Guide to the professional literature

Co-ordinated by Margaret Butterworth

Articles about libraries and information management in Asia and the Pacific region are not plentiful in the mainstream literature. This column is designed to alert you to some of the most interesting journal literature specific to the region, as well as more general articles relevant to information professionals working in Asia and the Pacific.

Alexander, A., "Strategic partnerships and the 'new' subscription agency: hopes and dreams for the next millennium", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 233-46.

The number of serials vendors continues to decline, while those remaining look for ways to meet new demands and fiscal realities. In the information industry as a whole there is a trend toward development of strategic partnerships between companies seeking new markets and better margins. Existing business partnerships that involve subscription agencies have tended to involve other third party service or product providers. However, new business management theories also present the idea of strategic partnerships in the context of building closer, mutually beneficial relationships between suppliers and customers. This paper explores the possible application of this theory and other trends to the changing serials industry.

Barker, P., "The future of books in an electronic era", The Electronic Library, Vol. 16 No. 3, 1998, pp. 191-8.

Barker looks at the emergence and evolution of books in terms of systems theory. He describes the book as an example of a "designed physical system" that supports human communication and cognition. Barker systematically assesses how the two basic physical processes involved in using books (writing and reading) are affected by the different publication media. Acknowledging the benefits of electronic media, he recommends a "comprehensive media strategy" that utilises each storage and publication mechanism to best advantage.

Brodie, N., "Building a national electronic collection for long-term access", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 113-23.

The National Library of Canada is building a collection of Canadian electronic publications. This collection must be an authoritative source of information that is preserved and accessible for posterity. This paper addresses current practical concerns of acquisition,storage and access, as well as issues and strategies for the long term.

Chang, C., Chao, S.J. and Chiang, B., "East Asian studies: sites to help meet the growing demand for information", College & Research Libraries News, Vol. 59 No. 7, 1998, pp. 514-20. (http://www.ala.org/acrl/resjul98.html)

This list of Internet resources focuses on eight countries in East Asia: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan and Tibet. The authors selected sites that are interdisciplinary in nature and that are comprehensive. No non-English sites are listed. A complete, expanded list is available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/c&rlnew2.html

Davis, T.L. and Reilly, J.J., "Understanding license agreements for electronic products", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 247-60.

As the librarian's role evolves from handling only the traditional serials subscription to managing these electronic services, a knowledge of contractual issues is mandatory. The actual license review process is complex and requires expertise and skills beyond the training and experience of most library staff. In this paper the authors discuss the steps required to acquire and process a license agreement using a sample electronic product.

Graham, P.S., "New roles for special collections on the network", College & Research Libraries, Vol. 59 No. 3, 1998, pp. 232-9.

In an increasingly digitised world,where do special collections fit in? Graham argues that on the one hand special collection librarians can create surrogates of their holdings by digitising collections. On the other hand, the added value of books and other printed documents as physical objects means that special collections will continue to play a role in academic research.

Hightower, C., Reiswig, J. and Berteaux, S.S., "Introducing Database Advisor: a new service that will make your research easier", College & Research Libraries News, Vol. 59 No. 6, 1998, pp. 409-12.

Describes an innovative service that advises users on which bibliographic databases may be most useful to their query. Using primarily DIALOG's DialIndex service, Database Advisor queries a selection of databases using the user's search terms and returns the number of items that would be found in each database for that query. This provides easy and rapid feedback on the most useful database for a topic.

Hirshon, A., "Jam tomorrow, Jam yesterday, but never jam today: some modest proposals for venturing through the looking-glass of scholarly communication", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 65-87.

The continuation of the traditional system of scholarly communication is threatened today by internal and external changes in four key areas: research and publishing, technology, government and society, and higher education itself. Electronic information systems hold some promise of enabling a new model for scholarly communication. Yet today we seem to be in the world of Lewis Carroll: scholarly communication had "jam yesterday"and it may have "jam tomorrow", but scholars and library practitioners are struggling with how to have some "jam today" during a tortuous period of transition. This paper explores some of the causes of the current predicament and provides some proposals for collaborating with others in the scholarly,information, and technology communities.

Jett, M., Reuse, B. and Kessling, G., "Implementation of an online database for tables of contents of books", The Electronic Library, Vol. 16 No. 2, 1998, pp. 123-30.

Many small libraries do not have the resources to build a holdings database. Thanks to the availability of affordable scanners and improved OCR software, a new approach for creating an online database is possible. This database is filled through a series of stages. First, the book information and table of contents pages are scanned and converted to text using OCR software. Then, a computer program is used to extract as much information as possible, with a human making corrections and supplying missing information. Finally, the information, which consists of the title, author, ISBN, publication year, call number and other relevant information for books, as well as the entire table of contents, is stored and added to an Ovid database.

Jul, E., "Cataloging Internet resources: an assessment and prospectus", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 91-104.

Libraries increasingly use traditional rules and standard formats, namely AACR2 and USMARC, to catalogue electronic resources including serials. This paper reviews key developments in cataloguing Internet resources, surveys current problems and solutions and surveys developments in the world of metadata.

Keyhani, A., "Creating an electronic archive: who should do it and why?", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 213-24.

Libraries have traditionally played a strong role in ensuring the preservation of material for future generations and should take the lead in overseeing the creation of an electronic archive. However, creating an electronic archive is a daunting task, requiring substantial financial resources, technical expertise, a computing and telecommunications infrastructure and a commitment to a permanent archive. Difficulty issues involve data migration and a guarantee of perpetual access,while ensuring preservation of authorship and ownership. Various players,including publishers, aggregators, individual libraries, national libraries and library cooperatives, are analysed as to their appropriateness as the archivists of the future.

Kingma, B.R., "Electronic issues in document delivery: access versus ownership and library consortia", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 203-11.

In theory, a consortium of libraries that offers members joint collection development and priority access to interlibrary loan can provide savings to its members when compared with commercial document delivery, traditional interlibrary loan, or ownership of journal subscriptions. This paper presents an economic analysis of library consortia, the potential savings from consortium delivery of scholarly articles and joint collection development, and the effects of changes in subscription prices and copyright fees on consortium decision making.

Olson, G.M., "New ways of working together", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 141-53.

Olson reviews several new ways of working together that take advantage of emerging digital technologies. These technologies relax the constraints of time and distance on how we can work together. This in turn affects who can participate and what kinds of information can be used. New organisational forms such as "collaboratories" and digital libraries are emerging, though it is likely we will be surprised by the ultimate effects of these new ways of working.

Sanville, T.J. and Winters, B.A., "A method out of the madness: OhioLINK's collaborative response to the serials crisis", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 125-39.

The downward spiral of increasing serial prices and decreasing subscriptions is well documented. Libraries'efforts to minimise its impact by trying "just in time" rather than "just in case" solutions have most often attacked the periphery of the problem. This paper examines ways in which the OhioLINK community and individual libraries are trying to use their collective resources to reverse the spiral.

Schoonbaert, D., "Biomedical journals and the World Wide Web", The Electronic Library, Vol. 16 No. 2, 1998, pp. 95-103.

Though recent developments have suggested the imminent death of printed biomedical journals, the latter have now themselves joined the electronic platform. Since 1995, many of the top journals have started offering new channels of access that do not differ essentially from their paper formats. These electronic versions feature attractive additional value such as extra (multimedia) contents and improved retrieval and(hyper)linking capabilities. Compared with exclusively electronic journals or reprint archives, traditional journals migrating to the Internet have certain strategic advantages such as an aura of intellectual trustworthiness (based on peer review) and considerable social acclaim (based on citation records, among other things). As such, their impact is now increasingly being extended into cyberspace and the rumours of the death of biomedical journals are unfounded.

Tenopir, C. and Ennis, L., "The digital reference world of academic libraries", Online, Vol. 22 No. 4, July 1998, http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/ OL1998/tenopir7.html

To track the increasing use of digital reference resources in large academic libraries, this project has surveyed the 110 members of the Association of Research Libraries three times,in 1991, 1994 and 1997. This article summarises the results of the latest survey. Some of the trends they have spotted are: less reliance upon intermediary search services and more upon end-user systems; the rejection of transaction-based pricing for subscription options; an increase in training courses for library users; and the perception among library users that digital full-text is always readily available (no surprise for those of us who work at reference desks). After examining the use of locally-mounted digital resources vs. remote ones, the authors conclude that digital reference may become dependent upon connecting to information housed elsewhere.

Warner, B.F., "Full-text delivery: the core journals project", Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 105-11.

In 1994 the University of Michigan entered into partnership with UMI and H.W. Wilson to provide access to full-text imaged articles from approximately 600 journals, linking them with the Wilson indexes in the Library's online catalogue, MIRLYN. The project has implemented distributed printing, online charging capabilities, and the development of matching algorithms to map images from one vendor to journal index citations from another. This presentation covers the current status of the project,lessons learned, and future directions.