Emerging Issues in the Electronic Environment: Challenges for Librarians and Researchers in the Sciences

Citation

MacDonald, R. (2005), "Emerging Issues in the Electronic Environment: Challenges for Librarians and Researchers in the Sciences", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 710-711. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510635809

Previously published as an issue of Science & Technology Libraries, this book provides an interesting mix of practical and theoretical considerations for librarians and STM researchers. In the two intriguing introductory chapters, Julie Hurd incorporates the digital aspects of scientific publishing into an updated version of Garvey and Griffith's model of scientific communication. She also gives an enlightening description of the behind‐the‐scenes complexity involved in the “seamless” resource linking so beloved of librarians and researchers. Elizabeth Cooksey then draws a parallel between serendipity and metaphor, where ideas are linked without a prescriptive statement of exactly how they are linked: by making available both digital and non‐digital resources, librarians facilitate the juxtaposition of ideas in users minds.

Next up are e‐journals. Linda Ells assesses the economic impact on libraries and researchers of e‐journal‐only collections, bundled journal packages, and more. She describes the effect of various publishing models on archiving, user needs, and tenure, whilst stressing that there's more knowledge in the world than is found in the core journals. Michael Fosmire assesses the influence of online archives on the use and citation of journal articles, and concludes that there may well be a 10 percent enhancement in citation rate for papers with online access. Analysis of the use of online supplementary material in 65 STM journals leads Schaffer and Jackson to several recommendations for improving the accessibility of such material. Tony Bremholm cleverly illustrates the use of online resources for bibliometric study, but warns of the potential issues of access, fair use, electronic format, and others that may complicate such research.

Helping researchers stay current and organised in the face of the digital onslaught with current awareness services (an important but sadly neglected topic for STM researchers) is described by Patrick Sullivan, while Robert McGeachin describes how libraries are ideally placed to help researchers keep track of their ever‐growing collections of references with various citation management software packages.

It is difficult to describe to a non‐researcher just how central is the role of online databases for biological scientists, but Katherine Chiang does a good job of doing so. In the process she describes the new experimental approaches that have become possible, and how science librarians can contribute in this area. Joanne Perry reviews the online availability of assorted cartographic resources, providing a useful list of relevant web sites. Then Lesley Moyo tells us of the different varieties of virtual patron, presenting data showing that these increasingly remote users consider themselves pretty competent online researchers – possibly because they seldom look at online instructional material and so have no idea of what they are missing. Fortunately, Docherty and Faiks describe the uses and features of Webinar technology, and the uses that libraries can make of it to educate users.

Finally, Jean Marie Dekan argues that the process of creation needs to be considered when preserving digital artefacts due to their low degree of fixity compared with non‐digital artefacts. The absence of one perfect preservation technique requires the use of several approaches in order to save current digital objects. This captures the intangibility of digital resources, and rounds off an excellent collection of papers for researchers and librarians.