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Kinetica Advisory Mechanisms

Kinetica Expert Advisory Group on Access to Electronic Resources

Survey to identify major electronic collections in Australian libraries

Survey to identify major electronic collections in Australian libraries - Final Report

Response to Electronic Collections Survey Report

Kinetica Expert Advisory Group on Access to Electronic Resources

  1. Reporting holdings
  2. Options for acquiring records
  3. Services
  4. Standards
  5. Recommendations

This document records the responses and recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on Access to Electronic Resources (EAG) to the findings of the Survey to identify major electronic collections in Australian libraries . The EAG recognises that there are many complexities in the management of electronic resources and that there will undoubtedly be as yet unidentified complexities in the implementation of the recommendations contained in this paper.


1. Reporting holdings

In the survey only 50% of libraries indicated that they added either bibliographic records or holdings for their electronic collections to the NBD. The EAG considered that this relatively low level is caused in part by the licence conditions that apply to electronic collections, and in part by the policies of libraries relating to document supply and the management of their document delivery processes. The EAG also considered that the pressure on libraries to provide their users with access to electronic collections may have caused them to give a lower priority to adding holdings for the collections to the NBD.

The EAG considers that licence conditions are evolving, with a trend towards more licences permitting limited document supply. The EAG has established guidelines for reporting holdings, which include provision for a clear indication of the supply conditions. It is timely to promote these guidelines more assertively and promote the NBD as the place to record electronic collections or other restricted access collections.

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2. Options for acquiring records

The tables below show survey participants' rankings for collections listed as requiring bibliographic records on the National Bibliographic Database and ongoing maintenance support.

Index Databases with Full Text

Bibliographic Records Required for:

Weighted ranking scores

ProQuest 5000

92

Expanded Academic ASAP International

63

Australian Public Affairs FullText

56

Electric Library Australasia

31

World Magazine Bank

28

ABI Inform Global

19

Dow Jones Interactive

16

Lexis-Nexis

16

Academic ASAP

15

Ebsco Business Source Elite

13

Business Source Premier

12

Social science plus Text

12

Ebsco Academic Search Elite

12

MasterFile elite

11

Academic Research Library (ARL)

11

MasterFile premier (with World Magazine Bank)

10

Business Periodicals Online

9

Health Source Plus

8

Computer ASAP

6

Literature Resource Centre

5

 

Publisher Databases

Bibliographic Records Required for:

Weighted ranking scores

Wiley Interscience

85

Elsevier ScienceDirect

69

MCB University Press Emerald

66

Blackwell Science

36

EBSCO Online

28

Academic Press (IDEAL)

27

ACM Digital Library

18

AUSSTATS

16

Project Muse

14

Journals @ Ovid

11

Institute of Physics

9

American Chemical Society Journals

8

Cambridge University Press

7

Literature Online

6

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NB. The definition of Index and Publisher Databases is included in the report of the survey. It is acknowledged that these definitions are descriptive rather than prescriptive as some resources do not fit neatly into either category and some could belong to either category.

The survey raises a number of issues that need to be considered when acquiring records for the National Bibliographic Database.

Source of bibliographic records

When considering possible sources of bibliographic records the EAG identified cost, data quality and timeliness as core issues which must be considered. The EAG suggested a number of strategies for acquiring cataloguing records for the NBD:

1. Existing records in Australian library catalogues may be available free of charge for uploading to the NBD.

2. Negotiate with publishers or vendors that provide free records to subscribing libraries by promoting advantages for publishers such as:

  • Only need to deal with one organisation (Kinetica) rather than individual libraries; Kinetica would manage record distribution
  • no commercial disadvantage as only libraries who subscribed to their publications would want the records
  • promotion of their publications as the NBD also functions as a selection tool
  • improved service to their customers who would benefit from a standard output from Kinetica

If records are not available free of charge, the Nshould consider purchasing records from publishers or vendors.

3. Purchase ‘ready-made’ records from overseas utilities such as OCLC or RLG. Though up-front payment is required it is cost-effective option with benefits such as consistent quality and adherence to international bibliographic standards. Another alternative would be to opt for a joint purchasing model similar to that used for acquiring records for microform collections.

4. Generating records for an electronic title from an equivalent print record may be possible but would require additional programming.

Data Standards

In all the options above consistent record quality and bibliographic standards would need to be considered given the variety of cataloguing practices pursued by libraries, and vendors. Regardless of source, any records acquired would still need specific and generic modifications in order to load successfully to the NBD and meet certain minimum standards as set out in the paper Bibliographic Standards for the ScienceDirect Pilot .

A further question to consider is the appropriate level of cataloguing data needed to support libraries in the services they deliver. It would be redundant to purchase or create full cataloguing records for collections that libraries would not catalogue at the analytic level in any depth.

Availability for document delivery

To prioritise the acquisition of records on the basis of whether its corresponding collection is available for document supply poses some problems. Firstly, it reinforces a trend for not reporting materials with restricted access. Secondly, the same collection may have different document supply provisions depending on individual libraries’ licences (For the highest prioritised collection above, Wiley Interscience, 1 library supported document supply, 5 libraries did not and the remaining 9 indicated that it would be up to the licence conditions or simply did not comment). The EAG believes that there is value in recording collections including access conditions on the NBD even if the collection is not available for document delivery. However, there is also the view that purchasing records for resources that cannot be shared offers a limited return to Australian libraries. This still leaves the option to pursue other methods of sourcing records where there are document supply restrictions.

Popular vs. Unique collections

The lists above reflect commonly held collections and popularity as a criterion for acquisition means that a greater number of libraries are supported with their cataloguing and maintenance burdens. However, it is also seen as important to support the efforts of libraries that hold electronic collections that are unique and have some inherent value in terms of resource sharing for all Australian libraries. The issue of document supply provisions is more significant for solely held collections; if access is restricted, the effort and expense of acquiring records would need to be balanced against any overall benefit to libraries.

Size and volatility of a collection

Acquiring records for large collections represents better value as more electronic titles are catalogued for the initial purchase. The Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases, Final Report noted that libraries could keep up with the description and maintenance of small collections but that collections with over 200 titles are much harder to control through human effort alone.

Other factors to be considered along with the size of the collection was the composition of the collection such as the value of individual titles and the range of the electronic coverage, with greater access to full-text being clearly preferred.

Volatility is generally associated with large, aggregated electronic collections and with few exceptions these types of collections have fairly brief or minimal level cataloguing, if there are any record sets at all. Fuller cataloguing is associated with the more predictable and stable publisher databases. Managing changes at a central point rather than have numerous organizations keep up with changes is a more logical approach, though the impact of this on NBD resources would be significant.

Australian content

Priority should be given to acquiring records that reflect collections with strong Australian content as part of developing the NBD as the best source of Australian information.

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3. Services

The initial services would include acquiring and loading bibliographic records to the National Bibliographic Database, adding holdings for libraries and delivering bibliographic records and holdings as batch products.

Standard Kinetica product charges would apply and no charges would be levied for uploading specific files of bibliographic records or global addition of holdings to record sets.

These services could be further developed by including:

  • Link checking and correction of URLs – it is thought that this could be addressed in the initial service model at a more basic level of service such as link checking and notification.
  • Batch refreshes to bibliographic data in record sets
  • Global updates of holdings
  • Tailoring of URLs in bibliographic products
  • Web reports for link checks and other services
  • Ability for users to produce tailored lists of e-resources

The National Library is currently exploring a proof of concept for a National Metadata Repository and it is possible that in the medium to long term, such a facility would be able to support and extend the services required to maintain electronic record sets.

 

4. Standards

Internationally recognised bibliographic standards do exist for cataloguing electronic resources. However, libraries are in a period of transition as reflected by the fact that peak cataloguing standards bodies such as the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC) are undertaking work to revise, align and test standards with electronic resources.

The bibliographic standards adopted in order to load ScienceDirect records can work as a basic model for reporting electronic collections on the NBD and are aligned with current international standards. It is clear that these standards vary in some instances with standards adopted by local systems. In this, there is a need for some guidance for libraries on network standards and how these are reconciled with local standards. It is noted that adoption of identical standards for a central bibliographic utility and a local system may not be possible or desirable.

However, the issue of guidelines for electronic resources also needs to be considered in the wider context of a broader range of electronic resources and consider options such free vs. subscribed resources. The National Library is developing simple metadata guidelines in conjunction with the State Library of Tasmania. The Library is also working on a Web Input Interface for Kinetica that will also test the minimum content standards required for electronic resources.

5. Recommendations

1.1 The National Library should promote the advantages of reporting holdings to the NBD, even when access restrictions apply to the material. This should be achieved through promotion and discussion of issues involving:

  • Sectoral groups such as Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
  • National and state resource sharing groups i.e. National Resource Sharing Working Group, New South Wales Resource Sharing Interest Group, South Australian Document Delivery Interest Group and others.
  • Conference and meeting forums e.g. Kinetica Annual Users Meeting, Cataloguers Conference
  • Discussion lists such as Kinetica-L,
  • Articles in National Library of Australia Gateways
  • Publishers and vendors of electronic collections.

1.2 The guidelines for holdings statements developed by the Expert Advisory Group on Access to Electronic Resources promoted as the preferred method for reporting holdings to the NBD. These were developed in conjunction with the National Resource Sharing Working Group, and are available online in the paper Bibliographic Standards for the ScienceDirect Pilot.

2.1 The National Library should acquire bibliographic records for the 10 highest ranked collections in each listing according to the following criteria:

  • Explore options for acquiring records free of charge
  • Explore options for acquiring or creating records in partnership with other libraries or consortia
  • Purchase record sets from overseas utilities or from vendors up to an annual budget limit of $20K for the 2001/2002 financial year
  • Where no records exist, the National Library should assess the feasibility of generating records for electronic collections from the corresponding print version records or other vendor-supplied data.
  • Any records acquired should meet minimal format and content standards as set out in both Kinetica’s Batch*Link data specifications and Bibliographic Standards for the ScienceDirect Pilot.

2.2 The following criteria should be considered by the National Library when acquiring bibliographic data for electronic collections:

  • Collection includes Australian content
  • Libraries would normally catalogue the collection
  • Document delivery is possible from the collection
  • Collection is widely held or alternatively is unique
  • Collection Contains a large number of titles
  • Collection undergoes frequent updates.
  • Bibliographic data is readily available
  • Bibliographic data is available free of charge
  • Joint funding of data purchase is possible

3.1 The National Library should investigate the feasibility of developing services such as link checking, batch refreshes, and other maintenance services of value to those managing access to electronic resources, initially within the National Bibliographic Database. The Library should consider whether charges apply to any new services.

4.1 The National Library should review the existing standards for electronic collections as set out in Bibliographic Standards for the ScienceDirect Pilot, with the aim of minimising variances and improving consistency between network and local system standards.

4.2 The National Library should continue to develop and promote guidelines that will support the reporting of bibliographic records and holdings for other categories of electronic resources.

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