Access to electronic journals via bibliographic records is a permanent commitment. Access via the University Libraries' homepage may be only for the short-term or until electronic journals are more commonplace and accepted and the Libraries have a web-based public access catalog.

All selected electronic journals will be represented in BISON with holdings information and properly formatted access information. The links to all electronic journals will be via the University Libraries' homepage, with unit library homepages linking to this central region and not directly to the journals. All electronic journals included on individual unit homepages must be accessible through the University Libraries' homepage; all titles which are accessible via the University Libraries' homepage will not necessarily be accessible via any unit homepage. Access will be provided to electronic journals available in a variety of formats: electronic format only; electronic version of a print or microform publication; electronic versions containing full content, partial content, abstracts with or without table of contents, or only table of contents.

It is the policy of the University Libraries to provide access to an electronic journal through the public access catalog portion of BISON and through the Libraries' web only if the journal is accessible to all members of the University community from any unit library. Requirements for passwords and registration and limitations on the number of simultaneous users will not be considered as impediments to making a title accessible to all members of the University community.

Access to electronic journals, whether gratis or priced, will result from either selection decisions made by subject specialists or by technical services staff who will automatically establish access to the electronic editions of titles which are already held in print when there is no charge for the electronic edition. This includes titles for which we maintain a subscription to the print edition, or receive them through a depository program.

A separate region in the Online Resources section of the Libraries' homepage will be maintained for electronic journals. This region will serve all areas of the Libraries. There will be no unit or technical services area affiliation with the records.

This section will consist of an alphabetical list of titles which will indicate the scope or completeness (full content, partial content, table of contents with abstracts, or table of contents only) of the electronic edition. "Electronic only" will be used when the title is issued only in an electronic format. "Full content" will be used when the entire content of the print version is available electronically. If any portion of the text, excluding advertising, is not available in the electronic edition, the scope will be considered as "partial content." "Table of contents with abstracts" will be used when there is no full text of articles but when there are abstracts. "Table of contents only" will be used when there are neither abstracts nor full text of any portion of the journal. No links will be made from the electronic journals region of the Libraries' homepage to journal websites which only provide information to authors on submitting manuscripts. Unit libraries may wish to create links to such sites from their homepages, however.

An informational record will be linked to each electronic journal on the University Libraries' homepage. Each information record will consist of the following fields:

• Title of the journal
• Place of publication, publisher, and beginning date of publication
• Refereed (this will appear only if the journal is refereed; there will be no indicationthat a title is not refereed) and in labelled fields:
• Scope (electronic only, full content, partial content, table of contents with abstracts, or table of contents only; (any variation from this standard terminology will be covered in the Notes area)
• Holdings (beginning volume, issue number, and date for electronic edition followedby plus (+) sign; ending volume, issue number, and date if the electronic edition has ceased).

which in turn will be followed by more labelled fields:

• Access: [an alert that identification numbers, passwords, etc., which follow are needed to access issues of the journal], an example follows:

• Access: The Site ID and Password are needed to access issues of this title.
  Site ID: UBSEL
  Password: UBWINGS

  A blinking arrow will be used to call attention to access information.

• File Format (the format in which the data is provided)
  Use the following forms for file format
  
  • Acrobat PDF
  • ASCII
  • DVI
  • Gzipped PostScript
  • HTML
  • LaTeX
  • PostScript
  • TeX

  This list will be updated as new formats appear.

• Subjects (subject headings appropriate to the journal)

• Frequency (publication frequency)

• ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

• Notes (information about the content of the journal including, if necessary, further information about Scope)

The electronic journals region has keyword searching capability. In addition, questions and comments from staff and patrons can be directed via e-mail from the screens in the electronic journals region to those technical services staff responsible for maintaining it. Technical services staff will forward messages of relevance to public services and collection development staff.

For all electronic journals for which access is to be provided through the University Libraries' homepage, there will also be access through BISON. Although currently that access can be only bibliographic, the linkage needed for direct access from the BISON record to the journal itself in a web-based successor to the present BISON system will be included in the bibliographic records.

The following guidelines are to be followed:

When there is a record for the print edition, a copy statement for the electronic edition will be added. Add 538 and 856 fields to the records as described below.

A new bibliographic record will be added when there is not already one in BISON. If there is an OCLC record for the print edition only, that record will be exported to BISON. If there are records in OCLC for both the print and electronic editions, the record for the appropriate electronic edition will be preferred. Add 538 and 856 fields to the records as described below.

Minor variations in title such as THE NATION DIGITAL EDITION, the title for the electronic edition of NATION will be ignored and a new record will not be added. ACADEME THIS WEEK, an electronic version for some of the content of THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, is a distinct title, and as such, requires a separate bibliographic record.

Create a copy statement:
2 or 3 U [pu],in |k see LONg;view NOTES; Mode of;access
[order number if priced] |a hldg mo/yr [initials]
Create an MHLD (MARC holdings and location record):

Code R/STAT (receipt status) and MTHD (method of receipt as appropriate.

Create an Order/Payment/Receipt (OPR) record for priced titles, but do not record receipt of issues.

Include in the MHLD the same information on scope.

If the title is issued only as an electronic journal, use the following wording: This publication issued only in electronic form.

The following wording will be used if there is also a print edition:

Electronic edition consists of the full content of the print edition.

Electronic edition consists of only partial content of the print edition.

Electronic edition consists of only the table of contents and abstracts of articles.

Electronic edition consists of only the table of contents.

Include a 538 field in the bibliographic record:


|a Mode of access: Internet. Host: [identify host]. Available at URL [provide URL] or through the Electronic Journals section of the Online Resources area of the University at Buffalo Libraries' Homepage.

Include logon and password information in the 538 field if either or both are required to access the journal.

Also include an 856 field, 1st delimiter 7 2nd blank


|u [provide the URL] |2 http (or |2 gopher).

If an 856 is added and the source is not specified in a |2, use delimiters as follows:

e-mail 1st delimiter 0 second blank
ftp 1st delimiter 1 second blank
remote login (telnet) 1st delimiter 2 second blank
dial-up 1st delimiter 3 second blank

Subject specialists will consider priced and gratis electronic journals for access and should forward those decisions to the appropriate technical services area. A form available via the CTS homepage can be used to communicate selection decisions. This form can be sent electronically, or it can be copied, completed, and sent through library mail. For those forms sent electronically, CTS will forward the messages for Health Sciences and Law to those areas. Unit libraries staff are encouraged to provide information for the "Notes" area. When an electronic journal requires an institutional registration, the appropriate technical services area should be asked by the subject specialist to handle the registration on behalf of the University Libraries.

If a unit wishes to provide access to an electronic journal via its homepage, it will be the unit's responsibility to establish the link from the unit homepage to the electronic journals region of the University Libraries' homepage.

Subject specialists will review electronic journals for possible deselection and should inform the appropriate technical services area of those decisions.

The e-mail account for questions and comments from staff and patrons should be read on a daily basis by CTS staff. CTS staff will also review the e-mail account to which electronic journal selection decisions are sent.

Technical services areas will give the same priority to responding to questions and problems related to electronic journals as they give to material in other formats.

Questions and selection/deselection decisions related to Health Sciences or Law Libraries titles should be forwarded to appropriate technical services staff in those libraries.

Specific technical services tasks related to adding a title are as follows:

1. Entering paid subscriptions

2. Completing institutional registration procedures

3. Adding the title to the electronic journals region of the University Libraries' homepage by creating the information record for the title including determining the URL, file format, scope, and holdings if that information has not been provided by the subject specialist (Technical services are strongly urged to add new titles to the electronic journals region promptly and, when it will be necessary to add an original record to BISON, to add the title to the region first and not wait for the cataloging to be completed.)

4. Establishing the link between the electronic journals region of the Libraries' homepage and then informing the subject specialist that the work has been done so that a link can be created from a unit homepage to this central region if the unit wishes to do so

5. Adding a new bibliographic record to BISON or adding a new copy statement to an existing record, adding 538 and 856 fields to the bibliographic record, and creating an MHLD with either open- ended holdings or finite holdings in the case of a ceased title

6. Identifying gratis electronic editions of titles which are already received in paper and adding these titles to the electronic journals region

7. Informing subject specialists that a title which was formerly available at no charge is now priced

1. Verifying the operation of the link to the journal on a regular basis and re-establishing the link as necessary

2. Monitoring current issues in order to identify title changes

3. Confirming the scope (full content, partial content, table of contents with abstracts, or table of contents only)

4. Confirming the extent of holdings

Created 10/7/96