Computer Science Literature Roundtable, Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, June 1997, Seattle, WA. Once again, over 40 library and publishing people gathered on Wednesday afternoon for an open discussion on the literature of Computer Science.
ACM Digital Library
The discussion began with Mark Mandelbaum of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) announcing Web access to ACM's publications: The ACM Digital Library . There will be free access to full text during the months of July through September. The ACM wishes to become a one-stop shopping location, which will publish for other societies as well. Added value for each journal as it goes electronic will include a search engine and current awareness profiling (email notification for newly published articles).
Copyright
The ACM will copyright the archival version of the article, called the
Reference Article, but authors are free to post enhanced copies on their
own web sites. The Reference Article may have links to enhancements,
depending on the judgement of the editor. It was suggested that the index
to the author's home page would be the ultimate in citation indexing, and
this approach would produce what was termed as the "fuzzy document".
ACM Articles are to be Short
The ACM is working to make articles short and readable because they have
been told by members that articles are not being read due to lack of time.
One librarian pointed out that she was being asked by users to pick out the
good bits of information for them, and she felt that this process will be
easier to do when more is on the Web.
ACM SIG Conference Proceedings
The ACM is working to publish all conference proceedings as separate items,
with none as issues of Special Interest Group (SIG) bulletins. A librarian from UCLA let us know that they will no longer be cataloging ACM SIG conference proceedings.
ACM Back Run Archive
The ACM is planning to scan and archive the back runs of their
publications, but they point out that this is costly. Currently, the
format being used is PDF, but in the long term, they expect to go to
SGML/HTML format.
ACM Collected Algorithms
It was mentioned that electronic access to the Collected Algorithms of the
ACM is available through the web site http://netlib.org.
ACM Criterion for an Article to be New
A judgement call for an editor is how much new material must be in an
article for it to be considered a new article. Currently, this is when
more than 25% has been changed or if the change is a significant aspect of
the article.
ACM Strategic Directions
Carol Hutchins, NYU Courant Institute, encouraged the ACM to continue to
publish articles on strategic directions as was done in the December 1996
issue of Computing Surveys. This is especially important because Annual
Reviews Incorporated no longer produces a volume on computer science.
Print Availability
A representative from Mathematical Reviews pointed out that printed
versions of publications will continue to be needed, especially by people
in third world countries. However, Mark Mandelbaum suggested that third
world countries are leapfrogging current technology to become well
connected. He also said that most ACM members seem to be willing to give
up print, while librarians are less willing. It was noted that 35% of
reviewers for Mathematical Reviews are not well enough connected to have
email. The new model for ACM is "Distribute Then Print". One possibility
being considered by ACM is to produce printed versions of publications only
at the end of each year for library archives.
Past Electronic Issue Availability
A concern was expressed: if an institution stops its electronic
subscription, will access continue to be granted to those years for which
it was a paid subscriber? The ACM says yes. Jim Ashling of INSPEC pointed
out that continuing access to owned print issues costs the publisher
nothing but maintaining access to electronic issues is an expense to the
publisher, and the cost must be passed on to current subscribers.
Publishers may ultimately think in terms of selling electronic editions
rather than leasing them.
IEEE IEL CD-ROM image system
It was asked when will there be a network version of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) IEL collection of images of articles and standards on CD-ROM. According to IEEE representatives, the timetable calls for an upgrade to a Web Browser interface in Fall 1997, and then a network product in first quarter 1998, starting with a distributed index. It is intended to cover all IEEE publications, including those of the IEEE Computer Society. Librarians are requested to aid in product improvement by reporting gaps to the IEL Trace Service. A needed article will then be sent to the user and also added to the image collection.
Conference Titles
A title authority file is being developed for IEEE IEL to cope with the
problem of handling the variations in titles of conference proceedings.
Usage of Electronic Journals
Publishers were encouraged to collect usage statistics and and send them to
subscribing libraries for use in justifiying subscription renewals. It was
suggested that a form for usage statistics be proposed and discussed on
PAMNET. One expected problem is that each library requires a different
format and level of detail. It was also suggested that the Association of
American Publishers might be the organization to consider the issue of
standardizing usage statistics.
Librarian Advisory Groups
ACM, IEEE, and the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) mentioned
that they have contact with representatives from the library field. It was
suggested that those representatives be listed on the PAM Web site and that
they be encouraged to report on the advice that they are giving to
publishers. Joanne Goode, Chair of PAM, pointed out that one of PAM's goals
is to have advisory liaisons for each publisher in the field.
The PAM Listserv
It was pointed out by one of the publishers' representatives that the PAM
Listserv is monitored by them and is thus a good place to discuss library/ publisher issues.
Thanks
Our thanks go to all who attended, including representatives from the
following publishers: Academic Press, ACM, IEEE, INSPEC, ISI, Springer
Verlag, and Wiley. Also, thanks go to Virginia Baldwin, Eastern Illinois
University, for her contributions to these notes. Hope to see you all
again next year.
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Created by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, August 6, 1997