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This article was downloaded by: [The University of Manchester Library]On: 04 December 2014, At: 17:28Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
The Acquisitions LibrarianPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wzze20
Western Michigan UniversityLibraries' “Electronic JournalFinder”Randle Gedeon a & George Boston ba Acquisitions and Serials Resources Department,Waldo Library , Western Michigan University , 1903West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008-5353,USAb Serials Resources Department, Waldo Library ,Western Michigan University , 1903 West MichiganAvenue, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008-5353, USAPublished online: 20 Jan 2009.
To cite this article: Randle Gedeon & George Boston (2005) Western MichiganUniversity Libraries' “Electronic Journal Finder”, The Acquisitions Librarian, 17:33-34,97-106
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J101v17n33_09
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Western Michigan University Libraries’“Electronic Journal Finder”
Randle GedeonGeorge Boston
SUMMARY. This article describes the development of the “ElectronicJournal Finder,” a TDNet installation for the University Libraries ofWestern Michigan University. Topics covered include: rationale forsubscription, project timeline, content, product customization, set-up,maintenance issues, reporting functions, directing URL links, searchingutility, level of acceptance, product functionality, and conclusions. [Ar-ticle copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service:1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Web-site: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. Allrights reserved.]
KEYWORDS. Academic libraries, aggregating services, electronic jour-nal management, electronic journals, TDNet, Western Michigan Uni-versity libraries
Randle Gedeon is Assistant Head, Acquisitions and Serials Resources Depart-ment, Waldo Library, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Avenue,Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5353 (E-mail: [email protected]). George Boston isElectronic Resources Specialist, Serials Resources Department, Waldo Library, West-ern Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5353(E-mail: [email protected]).
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Western Michigan University Libraries’ ‘Electronic JournalFinder.’ ” Gedeon, Randle, and George Boston. Co-published simultaneously in The Acquisitions Librar-ian (The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) No. 33/34, 2005, pp. 97-106;and: Managing Digital Resources in Libraries (ed: Audrey Fenner) The Haworth Information Press, an im-print of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2005, pp. 97-106. Single or multiple copies of this article are available fora fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST).E-mail address: [email protected]].
http://www.haworthpress.com/web/AL 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J101v17n33_09 97
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INTRODUCTION
Like many other academic libraries, the University Libraries ofWestern Michigan University started delving heavily into electronicserials in 1997 and 1998. Patron access was provided largely throughthe Libraries’ home page via a large, segmented alphabetical list con-taining at its height over 2,000 titles. The shortcomings of this ap-proach were numerous: (1) it was quite labor intensive to maintain;every bit of data had to be fed into it; (2) it was not dynamically up-dated, requiring constant attention; (3) the library was wrestling withwhat content to include; and (4) the integrated titles found in aggre-gated databases were excluded, for it just was not practical to enterthat jungle without powerful outside serials management software.The library operated with the clunky alphabetical list since 1997, allthe while watching our e-journal offerings grow exponentially. Some-thing had to be done.
Timeline
By the spring of 2001, strong consideration was being given to thepurchase of e-serials management software with a view to making adecision by fall of that year. Discussions wrapped up by fall with acommitment to purchase TDNet hosted software that November. Thesetup period consumed most of the spring and by the end of April theinstallation was operational for the staff to start whipping it into shape.The prototype was available summer 2002 for our public services staffto begin familiarizing themselves with it. The site went live in August2002.
EJF FULL-TEXT CONTENT
The library’s TDNet installation, named the “Electronic Journal Finder,”provides access to approximately 13,700 electronic journals; 11,000constitute unique titles, along with approximately 2,700 individuallycataloged titles. University Libraries subscribe to an array of publish-ers’ e-journal collections including: the ACM Digital Library, ACSWeb Editions, AMS Journal Search, American Institute of Physics,Emerald Fulltext, Highwire Press, IEEE Xplore, JSTOR, Ovid NursingCollection, Project Muse, ScienceDirect, and SIAM Journals.
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CUSTOMIZATION
A small team of three public service librarians and the two acquisi-tions/serials librarians customized parts of the front end of our instal-lation (www.tdnet.com/wmu/). The color scheme, banners, and somebuttons were altered. Blue was chosen as a background color; the banneris similar to the library homepage; and three buttons were added–the firstlinking to the OPAC, and the other two linking to in-house authoredhelp screens, and information about our subscribed e-journal collec-tions. (See Figure 1.)
The help screens (www.wmich.edu/library/ej/help.html) provide ex-planatory text detailing the ways to search the EJF (Quick Search, Al-phabetical List, and TDNet Search), the different ways the EJF mayconnect to an article (directly linking to the journal or linking to the da-tabase), advice for searching within databases, and an explanation of theresults screen. (See Figure 2.)
Search results are displayed in the following order: (1) the journal ti-tle, (2) the service providing the journal, (3) the dates of online cov-erage, (4) whether print or microfilm holdings exist at WMU, and(5) table of contents information (if it exists).
Information Icons
Informative notes can be placed within an icon attached to an entry.These notes are created through the administrative module and may ap-ply to specific titles or to all the titles in a service or to all the titles froma publisher. Most of our notes are fairly simple, offering search tips ap-plicable to given services, and providing researchers with clues as towhat they might hope to find. The library has not kept statistics on theuse of these notes, but there is some assurance for the library staff inknowing that they exist for our patrons.
DATA SET-UP
Three main lists were drawn up in Excel and forwarded to TDNet:List #1 detailed the contents of aggregated collections where access isavailable to all titles held in a collection, e.g., JSTOR, Project Muse, andEmerald. List #2 detailed individual e-journal titles within packageswhere the library has access to only a percentage, e.g., American Physi-
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cal Society, Highwire Press, and Kluwer Online; and, List #3 detailedaggregated databases with full-text content, e.g., InfoTrac Databases,Lexis-Nexis, and Newsbank Newspapers. An additional file containingour print ISSN equivalents was also sent, allowing for a link betweenTDNet and our library’s integrated system, Endeavor’s Voyager. Oncethese files are integrated the basic content of the service is present. Alsosent were image files defining banners, buttons and the HTML behindthem.
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FIGURE 1. The Electronic Journal Finder, University Libraries, Western Michi-gan University
FIGURE 2. EJF Results Explanation
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Set-Up Form
The library submitted the TDNet form providing contact information,designated options for hosting and document delivery, IP authorization,proxy server information, Z39.50 link structure, TDNet data files forcatalog, data file structure and format, site customization, and title lists.
MAINTENANCE ISSUES (DURING SET-UP)
All of the content was entered by late June 2002, beginning a period ofproduct refinement lasting about two months. This refinement involveddiscerning how all the aggregating services interface with TDNet. Poten-tially, separate issues exist for each service used. Some links set up cor-rectly, but others were problematic, e.g., several InfoTrac databaseslinked to the basic menu page (InfoTrac) and not the designated data-base. All of the aggregator content had to be checked, revealing similarproblems within services. Twelve to fifteen randomly selected titlesfrom each service were checked, revealing problems or patterns if theywere there to be found. Link status was confirmed by mousing over thestatus bar revealing the URL for a visual check of appropriateness. Thisprocess speeds up as the investigator gains experience with what theURLs should look like. Individually subscribed e-journals were sub-jected to a link-by-link confirmation establishing that the links werereaching the correct destination. Two staff members and an experiencedstudent worker performed these checks.
Maintenance Issues (While Up and Running)
TDNet advertises weekly updates; though perhaps technically true,we have found that in practice the updates are bi-weekly. The files areupdated the following Monday, if the requests are submitted Tuesdaythe week before. Every week something is found by the library requir-ing an update to the EJF. It may take the form of new e-journal sub-scriptions, additional e-journal packages, or just the modification ofexisting content. Changes are effected through the administrativemodule, which permits multiple simultaneous users logged on with thesame username and password. This is helpful for e-serial administratorsand staff keeping current with subscriptions and making changes, whichis a routine occurrence particularly with e-titles received free with printsubscriptions. The process is very straightforward and easily enough
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done if the servers are responsive. It bears mentioning that we are con-stantly checking links and making sure that they are going to the appro-priate site, even after subscribing to this service.
Maintenance Issues (General Observations)
Global changes by TDNet occur rarely, sometimes resulting in theloss of our customized URL links. Also, we have noticed that in somecases TDNet treats dynamic URLs like static URLs. Both situations re-quire regular checking of the database. Server slowness is sometimes aproblem, particularly toward the afternoon after 11:00 A.M. EST. whena few West Coast clients come online. Server traffic is first directed toEurope, perhaps leading to additional slowness. There is more ongoingmaintenance required than just “set up and forget it,” which is how weoriginally (and surely idealistically) envisioned the product.
Maintenance Issues (Non-TDNet)
The TDNet service links to content; there is no subscription man-agement. Differing services often translate into differing nuances;with growth, expansion and mergers, there are now perhaps up to onehundred different services to track with differing payment practices,potentially impacting cost and assigned URLs. Status changes are notobvious through TDNet and patrons are denied access to particular titleswhen problematic titles slip through. Checking links manually is stillthe only way to know for certain that they are correct.
HANDLING MAJOR PACKAGES
TDNet handles the updating of major e-journal collections quite well.Almost all titles are updated automatically with little difficulty, perhapsreflecting upon the type of files provided by the various services toTDNet. Once in a while, prior titles are missed. These updates occur as amatter of course and no alerts are offered, so e-resource personnel needto be aware that the files are regularly being updated. Our subscribede-journal collection contains approximately 2,800 titles from journalpackages. Of those, around seventy percent (1,900) fall into the auto-matically updated category. The other thirty percent are dealt with indi-vidually in the administrative module.
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Programming
TDNet is an Israeli company and most of the programming is done inIsrael, potentially impacting the speed of commerce. Inquiries are sentto a domestic contact, who often filters our questions through to the pro-grammers in Israel. The basic software has been upgraded since WaldoLibrary began using the service.
REPORTS
The statistics report generator, found in the administrative module,allows for customized statistical reports defined by type. The reportgenerator offers a great many search parameters, perhaps too many.Most small reports are produced immediately, while summary reportscan run very slowly. When summary reports are ordered, all titles in thedatabase are put through the system one by one. Consequently, this typeof report takes some time to download. It is clearly our perception thatthe system gathers many differing types of data, which is true enough,but the journals must be used to make their way into a report. At thetime of writing, 6,000 of the 13,000 unique titles in our database hadbeen accessed at least once. As use goes up, so goes the worth of thereporting function; use to date has not constituted enough to reallybuild up convincing reports. Ultimately these reports will provide uswith a great deal of comparative data. TDNet does not offer the abilityto automatically replicate reports on a weekly, monthly, quarterly,etc., basis, so any report requires an overt request. Keep in mind thatthese reports detail e-journal use through the EJF only, not for accessthrough bookmarked sites or through our library’s OPAC.
CONTENTS
Essentially, the EJF is a sophisticated link manager affording signifi-cant functionality including the ability to search for particular titles,browse lists of e-journals, configure usage reports, run searches andsorts on the database content. Our customized screen contains columnardata for journal title, dates of coverage, links to our OPAC, and some ta-bles of contents, which represents a leaner, scaled-down version of thedefault model proposed by TDNet. The constituent elements of a givenlisting may vary. Not many listings have tables of contents, where all of
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our subscribed titles link to our OPAC and have TOC listings. The cata-log links are keyed to ISSN; if the e-version does not have a separateISSN, sub-field “a” from field 022 of the print record displays.
Determining Where the Links Go
Where the link connects the user is dictated by database capabil-ity. Not all of our listings have title-level links, so where Gale data-bases link to the article level, all OCLC databases (excluding ECO)go to a database access page, ProQuest has journal-level links, andLexis-Nexis listings link to a searching interface. TDNet has a han-dle on these capabilities and most links go to the article or journal-levellink, with only a few problematic ones causing trouble.
What Is Not Included?
Our library chose to exclude indexing databases and chose not to listour print holdings. Clearly other institutions include this content; add-ing the print holdings offers patrons the equivalent of a serials shelf list,potentially a nice bonus. However, we felt that including these optionswould entail much additional maintenance and our thinking was thatmany indexing databases already link to journals and, if included, ourproduct would no longer technically be the “Electronic Journal Finder.”
LIMITED SEARCHING UTILITY
Each connection to an e-journal or aggregated collection opens a newwindow and patrons are encouraged to close windows as they go along,which can prove to be bothersome. Buttons along the top take the user tothat given page. The “Quick Search” option offers a left-anchored keyphrase, searching in the title, publisher, ISSN, or vendor fields. Search-ing by publisher, ISSN, or vendor are good options for staff, but notmany patrons find these fields relevant to their needs. Regular searchingoptions are buried several layers within the EJF and offer questionablesubject analytics. Keyword searching is an equivalent to ad-hoc subjectsearching. For instance, a search for “chemistry” nets sixty-eight rec-ords containing chemistry somewhere in the title.
Listings are occasionally presented in a confounding manner. Manyjournal titles begin with a numeral or a date, and titles in these catego-ries are not found using a letter-designated button. Lists are ASCII
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sorted, not numerically sorted, further complicating matters. Abbrevia-tions appear out of alphabetical order and the lack of or presence of a pe-riod can change the location of a title within a list. All of this raises thequestion, how does the patron search?
LEVEL OF ACCEPTANCE
Despite these shortcomings, the EJF has started gaining stature in ourlibrary system as a valuable tool for the serious researcher. Public ser-vice librarians regularly refer patrons to the EJF when citations areknown. Patrons are encouraged to search by the journal title or ISSN ifknown. The EJF is often mentioned and sometimes taught in graduateand upper-level undergraduate bibliographic instruction sessions, withstudents and faculty expressing delight at its presence. It is not beingtaught in BI sessions for lower-level undergraduates, where only the ba-sics are covered and where it is felt that the standard fifty-minute ses-sion affords too little time. Additionally, it is felt that these studentsshould be encouraged to first direct their research efforts into indexingand abstracting databases, rather than go trolling for relevant-soundingfull-text articles.
FUNCTIONALITY
The EJF can be searched by title and has replaced our clunky alpha-betic list with a greatly expanded version, updating quantities of datathat we could not possibly keep up with, given our present staffing situ-ation. It saves a lot of electronic serials work.
CONCLUSIONS
This project involved more setup on our behalf than we first realized,developing a deep appreciation for the complexity involved in dealingwith resources held within aggregated databases. Refining linkages andURLs was a big project; we had a high and sophisticated set of expecta-tions but found many inaccurate matches. There was a learning curvefor us dealing with this kind of data and TDNet was a relatively newcompany at the time. It is fair to say that we learned together, benefitingfuture client institutions and their patrons through our experiences.
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Postscript
Since this article was accepted for publication, TDNet has announcedan interface software upgrade to Version 1.10 effecting display andsearching capabilities and providing further customization and en-hancement features.
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