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 –Internet gateways and search engines Free or fee-based access

4. Electronic journal formats Full-textwhole journal available –Electronic version of print –Electronic only Partial full-textselected articles only Table of contents/abstracts only

5. Why use e-journals? An up-to-date resource Convenience Extra featurese.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 Bibliographicreferences to published material Numerice.g. statistical tables Full textcomplete publications Audiocollections of music Imagee.g. collections of slides Multimediaaudio-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 g rowing all the time The type, quality and usefulness of resources varies enormously (e specially 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 you Any questions?