We have been subscribing to a number of the Nature publications online for a few years now. During this same time, we have maintained a print copy of Nature and Nature Biotechnology. This can no longer be done as the price for the print copy has doubled in the past 4 years from roughly $1200/year to almost $2400/year for EACH title. As of January 2008, we will rely on electronic access only for those titles.
In addition, with the recent addition of online access to JAMA and 6 of the American Medical Association “Archives of” journals, the library will stop carrying the print copies of JAMA and Archives of General Psychiatry as of January 2008.
This is the direction journal access is taking in the 21st century. It used to be that a library subscribed to print collections of periodicals; students, faculty and staff needed to physically visit the library in order to view and copy articles.
Now, electronic journal collections, along with full-text article access through databases, is not only changing the landscape of the library but enabling our patrons to do library research no matter where they are — at home, in the library atrium, in the campus computer labs, even while eating lunch in the Market Cafe or enjoying a Jamba Juice on the lower level of University Center.
This “new world” of journal access has expanded the research options for students and faculty and is making it easier to find the articles needed for a term paper, a thesis literature review or a grant-funded empirical study.
If you want to learn more about how to use the library’s electronic resources, please visit the 2nd floor Periodicals Desk, the 1st floor Reference Desk or contact us through our Ask a Librarian web page.
