Electronic Journals in the National Library of Australia
Thank you for giving me the opportunity of talking to you today about the National Library and the way in which we are approaching the emerging phenomenon of electronic publishing, in particular the electronic journal. My perspective is that of a national library with a role in safeguarding the national documentary heritage as well as being a major service provider to both other libraries and to individual researchers. My focus is Australian electronic publishing, but this should not suggest a lack of interest in the publishing of the wider world.
I thought that we might start by taking a look at some Australian electronic journal titles, partly because they are of value in their own right and partly because they have features which are of interest from the point of view of a library which wants to make them available for their readers. The titles I will be talking about are taken, not quite at random, from the list of Australian electronic journals which is hosted by the National Library through its web server at http://www/nla.gov.au.au/.
Australian Institute of Eastern Music Newsletter
Web edition of printed monthly newsletter - future events, reviews of concerts and CDs etc. "Articles can be about aspects of Eastern music and members and non-members are invited to submit articles for inclusion in the newsletter".
Contact: duekwalk@ozemail.com.au - David Walker. 3 Wychbury Avenue, Croydon NSW 2132. Telephone: (02) 7447707.
This is an electronic version of a print journal. As a newsletter it is relatively insubstantial in size and is not received as a print title by the National Library.
Australian Jeweller Magazine *
Promotional site for the magazine of the Jewellers Association of Australia which "delivers new product news, new developments in jewellery retailing, innovations in the jewellery industry and accurate analyses of important matters affecting your business". Subscription information available.
Contact: phoenix@vicnet.net.au - Jacquie Byron.
This is a promotional site only with no access to the content of the journal. Subscriptions can be ordered directly through the site.
Australian Humanities Review *
"Australian Humanities Review is a peer reviewed interdisciplinary electronic archive published bi-monthly with weekly updates by La Trobe University under the auspices of the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee and appears bi-monthly with regular updates to encourage dynamic interaction between readers and authors. Each issue is available free; archived material is accessible by subscription".
ISSN: 1325-8338.
Contact: ahr@latrobe.edu au - Cassandra Pybus.
This is new title which is notable for several reasons.
- it is a high quality title which has been produced with funding from the AVCC Standing-Committee on Electronic Publishing as one of several selected to experiment with the electronic journal as a form of academic publication.
- unlike many electronic journals which are simply electronic equivalents of a print product, this journal has been designed to be interactive and multi-layered, taking advantage of the additional features which are available with the WWW as a medium
- it shows an innovative approach to charging, by making the current issue free but charging for back issues
- it has an ISSN
- it has an asterisk against its name which indicates that it has been selected by the National Library for addition to the national bibliographic database
- it has been selected for preservation by the National Library.
Australian Journal of Chemistry
"The Australian Journal of Chemistry has achieved international standing for its publication of original research in all branches of chemistry: theoretical, physical, inorganic, organic, organometallic, structural". Published by CSIRO in co-operation with the Australian Academy of Science. Site includes notice to authors; journal style; contents of recent issues; subscription information. ISSN 0004-9425.
Contact: ajsr@publish.csiro.au PO Box 1139 (150 Oxford Street), Collingwood VIC 3066. Telephone: (03) 96627630. Facsimile: (03) 96627611.
This is an electronic version of a print title and is another experimental project funded by the AVCC Standing Committee on Electronic Publishing. At this stage there is relatively little available. Adobe Acrobat may be required for some articles and there is a link provided so that the viewer can download the software directly.
G+
"G+ Web is the www incarnation of G+ Magazine. First published in January '95, G+ is published as a series of electronic mail messages, and is also available via subscription in print form. G+Web brings the current number of variations to 3, with more expected shortly. Issues are converted into HTML and published on this site concurrently to the email version, with screenshots added for your viewing pleasure".
Contact: ahrjay@midnight.com.au
The Gallifrey Gazette
Dr Who fanzine. Web versions of the printed works - contents lists with some links to articles. Earliest available issue is no. 1 (March-April 1984).
Contact: Steve.Leahy@anu.edu.au - Steve Leahy.
One of the features of web publishing is the extent to which fantasy and science fiction are represented. This is only one of a wide range of fanzines.
Gateways
See: National Library of Australia Gateways
geekgirl
Freely accessible "webzine taking a unique blend of cyberfeminism, information and humour to geekgirls and boys around the world". Also available in printed form. To subscribe ...
Contact: gg@geekgirl.com.au, PO Box 759, Newtown NSW 2042. Telephone/facsimile: (02) 5506777.
Gegenschein
"A personal and science fiction fanzine". Earliest available issue is no. 72 (August 1995) - see also no. 73 (January 1996), and no. 74 (February 1996).
Contact: eric@maths.uts.edu.au - Eric Lindsay. 7 Nicoll Avenue, Ryde NSW 2112.
Get Wired
See: Herald Sun Get Wired
Get Wired is one example of an increasing phenomenon whereby we are seeing parts of well-known newspapers and journals appearing on the Web. In this case the web version is free, although the newspaper itself is not.
girlpatch
A 'zine "that's basically about any old crap that i feel is worth writing about". "Russ Meyer supervixens Melanie and Jemima arise from Perth's valley of the dolls to police the boundaries of indie kewl".
Contact: fatmama@wisdom.psinet.net.au 22 Vine Street, North Perth WA 6005.
This is what would be classified as vanity publishing, and indeed it is questionable whether publishing such as this would be possible in any other medium. It is an indication of the way in which the ease of Internet publishing is spawning different manifestations of popular culture. Many scholarly researchers are critical of the Web for the amount of dross to be found there. At the same time, this type of publishing is a popular culture phenomenon which has to be documented for posterity. The National Library recognises that it has a role in this process, and for this reason would consider this kind of publication as an exemplar of what is happening, even though we would not choose to keep this material comprehensively. This particular site is in fact very cleverly constructed and well worth a visit if you are into popular music of the type dealt with here. I was the 616th visitor.
This title raises the issue of definition of the electronic journal. At the National Library we have devised the term 'evolving journal' to describe a web site which calls itself a journal or magazine but which is simply a web page which is updated on a more or less regular basis. It corresponds in library speak more to the concept of a loose-leaf publication.
GILNEWS: Global Info-Links' Newsletter
GILNEWS, Global Info-Links' newsletter, goes out to all subscribers. GILNEWS contains general information and updates about Global Info-Links' services, technical Help Desk tips and FAQ's, What's New on the Ipswich City Web, Internet Awareness class schedules, Hot Spots, which lists fun and interesting sites on the Internet and often includes subscriber contributions, and more. ISSN 1326-2661.
Contact: gilteam@gil.ipswichcity.qld.gov.au
Gleebooks Gleaner
Newsletter from Gleebooks - booksellers.
Contact: books@gleebooks.com.au
This contains best seller lists, book reviews, lists of events an ordering facility. It also allows readers to submit their own book reviews on a special form, and those whose reviews are published are rewarded with a book voucher. It contains links to other sites concerned with book buying and publishing.
GLOBE E-journal: An Australian Journal of Contemporary Visual Arts * (Monash University, Visual Arts Department - Clayton Campus)
Published Independently with assistance from the Monash University Visual Arts Department (Clayton Campus) Melbourne Australia. Earliest available issue is Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 1995).
ISSN 1324-8030.
Contact: globe@arts.monash.edu.au, or telephone Robert Schubert on (03) 99054223.
GOFLY Magazine
Newsletter of the Queensland Kite Flyers Society - current issue as well as archive of previous issues.
Contact: PO Box 3089, Sunnybank South QLD 4109.
Gold Channel
Newsletter of the Babylon 5 Fan Club. Published eight times per year - "this newszine will keep you up to date with the latest happenings onboard Babylon 5, important events in Oz, the US and UK, as well as interviews with cast and crew".
Contact: organiser@bab5ozhl.com.au - Aaron Brockbank.
Gossip
Weekly, Australian music and entertainment industry gossip from Next Online and BMG Interactive Entertainment. Earliest available is March 29th-April 4th 1995.
Contact: flashnet@next.com.au
GPINFOnet
Quarterly newsletter of the General Practice National Information Service. Link to vol. 1, no. 2 (November 1995).
Contact: GPNIS@flinders.edu.au National Information Service, Department of General Practice, Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park SA 5042. Telephone: (08) 2045255. Facsimile: (08) 2763305.
Grammar Gazette
Irregularly published newsletter of the Brisbane Girls' Grammar School. Some documents only available in Adobe Acrobat.
Contact: bggs.lib@mailbox.uq.oz.au - Colleen Brady. Telephone: (07) 38311300. Facsimile: (07) 38326097.
Grilled Pterodactyl *
An electronic fanzine from David R. Grigg. ISSN 1325-2763.
Contact: drgrigg@ozemail.com.au - David Grigg.
The Grilled Pterodactyl is another example of vanity publishing, but it is one which has received quite some attention, having been voted one of the 5% of best web sites and awarded a Free Speech Online Blue Ribbon. The writing to be found there is perceptive, entertaining and often pertinent to the subject of web publishing itself. To take one recent example:
"Out flew the web and floated wide..." by David Grigg (Written May 1996)
How many pages are there on the World Wide Web? At the date I write this (early May 1996), the Lycos catalog claims to be indexing over 40 million pages, and the growth rate still appears to be an exponential one. I suppose that anyone who is reading this on the Web knows already knows something of this, to say the least, but I have to confess that I am still personally astonished by the Web, both in its potential and in the actuality. It seems to me to be a quite new and unique phenomenon, still groping its way towards what it might become (it would remind me of the lines from Yeats contemplating "what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born" if I didn't in general think the Web a positive rather than a sinister phenomenon). ...
The sheer volume of material available on the web, and the thousands of pages being added every day, mean that exploring the web can be an intimidating and bewildering experience. There is something out there on every subject under the sun, if only you could find it. And it is only going to get worse. ...
To me, the most interesting parts of the Web are these pages that spring from an individual's personal enthusiasms. You can keep your Time Magazine pages, or your Coca-Cola pages: the material from these sources is typically corporate and self-serving. It is the quirky and the personal that I love on the Web, and it is there that you will find the greatest creative inspiration.
Is there a topic under the sun that doesn't have one or more Web pages dedicated to it? It hardly seems possible any more. Go to any of the search engines and type in any word at random, restricting the search to those pages where your chosen word appears in the title of the page. Unless your topic is truly obscure, you will get a list of scores of pages. What is important and relevant, and what is not? Ah, there's the rub. But such a search can be entertaining even if the found pages aren't quite what you were after.
This article is published as part of Grilled Pterodactyl, an electronic fanzine from David R Grigg.
Copyright David R Grigg 1995. All rights reserved.
The GROKTower
Bi-monthly "comic newsletter". "GROK is a two-person comedy and theatre team based in Sydney, Australia that is available as a creative resource for just about anyone". Free subscription title.
Contact: grok@ozemail.com.au PO Box 855, Epping NSW 2121. Telephone/Facsimile: (02) 8691083.
Subscription titles are something of a problem for libraries. Some are free, some are for a fee, and the library can decide whether it wants to pay for the product. The issue then becomes one of how best can it be delivered or stored. Some journals come with a password for access. These are a problem for the library which cannot make passwords openly available to readers, but which then has to mediate access every time someone wants to visit the site. Some journals are delivered to an email address, and the library then has to organise a local access facility. The National Library has decided that it is easiest to bring the journal onsite and make it available through the server for internal access only. Other libraries will have their own solutions. It is these kinds of issues which make so attractive the new electronic journal management systems being offered by some of the serial subscription agents or by major library utilities.
Medical Journal of Australia *
Research and educational journal of the Australian Medical Association, published twice a month. Site includes Online Peer Review Trial, articles for review, current issues of the journal, staff list, index the journal 1900-1995, instructions to authors, subscription information etc.
ISSN: 1326-5377.
Contact: mja@library.usyd.edu.au - Craig Bingham. Telephone: (02) 9548666. Facsimile: (02) 9548699.
The Online Peer Review Trial is another project which has been sponsored by the AVCC StandingCommittee on Electronic Publishing. Articles are put up on the web site prior to publication and peer review is invited from readers. At this stage it probably premature to speculate how successful the project has been, but it presents another interesting potential use for the medium.
Muster: Newsletter of the Rainbow Cloggers
Australian Gay and Lesbian Cloggers newsletter.
Contact: gaybo@ozemail.com.au - Rodney Cruise.
Pacific Economic Bulletin
Contents lists for recent issues of the National Centre for Development Studies' collaborative publication which includes regular reviews of current economic trends of the island economies.
PC Games Plus
High resolution cover version. "PCGP is a review magazine for the new edge of interactive entertainment. Rather than simply raving about every new game that comes along, PCGP discusses and critiques computer entertainment in a cohesive and considered manner. Personal computer gaming is a young artform, young enough that many have still not grasped the significance of a medium in which the creator can be sure of an intimate, interactive dialogue with the audience". Available on paid subscription.
Contact: bruce@ee.uwa.edu.au - Bruce Cooper.
Peace & Disarmament News
Newsletter produced by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Earliest issue available online is March 1995.
Perihelion Rag
News from the Perihelion Ensemble, in residence at the University of Queensland. "The aim of the `Rag' is to keep Perihelion supporters up to date with the latest information on the group and to outline special events and features that crop up now and then". First available issues is vol. 1, no. 1 (June 1995).
Contact: angela@bach.music.uq.oz.au - Kim Kirkman. Department of Music, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072. Telephone: (07) 3653503. Facsimile: (07) 3654488.
Planet Byron
"Planet Byron is a bold attempt to publish a community-based electronic magazine on the Internet ... will reflect the diversity of this region and grow with the community. The magazine is user-accessible, interactive, and by its very nature will be continually updated".
Contact: lightcom@om.com.au - Pierre Gelsin.
Privacy Law and Policy Reporter
Archive of back issues of this monthly review and analysis of privacy laws, policies and intrusions, focussing on developments in Australian and New Zealand, and the Asia-Pacific region generally.
Contact: oliver@well.ca.us.com - Oliver Freeman (Publisher). International
Business Communications (IBC), Level 11, Carlton Centre, 55-63 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Telephone: (02) 2216199. Facsimile: (02) 2215923.
Private Property Sales Magazine
Published by Acture Publications. "This magazine lists houses, farms, land & businesses for sale by owners rather than real estate agents ... also contains details on the towns for which properties are listed and articles on a variety of topics".
Contact: acture@opennet.net.au
Probe Newsletter
Newsletter of the Australian Oceanographic Data Centre. Intends to be annual - "detailing the work currently being undertaken within the organisation". ISSN 1326-4834.
Contact: webmaster@AODC.gov.au
De Proverbio: an Electronic Journal of International Proverb Studies
Edited by Teodor Flonta. First issue vol. 1, no. 1 1995.
ISSN 1323-4633.
Contact: editor@modlang.utas.edu.au
PSYCHE: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Consciousness
Web version of the journal. PSYCHE is a refereed electronic journal concerning the interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness and its relationship to the brain. To subscribe, send a message with "SUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-L Firstname Lastname" in the body to listserv@iris.rfmh.org. Electronic journal dedicated to supporting the "interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness". PSYCHE publishes a large variety of articles and reports for a academic audience four times a year (also in printed format). Earliest available issues are vol. 1, no. 1. ISSN 1039-723X.
Contact: patrickw@cs.monash.e du.au - Patrick Wilken. Computer Science Dept., Monash University, Clayton VIC 3167.
Psyche is a title probably known to many of you here. It is one of the very earliest refereed scholarly titles to appear on the web. It has become so highly regarded that it is now being produced as a print title, for which of course there is a charge while the electronic version remains free. Psyche raises the issue for the National Library of what is Australian. The print version of Psyche is being published by MIT in the United States. The editor is Australian, but the contents are international.
Puffing Billy News
Monthly Puffing Billy Railway (Victoria) enthusiast's newsletter - a digest of the Puffing Billy Volunteer's Magazine.
Contact: mikado@jolt.mpx.com.au - Craig Potter.
Taxing Topics
Regularly produced by KPMG Australia - provides helpful comments on a range of taxation issues including: personal and company tax, FBT, payroll tax, stamp duty and financial institutions duty. First issue available online is February 1995.
Contact: Questions@kpmg.com.au
TGA Accelerated Drug Listing Bulletin Index
Published by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, a division of the Federal Department of Human Services and Health. First available issue is no. 4 (December 1995). ISSN 1326-4702.
Contact: library.tga@tga.ausgovhhcs.telememo.au
Thai-Yunnan Project Newsletter (Coombspaper, ANU)
Alternative location at: http://www.nectec.or.th/thai-yunnan/index.html The Thai-Yunnan Project is concerned with the study of the peoples of the border regions between the Peoples Republic of China and the mainland states of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar). The project encompasses the study of the languages, cultures and societies of the constituent peoples as well as of their inter- relations within and across national boundaries.
ISSN 1326-2777.
Contact: trin@nectec.or.th
Time Off Magazine
Weekly entertainment guide for the City of Brisbane - new issue online every Wednesday. Published by Time Off Publications.
Contact: timeoff@peg.apc.org 60 Berwick Street, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006. Telephone: (07) 32529666. Facsimile: (07) 32529761.
Tracks Online
Online edition of the "Surfer's bible" - Australia's #1 monthly surfing magazine. Back issues available.
Contact: tracks@msp.com.au
triplej
"Grabs" from the current issue of the magazine of the Australian youth radio network, Triple J.
Tropical Geomorphology Newsletter
Electronic edition of a bi-annual bulletin for scholars concerned with geomorphic processes and landscapes in the tropics. Jointly produced by Avijit Gupta of the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, and David Godley of the Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University.
Contact: eoagup@nus.sg - Avijit Gupta. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260. Fax: +65 7773091.
Having taken you all through a short display of some of Australian electronic journal titles, the time has come to talk about why the National Library is interested in these and how we see them in relation to the wider role of the Library.
There are essentially two reasons why the National Library is interested in them. Firstly, the Library has a role to play in maintaining the Australian documentary heritage. There is no reason to believe that electronic journals are any different from any other kind of journal in this respect, and to ignore them would be to ignore a significant change in the way in which information is being published and distributed. Secondly, the Library has a responsibility to provide an information service to its own clientele. By this I do not just mean those who visit the Library, but all those throughout Australia who may use our services directly as individuals or through a service mediated by another library.
Early in 1995, when the Library set up its own web server, one of its first features was a list of Australian electronic journals. This started out with some two hundred titles. It has now grown, in 15 months, to over nine hundred titles. About 2,500 uses of the list are recorded each month and the project has been assisted by funding from the National Priority (Reserve) Fund (http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/iii-home.htm) allocation for improved Library Infrastructure administered by the AVCC Standing Committee on Information Resources. Where possible the list provides direct links to the journals themselves. Where this is not possible, it is usually because a subscription or registration of some kind is required, and the list points to information about how that can be obtained. Where subscriptions or registrations are required, the Library is taking steps to provide access through the server for inhouse users, although it is of course not possible to supply access more widely. The list also provides links to information about how to obtain an ISSN for your serial and how to register its existence with the Library so that it can be added to the list. In practice there are relatively few requests for ISSNs and few registrations. Most journal titles are added to the list as a result of Library staff searching. Once on the list, titles are checked regularly to ensure that linkages continue to be valid. This is done using special software for the purpose. Where links have been lost or have changed, the linkage is updated and the catalogue record is amended.
The traditional means whereby libraries have organised their collections so that library users can locate the items they seek has been the library catalogue. In the case of networked electronic publications, many of the items which users may seek may not be held within the library. However, the library may still be seen as having a responsibility to organise information to facilitate access and there has been much debate in the last couple of years as to how this can best be achieved. It is generally recognised that there is far too much available on the Internet for individual cataloguing. It is, however, equally well recognised that existing search tools are inadequate to provide satisfactory degrees of both precision and recall, and can result in considerable frustration as searchers flounder in huge sets of data trying to isolate what is relevant and of good quality. The failure of exisitng resource location tools would suggest that libraries still have a role to play in identifying and making known titles likely to be of interest to their patrons. Similarly, there is still a role for abstracting and indexing services in identifying articles of quality in areas of subject interest.
When the list was commenced, it was thought that the Library would wish to catalogue all of the list titles to the national bibliographic database, in order to provide an alternate form of bibliographic access. In fact, this has not happened, although there has been cataloguing of a select range of titles. The operative work here is select.
The Library recognises that its list of electronic journals provides immediate access to most title currently in existence. Many of those titles will be short lived. Many are in fact not proper journals, but are associated with a print publication, supplying perhaps only subscription and contents information. Some are electronic versions of print publications, where the print version is the primary focus of the publisher. Many are insubstantial, or originate from a small local group of one kind or another. Some are simply of poor quality. Some, on the other hand, are quality refereed titles which should be available in the longer term. Some of the more popular titles have worth because they deal with particular topics or trends of general interest. For this reason, the Library recognises that there are some titles which are of scholarly or exemplar value and which therefore need to be selected with a longer term relationship in mind. The challenge has been to develop a collection development policy for these titles, and for other publications as well as serials, and to determine an appropriate means of handling them once selected.
Early in 1996, the Library set up SCOAP. SCOAP stands for Selection Committee on Online Publications, and it contains representatives from various parts of the Library with an interest in electronic publications, systems, preservation and technical services. SCOAP was set up initially to provide a kind of electronic sandbox, a playground where those involved could develop expertise, share their views and make mistakes in the interests of progress. In fact, the group developed expertise very quickly, and over a series of meetings in the past five months they have dabbled with issues of selection and organisation while learning a lot about the phenomenon of electronic publishing. SCOAP's terms of reference were:
- to define and implement, as far as possible, elements of the National Library infrastructure for the management of documents in electronic form
- to develop guidelines for selection for national preservation
- to develop guidelines for selection for preservation by the National Library
- to develop procedures for managing Australian online publications for which the National Library of Australia accepts preservation responsibility
- to develop a cataloguing policy for online publications
- to assess the impact of selection of particular titles on operational areas of the Library. This will include impact on Acquisitions, Cataloguing, Information Services, Preservation and Systems.
A new development in the past few weeks is that SCOAP has set up a sub-committee to look at long term access issues. This will involve initially selection of a range of titles for which the Library would see itself having a longer term responsibility, and looking at all the issues associated with preservation. The items selected will in the short term be brought onto the Library's server for storage with a view to longer time migration to other electronic storage as required. Associated issues which will need to be dealt with include copyright and provision of immediate access. Where the Library is dealing with commercial publishers, it will be important to provide assurance that their commercial interests will not be undermined. Another significant issue is that of defining the information elements which need to be included with the full-text, information for both management and for access. Some examples of this kind of information might be:
- technical data concerning format, secondary software required for access,
- intention to preserve
- body taking responsibility for preservation
- date of last update or refreshing
- access conditions if any
- quality data
You will notice that all of these are over and above the kinds of information traditionally sought for the bibliographic record. In the electronic environment, it is recognised that different aspects of description will be required and there are currently no standards to suggest what these additional elements might be. The term which has come into use for this data about data, for that it what it is, is metadata.
Metadata standards are important not just for libraries. They are equally as important for creators, so that they can provide header data for their publications which can help to make those publications better known and hence more accessible. Standard metadata can assist with automatic indexing and can provide those using the indexes with additional information about the titles themselves.
One of the needs identified by the Library is for direct access to titles from the catalogue record held on the NBD and on the OPAC. This is one facet of the issue of how best to provide integrated access to print and electronic publications. In a technical sense, it will be possible to provide connections from WORLD 1 to the Internet, and many library management systems are starting to off this facility as well. World 1 offers a potential advantage in that it would be able to provide a charging mechanisms for commercial supply. WORLD 1 will also be offer access to electronic journals via individual articles, not just via the journal title. APAIS is already indexing some Australian electronic journals such as E-law from Murdoch University and this will be available through WORLD 1. WORLD 1 also has the potential to host electronic journals, and this continues to be monitored as the project develops.
Some titles have already been tentatively identified for preservation.
Legal Deposit
The Copyright Act 1968 which sets out legal deposit provisions for the National Library is currently under review. This has provided an opportunity for the Library, in association with the National Film and Sound Archive, to present a case for legal deposit to be extended to all forms of electronic publications, both networked and artefactual. An important aspect of legal deposit is the need to ensure that depository institutions have the right to copy for preservation purposes.
I have talked today about some of the nitty-gritty aspects of electronic journals. In fact the Library is engaged in a variety of projects in cooperation with other libraries or archives and which are designed to assist our understanding of how to move forward in the electronic environment. There is consideration being given, for example, to the definition and development of an electronic distributed national collection, and the Library has been associated with studies concerning preservation of electronic materials and the integration of access to print and electronic resources. A major position paper is currently in development setting out a national strategy for electronic publishing. While work can be regarded as preliminary at this stage, it flags the need for widespread discussion of the issues, in particular as they relate to access and the guaranteeing of long term access. Collaboration will be an important feature in the way these issues are progressed. It recognises the variety of stakeholders involved in electronic publishing and the convergence of creator and publisher, and library and distributor. The Library will make the paper widely available and we hope for lots of comment.