Electronic Library and Information Resources

1. Electronic Library and Information Resources Introduction and overview

2. Objectives To review and define what electronic library and information resources are and consider • their features and functionality • their strengths and weaknesses • why you might want to use them • To consider other electronic resources

3. Electronic library resources • Any library or information resources that can be accessed electronically, e.g. • electronic journals • scholarly databases • electronic books • hybrid digital collections • Internetgateways and search engines • Free or fee-based access

4. Electronic journal formats • Full-text—whole journal available • Electronic version of print • Electronic only • Partial full-text—selected articles only • Table of contents/abstracts only

5. Why use e-journals? • An up-to-date resource • Convenience • Extra features—e.g. search facilities, links to other databases, supplementary information • Access to a wider range of material than might otherwise be available through your local library

6. Types of electronic resource • Academic • Refereed journals • Review journals • Pre-prints • Bulletins • Non-academic • Professional/trade journals • Magazines • Newspapers

7. Academic journals • Example: African Crop Science Journal • www.inasp.org.uk/ajol/journals/acs/about.html • Used to • disseminate research findings • find out about research being carried out by others in your field • identify methodologies that might be relevant to your own work

8. Academic journals • Features • written by researchers and experts • aimed at researchers and experts • articles always cite sources • peer reviewed • Strengths/weaknesses • high-quality, reliable information • may be slow to be published due to lengthy review process • often fee-based access

9. Review journals Example MathSciNet • http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search Used to give an overview of the current literature in a specific research area or discipline • Features • Give an overview of the current literature in a specific research area or discipline • Titles usually contain ‘Review’, ‘Reviews’, Advances in, ‘Current opinion in’, ‘Progress in’, ‘Trends in’ • Have already done much of the literature searching for you

10. Bulletins • Example: Africa Research Bulletin • http://www.africa-research-bulletin.com/ • Used for: • making announcements to a specific audience • up-to-date information in a very specific area • Features • written by in-house staff, or staff writers • may be issued as required, sometimes intermittently • contain short reports • Strengths/weaknesses • very up-to-date • standard very variable

11. Pre-prints • Example: The Physics Eprint Archive • http://xxx.lanl.gov/ • now includes more than 70% of the current physics literature world-wide • Used to: • circumvent lengthy journals publication process • solicit and provide informal prepublication feedback on new ideas and findings

12. Pre-prints • Features • written by researchers for researchers • accessed online from a pre-print server • Strengths/weaknesses • very up-to-date • allow rapid communication of results and ideas and instant feedback • lacking the quality control process of a peer-reviewed journal

13. Non-academic resources • Professional/Trade journals • Example: The Architects Journal http://www.ajplus.co.uk/ • Written by staff writers and experts in the field, aimed at members of a trade or industry, contain advertising, articles do not usually cite sources • Good standard maintained by editorial board, ephemeral nature of the information

14. Non-academic continued… • Magazines • Entertainment, information about popular culture, product information • Easy to read, entertaining, information is lightweight and not always reliable • Newspapers • Up-to-the minute information, current affairs, debate • Can be valuable sources of certain kinds of formation but inherent problems of all newspapers

15. Types of scholarly databases • Bibliographic—references to published material • Numeric—e.g. statistical tables • Full text—complete publications • Audio—collections of music • Image—e.g. collections of slides • Multimedia—audio-visual, animation etc

16. Why use scholarly databases • To search for information for a specific project or essay • To provide an overview of research activity in a given area • To keep up-to-date with a specific subject area through regular scanning

17. Other e-resources • E-books • e.g. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ • Internet search engines • e.g. http://www.google.co.uk • Internet gateways • e.g. http://www.inasp.info/health/

18. Summary • The range of electronic resources is considerable and growing all the time • The type, quality and usefulness of resources varies enormously (especially for academic users) • There are both free and fee resources • New users should be made aware of the differences, benefits and drawbacks of various kinds of resource

19. Thank youAny questions?