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61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Electronic Journal Access at Tilburg University: A coordinated effort of the library, the computer centre and the publisher

Christiaan C.P. Kluiters, Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands


ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the first commercial pilot project in Europe on the electronic availability of some 120 Journals published by Elsevier Science (ES) in the fields of Economics and Computer Scie nces and (Applied) Mathematics, at the Campus network of Tilburg University. After an introduction and a short history the paper will discuss the most important topics in the license such as: Authori sed User Community; Autorised Usage; User Feedback and Commercial Terms & Conditions.
Finally the role of the library and the computer centre will be discussed


PAPER

Since the beginning of 1995, The Catholic University of Brabant, (or Tilburg University) has had the possibility of disclosing and disseminating electronically 120 Journal titles published by Elsevie r Science (ES) over their Campus Wide Information System (CWIS). In my other paper presented at the session yesterday morning on Electronic Publishing: Technology and Use, I touched upon the m ore technical aspects of this electronic library project.
In this paper however, I will deal with some other aspects such as the role of the library, the computer centre and the publisher in establishing electronic information services, or more in particula r, services providing access to the original journal articles via the researchers and students desktop PCs.
I will also touch upon the legal and commercial framework of this cooperative effort.

Although there is as yet no definite model for electronic journal delivery and access, the project with the KUB may act as a good example of the strategic product/market developments and ideas of Els evier Science for new information technology activities with, and for the international library community:

In this paper I will not go into other ES electronic publishing projects and new products such as Immunology Today Online, GENE-Combis and so forth. Many of these efforts are aimed directly at end-us ers and fall beyond the scope of this contribution.

Short History

In 1989 ES started what is known as CAPCAS. CAPCAS is a service providing/containing the complete bibliographic "headers" (Title; Authors, Keywords, Abstracts; Authors Adresses etc), of a large numbe r of journal titles. CAPCAS is an electronic service resulting from a progressive journal production process which allows access to pre-publication information at an early stage of the publication process (1-3 Months before publication). The ("raw")data are in ASCII and are also SGML coded, thus allowing for restructuring/re-use in different information services and database applications as we ll as in different lay-outs (for example the "original" form).
CAPCAS may be considered as a stepping stone towards the digital library of the future. Not only through its flexible electronic implementation possibilities (various applications are possible) but a lso because the information it contains may be stored locally and disseminated via the Campus Wide Information System to an authorised user community under a Network License. The stepping stone conce pt is highlighted by the learning curve/process which library personnel experiences when working with the CAPCAS information.
In 1991 the KUB was the first library that implemented CAPCAS. During the years that followed, many useful experiences were gathered. Experiences at technical, organisational and operational levels.< br> However, the CAPCAS project at the KUB was limited in scale. Only some 50 Journal titles were involved of the 120 ES Journals they subscribe to (and compared with the total of 420 titles now availabl e in CAPCAS). Therefore, the feedback gained from an end-user perspective could not be used to generate adequate statistical significance.
In 1993 it was decided to continue further activities in a cooperation between the KUB and ES. The gradual implementation (at the KUB)of electronic information "published" by ES, resulted in v ery close cooperation which is still continuing today. This gradual approach has been instrumental in finding the proper solutions for the many questions in building an electronic library. (More libr aries are now also implementing CAPCAS, following the same route/path as that of the KUB.

Negotiations started to begin with a commercial pilot project for a Campus Wide License, allowing storage, dissemination access and use of locally available electronic versions of 120 Journals in the fields of Economics, Computer and Information Sciences and Mathematics.
At the end of 1993, a license was signed, and activities commenced towards to what is now known as Elsevier Science Electronic Subscriptions.

Campus Wide

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