FW: Ebsco Full-Text Databases Post

["Hunter, Karen (ELS-US)" <k.hunter@elsevier.com>]

To include the list in an answer I sent directly to Marg Walter.

-----Original Message-----
From: Hunter, Karen (ELS-US)
To: 'Marg Walker'
Sent: 3/29/01 11:41 AM
Subject: RE: Ebsco Full-Text Databases Post

Thanks -- the trade-off right now is clearly going to be between the pros
of desk-top availability and targeted alerting services and the con of the
lack of the type of paper-based serendipity that you cite.  What that says
to me is that we have to increase the ease of browsing online, not only
within a journal but across journals.  There are tools that are
increasingly available -- the "more like this" search, for example -- but
we clearly haven't yet mastered the options.  I remember a very early
system that laid out a desktop with the covers of journals clustered in a
subdiscipline or (I think)per the personal selection of the user, the idea
being that the cover was more of a trigger than the words of the title.  
That might be an idea to think about again.  We do find heavy usage of our
issue tables of contents as a browsing tool, but we have to find better
ways of reminding users of which titles to browse.

Regards,
Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: Marg Walker [mailto:marg.walker@chmeds.ac.nz]
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 10:23 PM
To: Hunter, Karen (ELS-US)
Subject: RE: Ebsco Full-Text Databases Post


This is just a perception - no real evidence at all.  However a number
of library users have commented that they find it easier scanning a
paper copy than reading the electronic version.  

This may be partly a result of time constraints, but their comments seem
to indicate that their mode of reading involves fast scanning the
article,  or flipping backwards and forwards and that they can't
negotiate the electronic copy as fluently or quickly as they can the
paper copy. 

Our Senior Clinical Advisor, a highly respected person who is very aware
of costs surprised us by stating in a recent workshop that he preferred
the paper copies as many important pieces of clinical information which
had a direct bearing on improvements in clinical services have come to
him serendipitously as he browsed a journal next to the one he was
intending to view.  

However, our clinicians also need the early access to information they
don't want to wait for the paper copy to arrive so they need electronic
also. 

Regards
Marg