Session 09: Beyond Web Sites:
Electronic Journals and E-Zines.
(Internet Session 2)
Session outline.
Recommended reading:
Electronic Journal Miner: What is an electronic journal? (http://ejournal.coalliance.org/faqs.cfm).
(Source: Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries)
What's an e-zine anyway? (http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/about.html)
Includes a brief history of e-zines.
Electronic Journals: A Selected Resource Guide. (http://www.harrassowitz.de/top_resources/ejresguide.html)
Look at item 3 of the outline: Definitions and a Quick History of E-Journals.
Classroom discussion:
What is a magazine? What is a journal? What is a periodical? What is a serial?
What is an electronic journal or e-journal? Is this the same as an electronic magazine or e-zine?
Which do you prefer - the print or electronic format? Why?
There are many magazines and journals that are available in the online format only? Would you subscribe to one of these magazines? Do you like the convenience of delivery to an e-mail address, or accessing the issue at your leisure from the magazine web site (possibly using passwords)? Is there an absence of pictures, illustrations? If they are present, are they slow to download?
Why would anyone want a magazine in this format? Are there any advantages to this?
Are there disadvantages to online magazines or e-zines or e-journals? (think about access: are all these articles indexed and searchable online?) Think about the journals in New Jour or John Labovitz's E-Zine List below. Are the articles in these online journals indexed, searchable by subject, and available as full-text online?
Read and discuss: At the Crossroads: E-journals in the Era of Print Cancellations
(http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/CrossRoads.htm). This online article lists both pro and con views on e-journals. (Source: Iowa State University)
Are the online versions exactly the same as the printed versions (same articles, content)?
When you think of currency (recent information, latest articles, etc.), would either be preferred over the other? Why or why not?
How do I get to these magazines?
Resources:
Find Articles.com. Search engine. A free search service for leading business, entertainment, and internet publications available online. No need for AVL card, I.D. or password to access this database from a home computer. Constantly updated, this database contains articles dating back to 1998 from more than 300 magazines and journals.
Electronic Journal Miner. (http://ejournal.coalliance.org/) Search engine. This site primarly includes ejournal sites as they are offered by the publisher. In general this site EXCLUDES ejournals that are embedded within aggregators (such as Northern Light, EBSCO, Bell & Howell ProQuest, Information Access Company and others). This web page provides a series of indexes (e.g. title and Library of Congress Subject Heading) to provide easy access to different electronic serials. No article searching across multiple journal titles.
E-zine Lessons (Industry Trend or Event). (http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0DXS/24_6/68155731/p1/article.jhtml?term=E-zines) Discussion of expense of creating and providing e-zines, and the possibility of their being profitable business enterprises.
E-Global Library: The Academic Campus Library Meets the Internet.
(http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0DPC/6_9/75644894/p1/article.jhtml?term=%22Electronic+resources%22)
IN-CLASS EXERCISE:
Work in groups of 2 or 3 persons. Take a recent printed issue of a magazine and compare its content to that of the online version (same issue, same month). Discuss your findings with the class. Comment on the following: Are the two the same -- same articles, same ads, same illustrations? Ease of use (easy to locate articles?). Is it more time-consuming to locate the online article than the printed article? Which do you prefer? Why?
You may want to use one of the following directories to locate the online version of your magazine.
New Jour (http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/). This is a listing of 8373 titles of electronic journals and newsletters. Items here are not necessarily available free of charge. Some web sites give subscription information only. Searching by journal title only. No subject (category) searching. No article searching for multiple journals by subject.
The Internet Public Library Online Serials (http://www.ipl.org/reading/serials/)
Lists more than 2300 online magazines, journals, and newspapers. Search by broad subject (category) or title. Stemming and Boolean searches. Some individual magazine sites offer searching for full-text articles by subject. No searching of full-text articles from multiple magazines by subject.
John Labovitz's E-Zine List (http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/). Lists 4389 titles. Searchable by title and keyword. Articles not searchable by title or subject. No article searching across multiple magazine titles.
Serials in Cyberspace (http://www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/). Links to list of e-journals and e-zines. Many linked journal web sites only provide content or subscription information. No searching of full-text articles from multiple magazines by subject.
Question: Compare any of the above databases to EBSCOhost Web, available on the Alabama Virtual Library. What is the difference in these services? Which do you prefer? Why?
Go to Study Questions for Sessions 07-09.
Go to Session 10.