark Comparative Review Scores Without participation of other commu- options now available) exists for other What about access to “publisher” con- journals and issues. The maximum number of stars in each category is 5. nities with significant interest and ex- less costly “drops” to the article from tent, when there are varying means pertise in the scholarly communication an institutional “rights” perspective. For Activation. Although activating titles CarchWord ingenta available to a library, many even pub- has historically been accomplished by ★★★★ ★★★★ cycle, such an attempt can be as tan- example, any number of commercial lisher created, but not included in the Composite: gential to the system as other publisher- articles are available to my institution notifying each publisher of the CrossRef “drop” structure? As an ex- Content: ★★★ 3/4 ★★★★ created initiatives have been. Take, for through aggregator databases or inte- institution’s CID (either directly or by ample, there are at least three means one’s subscription agent), CatchWord Searchability: ★★★★ ★★★ example, the DOI itself in the Web en- grator gateways where I may already of access to current e-content at the vironment, which has been an ex- have rights to content. has recently facilitated the process with ★★★★★ ★★★★★ moment: library “owned” and mounted Pricing: tremely slow process, with little an online entry form to identify titles “Hook to holdings” discussions with on library servers; library accessed over acceptance in several key communities. for which one has a subscription but Contract Options: n/a n/a SICIs and pseudo-SICIs are the norm libraries and ILS vendors should be continued on page 60 has not yet activated online access.
58 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 7 Advisor Reviews — Comparative Archiving. In its lit- name on the title bar of the Web erature, CatchWord browser and the journal titles to which Web Addresses for Products Reviewed guarantees that it will an institution has subscriptions are The Charleston Advisor Website http://www.catchword.co.uk maintain archives of tagged. In addition, the screen show- EB http://www.ingenta.com its holdings for ten ing available issues will carry a note Validation/Security/Authentication years. This policy is that fulltext is available “courtesy of based on a realistic [name of library].” An institution may W determination that it also add its logo to this page with a An important part of TCA will continue to offer, at no At the present, authentication will SilverLinker, but these were not in- is probably not the best service to of- link to the library’s Web pages. The Charleston Advisor is charge, to the entire community the be provided via IP filtering for a cluded in this review. Linking at the fer permanent archiving. With a ten article level is accomplished using SICI year window, CatchWord guarantees CatchWord does offer a network of its Website (http://www. following features: subscribing organization. However, servers that can be manually selected. charlestonco.com). It if an individual or site would pre- syntax, with the addition of a DOI pro- that the files and formats will be main- • TCA homepage including publish- Currently, if connecting to includes not only what fer a login/password combination jected for the future. Conversely, cita- tained and migrated (if necessary), ing information and editorial board catchword.com, one goes to a server in appears in the printed this can also be provided. If a user tions in articles can be linked to articles while publishers, libraries, and others DVISOR lists North America and, if connecting to quarterly journal, but fails the IP filter test, he/she will in CatchWord or third party resources concerned develop a plan for perma- • Subscription forms
catchword.co.uk, to a server in the U.K. A also reader and pub- be challenged with a login/pass- such as Cambridge Scientific Abstracts nent archives. CatchWord further and SilverLinker. This ability, identi- notes that “it would be very surprising One can then choose one of the other lisher updates and • The ability to provide feedback word. servers; however, that selection is valid comments about re- fied by CatchWord as “Active Refer- if there were not developments in pub- on electronic products or on pub- only for that session. Connection to a views, copies of re- lished reviews and editorials. To obtain a login/password or to ence Linking,” is allowing Taylor & lishing formats and platforms that register your IP address range(s), Francis and other publishers to partici- would encourage us to review and sig- specific server can be scripted into a views before they • Table-of-contents of all issues library’s site. In the near future, the appear in the next quarterly printed you may go to the TCA Website and pate in the CrossRef project. nificantly extend this commitment.” company will be implementing smart edition and other enhancements. • At least one review per issue and fill-out a request form. All requests Site Development. An e-list, Browsers recommended. Internet servers that will automatically select the selected editorials will be checked against current sub- “CatchWord Announce,” keeps sub- Explorer 3.0 or higher, Netscape 3.0 or best connection reroute for the session, The Website is available at no ad- • Volume 1, Number 1 Fulltext. scriber lists. For IP filtering, be scribers informed of additions, and a higher; Javascript and enabling cook- providing automatic rerouting if a ditional cost to subscribers. sure to provide all IP address • TCA’s Reader Scorebox full archive of press releases is avail- ies reportedly will optimize perfor- server has problems, to better guaran- Through early November 1999, all ranges which are applicable for able at http://www.catchword.com/ mance in some parts of the system. tee a connection. sections of the Website were open What will be accessible only to TCA your institution. latest.htm. As more publishers add for free public viewing, including subscribers will be: Usage Statistics. None, as yet (pro- Critical Evaluation reviews, editorials, new product an- electronic versions and titles, simply • Access to actual reviews (with the assuring that an institution has access jected for Summer 2000, statistics are My institution has used CatchWord for nouncements, etc. This included all being collected). exception of the one “open” review to those titles which include electronic about two years. We initially began of the reviews from volume 1, num- per issue) access at no additional cost is a struggle. Other Features. In February 2000, using it to gain access to the publica- ber 1 of TCA. Starting with vol- “CatchWord Announce” keeps one ap- CatchWord announced new prominence tions of the Royal Society of Chemis- ume 1, number 2, an authentication • Selected editorials and advisor reports prised of new publishers and titles as for its “branding” service. When using try (RSC). The experience then was system has been installed so that • “Selected Users” Lists and Hotlinks they become available, as well as other CatchWord from a registered site, a user’s most unpleasant. But the frog has be- only authorized subscribers may • Updates on Products already reviewed news of the aggregator’s service. browser can display the institution’s come a prince among aggregators. gain access to portions of the Website. In 1998, the primary mode of access was the software, RealPage. This had CatchWord Review Score The maximum number of stars in each category is 5. Editor’s Note: As a matter of Composite: ★★★★ general policy, TCA has chosen not to score “pricing” or “contract Over to You... Content: ★★★3/4 Taylor & Francis options” for free Web resources. It (including Carfax and was felt that giving an automatic How Readers Can Add to Our TCA Scoreboard Routledge) accounts for “five” to free Websites was about two-thirds of titles. artificially raising the score of free services and masking the content Now it’s your turn! Visit www. Are there products that you would The Charleston Advisor plans to Searchability: ★★★★ Easy OPAC linking; and user interface issues. However, charlestonco.com and react to what like to see us review? make your comments known (with in selected cases, TCA may make you see in this issue of The Charles- your permission, of course) by add- powerful Boolean search Do you know of a program at an- options; fast with selectable exceptions to this rule, especially ton Advisor. ing another score online -- A when a product is clearly other library that you think we Reader’s Score. server; requires step to select Do you agree with the reviews? should all know about? competing against other services We feature our Reader’s Scoreboard output format. that charge for similar content or Do you want to add your comments Tell us! Only then, will we be truly ★★★★★ functionality. We have chosen, in as an important indicator of gen- Pricing: Free, and notably so. and opinions to those of our re- banding together to make our opin- eral opinion. the case of the ingenta and viewers and colleagues? ions known! Contract Options: n/a Contracts/licenses are with Catchword reviews, to support the Logon and let us hear from you. individual journal publish- author’s interest in rating the Are there specific products that you ers and not aggregator. “pricing” as “five” stars. — GM would like to know more about?
8 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 57 Advisor Reports from the Field Advisor Reviews — Comparative
to be run as a special application, mean- In mentioning contacts with hits, none of which were for titles to ing that each public machine required CatchWord, whether tech support or which we subscribed. (Of note, the re- that RealPage be installed, in addition otherwise, I have found the company sults do offer a link to the specific page In the Press . . . to the browser used for other resources. always responsive, with elapsed time in the article where the term occurs.) Even worse, our experience was that for responses greatly reduced from two numerous contacts (by e-mail) had to years ago (perhaps because we no CatchWord’s lists of formats for deliv- ery is commendable and growing, but be made with technical support to even longer have to solve RealPage prob- Ed Note: In the Press is a sampling of formation about MR Lookup and to use than 70,000 article citations from over the need to select a format after the press announcements of interest and rel- the new tool, visit: www.ams.org/ 100 publications on the topics of race, begin to offer RSC publications to the lems). In all cases, they have been a public. During the year, a Java plug-in pleasure to deal with. fulltext of an article is requested intro- evance to those who select electronic mate- mrlookup. (Ed Note: AMS’ MathSciNet ethnicity, religion, gender, age, physi- duces an intermediate step that can be was also made available but to little rials. If you have news you would like to was reviewed in The Advisor’s previous cal and mental disabilities, talents, cul- Linking is simple, although in the at least a minor obstacle to users (es- see us carry in future issues, or in The issue, v.1, no.3, January 2000.) ture, and language. Press releases avail. Both the RealPage application and the Java plug-in seemed to excel course of this review, we discovered pecially if they are unfamiliar with the Advisor’s Web Edition, please send mail to indicate that the database is particu- that CatchWord evidently had modi- variety for formats offered). Especially STANFORD’S HIGHWIRE PRESS in spawning screens. A single attempt us at our Editorial Offices, or send e-mail larly suited for schools, community fied some URLs and thus have had to valuable for a quick sense of an article to [email protected] or gmachove announced that publishers of the jour- colleges and small public libraries, with to connect would produce ten or more nals it hosts now provide free online separate text screens (resembling telnet modify several of our @coalliance.org. — RL coverage back to 1998 for most publi- OPAC links. Even at access to the fulltext of more than sessions). In addition, the Java plug- cations and earlier for some. The ser- best, maintaining e- 137,000 articles, making HighWire vice is also introducing YouSpeak, an in would produce a myriad of error Publishers in CatchWord home to the second-largest free fulltext messages stating that Java was running journal links is a electronic platform which allows users time-consuming pro- American Institute of Biological Sciences DIALOG’S INFORMATION SER- science archive in the world. In total, in another window. Examining the to “talk back” by submitting articles, es- cess. CatchWord Begell House, Inc. VICES DIVISION (ISD) will be ac- HighWire Press now hosts more than says, reports, poems or other original other windows revealed no Java, lead- 180 journals and over 600,000 articles, claims that only six quired by The Thomson Corporation writings for possible publication in the ing me to observe to tech support that Brill Academic Publisher mostly in the fields of science, technol- individual URLs which announced on March 23, 2000, YouSpeak section of the database. For the “other window must be on another Bureau International des Poid et Mesures that it has entered into a definitive ogy and medicine, primarily from so- have been changed, more information, including free trials, machine on another planet or dimen- British Psychological Society agreement to acquire the online infor- ciety and non-profit publishers. Pricing sion.” Although we helped chemistry and in fact is proud contact SoftLine at www.slinfo.com. of its enduring mation business from The Dialog Cor- decisions are made by each society, faculty install RealPage on their office Camford Publishing URLs. In either case, poration plc for US$275 million. based on the business plan for each SIRS RESEARCHER and SIRS DIS- machines, I have no evidence that it Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education Dialog’s ISD is the familiar online journal. Additional information about COVERER are expanding their offer- was used. By late 1998, we welcomed stability in URL ad- dresses should be Carfax Publishing searching business which posted 1999 HighWire can be found at http:// ings of content databases. SIRS the news that the Royal Society of considered a prereq- Eclipse Group Ltd. revenues of US$233 million. Under the highwire.stanford.edu. (Ed Note: Watch Researcher has added Campaign 2000 Chemistry would offer its 1999 issues terms of the investment, Thomson is for The Advisor’s review of HighWire, com- which is updated daily and provides a from its own site without requiring uisite for all F & FN Spon aggregators. acquiring the rights to technology and ing in our next issue.) wide variety of fulltext articles cover- RealPage. Although we continued to Hal Leonard Corporation (sheet music) software to deliver to customers the ing the primary and general elections, THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE offer RealPage and some of the other As should be evident Industrial Relations Services products acquired from Dialog and all including articles profiling candidates. CATALOG can now be accessed elec- journals available, there seemed little in discussing search- rights to the Dialog brand name, in The SIRS Discoverer database for kids Institute of Psycho-Analysis tronically at http://afi.chadwyck.com use, as the heaviest demand had been ing above, the capa- addition to other brands marketed by is adding Current Events, an additional Institute of Chemical Engineers with records on more than 14,000 for the RSC titles. And as we migrated bilities offered ISD such as DataStar and Profound. content database with fulltext articles films made from 1893 to 1970 (mi- machines, we ceased to worry about should satisfy even Intermediate Technology Publications The Dialog Corporation plc will change and graphics on domestic and interna- nus 1951-1960). Each record con- assuring that all had operational veteran searchers. its name to Bright Station plc and will tional news. Updated daily, Current International Labour Organization tains information about a film’s entire RealPage software. The searching op- continue to operate its current Web Events will retain articles for thirty days; Kingston Press cast and crew, genres, subject key- tions are almost Solutions Division and eCommerce Di- articles will be added dynamically to CatchWord, in its defense, states that words for the title, release dates, overwhelming; they Lawrence Erlbaum Associates vision. Thomson will also make an eq- the full SIRS Discoverer database. For RealPage is a desirable option for those notes on the research involved, as are like taking a Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. uity investment of US$25 million in more information, visit www.sirs.com. using slow modem connections since well as extensive plot summaries. The deep-sea rig to fish in Bright Station. a RealPage file is about 1/10 the size Multilingual Matters electronic AFI Catalog is available via CAMBRIDGE JOURNALS ONLINE a farm pond. With of a PDF file. Given the previous ex- Multi Science Publishing Company The AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL the Web and CD-ROM. For more from Cambridge University Press the database defined periences with RealPage through a cam- Multimedia Information & Technology SOCIETY (AMS) has introduced MR information, visit www.proquest.com. (CUP) has announced that username pus network, its advantages for home by the titles of the Lookup, a free reference service for au- and password registration for the ser- publishers hosted, Music Sales (sheet music) CASALINI LIBRI (Fiesole, Italy) has access with a modem was not tested thors which allows them to access the vice is now required only for access to any search is against announced its Casalini Libri Digital Di- by this reviewer. Oxfam Mathematical Reviews (MR) database to fulltext articles, customized services, a rather random uni- vision for electronic publishing and re- The Policy Press verify and create references. The AMS and activation of institutional subscrip- In 1999, CatchWord announced that verse of knowledge. lated services. For libraries, the service also announced that it has released en- tions. According to CUP, all other fea- PDF files would be provided through Even sophisticated Psychology Press handles e-publication subscription hanced versions of its electronic jour- tures of the service including searching a regular browser as well as RealPage. searches cannot management and distribution; for pub- Rodopi nal publications. Among the new and viewing of tables of contents and I have since learned that RealPage con- overcome this funda- lishers, all aspects of integrated docu- Routledge features are: refereed articles posted article abstracts, are readily accessible tinues to underlie the user model (and mental weakness. As ment publication, including integrated online before the print version is avail- to all users, registered or not. Fulltext its “waffle” symbols can still be seen a simple example of Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd. document management solutions for able; the ability for authors to note access is still restricted to those indi- on most CatchWord screens) but that what is possible, I Scandinavian University Press fulltext conversion and Print on De- other citations of a work; secure manu- viduals whose institutions subscribe to it is converted on-the-fly to the more did a keyword search mand. For more information, contact Society for Applied Spectroscopy script tracking; enhanced abstracts; the requested journal, and the standard PDF files, without any appar- for “coke” excluding Rufus Deuchler at www.casalini.it. Society for Scientific Exploration more PDF linking options; faster institution’s subscription will still need ent loss in responsiveness. Since the the keywords “drug,” searching; and expanded browsing. For SOFTLINE INFORMATION has in- to be activated by the institution’s li- inauguration of PDF as an option, my “drink,” and “fuel” Taylor and Francis more information, visit http:// troduced its newest database, Diver- brarian or information services depart- frequent correspondence with tech from 1996 forward. Transaction Publishers www.ams.org/journals. For more in- sity Your World, which features more ment prior to receiving access. Further support has ceased. This yielded four continued on page 60 56 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 9 Advisor Reviews — Comparative Advisor Reports from the Field
(or to simply test if a link is still valid) The password can be used to allow au- Fax: 44 (0)1235 536500 make purchasing decisions, publicize make innumerable phone calls and and discussions about digital preservation is the PDF page format. Rather than thorized users to access CatchWord E-mail: [email protected] them, and assess their continued utility. send innumerable e-mail messages over (digital archiving) will find a terrific sub- waiting to download a 20-page article journals from outside the registered IP http://www.catchword.co.uk For the purpose of the survey, a net- weeks and months trying to get re- ject gateway and associated mailing list de- using Adobe Acrobat Reader, it can be addresses (from home or anywhere in worked information resource was de- sponses to our issues and an execut- veloped and run by the National Library of CatchWord North America requested a page at a time. the world). nd fined as a commercially available, able contract. These phone calls follow Australia. PADI — Preserving Access to Digi- 31 East 32 Street, Suite 300 electronic information resource (library explicit written documentation of our tal Information — may be found at: http:// The ability to select among servers for New York, NY 10016, USA Selected Users database, fulltext service, e-journal, etc.), concerns and questions, so that there www.nla.gov.au/padi/. On the PADI optimal performance, in our experi- Tel: (212) 481-8484, ext. 336 Web edition only. funded or enabled by the library, which is a clear paper trail to pick up and put homepage, click on PADIFORUM-L to ence, can greatly increase responsive- http://www.charlestonco.com Fax: (212) 481-9582 is made available to authorized users down. Despite this paper trail and many subscribe to the mailing list. ness. For example, I began with the E-mail: [email protected] through a network (LAN, WAN, dial-in, calls, in most of these cases I have still assumption that the Ohio server, which http://www.catchword.com Reader Opinion etc.). Information is based on a 1999 not succeeded in concluding a license Managing Electronic Re- is about 75 miles from campus, would Web edition only. survey which was distributed to the 122 agreement. Is anyone else having this provide the fastest connections; how- sources in OPACs http://www.charlestonco.com ARL member libraries. A total of 59 re- experience? Do information providers ever, I have learned that connecting to Excerpts from a series of ongoing dis- Selected References Advisor Additional sponses (48%) were received. Ninety- have some insight to share about this cussions concerning the logistics of man- the Massachusetts server nearly eight percent of the respondents offered lack of responsiveness? Do librarians doubles the speed of responses most Hane, Paula J. “CatchWord’s RealPage References — CatchWord aging electronic subscriptions using the networked information resources to their have ideas about how to get these deals MARC record and the OPAC. Question: of the time. Hopefully, the smart serv- to Offer New Online Publishing Mod- “Active Reference Linking.” Online, users. For the fulltext of the SPEC Kit negotiated and completed in a timely concerning subfield Z of the 856 field, ers scheduled in the next few months els.” Information Today 15 (October vol.23, no.6, November 1999. 253 Executive Summary and ordering manner? This problem did not surface will reduce the need to experiment can you have multiple 856 fields in a 1998): 43 & 45. information, visit http://www.arl.org/ for me here at MIT until this year. In among servers without compromising Berinstein, Paula. “Through the single MARC record, one for each library Thompson, Samantha. “CatchWord looking glass: The whole docu- spec/253sum.html previous years, using similar methods, that has access to that database? Answer: performance — which has been gener- I was able to get deals closed readily. ally excellent. Catches the Web Wave.” Information ment, images, and all.” Searcher, 856 fields are repeatable in the MARC World Review No. 151 (October 1999): p.38, January 1999. Unresponsive Information Any comments, confirmations, or alter- record. One MARC record could have Authentication 20-21. Providers native experiences would be most wel- four 856 fields, each with a note in sub- “CatchWorld, Cambridge Scien- This posting to liblicense-l may ring a come!” Ellen Finnie Duranceau, Digital field z targeting patrons of the different Authentication of users is by IP address, tific Abstracts links go live.” Com- Contact Information bell with many readers: “I am won- Resources Acquisitions Librarian, MIT libraries, e.g. “Library ABC patrons click or for individuals, by username and puters in Libraries, vol.19, no.10, password. Password authentication for CatchWord Ltd. dering if I am alone in having great dif- Libraries, [email protected]. here”. But, notes one respondent, thou- RealPage House November/December 1999. ficulties recently getting information sands of records for electronic serials can off-site access by authorized institu- Digital Preservation Subject tional users is possible. The librarian Abingdon Morrow, Virginia. “Online host- providers to respond to licensing ques- be created in a MicroSoft Access file in administering an account can edit the Oxfordshire OX14 3NB ing expands.” Information World tions, keep a negotiation moving, and Gateway an afternoon, a vast improvement over registration online to create extra log- England Review, July/August 1999. complete the process in a timely man- Nancy Elkington
ingentaJournals The Charleston Pricing Options This review focuses on ingenta The ingentaJournals service remains ORDER YOURS TODAY! For a library or a user, ingentaJournals Journals (ingenta’s fulltext e-journal a core business activity, although a Feb- Libraries Pay Less than $6.00 per review service). ingentaCommunity is de- ruary 7, 2000 press release notes that, is free. Cost of the service is borne by With Publishers at Less than $10.00 per review publishers whose journals are hosted. scribed as a portal service that will fa- with the University of Lancaster, ADVISOR Some of the journals, such as those of cilitate communications among ingenta has won a contract to develop Critical Reviews of Web Products for Information Professionals Blackwell Science, may impose a sur- subject-oriented communities (two a pilot electronic interlibrary loan ser- OW UCH RE charge in the subscription for electronic early examples are in the areas of ani- vice for the U.K. from the Joint Infor- ✓ H M A access; however, for most, the cost of a mal science and nutrition; descriptions mation Services Committee and the Yes ENTER MY SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONE YEAR resemble those for Cognet). The Insti- Publishers Association. As fulltext de- YOU SPENDING? print subscription includes the right to Name ______access an electronic version. For ar- tute evidently is an annual conference livery of articles will be integral to e- ticles not covered by an institutional “for publishers and users of electronic ILL, it should permit further Title ______Web Database and scholarly resources” which first met in improvements of ingentaJournals. subscription, a document delivery ser- Organization ______Quarterly Print are now vice based on deposit account or credit September 1999. Copies of papers are available at: http://www.ingenta.com/ As an aggregator, ingentaJournals of- Address ______card payment is available. fers access to the resources of a num- available at the low home/fs_ingentainstitute.htm. BIDS is ber of publishers with a common ______Product Description an aggregation of electronic resources Introductory Price of interface and/or a standard way to link Established in 1998 with the Univer- offered to the higher education com- City/State/Zip ______00 to titles from an OPAC. It provides $295. for Libraries sity of Bath maintaining a minority munity in the UK. In January 2000, searches of its resources from its site Phone ______Fax ______E-mail ______holding, ingenta (Latin for “enormous) ingenta merged with UnCover. While 00 and access to MEDLINE with links to $495. for all others is a private-sector company consisting the two services have yet to be inte- Signature ______its site. It also offers fee-based docu- of ingentaJournals, ingentaCommunity, grated, some speculation on the im- ment delivery service for articles to ingenta Institute and BIDS (originally, pact is offered at the end of the I am Interested in being a Reviewer. Yes which an institution or individual holds Bath Information and Data Services). review. 618 S. Monroe Way, Denver, CO 80209 Ph: 303-282-9706 Fax: 303-282-9743 http://www.charlestonco.com
10 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 55 Advisor Reports from the Field Advisor Reviews — Comparative
no valid subscription. As a compari- present; however, an e-mail alert ser- translates plain language terms into son, a test article through ingenta cost vice for tables of contents of selected MeSH). Other selectable lists permit 15 pounds (including the value-added titles is being developed. limiting to articles about specific age Heard on the Net . . . tax (VAT) with no provision to waive groups and specific kinds of articles, Searching. From the ingenta pages, a the tax) compared to $18 through e.g., clinical trials, dictionaries, and review UnCover. Reportedly, for purchasers in “Quicksearch” seeks articles by key- literature. Neither ingentaJournals nor words, selecting either ingentaJournals “Heard on the Net…” highlights comments Elsevier Web Journals tion or to have direct access to the pub- the U.S., the price will be converted to MEDLINE offer searching of the or MEDLINE. Journal searches are made in electronic public forums that can The following is excerpted from Karen lisher site, in this case to Sage for its US dollars and the VAT removed by fulltext of the articles hosted. possible by part of the journal title as contribute to a productive interchange of in- Hunter’s statement to liblicense-l journals. On the other hand, smaller April 2000. keyword or from a click-on alphabetic Site Developments. There is no alert formation and viewpoints among librarians, concerning the many e-mail exchanges libraries stepped up to say that they While its BIDS service offers opportu- list. Journals may also be identified in list to advise of database developments publishers, vendors, and technologists. This expressing concerns over Elsevier’s re- prefer to use a minimum set of inter- nities for further integration in the U.K. subject lists or lists by publisher. An or new publishers and journals, al- issue’s compilation is courtesy of a number moval of IP validation for several pub- mediaries or the aggregated publisher and Europe, this review is from a U.S. “enhanced search” can be run against though there is a note on the regis- of individuals: Vee Carrington of CHOICE, lications. “The product group in sets (e.g., IDEAL, Muse, JSTOR) to perspective. Also, as my institution has either ingentaJournals or MEDLINE. tration page that your e-mail address Chuck Hamaker of UNC-Charlotte, Katina question is a relatively limited number provide full image journals. While access to many of the publishers rep- The former permits identifying words will be used to advise you of impor- Strauch from the College of Charleston and of our titles in a limited number of dis- there are multiple interfaces and addi- resented by ingentaJournals (Aca- in fields: title, title/keywords/abstracts, tant developments, with an unchecked Rebecca Lenzini, Publisher of The Advisor. ciplines that, in addition to being avail- tional costs for the third party support, demic Press, Elsevier, and John Wiley & authors, journal name, year, volume, “opt-out” box. A list of press releases E-mail your comments, suggestions, and con- able through ScienceDirect (SD) and it is support the libraries in question Sons) through separate arrangements and issue. Within each field, words can may be consulted at http:// tributions to future “Heard on the Net …” ScienceDirect Web Editions (SDWE), are could not provide by themselves. from OhioLINK, our use of ingenta has be combined as “and” with “&” and www.ingenta.com/home/ columns to [email protected] or also offered via their own Web sites MIT CogNet Online focused on the other publishers. “or” with “,”. This search also permits fs_aboutingenta.htm . [email protected]. with certain enhanced features. These MIT CogNet™ (http://cognet.mit. edu) truncation with an “*,” use of “?” as a journal Websites were actually some of The following offers a summary of ma- Archiving. Although I could not find has been introduced as an electronic single wild letter, and “#” for a wild our earliest Web offerings and have cer- jor characteristics of ingentaJournals. a written policy, sales representatives Come and Get It community for the cognitive and brain word in a phrase. This does permit tain features that we wish to continue at ALA Mid Winter (Jan. 2000) stated Eric Lease Morgan, NCSU Libraries, sciences, bringing together current and Number of Titles. 2,335 (expected to broad searching with keywords but and have not yet migrated into SD or that ingenta intended to permanently http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/ classic resources in the field, and pro- limited refinements. A search of “Ohio” SDWE. Indeed, the current access con- be near 2,600 by April 2000), although archive the titles that it has mounted. morgan/ provided the following an- viding a unique, interactive forum for this number includes more than 1,000 as a title/keywords/abstracts returned trol system for the “enhanced” version The representatives did avow that an nouncement to many lists on the Web scholars, students, and professionals. Elsevier titles that are accessible only 179 hits while adding “& university” of these titles will move to a username institution would retain access rights recently (see pg. 52 in this issue). Currently under development, MIT narrowed the hits to 24 (with most and password-based system. IP access through a subscription to Elsevier’s Sci- to years for which it had valid subscrip- (Some editing has been applied to CogNet™ is a free service through Au- ence Direct. ingentaJournals is an ag- entries identified as “Science Direct” control remains central to our policy. tions even if the subscription is can- shorten the text.) The source code to gust 31, 2000, and welcomes charter gregation of fulltext electronic editions rather than fulltext). We are working hard to re-introduce celled. Mark Rowse, ingenta CEO, has MyLibrary@NCState is available for members during this period. Charter IP-based access control to these en- of print journals. Its offerings include The enhanced search in MEDLINE said that this is incorrect. He states download from a link at http:// members who contribute content to the titles from such major publishers of hanced versions for those libraries that offers only a choice between title and that the archiving policy depends on hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/development/ site during the prototype phase will scholarly journals as Blackwell, require it; we hope to be able to make title/abstract/MeSH terms, with an the archiving policy of each publisher, mylibrary/ which points to a series of earn discounts on MIT Press books, this available again in April 2000. We Blackwell Science, Oxford University author field and an opportunity to limit and whether a publisher continues to detailed texts describing the service selected journals, and on the subscrip- Press, and John Wiley & Sons. See the apologize for any inconvenience or by beginning and ending dates; how- pay to maintain an archive. If ingenta’s and a “sandbox” allowing interested tion fee for MIT CogNet™ when it is of- confusion this change has caused.” box in this review for a full list of pub- parties to create one or more MyLibrary ever, clickable boxes permit limiting to relationship with a publisher were to Karen Hunter is Senior Vice President, ficially launched (September 1, 2000). lishers (see pg. 13). accounts as well as explore the adminis- English Language articles, including end, ingenta cannot guarantee that an Elsevier Science. trative interface and the interface for con- ERIC/HE Critical Issues Registration. Recently, ingenta has plurals, and using “READER” (which archive would be available. (See our tent providers. From the URL, software Bibliographies introduced an online Web form for ini- Intermediaries? tial registration. can be downloaded, installed on a local Useful or Not? The ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher computer and given a trial. In addition, Education (ERIC/HE) recently com- Access. Access is either IP-controlled A recent discussion on liblicense-l dealt ingentaJournals Review Score the URL points to a mailing list, mylib- or by password. In January 2000, with with the exact issues raised by Kent pleted the quarterly update of all its The maximum number of stars in each category is 5. dev, allowing us to create a community Critical Issues Bibliographies (CrIB) IP-access, linking to journals was en- Mulliner in his CatchWord/ingenta re- ★★★★ of interested parties and providing the Sheets. Each CrIB Sheet is a brief ERIC abled without the need to stop at a Composite: views in this issue (see pg. 6). Namely, opportunity for you to articulate your login page from the OPAC; this new cost. In reaction to the recent an- bibliography on a topic of interest in Content: ★★★★ Includes Elsevier’s Science ideas about MyLibrary@NCState with the field of higher education. Topics of capability is called “easy link.” A sample nouncement that Sage has expanded sets of your peers. particular interest include assessment, OPAC link from the 856 field in a MARC Direct with fulltext its hosting intermediaries to Ebsco, record for the British Journal for the Phi- available only to SwetsNet, RoweCom and OCLC, at distance education, collaborative learn- ingenta Institute ing, technology in higher education, losophy of Science by Oxford University subscribers to that service. least one reader pointed out that OCLC The following information was sent to and technology in the classroom. All Press is: http://www.ingenta.com/jour- ★★★ access comes at an additional charge Searchability: Has facilitated direct link us from Anthony Watkinson, Editorial nals/browse/oup/phisci?mode=direct. and that the library is placed in an awk- the CrIB Sheets are available on the Web Board member. Up on the site at at http://www.eriche.org/Library/ Access is also available from citations in from OPAC but still has ward position when faculty learn from www.ingenta.com/home/ingenta- index.html#crib. MEDLINE mounted by ingenta. intermediate step from institute.htm are the proceedings of a Sage that they ‘should’ have free ac- citation to fulltext. conference on “User Behaviour in the cess to electronic versions of their jour- ARL-Announces... Activation. The same online form that nals, but when the logistics are not in Pricing: ★★★★★ Free, and notably so. Online Scholarly Research Environment.” SPEC Kit 253: Networked permits online registration may also be Contents include an evaluation by Jan fact free. Others in the discussion used to activate individual titles. Contract Options: n/a Contracts/licenses are with Velterop of the success of IDEAL, a ma- noted the increasing number of inter- Information Resources faces provided by varying intermedi- This SPEC Kit examines how ARL li- Delivery formats. Predominantly PDF individual journal publish- jor contribution on the user behaviour files. among social scientists, Jonathan Newby aries as posing problems for users. At braries have structured themselves to ers and not aggregator. of Elsevier on portals, and some other least one ARL library stated that they identify networked information resources Current Awareness. None at the contributions of more than ordinary use. prefer to locally load journal informa- in the market, evaluate them for purchase, 54 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 11 Advisor Reviews — Comparative Advisor Reports from the Field interview with Mark in this issue, pg. 49.) (and subsequent titles) were somehow passwords. Only after choosing “di- Selecting and Maintaining The Library has chosen to use OCLC’s ready for a “marketing blitz,” even plan- confused with those of our sister insti- rect login” would the user be passed Browsers Recommended. Netscape CORC system to catalog all resources ning to make personal calls to intro- tution, Ohio State University. This did to the list of holdings for the requested MyLibrary Resources which are included in MyLibrary’s un- duce the service. 4.7 or above; Internet Explorer 5 not become obvious for a number of journal. With “easy link,” this is simply One of the wonderful features of derlying database and framework. The At the same time, the library is plan- Usage Statistics. None to users; months. In that period, one could go scripted into the URL, and the user goes MyLibrary is that it allows users to cre- OPAC is the catalog for MyLibrary, ac- ingenta is trying to convince publish- to a site to collect URL links for each directly to the list of holdings for the title. ate a profile based on their chosen dis- cording to Kathy, a fact that is contrary ning to survey those already using the service to learn what’s most important ers to share usage information. title or could request a list of the titles cipline. Information resources for these to a trend now prevalent in many li- and links (used in a Web page of e- One major obstacle remains from the disciplines have been actively selected to them. The library would like to in- earlier version: after a user reaches a braries in which the OPAC is becom- Other Features: Subscription-based journals and/or 856 fields in a MARC by teams of Reference Librarians and ing more peripheral. Subject troduce a new version by the fall of access is available by the year. As with table of contents of a particular issue 2000, and would like to see 3000 us- record). When we finally discovered Collection Managers. According to disciplines are also mapped to parallel the print equivalent, if you do not main- and requests the fulltext of an article, ers profiled by the end of this year. the error between the institutions, we Kathy Green, “subject teams” are a tra- categories on the Web to help selec- tain a subscription for a year, you do he or she is taken to an intermediate dition at NC State; the creation of these had to go back and remove OPAC links tors keep up with the massive amount Within a few months, the MyLibrary not have access to that year. Other page with the following statement, as- profiles for MyLibrary was a natural from many titles that had been in- of information which needs to be har- Management Team hopes to release an aggregators generally provide access to cluded in e-mail attachments from suming the institution has registered extension of their work. its subscription: “As a subscriber to nessed. Overall, selection is definitely “Owner’s Manual” which will offer full retrospective holdings. As a result ingenta. We probably should have dis- at work: “We won’t add an inferior of this facility, an institution will retain the journal, you can access this fulltext Still, as readers of The Charleston Ad- guidelines on how to categorize, locate covered the problem when many titles visor will easily recognize, the challenge resource,” says Kathy. and offer resources. This manual will rights to view those years for which it were included for which we did not article free of charge. You may now download the article, which is available is to keep the resource lists “alive” and be welcomed by the larger library and purchased access, even if subscriptions have print subscriptions. I guess that Introducing MyLibrary to the as a PDF file.” The user must then click constantly up-to-date. Naturally, li- information communities since are subsequently cancelled. is why it is called the bleeding edge. on “Deliver Document.” Adding any censed resources appear in their proper User Community MyLibrary’s code has just recently The MEDLINE service is adding the Through all of this, ingenta staff were intermediate step, and particularly this categories, but what about free re- MyLibrary was officially introduced to been released for general use in an ability to mark and e-mail results. helpful and courteous, and continue so one, can only serve to confuse a po- sources? Kathy notes that sometimes the user community at NC State last “open source” mode (see related an- the Library falls victim to what she fall. Already 1500 users have signed nouncement in “Heard on the Net” in this Critical Evaluation today. Now, the list of titles and links tential user (and appears to be based is sent to a registered institution by e- on the erroneous assumption that the terms as “wrong headed” thinking by up and are profiled. Library staff used issue of The Advisor). Staff at NC State My institution has been using mail (I believe that the previous full user will read the full message). More- seeing the free versus paid categories press releases and articles in campus hope that a “collaborative develop- ingentaJournals since April 1999 and list is no longer available as a lengthy, over, the terminology, “deliver docu- as defining, rather than the resources newsletters and newspapers to promote ment” environment will benefit every- has seen it undergo dramatic changes. many page document online.) ment,” is too close to our use of terms themselves. In fact, the price paid for the service to faculty and students. one. And just remember, A year ago, registering titles was a like “document delivery” and “article the resource may in many cases not be They also participated in several Raleigh-Durham is the home of Red lengthy process requiring exchanges of Throughout the ten months that we delivery” that refer to fee-based ser- representative of the value of that re- “Expo’s” on campus to help get the Hat/LINUX. So, we wish them well. e-mails (first requesting access – in our have used ingentaJournals, we have source (i.e., today, many free resources, word out. The service generated in- vices. We could change all the termi- See Also: Readers wishing to learn more case, to Scandinavian University Press watched it develop and applaud its such as PubMed, are more valuable than terest very quickly and feedback was nology for these services (to what, I about MyLibrary and several similar titles – then completing an e-mail form improvements. In January 2000, the their priced counterparts—for an ex- positive from the beginning. can’t imagine) to accommodate projects should also see “Personalizing the with publisher and subscription num- service took a major step forward with ample of this fact, see The Advisor’s ingentaJournals (which provides Digital Library,” by Roy Tennant, LJ ber for each title, and finally notifica- “easy link.” Prior to this, each link had January 2000 issue which ranked Logically, faculty and graduate students maybe 2-3% of our electronic jour- appear to be the heaviest and most en- Digital, July 1, 1999. http:// tion of availability). In 2000, this to inform a user that he or she would PubMed higher than three other fee- nals). But I am left with the question, thusiastic users. This fact makes sense, www.ljdigital.com/articles/.infotech/ process has been greatly simplified be connected to an ingenta “login” based Medline interfaces). And, a re- why is this intermediate page needed? digitallibraries/19990701_4881.asp. with an online Web form. page, and that the user should choose lated question is: should MyLibrary given the subject specialties offered by “direct login” rather than respond to One other area of concern with the service. Now, library staff are be- During the lengthy e-mail registration include a general Web search engine the boxes asking for user names and ingentaJournals has been its respon- coming “missionaries,” according to process, our (Ohio University’s) titles like Yahoo? Or, should it be limited to siveness. In 1999, it was sufficiently hand-picked sites? Kathy, who notes that they are getting slow in responsiveness that we opted to provide direct links to Oxford Uni- Kent Mulliner versity Press titles, listing ingenta only Kent Mulliner is Collection Development Coordinator and Assistant to as an alternative. As ingenta has re- the Dean of Libraries at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Born on a bank ported that its use was doubling each of the Snake River, his career has meandered through the world of words month in 1999, and reaching 1.4 mil- and books traversing diplomacy, professing, bookselling, publishing, writ- lion in January 2000, it would be hard ing, and editing and spatially from Kuala Lumpur to Oneonta. He has for any service to keep up. By January been active in OhioLINK since its nascency in 1987 and serves on its 2000, with its new version, the speed Cooperative Information Resources Management Committee and Collec- of response dramatically improved. As tion Building Task Force (which implemented a statewide approval and this review was being completed, re- distributed purchasing plan in 1998). He has published in, among others, sponsiveness again declined; however, Against the Grain, Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, Journal of Educa- this was during the international furor tional Media and Library Science, and Proceedings of the ACM and, with his over “denial of service” attacks on ma- wife, authored the Historical Dictionary of Singapore. He regularly contrib- jor providers. Moreover, from our lo- utes reviews to American Reference Books Annual and Choice. He has chaired cation, we have had sporadic problems the Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group of the Association for Asian with routers elsewhere in the internet Studies and the Southeast Asia Microform (SEAM) Project at the Center causing timeouts and failed connec- for Research Libraries and served as the North American representative tions. It is also possible that the rela- for the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. An aficionado of tive location of the ingenta site may fishing, gardening, and NASCAR, his avocation is researching Americans be a factor; with so many external fac- in pre-mid-19th century Singapore. tors possibly involved, it is too soon to blame ingenta. 12 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 53 Advisor Reviews — Comparative UnCover and ingenta MyLibrary@NCState: As this review was in its late stages, the January 14, Publishers in ingentaJournal 2000, announcement of the merger of UnCover with Academic Press A Conversation with Kathy Green, Head, ingenta opened an imbroglio of opportunities. For an Adis International IELD ingenta user taking advantage of the fee-based docu- Research and Information Services, NCSU Libraries ment delivery, the universe should greatly enlarge. As Arnold F with any database, as it is enhanced with more relevant Association of Applied Biologists
THE UnCover’s restrictive pay-per-view approach of 1999 or by Rebecca Lenzini (Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, The Charleston Advisor) to waiting for fax delivery. As an institutional user of Blackwell Science
52 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 13 Advisor Reviews — Comparative Advisor Watch Contact Information Acknowledgment ingenta Ltd. ingenta inc. The author gratefully acknowledges BUCS Building 124 Mount Auburn Street the insights of Judy Luther, Informed Upcoming Advisor Events University of Bath Suite 200 North Strategies, 102 West Montgomery Bath BA2 7AY University Place Ave., #B, Ardmore, PA 19006 as to ALA Summer Reviewer and Subscriber Get Together United Kingdom Cambridge, MA 02138-0222 USA potential synergies in the ingenta- Tel: 44 (0) 1225 826267 Tel: (617) 576 -5815 UnCover merger; however, the ren- and Second Annual Advisor Vendor Showcase Fax: 44 (0) 1225 826283 Fax: (617) 576-5816 dering in this article is purely the E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] responsibility of the author. http://www.ingenta.com http://www.ingenta.com Watch for these Coming Attractions!
Second Annual Advisor ALA Summer Advisor Reviewer Charleston Advisor “Free” Access to E-Journals: CatchWord and ingenta Vendor Showcase and Subscriber Discussion and Preconference on Evaluating, Conclusion November 1, 2000 Brainstorm Session Selecting and Acquiring Elec- Unlike most comparative reviews, there is nothing to choose between CatchWord and ingenta as the e-journals that they Charleston, SC Saturday, July 8, 2000 tronic Resources: Usage and offer are completely different. Both have relations with user-pay aggregators so an institution can pay an intermediary Other Statistics Be sure to attend the Second Annual 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. — Chicago, IL aggregator to provide a portal to Catchword or, at least for OCLC, ingenta’s free resources. Simply by being free-to- November 1, 2000 subscriber aggregators, they have many characteristics in common. Although ingenta appears to offer dramatically more Advisor Vendor Showcase sponsored Help us celebrate our first anniversary titles, the numeric advantage shrinks when one considers that the Elsevier titles are only available through Science Direct by The Charleston Advisor. An informal of publication by sharing your ideas 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and that an institution may well have alternative access to the Academic Press IDEAL program. and informative chance to see the latest and suggestions for the future. We want Charleston, SC in electronic resources from a wide One advantage that aggregators have is that a user can do searches that cover the titles of a number of publishers. to hear from you! Don’t miss our 3rd in this workshop variety of publishers, vendors, and series. Sessions will feature Judy Luther For such a search, one would hope to cover as many relevant titles as possible. While ingenta offers a much larger automation experts. For details and location information, search universe, that universe is still a small percentage of the universe of scholarly publishing. As contrast, within email [email protected] or of Informed Strategies, and findings OhioLINK, I can search a universe 10-20% larger in number of titles than ingenta’s and with access to all titles in Vendors Signup Now! See pg 23. check the Website at www.charlestonco.com from the CLIR Whitepaper on this that universe. Even more dramatic, UnCover permits that search across 18,000 titles and the combined databases in (details to be posted by June 1, 2000). important topic. ISI’s Web of Science cover over 8,000 titles. Metcalfe’s law (named for its coiner, Ethernet inventor and InfoWorld columnist Bob Metcalfe) states that the value of a network increases exponentially with more people on it because it becomes more useful. My corollary would be that value of a database such as offered by CatchWord or ingenta increases geometrically with more title coverage, because Want to Sign Up For Advisor Events? it gets closer to 80% comprehensive. At present, a search in either is surveying only a small part of the universe, and a not particularly representative part at that. (See IDEAL review in TCA v.1, no. 1, pg. 6; WOS review TCA v. 1, no. 2, pg. 5.) Yes! I am interested in the selected event(s). Please send me more One alternative is article linkages with important online abstracting and indexing services. CrossRef, facilitating linkages among articles in e-journals, offers a complementary approach. It would seem that the use of Digital information! Object Identifiers (DOIs) would facilitate this process. However, I am unclear as to how a link is established to the one of the four digital objects (e.g., electronic articles) to which I have rights, rather than to any of the other three, Second Annual Advisor Vendor Showcase Charleston Advisor Preconference such as copies of the same article provided by user-pay aggregators. While this is being sorted out, OPAC links offer November 1, 2000 — Charleston, SC November 1, 2000 — Charleston, SC an inelegant, but not inadequate, substitute. Although aggregators (whether free or paid) can offer benefits, they cannot address some of the biggest headaches with ALA Summer Advisor Reviewer and Subscriber Discussion e-journals. First, you will still need to identify a subscription number (the number that the publisher uses to identify you and Brainstorm Session, July 8, 2000 — Chicago, IL as a customer). Prior to e-journals, we had kept ISSNs and subscription agent numbers (which identified our order for a particular title through that agent) but we never had to worry about the number that the publisher used to identify us. With a few thousand subscriptions, trying to find the number that the publisher uses to identify us for a specific title is Name ______imposing (as hundreds of journal issues are unwrapped in the mail room each week). Title ______But the biggest headache is the license itself. Having learned from presentations by Trisha Davis (Ohio State) and Rick Anderson (University of North Carolina Greensboro) and absent compelling advice from our university legal office, I Organization ______have identified a few core concerns with licenses, meaning that nearly every license from a publisher has to be negotiated and amended. As the license is between an institution and the publisher, an aggregator has no role, except in providing Address ______the delivery system after the license is finalized. The best that can be hoped for is that more publishers will begin to understand the areas of concern and to use the model licenses maintained by John Cox Associates at http:// City ______State ______Zip ______www.licensingmodels.com. In this murky arena of arcana, aggregators are well advised to remain on the side. In making decisions about aggregators, one last consideration should be mentioned. At present, there are any Phone ______Fax ______number of competing pricing models for electronic resources. Often as a single institution, or even a consortium, we are humbled by our inability to bring a modicum of rationality to an apparently insane market. One easy way is E-mail ______to demand value. If an institution decides to pay an aggregator for the same titles that it could get from CatchWord or ingenta for free, it should be sure that it is receiving sufficient added value to justify the added cost. Otherwise, Return Your Information Request To: it is only encouraging the madness. 618 S. Monroe Way, Denver, CO 80209 Ph: 303-282-9706 Fax: 303-282-9743 http://www.charlestonco.com
14 The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com The Charleston Advisor / April 2000 www.charlestonco.com 51