Emerging Issues in the Electronic Environment: Challenges for Librarians and Researchers in the Sciences (original) (raw)

[Emerging issues in the Electronic Environment: Challenges for Librarians and Researchers in the Sciences is another of Haworth's co‐publications as it has also been published as a special issue of Science and Technology Libraries in 2004, Vol. 25, Nos 1 and 2.]

In her introduction, the editor, Jeannie Miller, Director of Science/Engineering Services at Texas A&M University Libraries, states that the objective of this special thematic volume is “to inspire thought and future research on technology‐related issues that face both librarians and scientists”.

Julie Hurd is the Science Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as being the Editor of Science and Technology Libraries, and she contributed the first paper which identified the new roles and players in scientific communication and introduced the development of digital collections and e‐journals. Many of the contributors are librarians in specific scientific areas (e.g. Agriculture, Chemistry, Life Sciences, Social Sciences) and some have specific roles within their libraries (e.g. Archivist, Electronic Resources Librarian, Reference Librarian). All the authors are currently working in the US and mainly in academic libraries. The set of contributors, therefore, seems well qualified to write about the emerging issues in the e‐environment and the challenges for librarians and researchers in the sciences, although it is not clear exactly how the 13 contributors and the various topics for the volume were selected.

E‐journals formed the basis of a number of contributions. Linda Eells, Social Sciences/Science Librarian at the University of Minnesota, for instance, provides an overview of recent developments in publishing e‐journals and concludes: “one shift that seems inevitable, for example, is for the journal article rather than the journal as a collection of articles to become the primary unit of publication and value”. Michael Fosmire, Science Librarian at Purdue University provides an overview of the retrospective digitisation of journal issues and concludes (based on a study of the use made of issues back to 1893 of the Physical Review) that “if you scan it – they will come”.

Thomas Schaffer, Social Sciences Librarian and Kathy Jackson, Chemistry Librarian, both at Texas A&M University, wrote a joint contribution on the development of supplementary material (computer code, datasets, audio files, 3D images and so on) associated with articles in e‐journals.

Two contributions looked at ways that scientists can keep abreast of developments. The first by Patrick Sullivan, Reference Librarian at San Diego University, provides an overview of Current Awareness Alerting Services from a variety of relevant publishers and other relevant organisations as well as e‐mail filtering technologies.

The second, by Robert McGeachin, Co‐ordinator for Agricultural Services at Texas A&M University, looks at what is referred to as “personal information management software” – such as EndNote, Procite, and Reference Manager.

The final chapters suggest ways in which librarians can assist in providing relevant services for scientists. Katherine Chiang, Head of Public Services at Cornell University Library, advocates librarians becoming involved in the creation, organisation, retrieval, standardisation and preservation of the huge datasets being developed within the bioinformatics area. Lesley Moyo, Gateway Libraries at Penn State University, outlines the changing roles of librarians to serve the needs of virtual users and bases her comments on a survey carried out of the university's World Campus of almost 6,000 students.

A term I have not heard before – “webinars” – was introduced by Karen Docherty and Angi Faiks, of the University of Minnesota. A webinar is defined as “short for web‐based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the web. A key feature of a webinar is its interactive elements – the ability to give, receive and discuss information. Contrast with webcast, in which the data transmission is one way and does not allow interaction between the presenter and the audience”.

There is an extensive 14 page, double‐column index but I was surprised not to see mention of some of the key terms/phrases I think would have been included if a group of UK science librarians had been asked to contribute – for example, open access, institutional repositories, e‐theses. In fact one author, Tony Bremholm, Life Sciences Librarian at Texas A&M University, did state (p. 105) that “ as scholarly communication moves increasingly to the digital environment, librarians should support open access initiatives … ”.

So, this collection does provide an insight into the views of 13 American science‐based librarians on emerging issues in the electronic environment but its value to an international audience I would deem to be limited.

2005