The Nature of the Electronic Journal: Structure and Use of Information in Scholarly Electronic Journals

Abstract

The nature of the information in scholarly electronic journals and the use made of that information needs to be better understood by academic librarians seeking to serve faculty and students effectively. This paper is based on the results of an investigation of web accessible scholarly journals undertaken at Dartmouth College, and emphasizes the challenges to library user services. Scholarly electronic journals are different from print journals in form and access mode, and vary far more than print journals. However, the role of the scholarly journal has not changed with the form. User requirements for ease of access and reliability of content are still important considerations. By actively working with the providers of electronic journals, librarians have the opportunity to influence the development of this mode of scholarly communication in a direction that is beneficial to scholarship.