Dear Matthew
Yes I do pretty much the same as you and like you find it very frustrating, I am most cheered however that you are starting discussions about libraries and librarians trying to provide the service that we would like to provide rather than the one we are currently stuck with.
If we don't have that vision of what it should be in our heads its very easy to settle. I am still grinding my teeth about the hell of trying to access Elsevier publications we have paid for and that are available via Athens but only if you have the cunning of a Jedi knight and the patience of a saint, ie not our usual user..
Best wishes
Sarah
Sarah Sutton
Clinical Librarian
Cancer and Haematology, Children's Services, Diabetes Care, Emergency Department, Renal Services and Urology, Women's, Perinatal and Sexual Health Services.
LRI Library, Clinical Education Centre
2nd Floor
Jarvis Building
Leicester Royal Infirmary
Infirmary Square
Leicester
LE1 5WW
Tel 0116 258 5558
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www.uhl-library.nhs.uk
http://clinicallibrarian.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mathew Stone
Sent: 04 October 2012 11:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: How do you deal with requests for Epubs ahead of print?
Hello everyone
How do you feel about "e-publications ahead of print", and how do you deal with them?
In our library, when a customer requests an "e-publication ahead of print" that we are not able to immediately access, we simply process it like any other request but in the knowledge that we may not find a library who can supply it. Sometimes the British Library can supply them, but sometimes not (I'm not sure why this is). In those cases where we can find no library to supply the article I will contact the library customer and tell them they have 3 remaining options:
a) wait until the article appears in print and then submit another request, at which point the British Library should be able to supply it. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing how long this will take, it could be a year or two.
b) purchase the article themselves from the publishers website. (Would/do any libraries consider purchasing an article directly from the publisher? Typical costs seem to be round 20-30 US Dollars, which works out at about double the cost of a standard British Library article request - spending an extra £10 to avoid a lengthy wait might be good value in some cases)
c) contact the authors of the article and see if they would be willing to share their research with you.
In such cases it seems to me that the library is not fit for purpose. If libraries (especially specialist/academic libraries) are not able to supply (epub) research articles that are being quoted at conferences/in the press and already referenced in other research articles, how will this affect our reputation with our customers?
Does anybody think that the publishers are using these "e-publications ahead of print" to deliberately scupper the inter-library supply of articles?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts!
Kind regards
Mathew Stone
Assistant Librarian | Health Library & Information Service | Fieldhouse Education Centre, BRI
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
T: 01274 36 4122
F: 4704
http://www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk
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