Search results

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01435129710166482. When citing the article, please cite: Hazel Woodward, Fytton Rowland, Cliff McKnight, Jack Meadows, Carolyn Pritchett, (1997), “Electronic journals: myths and realities”, Library Management, Vol. 18 Iss: 3, pp. 155 - 162.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/03074809610127183. When citing the article, please cite: Jagtar Singh, Fytton Rowland, Jack Meadows, (1996), “Electronic journals on library and information science”, New Library World, Vol. 97 Iss: 6, pp. 9 - 13.

The papers in this issue and the next issue of Vine (110 and 111) are concerned with the impact of electronic journals, and fall into two main groups: those from libraries, and those from publishers. There is no paper from a purely commercial publisher, and one of the “library” papers is in fact from the managing agents of the NESLI programme, who negotiate on behalf of libraries. Despite these caveats, the groupings do make clear the difference in position that exists between those who look at electronic information services from the viewpoint of the librarian (as surrogate for the end user), and those who look at them from the viewpoint of the supplier. The hybrid case is perhaps Tom Wilson, a supplier in this case, but very much on the side of the academic rather than the publisher, and putting the case for the free electronic journal.

This paper provides an extensive survey of the recent literature on scholarly publishing and its conversion to the electronic medium. It then presents the results of a questionnaire survey of the UK‐based scholarly publishing industry. The results of this survey suggest that the publishers are moving quickly towards the use of the Internet as a major medium for the distribution of their products, though they do not expect an early print publication. They also do not expect that any alternative system, based on scholars providing their results free of charge at the point of use, will seriously threaten the future of the commercial scholarly publisher. They do, however, perceive several significant difficulties in the near future. These include a shortage of appropriately trained staff, uncertainties about pricing mechanisms, lack of adequate budgetary provision by universities for library purchases, and unrealistic expectations on the part of scholars that electronic information should be inexpensive.

Relatively little study has been performed on knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the public sector, and even less in the developing countries. This paper investigates the relationship between organizational elements and the performance of knowledge transfer. Five main independent variables were identified – organizational culture, organizational structure, technology, people/human resources and political directives – and these were tested against creation of knowledge assets and knowledge transfer performance using the Spearman rank test. Tacit and explicit knowledge were also tested against knowledge transfer performance. To achieve an in‐depth empirical study, the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development of Malaysia was chosen for a case study. The findings are based on replies to a questionnaire survey done from September to December 2001. The results reveal that there are significant relationships between some of the variables and either the creation of knowledge assets or the performance of knowledge transfer. Therefore, it is necessary for organizations to consider some of the elements that show a relationship between the tested variables in implementing a knowledge management strategy in an organization. However, certain variables that did not show any relationship should not be ignored totally, as they are still very important for some organizations.

The information needs and practices of part‐time and distancelearning students in higher education (HE) in the UK outside the Open University (OU) have been evaluated. In recent years, the government has pointed out the importance of individuals engaging in lifelong learning initiatives, in order to remain competitive in a globalised economy which draws increasingly on cumulative knowledge creation. In response, the HE sector in the UK offers a growing number of its programmes on a part‐time and/or distance‐learning basis for students who can remain in full‐ or part‐time employment while studying for their qualifications. We trace the history of adult education with its corresponding study modes, and set the experience of students within the wider framework of educational change in the information society. We distributed a questionnaire and conducted telephone and face‐to‐face interviews with a substantial sample of part‐time and distance learners. Based on our research findings, we question whether the information‐gathering practices of part‐time and distance‐learning students best reflect the pedagogical concept of lifelong learning. Our results show that university libraries considered in our sample often do not cater for the specialised needs of part‐time and distance learners, which leads to an increasing use of the Internet and employer resources as a substitute for traditional information channels. Students have major problems coping with the complexity of the WWW, and we make recommendations on how to improve existing information services in HE.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of a range of search tools in finding open access (OA) versions of peer reviewed academic articles on the world wide web.

Some background is given on why and how academics may make their articles OA and how they may be found by others searching for them. Google, Google Scholar, OAIster and OpenDOAR were used to try to locate OA versions of peer reviewed journal articles drawn from three subjects (ecology, economics and sociology).

Of the 2,519 articles, 967 were found to have OA versions on the world wide web. Google and Google Scholar found 76.84 per cent of them. The results from OpenDOAR and OAIster were disappointing, but some improvements are noted. Only in economics could OAIster and OpenDOAR be considered relative successes.

The paper shows the relative effectiveness of the search tools in these three subjects. The results indicate that those wanting to find OA articles in these subjects, for the moment at least should use the general search engines Google and Google Scholar first rather than OpenDOAR or OAIster.

Librarians and information workers obviously are interested in electronic journals as a means of providing information to their customers. At the same time, members of the profession are becoming increasingly interested in accessing electronic journals that relate to their own specialist concerns. Looks at well‐established specialist library and information titles which are currently available online. Compares the nature and content of these electronic journals with those of major library and information journals available in printed form. This gives rise to the query whether current differences between printed and electronic journals in terms of content and approach are likely to continue in the future.

At first glance, this A4 size guide looks very much like the UKOLUG newsletter, sharing as it does the same cover design. However, this book is one of a number of publications from the group aimed at users of online and CD‐ROM resources, and builds upon two previous UKOLUG guides to CD‐ROMs.

Considers the preliminary findings of the Cafe Jus research project, investigating end user reactions to electronic journals. Issues explored include: access to e‐journals; reading habits; human factors; financial implications; and the future roles of librarians, subscription agents and publishers in the electronic environment.