Neil Jacobs

Co‐term network analysis as a means of describing the information landscapes of knowledge communities across sectors

Many and varied information sources are used by researchers and managers across sectors relevant to public policy development. When aggregated, these sources can be described in terms of sector‐specific information landscapes. This paper describes results from a survey that investigated such landscapes and relates them to the working practices of those for whom they were relevant. This is achieved through the use of co‐word or co‐term analysis, a technique derived from actor‐network theory. This technique allows for the production of graphic plots of normalised free text term pairs, which take into account inclusiveness. The results suggest that knowledge communities can be identified by this technique.

Using local citation data to relate the use of journal articles by academic researchers to the coverage of full‐text document access systems

The methodology and findings are presented of an empirical study comparing local citation patterns with the holdings lists of a number of sources of journal articles. These sources were the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) and the BL inside service, library holdings, ProQuest Direct, SearchBank, EiText and a linking system including both the Geobase database and the BLDSC. The value of local citation figures is discussed, as is the concept of a “core” of journal titles, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Using these figures to represent the local use of journal articles, the coverage of the document sources was found to vary widely. Unsurprisingly, the BLDSC was found to offer the widest coverage. Newer, electronic systems generally fared less well, but may offer other advantages.

From Static Content to Dynamic Communities: The Evolution of Networked Educational Resources.

Five years ago the problems being addressed by major educational resources were how to locate and structure a burgeoning universe of Web sites in order to serve their subject and professional communities with useful and relevant content. Today, new challenges, demands and opportunities are emerging: the linking of content with community, static information with dynamic news. Describes the evolution of three educational resources in the social sciences (SOSIG, Biz/Ed and Regard) and their use of personal profiling, distributed contributions and RSS news channels to serve and gather information. Examines the issues that arise from changing user bases and technologies, sustainability and the need for collaboration, data protection and privacy concerns. Analyses the tensions these and other services face as they move toward a model that links the static with the dynamic, content with community.

Document delivery Websites

Document delivery is a fast‐changing practice, being highly subject to economic and technological developments. The FIDDO project, supported by the UK Electronic Libraries Programme, has as a major objective to supply relevant and up‐to‐date information to library managers in this dynamic field. This review of Websites concerned with document delivery aims to contribute to that objective. The review identifies a selection of the more important Websites that might be used by a library manager, and supplies a review of each from both practitioner and academic perspectives.The Websites reviewed include indexes of document suppliers, reports of research projects, system developments and national initiatives, and professional sites. The scope of the review is worldwide, although a specific effort has been made to include sites based outside the USA.

Negotiating the Digital Library: Document Delivery

Academic literature, the raw material of scholarly work, is an important resource, and one to which the various actors and groups within the university have differential access. One means by which this access is mediated and controlled takes the form of technology, and it could be argued that the technological librarian is both participant in and arbiter of contesting claims on this resource. Hence the librarian has a key role in deciding between the final resource access outcomes as they are made durable in the physical and virtual arrangements that make up the library. Within the rapidly changing field of document delivery, the eLib funded FIDDO Project aims to provide library managers and others with reliable and relevant information to support policy decisions. The FIDDO project has interviewed senior librarians about the future of document delivery. The interviews have been transcribed and analysed with the support of the NUD*IST software package. The findings address some of the issues raised above as they relate to various possible models of document access, and so contribute toward an understanding of how the winners and losers will come about in any new set of arrangements for document delivery.

The impact of the JISC‐funded eLib document delivery‐related projects

The UK Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) was a major research and development programme funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher education funding councils. One part of its work was concerned with document delivery, and several projects had this topic either as an explicit focus or as a necessary component. Reviews these projects, assessing the contribution of each one to UK document delivery services in academic libraries.