The other question I would pose is how use of this free content affects
the accuracy of any usage stats?
Claire Grace
Resources Manager,
Open University Library
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Tel: (01908) 653291
Fax:(01908) 653571
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eileen Jamieson
Sent: 07 July 2006 16:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Icon Confusion - The Case of the MetaPress Glasses
Hi
You're not alone. It's a bit irritating to have to trawl through a list
of irrelevant titles to check which ones we can access. Fortunately,
since we're a specialist library, it's easy to know which ones to
ignore. Bigger, multi-subject libraries must have a much harder time of
it. I don't understand why we have to do this though. Other online
publishers have no problem differentiating between subscribed and
complimentary access, why can't MetaPress? And why are single free
issues counted as viewable content? They may be viewable, but we don't
have any real full text access to the journal, only a sample issue. The
current system just makes more work since you can't rely on their
information and have to check if you have any 'real' online access.
______________________________
Ms Eileen Jamieson
Serials & Information Librarian
The Geological Society
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BG
Tel: +44 (0)20 7432 0999
Fax: +44 (0)20 7439 3470
email: [log in to unmask]
visit the ultimate geological site: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk
visit the Online Bookshop: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lesley Crawshaw
Sent: 07 July 2006 14:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Icon Confusion - The Case of the MetaPress Glasses
Hi,
We've been spending a lot of time recently checking access to some of
our titles on MetaPress for work we are doing with Serials Solutions.
One of the things that has really frustrated us over the years is that
the glasses used by MetaPress often appear when all we have access to is
one "freebie" issue. This means that the glasses can't be relied upon to
tell us what we have access to and it means we have to go into every
title to see if it is a real subscription or just a freebie issue or
two.
One might think that filtering the publications by viewable publications
might filter these freebie issues out, but of course if doesn't.
I can only imagine the confusion that this causes to our users if they
happen to visit the MetaPress site and try and access what looks like a
viewable publication and then find that all they can access is a single
issue and not the whole collection.
I have raised this (and a number of other issues) with MetaPress over
the years - indeed I dug out an old email sent to MetaPress back in
March 2003 raising this exact issue. They replied saying "any title with
viewable content (sample, subscription of free) will show up with the
"eyeglasses"
icon, and will also display when "Filter Viewable Items only" is
selected. I have contacted our development team with your suggestion for
altering the eyeglasses icon to differentiate between the various types
of access available, and they are currently looking into this
suggestion".
It does appear that the suggestions to have more appropriate icons to
differentiate between the different access arrangements was never taken
forward my MetaPress. This is a real shame.
Does anyone else out there find this confusing and want something doing
about this or is it just us?
Cheers
Lesley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesley Crawshaw, Faculty Information Consultant Learning and Information
Services University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 01707 284662 fax: 01707 284666
list owner: [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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