2. FIGHTING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE ELECTRONIC JUNGLE Who manages e-journals? Alan Hopkinson Head of Library Systems, Middlesex University

3. Target of presentation Managers of library services who don’t believe how difficult it is to provide constant and reliable access to e- journals Those at the coal-face implementing access to e-journals

4. The e-Environment The tasks to be done Who should do them?

5. Middlesex University Information and Learning Resource Services 12 campuses 6 periodicals assistants on campuses 1 Senior Serials Librarian 1 Serials Cataloguer Systems Team (4 staff) Athens administrator and CHEST contracts Around 20 Subject Librarians Journal suppliers: EBSCO and Divine

6. The e-Environment e-journals (mostly) on remote computers –freely available –born digital –free access for subscribers to hard copy –conditional access to subscribers –provided through packages

7. Particular problems Packages: do we catalogue everything? Value added services: –searching through journal articles –access to publishers’ websites –how can we explain to the users that we can’t supply everything they can find

8. The e-Environment players Publishers anxious for financial return –dealing with a new medium –not always competent in hardware and software –may host their own journals or on hosts Librarians –new role as intermediaries Users –high expectations –remote access

9. e-Environment: policing Methodologies for controlling access –IP authentication (for one computer or a range) –Athens –individual password –charging via Credit Card

10. Tasks to be done: access Provide a route to the e-journal via: –catalogue (http://library.mdx.ac.uk) –journals list (http://www.ilrs.mdx.ac.uk/) –other database (http://www.isis.mdx.ac.uk/iah/e- resources.htm) BUT What to include?

11. Tasks to be done: enabling Inform journal hosts –range of IP addresses –entitlement of journal titles (by volume)

12. Who does these tasks (I) Correcting inaccessible / chargeable serials –Systems Team with help from Serials Librarian and serials assistants (who find a PID on a wrapper) Enabling access to journal hosts –Systems Team (some only available at certain sites)

13. Who does these tasks (II) Finding bad links - users  enquiry desks; systems team run programs –http://validator.w3.org/checklink Correcting bad links in catalogue, lists and database –Serials cataloguer; library webmaster; library systems team

14. Who should do these tasks Electronic resources librarian ?

15. What I have not mentioned Purchasing of e-journals Help from consolidators Other software packages useful for making serials accessible Moving from print to electronic

16. Thank you for your attention!