John W. East

Ranking Journals in the Humanities: An Australian Case Study

This article reviews the methods commonly used to evaluate journals, looking particularly at indicators relevant to journals in the humanities. It then applies these methods to a sample of Australian humanities journals. The indicators used are: level of holdings in large overseas academic libraries, coverage in international databases, standards of refereeing. peer evaluation by researchers, and frequency of citation in ISI source journals. The results obtained from each indicator are compared to establish the validity of the indicators.

Z39.50 and personal bibliographic software

Many thousands of researchers are now using personal bibliographic managers such as Reference Manager, EndNote and ProCite to access bibliographic databases via the Z39.50 protocol. With the EndNote software as an example, this paper demonstrates how researchers are using a standard search interface to access diverse databases and download references into their personal databases. There follows an overview of problems involved in searching the Z39.50 servers of some standard library automation systems (Innovative Interfaces, GEAC, SIRSI, Endeavour) and of two vendors of non-OPAC databases (Research Libraries Group and SilverPlatter). The paper concludes with some suggestions as to how the library community can contribute to improving the effectiveness of Z39.50 as a research tool.

Subject retrieval of scholarly monographs via electronic databases

Purpose – Scholarly monographs are a major information resource in the humanities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of abstracting and indexing (A&I) databases and library catalogues (OPACs) for subject retrieval of these monographs.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of monographs in philosophy was checked in the Philosophers Index database and in library OPACs to establish how many subject terms were assigned per page of text.Findings – The results highlighted the inadequate indexing of monographs in these databases. Various methods of improving subject access are discussed, including enriched subject content of database records. The search potential of full‐text databases is examined, with specific reference to two such databases, Oxford Scholarship Online and JSTOR.Practical implications – It is suggested that current and planned digitization projects need to incorporate improved search facilities, either by automatic generation of subject‐rich document surrogates, or by ...

Subject Retrieval from Full-Text Databases in the Humanities.

This paper examines the problems involved in subject retrieval from full-text databases of secondary materials in the humanities. Ten such databases were studied and their search functionality evaluated, focussing on factors such as Boolean operators, document surrogates, limiting by subject area, proximity operators, phrase searching, wildcards, weighting of search terms, limiting by type of document, controlled vocabulary indexing and ranking, and display of search results. The author suggests ways in which full-text searching might be improved, whether by enhancement of database records, by introduction of enhanced search functionality, or by the education of searchers in more effective search techniques. The conclusion is that current digitization projects are not producing databases that meet the needs of scholars.

Requiem for the National Bibliography? The Implications of Internet Access to National Library Catalogues

This paper begins with a brief survey of the nature and use of the printed current national bibliography. It then provides an overview of the national library catalogues which are at present freely accessible via the Internet. The usefulness of the printed national bibliography and the Internet-accessible national library catalogue are compared. The author concludes that the printed national bibliography is being supplanted by the national library catalogue, but that there is still a role for national bibliographies published electronically.

Australian Library Resources in Philosophy: A Survey of Recent Monograph Holdings

This paper reports the results of a survey of Australian library holdings of monographs cited in two major philosophy journals in 2002 and published from 1970 to 1999. National holdings of these titles appear satisfactory, but there is a marked decline in holdings after 1996. Holdings in the libraries of the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne are very satisfactory, but again show signs of decline in later years. Holdings in the National Library of Australia are poor after 1992.