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Informally computer scientists reported they could access free copies of research papers they needed via tools such as Google Scholar. To ascertain whether this perception came from widespread free access or from unnoticed employer-paid access, the purpose of this paper was to locate computer science papers and determine what proportion was freely available using Google Scholar.

A sample of 1,967 conference papers and periodical papers from 2003 to 2010, indexed in the ACM Guide to Computing Literature, was searched for manually in Google Scholar, using the paper or article title and the first author's surname and supplementary searches as needed.

Free full-text versions were found for 52 per cent of the conference papers and 55 per cent of the periodical papers. Documents with older publication dates were more likely to be freely accessible than newer documents, with free versions found for 71 per cent of items published in 2003 and 43 per cent of items published in 2010.

Results were limited to the retrieval of known computer science publications via Google Scholar. Future research could examine whether the decline found in this study is specific to Google Scholar or reflects a decrease in the free sharing of research by computer scientists.

Previous research for computer science found lower levels of free access than this research determined, but the decline found in this study runs contrary to increases that have been found. This research confirms many computer science papers are available for free but also that subscription holdings are necessary for complete coverage of papers in the field.

The increasing availability of digital editions of journals, and/or the incorporation of the full‐text versions of their papers in the largest aggregator databases, have been the highlights in the coming of age of digital libraries from many perspectives, ranging from collection development to preservation, from ready reference services to creating digital carrels. Full‐text availability of research papers through several digital resources is not merely a great convenience for distributing knowledge, but also an indirect indicator of the acknowledgement of the popularity and importance of journals and other serial publications (such as conference proceedings) in many disciplines where such sources are the primary venues for scholarly and professional publishing. One of the purposes of the author's current research project was to find out how well three business databases reflect the popularity and familiarity of peer ranking and rating through 50 top rated marketing‐focused and marketing‐related periodicals in the full‐text coverage of those journals. This paper seeks to present some results.

The target journals were selected from the list of 50 marketing‐focused and marketing‐related journals ranked by nearly 630 faculty members from marketing departments of US and international universities in an outstanding large scale survey and research project by Hult et al. The presence and time‐span of coverage of 50 journals and conference proceedings was analysed in three of the largest (partially) full‐text business databases.

The research found that many highly rated and ranked journals in the sample were absent or very modestly present in the full‐text subset even in the largest and most widely licensed three business databases tested.

The research adds a new dimension to evaluating databases by the specific criteria of full text availability of journals and other serial publications.

With the rise of alternate discovery services, such as Google Scholar, in conjunction with the increase in open access content, researchers have the option to bypass academic libraries when they search for and retrieve scholarly information. This state of affairs implies that academic libraries exist in competition with these alternate services and with the patrons who use them, and as a result, may be disintermediated from the scholarly information seeking and retrieval process. Drawing from decision and game theory, bounded rationality, information seeking theory, citation theory, and social computing theory, this study investigates how academic librarians are responding as competitors to changing scholarly information seeking and collecting practices. Bibliographic data was collected in 2010 from a systematic random sample of references on CiteULike.org and analyzed with three years of bibliometric data collected from Google Scholar. Findings suggest that although scholars may choose to bypass libraries when they seek scholarly information, academic libraries continue to provide a majority of scholarly documentation needs through open access and institutional repositories. Overall, the results indicate that academic librarians are playing the scholarly communication game competitively.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the volume of full‐text coverage for 50 marketing‐focused and marketing‐related serial sources in the Ebsco Business Source Premier (BSP) and ProQuest ABI/INFORM Global (ABI) databases, focusing on the significant differences in the full‐text availability of 21 journals which are common in the two databases.

The target serials were the ones rated –in response to a large scale, very well‐designed and implemented research project (Hult et al.)– by more than 600 marketing specialists, working at the marketing departments of universities around the world (the Hult050 set).

The test searches found that BSP had full‐text coverage for 29, and ABI for 34 sources. BSP had 70,740 and ABI had 63,405 full‐text items. However, the detailed analysis at the individual source level of the Hult‐50 set revealed anomalies in the reported volume of full‐text coverage for several top tier marketing journals in ABI, such as single year and even decade‐long gaps and inflated hit counts.

The paper provides empirical evidence for anomalies, which should be considered in comparing the real volume and value of full‐text availability when making licensing decisions.

More and more full‐text daily newspapers are becoming available online. This increase in supply, led by the English‐speaking press, whose language is spoken or at least read by the largest number of people, is linked to several factors. The first of these, naturally, is the development of processing capability which enables large volumes of data to be stored and increases the speed of processing; secondly there is the introduction of new technologies in the newspaper business (photocomposition etc.) which has facilitated the formation of this type of databank. In presenting the online availability of full‐text daily newspapers, the author first identifies the characteristics of the international market, then defines the different components of the reader/newspaper relationship and finally provides a survey, by country, of the titles available throughout the world, analysing the differences between hosts.

Between July 1996 and July 1997 seven Dutch universities were involved in the project DEGREE (Dissemination of Electronic GREy files on Economics). Objectives of the project were: electronic production, disclosure and availability via WWW of full text working papers on economics and business economics. Procedures and formats were analysed, discussed and established. This joint effort resulted in a national WWW homepage for working papers on economics, where the full text papers can be retrieved. Structural continuation of the project is based on a gentlemen’s agreement between the DEGREE participants. In an international scope, co‐operation with RePEc is established. This paper will describe the way in which the project DEGREE was set up, carried out and built into an interesting WWW site.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the core literature of aerospace studies and the databases necessary to ensure its coverage in a collection for aerospace scientists. The paper also aims to examine whether China has different needs from other countries.

A sequence of bibliometric analyses was used. Institutions and countries with high aerospace research productivity were identified from 4,290 papers published in “aerospace engineering” journals in Science Citation Index. Journal papers cited in these papers (14,618 extracted from 17,015 citations in all) were analyzed to discover the core source journals for aerospace research. The availability of the core journals in online databases determined necessary library provision for aerospace research.

The most productive aerospace research institutions are in China and the USA. Journals are the most important information resources. While 20 per cent of cited journals were discipline‐specific, 80 per cent were in related fields. Chinese researchers had similar resource needs to researchers from other countries. To provide for aerospace research, a library collection needs to include the databases of the field, and commercial and open access journals that cover aerospace engineering, related disciplines and the sciences in general.

The paper reveals the characteristics of the literature of the aerospace discipline for the first time. It identifies the core journals used by aerospace researchers and the bundle of online resources necessary to adequately provide for research in the field. The technique used can be applied to other disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of information resources in the research papers of the graduate students in Library and Information Science (LIS) at Kuwait University.

The methodology chosen for this paper is the bibliometric method by way of citation count of the references found in the literature review papers of LIS graduate students at Kuwait University by identifying the preferred form of publications, retrieval method, time span, subject distribution, and the most cited journals.

It is shown that the majority of students used journal articles, web pages, and books as the most preferred form of resources. Their preferred method of retrieval was the printed format. Time span of the most used citations is from three to ten years. They mostly used traditional library journals such as Bulletin of MLA, Library Review, The Electronic Library, Library Management, and College and Research Libraries.

The quantity and quality of citations were reviewed and approved by the student advisor, and the sample was drawn from a population of 74 papers based on the availability of original papers.

The findings in this paper provide important insights for the academic library administration to take appropriate measures to achieve a higher level of awareness and skill by the users.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a topic where blind participants expressed significant concern: obtaining full text and accessible full text.

This qualitative study includes 18 open-ended telephone interviews with blind academic library users in the USA. The study uses the viewpoint that understanding blind peoples’ perspectives is essential for equal accessibility.

Locating full text via link resolvers seemed problematic. Inaccessible articles and complications and delays creating accessible versions of print books limited participants’ use of materials. Enabling technologies and services were highlighted.

Caution should be used when generalizing from this study due to its sample size and methodology. The study is not a web accessibility test, which would analyze coding, nor a usability test, which would observe users. Additional research would be ideal; however, libraries should not wait to attend to accessibility.

In addition to improving digital accessibility, to address difficulty obtaining full text, libraries could offer to locate full text for blind users and implement SmartLinking and single sign on authentication. To deal with inaccessible full text, libraries could work with disability offices to obtain accessible materials and to convert materials to accessible format. DRM free HTML or EPUB e-books can have accessibility advantages. Outsourcing conversion to accessible format can also help. Libraries could offer reader service to assist blind users locating relevant sections of books to convert.

Compared to previous studies, this study includes a larger number of blind screen reader users; describes some unique issues; and includes blind users’ own interpretations.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore access to full-text documents in libraries through Sci-Hub and consider whether it is a blessing in disguise to library users.

Sci-Hub has been a valuable resource for accessing full-text documents. Sci-Hub is potentially problematic from a legal standpoint but has provided a “blessing in disguise” to library users who lack access to academic resources. Sci-Hub has gained significant popularity among scholars and researchers; it has democratized access to academic research. The ability to access scholarly publications for free has provided an important avenue for research and has allowed for greater efficiency and effectiveness in research projects. The legality of the service, concerns about the quality and accountability of the available materials, and the unclear long-term sustainability of the service are some of the challenges associated with using Sci-Hub in libraries.

This paper highlights how the Sci-Hub improves access to full-text scholarly publications for library users. The blessings and challenges associated with using Sci-Hub in libraries and recommendations are discussed.