Yes, but the problem is how to manage such an exchange of information. At UEA we are
dealing with some 40 different Publishers/providers for e-journals. I'm not sure people
would be too happy to get large attached files, etc, on this list.

For example, over the Summer I had to work out the title changes on Academic Search
Elite and Business Source Elite from the beginning of 2001 (the only way to get this
information was to manually compare and contrast half a dozen disorganised lists from
the EBSCO admin web site) - it took me many hours over the Summer. No doubt others have
gone through this process as well.

Another example, John Wiley's renewal letter - warning us to re-register by the end of
2001 if we want to keep access to archives of e-journals we have with them. Worth
mentioning I think. Fortunately I was alerted by my Acquisitions Dept but the letter
could easily have gone astray and I might then have known nothing about it.

Or peculiar individual e-journal renewal arrangements such as the one for the New
England Journal of Medicine recently. It raises important questions.

My question is: how can we order such an exchange of information about e-journals in an
already confused environment? If I mailed everything to the list I'd soon be
unpopular and yet maybe the above items are useful to some people? I'm not sure a list
format is be the best option for this. What do others think?

Nick


 On Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:03:07
+0100 Melvin Morbey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Nick and everyone
>
> I think this is exactly the sort of information which should go to this list
> rather than to a separate one, particularly as we have members from
> publishing houses. One of the aims when we set up the list was to try to
> stop everyone doing the same work and re-inventing the wheel all the time.
> This issue fits perfectly with that aim.
>
> Melvin Morbey
> E-Journals Co-ordinator/List owner : Lis-E-Journals
> Library
> University of Reading
> Whiteknights PO Box 223
> Reading RG6 6AE
>
> Telephone : Internal : 8779
>                     External : 0118 9318779
> E-mail : [log in to unmask]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nicholas Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 1:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Quality in ejournal provision
>
>
> > I agree with Ian that the publishers are not keeping their side of the
> bargain. The
> > issue is how to resolve these problems as a great deal is out of our
> hands. One thing I
> > do feel is that we are often all doing the same checking work and we might
> all benefit
> > from sharing specific information / replies from Publishers, etc.
> Obviously this
> > lis-e-journals list is helpful but if it was to be used for such a purpose
> it would be
> > swamped with postings! Is there some other way we could set up a mailing
> list or web
> > site where we could post our findings, specifically on e-journals? This
> may seem
> > idealistic but it might be worth a try - I'd certainly be happy to share
> revised list of
> > titles / problems with services, etc. Now the Publishers should perhaps be
> doing this,
> > but the reality is different stories to different institutions and no
> overall picture.
> >
> > If anyone is interested in this idea, let's create a forum to pursue it.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> > Nicholas Lewis
> > Electronic Resources Librarian
> > University of East Anglia
> > Norwich
> > NR4 7TJ
> > [log in to unmask]
> > 01603 592382
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:34:40 +0100 Ian Winship <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > We have been doing our regular review of where we are with our
> ejournaldeals and I was a
> > > little perturbed to see how incomplete our provision is. Of the 4500
> titles we have,
> > > about 700 are listed with 'holdings incomplete' because not all issues
> are yet available.
> > > There are also titles promised in some deals that never appear in 2
> years- or have been
> > > sold on to another publisher before we even got a glimpse of them! Some
> examples are given
> > > below- you will probably be familar with them and be able to add many
> more! Difficulties
> > > often seem to be with publishers not supplying the aggregators.
> > >
> > >
> > > Quality of provision, and the staff effort needed chasing suppliers -
> often
> > > because of problems encountered by users - has been discussed here
> before in
> > > general terms and in relation to specific publishers, but needs to be
> raised
> > > again, since there seems to have been no improvement. We enter into
> legal
> > > agreements with suppliers, but they do not seem to be keeping their side
> of
> > > the bargain. I would appreciate a NESLI or DNER view on this.
> > >
> > > Some examples.
> > >
> > > Kluwer/NESLI 2001 deal
> > >
> > > Offered 704 titles (approx)
> > > Still chasing outstanding titles: at the moment we have 685 titles
> finally
> > > available from this deal, 19 outstanding, 7 of which will never be
> available
> > > to us as they have now changed publisher.  Out of the 685 available to
> us
> > > 440 still have incomplete holdings. These are checked on a weekly basis
> to
> > > see if new holdings have appeared as the new issue alerts aren't very
> > > reliable.
> > >
> > > OUP/NESLI deal
> > >
> > > Lots of problems - we originally ordered a batch of 108 titles from
> various
> > > subject clusters and requested access via ingenta. The titles subscribed
> to
> > > have gradually appeared since May but very inconsistently. We have had
> to do
> > > lots of checking and contacting ingenta and OUP etc. Some titles still
> ask
> > > for payment. There's a  batch of about 20 titles haven't been published
> > > online yet, which we weren't aware of and so this required lots of
> chasing
> > > trying to find out why they weren't available etc.
> > >
> > > Harcourt Health
> > >
> > > Many backfiles not yet complete.
> > >
> > > Wiley Interscience
> > >
> > > There were different initial lists of titles so it was hard to know what
> we
> > > should be entitled to. Journals on the deal changed publisher or changed
> > > title, so it has been hard to keep track.
> > >
> > >
> > > There are lots of other examples of 'problem ejournals' for which we
> have a
> > > database to log all queries and faults regarding problem access, missing
> > > issues, dead links etc.  This is checked weekly.
> > >
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > Ian Winship
> > > Learning Resources, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
> > > City Campus Library, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
> > >                   ----------------
> > > e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> > > phone:  0191 227 4150      fax: 0191 227 4563
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> ___
> >
> > Nicholas Lewis
> > Electronic Resources and LLT Subject Librarian
> > UEA Library
> > Norwich
> > NR4 7TJ
> > phone: 01603-592382
> > fax: 01603-259490
> >

_______________________________________________________________________________

Nicholas Lewis
Electronic Resources and LLT Subject Librarian
UEA Library
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
phone: 01603-592382
fax: 01603-259490