Linking Users and Online Journals in TOCosphere: Journal TOCs in VSSC Library

Abstract

Scholarly journals are the most important and expensive information sources in any library. Researchers always prefer to search, browse, and follow favourite journals in their field of interest 1. More than 80% of the budget is invested on journal literature by research and academic libraries. Migration to online only subscription is happening faster in libraries to take advantage of its benefits and to meet the demand of the users for accessing information without any restriction of time and space. The shift from print to ‘online only’ needs to be done carefully, bearing in mind the visibility problem of e-only journals. It is necessary to ensure every reader his/her (online) journal and every (online) journal its reader2. User’s preference is to discover articles with a facility to search and locate them using simple full text search features rather than journal titles. Libraries need to re-design the methods for accessing journal literature. New generation discovery tools and Library 2.0 technologies are the best solution to make the journal literature more visible to the users. Personalized services like TOC RSS feeds and TOC alerts are the right tools to promote the usage of journal literature. The paper ‘Linking Users and Online journals in TOCosphere3’ traces the initiatives taken to improve the discoverability of journal literature. A detailed picture of JournalTOCs service from Heriot-Watt University, UK is presented. Implementation of the customized version of this service in VSSC Library is also reported.