Electronic Library and Information Resources

Introduction and overview

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

Electronic library resources

• Any library or information resources that can be accessed electronically, e.g.– electronic journals– scholarly databases– electronic books– hybrid digital collections– Internet gateways and search engines

• Free or fee-based access

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

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

Types of electronic resource• Academic

– Refereed journals– Review journals– Pre-prints– Bulletins

• Non-academic– Professional/trade journals– Magazines– Newspapers

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

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

Review journalsExample 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/

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

Thank youAny questions?