I agree with Rachel. Kluwer has been a particularly difficult deal to
monitor due to several factors - the speed of the site, the lack of usage
stats, the very slow reponse to any queries ...I've relied on spot-checking
and on readers asking about specific titles but I've never been impressed at
the fact we still have titles 'on the way' which seem never likely to
materialise ...
Louise
Louise Cole BA ALA
Electronic Resources Co-ordinator
Brotherton Library
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
tel 0113 233 5502
fax 0113 233 5561
e-mail [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Rachel Stone [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 October 2001 11:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Quality in ejournal provision
How are UNN managing to check all the Kluwer journals so often? I am
impressed and would like the details. When we were cataloguing them we
found them a pain since the site is so slow and it's not clear where the
full text coverage begins. (Or are you just checking where some access to
the journal (e.g. abstracts) begin? We will have to do systematic
rechecking of them periodically, but it certainly won't be every week.
At 12:34 10/10/2001 +0100, Ian Winship 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.
Rachel Stone
Information Resources Manager (Electronic Journals), Learning and
Information Services, University of Hertfordshire,
Hatfield Campus LRC, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts. AL10 9AB, UK
Tel +44 1707 284669
Email: [log in to unmask]
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