"Martha Corpus implemented EBSCO Online, and we now have a database of all of the electronic journals to which we subscribe through EBSCO. I can not overestimate the amount of effort this took. She and I went to an EBSCO focus group in August, and she was able to give them ideas about how to improve the product." Susan Vaughn, Associate Librarian for Collection Development
No library can rely on one approach for providing readers with access to electronic journals. This year, the Library developed a five-part plan detailing the various approaches we will take. Leading this effort were Susan Vaughn, Beth Evans, and Martha Corpus.
· Part 1
A Brooklyn College Full-Text Electronic Journal Database is in development. It will include every electronic journal which Brooklyn receives, whether from a publisher or an aggregator. We acknowledge the great help that Baruch's list of e-journals has given us. When complete, this database will appear as a link under Research Resources on the Library website.
· Part 2
The Library has a long-term commitment to those e-journals and e-journal packages obtained through publishers (rather than aggregators). In many cases, we have canceled our paper subscriptions to these titles. Since we will cancel these journals only in a dire budgetary emergency, or should the journal change substantively in character or quality, we will:
Create full cataloging records in CUNY+ for each title
· Part 3
Some journals come as part of an aggregator's package, a collection of journals from multiple publishers whose content changes from year to year. Such packages include Academic ASAP, the Health Reference Center, Business ASAP, Lexis-Nexis, and others. Because the content of these journal packages is not stable (a title present one year may be pulled by its publisher the next), we will add catalog records for individual journals to CUNY+ only if these records can be purchased from OCLC or another vendor. Readers will access titles in aggregators' packages through the Brooklyn College Full-Text Electronic Journal Database or context-sensitive reference linking (see Part 4, below).
· Part 4
With the implementation of Ex Libris (in January 2002 replacing NOTIS as our CUNY+ platform) we will have access to their SFX or Context-Sensitive Reference Linking < http://www.sfxit.com >. As Ex Libris signs up information providers, it may be able to integrate their information resources with our Brooklyn College Full-Text Electronic Journal Database. (This approach is still in the development stages and is not a short-term solution.) At the same time we are waiting to see what capabilities Ex Libris can provide, Beth Evans continues to investigate reasonably priced software that permits a single search across all of the Library's bibliographic and full-text electronic resources.
· Part 5
EBSCO Online (a service from the jobber through which we obtain the bulk of our print subscriptions) is another avenue of access to our electronic journals. Readers can search all the journals obtained through EBSCO that have electronic components, as well as those contained in e-journal packages purchased from EBSCO, applying their searches across many journals or against a specific title. Unfortunately, EBSCO provides only a bare-bones structure for building such a database of e-journals: Library staff must invest a tremendous amount of work in hanging information on the framework the vendor provides. Reference librarian and bibliographer Martha Corpus is in charge of this project.
