Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
providers, of services that enable them to discover, locate and gain access
to information sources that may be relevant to their research.
(RIN, 2008)
However, do libraries have a sufficient understanding of their users to
provide this level of support in the way the libraries users expect and
demand? Is there a very real danger of information overload from the
plethora of different systems or lack of intuitive interfaces driving users
towards Google? Is this actually a problem? In a time of severe fiscal hard-
ship how can libraries restore their importance and reclaim their position?
This chapter looks at both traditional methods of resource discovery
and the next-generation systems entering the marketplace in 2009 and
asks if these will be appropriate in the next five to ten years.
Abstract and indexing databases
40% of university libraries plan cuts to book and journal purchases next
year.
(Corbyn, 2009)
The current financial climate has led many academic libraries to
question their resource budgets. With a significant decrease in the
amount of expenditure on books as a proportion of the library budget
(HCSTC, 2004), and evidence from CIBER (Centre for Information
Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research) suggesting that a further cut
in journal budgets may have serious effects on universities' research
capabilities (CIBER, 2009), libraries will have to look to other areas of
the information fund to make the required cuts, and traditional
abstracting and indexing (A&I) databases are an obvious choice.
Quality vs Cost
It is not necessarily suggested that the culling of all A&I databases is
the answer. In fact, this would prove detrimental to resource discovery
in the digital world. Librarians have a duty to give their users a wide
variety of resource discovery options, which must include the potential
to discover research that lies outside the libraries' full-text holdings.
However, gone are the days when a library could afford to subscribe to
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