Electronic Resources

1. Bharat Kumar Electronic Resources

2. Electronic Resources? • A resource available over the Internet can be called ‘Electronic Resource’ or ‘e-resource’ Gail McMillan defines, “any serial produced, published and distributed via e-networks such as Internet, e-journals may be defined very broadly as any journals, magazines, e-zine, newsletter or type of e-serial publications, which is available over the Internet.”

3. History of E-Journals

4. Earliest Journals • Earliest Journals • 1st scientific journal-like publication • Jan 1665 • Le Journal des Scavans • Founded by M. de Sallo • 20 pages long • Contained 10 articles and some letters • 2nd journal-like publication • Late in 1665 • Royal Society of London • Called Philosophical Transactions • Monthly journal of articles that recorded experiments of their member • 16 pages of 9 articles

5. The 1980’s – The Turning Point Technological changes • Technology began to be developed to allow for e-journals • Word processing • Publishing software • Introduction of the internet through LAN • PC’s and workstations • Telecommunication technologies improved • Satellites • Fiber optics • General networking capabilities • Other factors • Journal prices doubled while library budgets declined • Libraries worries about lack of library space • Technological improvements made it easier to store more information in a smaller space and to access that info more quickly

6. The 1990’s – The Internet Changes Everything • Journal prices continued to increase annually while library budgets declined or had only modest increases • Libraries began to cut journals- publishers responded by offering electronic formats • World Wide Web emerges and brought together all the elements • -made e-journals approachable, accessible & affordable • E-journals exploded onto the scene • September 1990 – Post Modern Culture – appeared (considered the first true electronic journal) • July 1991 – “Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters” listed • 30 electronic journals titles • 60 newsletters • 15 “other” titles • 1995 – estimated 100 refereed e-journals

7. Need for E-Resources • Can be accessed remotely • Can be accessed by more than one person at a time • Can be searched and saved digitally • There is no chance for mutilation / disfiguring / tearing of pages • Do not requires physical acquisition / receiving • Reduce staff work for shelving / binding • Do not require physical space to store • No missing issue(s)

8. Categories for E-Resources • E-journals • E-books • Full Text (aggregated) Databases • Indexing / Abstracting databases • Statistical databases

9. Advantages • Early publication • Easily searchable • Accessibility • Links • Remote Access • provide more and more back issues that are fully searchable

10. Disadvantages • Difficulty in reading on computer screen • Archiving

11. Accessing E-resources • IP authenticated access • Log-In ID / Password • Virtual Private Network (VPN)

12. E-Resources • Encyclopedia Britannica Quest • Britannica Image • PebbleGo http://www.pebblego.com/ • Teen Health & Wellnes http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/ • EbscoHost • ProQuest • Cengage Learning - INFOTRAC

13. Future of Electronic Journals From a 1999 study by the ARL Directory of Scholarly Electronic Journals and Academic Lists

14. Selection of E-Resources Identification of E-resources Evaluation of Electronic Journals - Content - Currency - User Interface - Training Support - Response, Reliability and Availability - Statistical Reporting - Method of Access - Terms and Conditions of License Agreement Purpose Of Subscription

15. Impact on Staff and Other Costs Infrastructure Space Administration/Management Staffing Technical Services

16. Effective Searching of E-Resources

17. Searching for Information may be as tough as this

18. Searching: Common Practice • Phrase searching Example- History of Science in India • We should know that • Search is case insensitive many times, need not to bother about capitalization • Connectives/ auxiliary words ( ‘of’, ‘in’ in the above example) need not be mentioned

19. Search Process • While searching we should: • Start with clarifying the subject, its connotation and its ramifications • Be clear about the scope of the topic, context, perspective • Express the question in terms • Standardize in terms of the search engine

20. Boolean Operators • Also known as Logical Operators • Named after British born Irish Mathematician George Boole • Wrote about system of Logic • From his writings Boolean operators were derived AND OR NOT

21. Boolean Operator : AND… AND - must have both the terms - all-or-nothing operator - this operator is binary one - it has same concept as INTERSECTION in set theory solar energy solar + energy

22. Boolean Operator : AND When One Should Use: • to connect two or more different concepts together to find relationship between them - to narrow down the search, telling the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting documents.

23. Boolean Operator : OR When One Should Use • To connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms) • to broaden the search, telling the database that ANY of the search terms can be present in the resulting documents.

24. Boolean Operator : NOT… NOT - retrieves only first keyword not the second - limits the search

25. Boolean Operator : NOT When One Should Use i) To exclude keyword(s) from the search ii) to narrow the search, telling the database to ignore the concepts that may be implied by the search terms.

26. Truncation and Wildcard • Trancation and wildcards to retrieve variations of search terms • truncation symbol (*) serves as a substitute for any string of zero or more characters for example the search golf* retrieves articles containing the words golf, golfing and golfer(s), as well as golfball(s). • The wildcard symbol (?) serves as a substitute for one character or none for example – organi?sation will search ‘organisation’ as well as ‘organization’

27. Boolean Logic Redux • Different search engines handle Boolean operators differently • Some require the operators to be typed in CAPITAL LETTERS while others do not • Some search engines use drop-down menu options

28. Implied Boolean Operators • Implied Boolean operators use the plus (+) and minus (-) symbols inspite of Boolean Operators • (+) or (-) sign in front of a word will force the inclusion or exclusion of that word in the search statement

29. Google Scholar: A Scholarly Search Service

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34. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

35. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

36. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

37. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

38. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

39. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

40. Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

41. Formulation of Search Statement… • be specific • think about the words that one can expect to find in the body of the page and use them as keywords • whenever possible, use nouns and objects as keywords • put most important keyword(s) first • combine keywords whenever possible into phrases • avoid common words

42. Formulation of Search Statement Write down the search statement and revise it before typing it into the query box to get the relevant information

43. WASTED SEARCH Information retrieval systems are powerful tools but their usefulness is limited by the ability of the searcher.

44. AVOIDING WASTED SEARCH A good searcher should possess a variety of skills related to searching. • Self Confidence • Patience and Perseverance • Logical and flexible approach to problem solving • Spelling, grammar and typing skill

45. Thanks!