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WVU Libraries add electronic journals to online catalog

Posted by Admin.
September 27th, 2004

Research may be a few steps faster and net greater results for many WVU Libraries users. Mountainlynx, the libraries’ online catalog, now includes electronic journals in its listings.

Until now, someone searching for a mix of resources to research a topic had to check Mountainlynx to find books, films and microfilm, then look elsewhere on the Libraries’ Web site to find available electronic journals.

It’s now one-stop shopping.

“If students and faculty know to go to Mountainlynx, then they can find the electronic journals they need,” said Linda Blake, electronic journals coordinator and science librarian.

Because the electronic journals are in the online catalog, they are treated like the more traditional items in the collection. This means users can search by keyword to find all available e-journals for a particular area.

For example, someone doing a keyword search on “Hemingway” would find 307 listings of materials available at the WVU Libraries, and one is an e-journal called the Hemingway Review.

Searching under the keyword “art” reels in 24 e-journals among thousands of books and other materials, “engineering” finds 390 e-journals, and “oil” recovers 16.

Users can also choose to narrow their search to just e-journals by setting the Quick Limits option on the Mountainlynx page to “electronic journals.” This mode would return only the 390 e-journals for engineering rather than all of the thousands books, videos and other resources.

Another benefit of these catalog listings is quick access to the material. The user simply clicks on the desired listing and heads directly to the e-journal.

Adding these listings to Mountainlynx is the second step in the Libraries’ plan to enhance access to more than 10,000 e-journals.

The first step was getting an alphabetical list of e-journals on the Libraries’ Web site. The next step is using the enhancements to better manage the resources and, in turn, to continue improving offerings to users.

Blake is excited about the possibilities. She heard statistics at a recent conference that show adding e-journals to the online catalog increases usage and expects the same to happen here.

“This trend is not going to stop,” Blake said. “We’re going to end up with more and more electronic journals and less and less print. And we have to manage them.”

–Monte Maxwell, WVU Libraries

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