Re: Message from EBSCO - Attn: Academic Librarians

[David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU>]

The correct way to view this material is as a source for quick references.
They do have a real place, because there is a need for such material, in
both high school or public libraries, and sophisticated academic
libraries, and having it available at a low price is a great convenience.

They are in no sense a substitute for the journal, and that has caused
much confusion. First, they do not in all cases include the entire
article, but may omit critical graphs and tables. Second, there is no
guarantee of continued availability.  If a journal is needed for research
purposes, this is not the way to get it.  If it is needed only as
supplementary Freshman reading, it might be a good way.

Anyone who cancels a journal because of its availability on these services
probably shouldn't have been subscribing to it in the first place.

Ebsco's service as a channel for publisher's full text journals is also a
good service, but is a different matter entirely, for a different purpose.
I did not succeed in understanding their services until it was very
patiently explained to me in great detail by their sales executives. I
find it very difficult to keep straight their many offerings, especially
considering the extremely confusable names, which I am deliberately not
using here to avoid mixing them up. (I'm not picking on them, the same
applies to their competitors.)

The first step to end the confusion is if we all stopped using the
multi-meaning term: "full-text"

-- 
David Goodman
Biology Librarian 
and Co-chair, Electronic Journals Task force
Princeton University Library
Princeton, NJ 08544-0001
phone: 609-258-3235
fax: 609-258-2627
e-mail: dgoodman@princeton.edu