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Re: Is it time to stop printing journals?



I don't think it's a matter of an older or newer machine. It's a matter of how compressed the scan is when converting to PDF. There's a remote possibility that the person scanning the document many not pay close enough attention to the scan itself and the file is not compressed enough thus causing the file itself to be enormous. I used to work at home on a much older machine than probably the both of your's - and scanning would open adequately fast enough when I compressed the file.

I somehow am getting back to the original subject of this string of listserv stuff. "Is it time to stop printing journals?" That question doesn't seem to have anything to do with libraries themselves doing any scanning, but with publishers simply ending the print resource and continuing with the electronic. In addition to the continuance - going back in years and making those issues as well available in PDF. Publishers have been doing this for a long time now and are experienced enough at scanning their documents such that the issue of transmission shouldn't be in question. I think the real issue is those people that like the article from the journal itself.

We need to ask - why would they want the actual article? One answer that I"ve heard regarding the imaging process vs print is that in most imaging processes, the publishers omit advertisements! I'm in a medical library so this may be different for another library - but they like the pharmaceutical adds, they like the various tools they use adds, etc. Another reason would be the difference of color vs. black and white. Some don't have printers capable of color printing...just black and white...and the printed version isn't clear.

As you can see, the issues can go on and on with the concept of ending print. Nonetheless, the common direction is to eventually license all resources for access online and potentially stopping the printing. The stipulations that we build into the agreements are what will decide whether or not a resources has served it's population adequately enough. The kind of computers that we own, IMHO, don't really factor into the equation. I think it's more how the publishers do what the publisher do and hopefully they will do it correctly.

Nic

Pikas, Christina K. wrote:
We don't have old machines, we're a research lab for heaven's
sake!  My machine is 2 months old and is one spec'd for
engineering software (m/s, MATLAB, Labview, etc) instead of just
office productivity products.

I have e-mailed Mr. McSean off list with specifics.  We also
immediately contact the help desk of the vendor when we find
these issues.  Even if the vendor immediately goes and re-scans
the article, it is frequently too late for our customers' needs.

Christina PIKAS

________________________________

From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Erwin, Patricia J.
Sent: Tue 4/3/2007 5:06 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Is it time to stop printing journals?

We have been analyzing this extensively. What we have discovered
is that even with exemplary scanning, older machines with older
video cards do make an enormous difference.

We have done comparisons - it does make a huge difference.

Patricia J. Erwin
Erwin.patricia@mayo.edu
Lead Reference Librarian
Mayo Clinic Libraries
Rochester MN 55905

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Mcsean, Tony
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 5:25 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Is it time to stop printing journals?

Dear Christina,

Do you have the specific details of the unsatisfactory scans?
When we are notified of something like this we rescan it and
ensure it is usable, and if you can send me details I will set
this in motion.

Tony McSean
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier
32 Jamestown Road
London NW1 7BY

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Pikas, Christina K.
Sent: 31 March 2007 20:19
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Is it time to stop printing journals?

No.  My users have had us ILL for copies from things we've
recycled because we have online.  Some of the SD scans are
horrible and the scientist can't make out the table figures. In
fact, we've had to ILL twice for one article because the first
came from a microfilm which was worse.  We had to track down a
library that would photocopy the print and send it snail mail.

We have at least two generations we have to serve here so we
still need to serve both.  My users want to scan the print
(browse, that is), then save the electronic, and print from the
electronic and read that copy so they can mark it.

This is all in my opinion and does not reflect the policy of my
place of work or our management.

Christina K. Pikas, MLS
R.E. Gibson Library & Information Center The Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory