Managing end user's access to electronic journals at the ..

Managing end user’s access to electronic journals at the University of Parma, Italy: from local to global Davide Campari Assistant Librarian at the Medical Library of the University of Parma (Biblioteca Centrale e Storica “Gaetano Ottaviani”) davide.campari@unipr.it INFORMATIO MEDICATA 2008 Budapest, September 2008 AIM OF THE PRESENTATION As assistant librarian at the Medical Library and member of the university’s Sfx Staff, I wish to offer a simple outline of the way the University of Parma has faced the problem of providing its users with an easy way to reach all available online journals. Special attention will be given to the perspective of health science students and researchers.       From local to global The local solution : BIBEL The global solution : SFX The medical end user’s way to electronic journals Using the customized PubMed The University of Parma and SFX : organizational history 2 FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN LIBRARIES The case of catalogation The OLD librarian was building up his/her own isolated catalogue for his/her own isolated library The NEW librarian builds up his/her catalogue relating to and relying on a wider catalogue (in Italy, the SBN system) in a game of give and take 3 FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE END USER’S ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS IN PARMA  THE PROBLEM : granting easy access for all to the growing mass of online journals THE SOLUTIONS :   2001 – BIBEL : a local home made system  2005 – SFX : a world-covering system produced by an international commercial provider (ExLibris) 4 THE LOCAL SOLUTION : BIBEL Alphabetical search Search by subject, title, publisher BIBEL’s end user’s search display 5 THE LOCAL SOLUTION : BIBEL BIBEL’s Search Results Click on title to get to journal’s home page All operating metadata (urls, titles, subjects, publishers, etc.) inserted manually by the librarian journal 6 by journal THE LOCAL SOLUTION : BIBEL The PROs and CONs  PROs   simple to use (on both sides: librarians and end users) simple to mantain  CONs   growingly inadequate to cover the increasing and diversifying mass of subscriptions (packages sold by big publishers or providers) and free resources not interacting with other tools such as OPACs, databases and search engines 7 THE GLOBAL SOLUTION : SFX and its Knowledge Base KNOWLEDGE BASE (KB) : the core of SFX. Roughly said, it’s a huge mass of ready-to-use updated metadata covering publications and publishers from all over the world. The KB is organized in sections called “targets”. Roughly said, they are containers of titles having something in common (in most cases the same publisher or commercial package). The same journal can be included in as many targets as many are the possible channels of access. 8 THE GLOBAL SOLUTION: SFX The librarian’s work on the local KB  By “activating” the single journals in the proper target the librarian makes them reachable to the end user If the institution has access rights to a whole package/target, it can be activated with a single click The librarian works on a local “copy” of the global KB. Editing is possible at every level in the local KB. Availability indications can be introduced when different from the global ones (“local thresholds”) as well as passwords and notes. The librarian can contribute to the global KB by reporting errors and misses and also by proposing new titles (after freely introducing them at local level) 9    THE GLOBAL SOLUTION: SFX The PROs and CONs  CONs : • its complexity in setup and maintenance requires a highly skilled librarian (with IT skills) as Project Manager • its complexity in ordinary use led to the decision to reserve the work in SFX to a selected Staff  PROs : • wide coverage of journals in their different channels of availability • wide coverage of elusive resources such as free access online journals (there are targets dedicated to them) • monthly updates by the provider • possibility to create interactions with other tools such as OPACs, databases and search engines by means of an operation called Source Configuration • interaction with the provider and with the other SFX professional users all over the world: their international mailing list is the most effective communication tool from the customers to the provider 10 THE MEDICAL END USER’S WAY TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS First step: the library’s home page www.bibmed.unipr.it Online journals (access to the university’s SFX catalogue) 11 THE MEDICAL END USER’S WAY TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS Search by title Begin s with Words in the title Exact title Graphical frame configured locally by the Project Manager 12 THE MEDICAL END USER’S WAY TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS Search results display In this case two channels of access are available ( object activated in two targets); useful when one of the two accesses fails. “Full text available by…” To the home page of the journal or straight to the article if bibliographical data are inserted by the end user “Available from 1995” (Threshold) In this case a password is needed (note created by local editing) 13 THE MEDICAL END USER’S WAY TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS Search by category and subcategory Categories and subcategories are created by the provider 14 THE MEDICAL END USER’S WAY TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS Search by publisher or ISSN 15 THE MEDICAL END USER’S WAY TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS Search by bibliographic data (“Look for the citation”) 16 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED (as created through Source Configuration) PubMe d 17 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED Not the usual PubMed… Customized URL 18 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED The SFX button links the result of the search in PubMed to our SFX catalogue Publisher’s link SFX Link 19 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED By clicking the SFX link, the search results display appears: • Full information is given about the available years • In this case, two accesses are given instead of one 20 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED • In this case, SFX gives the necessary password that the publisher’s link could not give • In some cases the institution’s access to the journal is not through the publisher’s access: the problem is solved by the SFX link 21 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED When online full text is not available… “Sorry, full text unavailable” “Click here for more options” (Please note that “Click here for more options” always appears in the search results display: in previous slides it may have been cut off by me for practical explaining purposes) 22 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED …alternative options to get the article are displayed (and more) Look in OPACs for the print version Contact the document delivery service See the impact factor of the journal (very appreciated by medical end users) 23 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED The SFX link in Google Scholar… SFX link 24 USING THE CUSTOMIZED PUBMED …and in CINAHL (for instance) SFX link 25 The University of Parma and SFX : ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY  Phase 1 : CONSORTIAL PURCHASING Actor : the Libraries Department  Phase 2 : INITIAL SETUP Actors : the Project Manager and an extended staff (librarians from all the major libraries of the university)  Phase 3 : MAINTENANCE AND UPDATING Actors : the Project Manager and a selected SFX Staff (6 librarians) : all the other librarians report to the Staff about new journals to activate 26 The University of Parma and SFX: Organizational history The Project Manager’s role • General coordination • General control on the state of Parma’s local KB • Creation and configuration of local targets and special access limitations (when needed) • Harmonization of the local KB to the monthly revisions of the global KB coming from ExLibris • Configuration, translation and styling of the end user’s interface • Cooperation with IT system managers (Parma’s local SFX system is hosted on a server at the University of Padua, member of the Consortium) • Relations with italian ExLibris representatives • Training and refreshing courses for colleagues and users 27 The University of Parma and SFX: Organizational history THE UNIVERSITY OF PARMA “SFX STAFF” Present day members • Project manager : Evelina Ceccato • Source configuration : Monica Vezzosi • Members : Marina Bianchi Davide Campari Cecilia Cavalli Giada Costa Elisa Minardi 28 … thanks everybody for your patience Disclaimer This presentation reflects the personal experience and opinions of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the University of Parma or its SFX Staff. The author has no relation with ExLibris except being a professional user of its products. 29