National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 69 | June 2004


E-Collections

In the current climate of improving access to resources, Kinetica's e-collection product makes life easier for libraries by providing bibliographic records to electronic serials for inclusion in their catalogues.

The e-collection product was introduced in 2002, and has been making quiet inroads into the world of electronic data sets. For an extremely reasonable price, Kinetica e-collection sets currently provide bibliographic records to a large range of datasets. The service includes user-specified global holdings addition, automatic quarterly updates, and an optional, easily tailored 856 (electronic location) field. To simplify payment, billing for the sets can be added to your existing Kinetica account; and if your institution has purchased a partial set of a collection, the service can tailor the product coverage to suit your needs.

Currently, bibliographic records for 20 datasets are available. AusStats (records for the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ web-based information service), APA Full Text (records for journals and books indexed in the Australian Public Affairs Information Service) and AGIS Plus Text (records for full text legal journals from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia–Pacific region) are by far the most popular titles, though the range of datasets being provided is steadily increasing. The most recent additions to the e-collection suite are Australian Newspapers Online and Classic Australian Works, which entered the collection in April this year.

The latest improvement to e-collections is the ability to customise the 856 field. Libraries can now chose to include only their library-specific URL link to the dataset, excluding other links that are held on the NBD record. This can mean that the end user will see only one hyperlink in the record, and navigate to the full text of that record directly.

By ordering an e-collection, libraries can save time and money by not having to catalogue records in-house, as well as improving end user access to the dataset. The introductory offer price of AUS$117 will end on 1 July 2004, and the price will increase to AUS$330 per set—still an extremely reasonable price when compared to the products of other vendors.

What are you waiting for? Before time runs out for the introductory offer, do a comparative costing with other electronic dataset record suppliers, have a look at the website below (look at the number of titles offered!) and place an order online. Remember, easy payment means billing for the sets can be added to your existing Kinetica account, so you can avoid the wrath of the accounts monster (especially if that is you).

For more information on Kinetica's e-collections, call the helpdesk on 1800 026 155 or email kinetica@nla.gov.au. The Kinetica website describing e-collections holds a complete list of titles (and descriptions of collections) and more detail on ordering and collecting sets. The page can be found at <www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/products/esets.html>
—David Ong, Kinetica Customer Services

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