Managing access to electronic subscriptions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040679 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Published date | 01 January 1998 |
| Pages | 43-47 |
| Author | Charalampos Farmakis,Evangelia Kopanaki,Dracoulis Martakos |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Managing access
to
electronic
subscriptions
by Charalampos Farmakis, Research
Fellow, Evangelia
Kopanaki,
Research
Fellow and Dracoulis Martakos, Assist-
ant Professor, Department of
Informatics, National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens, Greece
The provision
of
information
in
electronic form
and its
network distribution simplifies
the
process
of
searching
and
retrieval while
enabling remote
access.
The
electronic
material,
though,
is not
provided
for
free.
Electronic publishers organise
and
distribute
their material
to
library subscribers according
to
contracts.
Thus,
management
is not
limited
to
storage,
cataloguing
and
retrieval
but
it
also
encompasses
security,
access control
management
and
copyright
clearance.
An
architecture
and
the
relevant procedures
enabling library subscribers access
to the
electronic
publishers'
content
are
presented
in
this
article.
Introduction
The traditional role
of
libraries has changed
dramatically during the last few years
as
the scope
of their collections has grown beyond printed
material. Electronic publishing combined with
recent advances
in
computing, telecommunica-
tions
and
access software (Internet, Web servers,
browsers, search engines, etc) facilitate new
opportunities
in
access, modification, redistribu-
tion
and
combination
of
information regardless
of
its physical location. The library
is
rapidly chang-
ing, moving from
a
static geographic entity
to
being part
of
cyberspace. The library
is
starting
to
operate
as an
interaction centre with information
distributed worldwide.
The
library becomes
the
manager of the integrated electronic resources
environment,
and
the transmission
and
delivery
of
content. Searching
in
the electronic environment
is
mostly
a
subscribers' task, where they are granted
specific rights
to
the digital material through
contracts the library has with electronic publishers
on their
behalf.
Therefore, there
is a
need,
in the
electronic envi-
ronment,
for
processes that facilitate
the
subscribers' access
to
the digital material
in
compliance with contracts. This article describes
a
system architecture
and
procedures that fulfill
these requirements.
In the
following sections,
we
first describe the entities involved (publishers,
libraries, subscribers) and their needs. We proceed
then
to
describe the traditional
and
the new inter-
action among these entities and conclude
by
presenting the architecture of the proposed system.
Entities, roles and needs
As mentioned above, there are three entities
involved
in
the overall system:
the
publisher,
the
library and the subscriber (end-user).
Publishers
The publisher can
be a
publishing house,
an
association
or
an organisation that
is in the
print
business. Publishers are usually
in
business
to
make
a
profit.
It is
important
for
them
to
offer
their collections
in
digital format
in
order to attract
new clients
and
increase their profits. The cost
of
the electronic edition
and
therefore of the final
product
is
affected
by a
number
of
factors such
as
the production
in
electronic format, the storage
and
the management of the local information system.
These usually create relatively high production
costs and therefore
the
prices of the products
are
not always attractive
to the
subscriber. Another
important issue that should be addressed, from
the
publishers' point of view,
is
the distribution
and
billing of the electronic goods. Nowadays, several
economic models
as
well
as a
variety of distribu-
tion systems are under development. Finally, usage
monitoring
is
quite important
for
the publishers,
since they want
to
know as much
as
possible about
who uses their material
and how.
Library
A new role
for
libraries, especially academic ones,
is that of the intermediary between
the
electronic
publishers and the subscribers. Since they
are
usually not-for-profit organisations, they can assist
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