Full text Ejournal packages East and West: CJN and JSTOR

Abstract

In libraries, full text ejournal packages are among the most unique aspects of the digital revolution. They challenge many of the basic concepts that librarians have held close to their hearts: The journals themselves come in packages - that is, unlike their print counter parts, they are bought as a package and not one at a time. Many librarians who have looked with pride at their journal collections because they were selected one - by - one, on the basis of local needs, have to look the other way and simply accept that this is a new world where the rule is more is better. At universities where the faculty have been in charge of selection, they too much accept the package that someone else selected. Ejournals are also revolutionary because they can typically be read from locations outside the walls of the library. Where licensing permits, faculty and students can even read them, once they are authenticated via a proxy server, from thousands of miles away and at any time of the day or night. Again, for librarians who measure the value of their libraries in the number of patrons who come to the library, or the number of bound and unbound journal volumes reshelved, this is a new world. For readers ejournals are also revolutionary. Instead of browsing the tables of contents or flipping through the illustrations and tables in search of the relevant few articles, readers can usually search the entire contents by key word or, more recently, they can click on references in a good article and find many other relevant items of value.