PATHWAY THROUGH THE ELECTRONIC MAZE

1
PATHWAY THROUGH THE ELECTRONIC MAZE

• Alice B. Kuller, MLS
• Health Sciences Library System
• University of Pittsburgh

2
THE VISION

• A decade ago our profession envisioned a Virtual
  Library with an array of electronic full-text
  books and journals at our fingertips.
  
• These resources would be accessible from desktops
  and laptops located anywhere.
  

3
THE VISION (continued)

• An underlying assumption of the vision was that
  these resources would be both seamless and
  intuitive for our end users to access.
  

4
THE REALITY

• The electronic publishing sector developed very
  rapidly, offering many choices for libraries and
  patrons.
  
• Web pages grew at an equally rapid pace allowing
  library users to link to the ever expanding body
  of full-text products.
  
• However, access has not seamless and for a
  significant number of our library systems end
  users it is definitely not intuitive.
  

5
THE SETTING

• The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) at the
  University of Pittsburgh is an academic health
  sciences library serving the six schools of the
  health sciences, the University of Pittsburgh
  Medical Center and its affiliated teaching
  hospitals.
• HSLS has an extensive outreach program comprised
  of twelve community hospitals.
  
• .

6
THE SETTING (contd)

• DIVERSE END USER POPULATION
• Students - Undergraduate, doctoral, medical,
  dental, pharmacy, nursing and more
  
• Research assistants, technicians, fellows, staff
  
  
• Faculty - Interdisciplinary from across the
  enterprise physicians, scientists, dentists,
  pharmacists, nurses, PTs, OTs, veterinarians
  and more

7
THE SETTING (contd)

• More than 3300 full-text journals and books are
  offered by HSLS.
  
• In addition, many hundreds of books and journals
  are available electronically through the
  University Library System, which is
  administratively separate from HSLS.

8
THE PROBLEM

• Patrons are aware of the Ovid full-text products,
  and access them easily through the Ovid
  databases.
  
• These were the first full-text products at HSLS
  and, initially, were the only ones.

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THE PROBLEM (contd)

• When the full-text journal is not linked from the
  Ovid platform, typically the patron stalls, and
  contacts one of the HSLS reference desks for
  assistance.
• Conversely, in PubMed it is the full-text links
  that are the source of difficulty for patrons.
  
• With increasing frequency we are receiving
  questions by telephone, electronically, and
  in-person from users who are distressed when the
  needed full-text product is more than a click
  away.
• These queries are received from across the patron
  spectrum.

10
THE PROBLEM (contd)

• The Reference Desk staff are repeatedly required
  to walk our users through the process to
  determine if a particular title is available
  electronically, and if so, how to obtain it.
• In order to clarify this process we decided to
  develop a guide, linked to the HSLS Web page.

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THE QUERIES

• One hundred sixty-three electronic reference
  queries were received January 1 - April 30, 2004.
  
  
• Thirty-five (21) of these were directly related
  to locating the full-text literature.
  
• Though we do not have a tally of the in-person
  and telephone queries regarding the electronic
  literature, our sense is that the frequency is
  similar.

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QUERIES (side bar)

• I am trying to get a copy of an article in
  Technometrics1971. After searching PITTCat and
  clicking , an EBSCO HOST database page appeared.
  I entered my remote access user ID and password
  but could not gain entry. Is a different
  password required?
• I am trying to get access to full-text from
  Nature ReviewsCancer via Nature Publishing
  Group.

• I cannot access the journal Science through
  your e-journals HighWire link, but other HighWire
  journals seem to work.
  
• Does the library subscribe to Health Affairs ?
  Cannot seem to find it in Ovid.
  
• Why cant I see full-text access to Journal of
  Clinical Oncology via remote access login?
  
• Is it possible to access Scientific American
  online? If so, how?
  

13

• I am looking for the article by Cooper et al.
  in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and
  Rehabilitation Engineering. I cannot find the
  article using the E-journals database. Am I
  searching correctly?

• How do I access the full article (not just
  citation/abstract) for International Journal of
  Obesity 2003, p. 1300-14?

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• I wanted a full-text nejm article and went to the
  electronic journals and found my citation. It
  only displayed links for the complete reference
  and library holdings, not the full-text.

• I checked for these articles (list provided by
  patron) on PsychINFO, and also went online at
  each publishers and journals Web site and was
  unable to find them.

15
THE SOLUTION

• A document was developed to outline the paths to
  follow in order to locate an electronic journal.
  
• This pathway is linked to the HSLS Web site.
• Reference Desk staff can now point to the pathway
  when assisting patrons seeking the full-text
  literature.
  

16
CONCLUSION

• Though is too early to evaluate the pathways
  impact, we are optimistic that a significant
  number of HSLS patrons will use it, finding it
  to be a worthwhile tool.
• Nevertheless, we anticipate that many patrons
  will continue to need guidance from HSLS staff.
  
• The pathway will be updated as needed to reflect
  any relevant changes in the databases, PITTCat,
  and other systems.
  
• A similar pathway for identifying the electronic
  book resources is being planned.