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The role of the academic library in the process of scholarly communication : management of print and electronic serials information
thesis
posted on 2017-06-01, 10:33 authored by Hazel M. WoodwardSerials information constitutes a major element of the scholarly communication process. The
output of research is date-stamped and recorded in the serials literature and provides the
authoritative knowledge archive. The academic library plays a major role in the process by
acquiring, managing and providing access to serials information. The items in this thesis
examine the nature of this role. Starting in the print environment aspects of serials collection
management are explored including: bibliographic control; collection development; financial
control; and automation. The findings of a research project examining serials usage data and
subscription, binding and processing costs are presented, along with a discussion on the ways
in which libraries can optimise access to serials information by provision of printed journals
versus interlibrary loan. Moving into the electronic environment various aspects of electronic
serials management are discussed, drawing upon the findings of two pieces of research.
Electronic journals have the potential to revolutionise the way in which both libraries provide
access to serials information and the way in which scholars use this information. Project
EL VYN sought to inform both librarians and publishers about the requirements of scholars in
their use of electronic journals as well as investigating some of the technical aspects of delivery
formats. Cafe Jus worked with a number of publishers and investigated the way in which
students and academics made use of electronic journals. A useful outcome of this study was a
series of guidelines for publishers. The final section of the thesis concentrates upon serial
article delivery. The first research project evaluated the relative cost-effectiveness of serial
information provision by libraries in the light of the possibilities offered by electronic article
delivery. Use data was collected over one academic year and the project concluded - from a
series of modelling exercises - that (in 1986) a complete switch to electronic document
delivery would not be cost-effective. Ten years later, Project ACORN revisited article
delivery, setting up an electronic 'short loan' collection' for high demand articles and
developing the necessary technical and administrative infrastructure for the process which has
been utilised in a number of UK academic libraries.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Information Science
Publisher
© H. WoodwardPublisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
1998Notes
This thesis is closed access for reasons of copyright. A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.Language
- en