Bharat Kumar

Electronic Resources

Electronic Resources?

►A resource available over the Internet can be called ‘Electronic Resource’ or ‘e-resource’

Gail McMillan defines, “any serial produced, published and distributed via e-networks such as Internet, e-journals may be defined very broadly as any journals, magazines, e-zine, newsletter or type of e-serial publications, which is available over the Internet.”

History of E-Journals

Earliest JournalsEarliest Journals

1st scientific journal-like publication Jan 1665 Le Journal des Scavans Founded by M. de Sallo20 pages longContained 10 articles and some letters

2nd journal-like publicationLate in 1665Royal Society of LondonCalled Philosophical TransactionsMonthly journal of articles that recorded experiments of their member16 pages of 9 articles

The 1980’s – The Turning PointTechnological changes

►Technology began to be developed to allow for e-journals

Word processing Publishing software Introduction of the internet through LAN PC’s and workstations

►Telecommunication technologies improved Satellites Fiber optics General networking capabilities

Other factors►Journal prices doubled while library budgets

declined►Libraries worries about lack of library space

Technological improvements made it easier to store more information in a smaller space and to access that info more quickly

The 1990’s – The Internet

Changes EverythingJournal prices continued to increase annually while library budgets declined or had only modest increases

Libraries began to cut journals- publishers responded by offering electronic formats

World Wide Web emerges and brought together all the elements

-made e-journals approachable, accessible & affordableE-journals exploded onto the scene

September 1990 – Post Modern Culture – appeared (considered the first true electronic journal)July 1991 – “Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters” listed

30 electronic journals titles60 newsletters15 “other” titles

1995 – estimated 100 refereed e-journals

Need for E-Resources►Can be accessed remotely►Can be accessed by more than one

person at a time►Can be searched and saved digitally►There is no chance for mutilation /

disfiguring / tearing of pages►Do not requires physical acquisition /

receiving►Reduce staff work for shelving / binding►Do not require physical space to store►No missing issue(s)

Categories for E-Resources

►E-journals

►E-books

►Full Text (aggregated) Databases

►Indexing / Abstracting databases

►Statistical databases

Advantages

►Early publication

►Easily searchable

►Accessibility

►Links

►Remote Access

►provide more and more back issues that are fully searchable

Disadvantages

►Difficulty in reading on computer screen

►Archiving

Accessing E-resources

►IP authenticated access

►Log-In ID / Password

►Virtual Private Network (VPN)

E-Resources

Encyclopedia Britannica Quest Britannica Image PebbleGo http://www.pebblego.com/ Teen Health & Wellnes

http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/ EbscoHost ProQuest Cengage Learning - INFOTRAC

Future of Electronic Journals

From a 1999 study by the ARL Directory of Scholarly Electronic Journals and Academic Lists

Selection of E-Resources►Identification of E-resources►Evaluation of Electronic Journals - Content - Currency - User Interface - Training Support - Response, Reliability and Availability - Statistical Reporting - Method of Access - Terms and Conditions of License

Agreement

►Purpose Of Subscription

Impact on Staff and Other Costs

► Infrastructure

►Space

►Administration/Management

►Staffing

►Technical Services

Effective Searching

of E-Resources

Searching for Information

may be as tough as this

Searching: Common Practice

Phrase searching

Example- History of Science in India

We should know that

Search is case insensitive many times,

need not to bother about capitalization

Connectives/ auxiliary words ( ‘of’, ‘in’ in

the above example) need not be

mentioned

Search Process

While searching we should:

Start with clarifying the subject, its

connotation and its ramifications

Be clear about the scope of the topic,

context, perspective

Express the question in terms

Standardize in terms of the search engine

Boolean Operators

Also known as Logical Operators Named after British born Irish

Mathematician George Boole Wrote about system of Logic From his writings Boolean operators

were derived

AND OR NOT

Boolean Operator : AND…

energy

solar + energy

solar

AND- must have both the terms- all-or-nothing operator- this operator is binary one- it has same concept as INTERSECTION in set theory

Boolean Operator : AND

When One Should Use:

-to connect two or more different concepts

together to find relationship between them

- to narrow down the search, telling the

database that ALL search terms must be

present in the resulting documents.

Boolean Operator : OR

When One Should Use-To connect two or more similar concepts

(synonyms)

-to broaden the search, telling the database

that ANY of the search terms can be

present in the resulting documents.

Boolean Operator : NOT…

NOT- retrieves only first keyword not the second

- limits the search

Boolean Operator : NOT

When One Should Use

i) To exclude keyword(s) from the search

ii) to narrow the search, telling the database to

ignore the concepts that may be implied by

the search terms.

Truncation and Wildcard

► Trancation and wildcards to retrieve variations of search terms

► truncation symbol (*) serves as a substitute for any string of zero or more characters

for example the search golf* retrieves articles containing the words golf, golfing and golfer(s), as well as golfball(s).

The wildcard symbol (?) serves as a substitute for one character or none

for example – organi?sation will search ‘organisation’ as well as ‘organization’

Boolean Logic Redux Different search engines handle Boolean

operators differently Some require the operators to be typed in

CAPITAL LETTERS while others do not Some search engines use drop-down

menu options

Implied Boolean Operators

Implied Boolean operators use the plus (+) and minus (-) symbols inspite of Boolean Operators

(+) or (-) sign in front of a word will force the inclusion or exclusion of that word in the search statement

Google Scholar: A Scholarly Search Service

Google Scholar…

Google Scholar…

Google Scholar…

Google Scholar…

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Google Scholar: Making Complex Search

Formulation of Search Statement…

be specific think about the words that one can

expect to find in the body of the page and use them as keywords

whenever possible, use nouns and objects as keywords

put most important keyword(s) first combine keywords whenever possible

into phrases avoid common words

Formulation of Search Statement

Write down the search statement and

revise it before typing it into the query

box to get the relevant information

WASTED SEARCH

Information retrieval systems are powerful tools but their usefulness is limited by the ability of the searcher.

AVOIDING WASTED SEARCH

A good searcher should possess a variety of skills related to searching.

Self Confidence Patience and Perseverance Logical and flexible approach to problem

solving Spelling, grammar and typing skill

Thanks!