Can’t I Just Get This Online Somewhere? User issues with electronic journals Sarah Beasley Portland State Univeristy Library
The Dream
What users assume
What our users assume Famous article from Atlantic Monthly in 1945: “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush Shouldn’t that be available full text online?
Google!
First hit! I’m such a good web searcher.
A great article about ERIC in the 21 st century in some kind of ed policy journal …
Plethora of interfaces, vendors, formats
Sometimes for the same title….
PNAS via JSTOR
PNAS via PNAS
Server is down
Coverage issues
Disparity of coverage issues
Comprehensiveness of content issues Incomplete content – article appearing in the paper included a side bar with recipes from the bakery described.
Impact from the Tasini decision The United States Supreme Court (in Tasini v. NYT) ruled that print publishers such as newspapers and magazines may not use material in online databases to which they had previously obtained only print rights from independent contractor creators. The Court’s ruling establishes that such online and electronic uses are separate uses from that of print.
Format of the content
Format Issues PDF, TIFF Plug-ins required Learning curve and training issues related to additional applications
There’s PDF and then there’s PDF Sometimes PDF is not a page image, but simply word-processed text
Graphics and Tables… To print tables at full size, each must be enlarged, individually…..
Generation Gap PDF created from scanning print copies – one generation away from original printing. Can be quality issues -- alignment
Generation Gap Quality of print reproduction can be poor
Generation Gap Resizing the text for better viewing now requires user to scroll horizontally….
Infrastructure Issues
Remote authentication Speed of network connections Size of pdf files – What happens when you cancel and the publisher provides you with your archival material? What format? What will you have to do to support it?
Pricing
Could spend a whole day on these issues alone, but from users: perspective: Why don’t you have more? Options for pay per view
Pay per view Wilson –
Pay per view PsycINFO
Problems with the medium itself
User acceptance Learning curve Citation Issues
In text citations – how?
More questions Published online – estimated scholarly value? Peer reviewed? Identified via the discipline’s I & A databases?
Link Rot Rumsey, M. (2002) “Runaway Train: Problems of Permanence, Accessibility, and Stability in the Use of Web Sources in Law Review Citations” Law Library Journal, 94,
Rumsey article More articles cite web every year. More web cites are cited 62% of links in articles published in 2001 were working in May-June % of links in articles published in 1997 were working in May-June 2001