Evolution of Journal Publishing
By the Physical Sciences Bibliographers

For many years, librarians and faculty have been concerned about the “journals crisis”: the number of journals has been increasing, costs have been rising faster than inflation, and the number of journals that libraries subscribe to has been steady or decreasing.

It has become a mantra that faculty give away their intellectual property to publishers, who sell it back to university libraries. A small number of commercial publishers control a large portion of the market, particularly in the sciences, and they continue to buy up smaller for-profit publishers, thus concentrating control even more. Electronic journals have complicated the situation and added to library costs.

Faculty and librarians have taken initiatives to weaken the control of commercial publishers, but it will take time for major changes to occur. One such initiative is SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). The University of Chicago Library is a charter member www.arl.org/sparc/.

Electronic publishing, particularly of the journal literature, is transforming the way most faculty and students retrieve and use information. In 1998, the Library licensed on-line access to 5,700 electronic full-text journals; in 2002, this number reached 20,000. All electronic journals are included in the Library’s on-line catalog, with direct links to the electronic version.

Electronic journals are highly valued and heavily used by faculty and students. In fact evidence suggests that even those who are on campus and have used the printed journals previously, now prefer to use the electronic versions. (See www.ucop.edu/cmi/ for more information.)

Until recently, most electronic journals were also acquired in print. However, as electronic journals became more acceptable to users and as access became more stable, bibliographers often opted to acquire new journals in electronic form only. Additionally, many publisher electronic packages provided access to their entire journals collection, which significantly increased the number of titles available to our users.

Because of budget constraints for FY2003 and the certainty of more severe constraints in FY2004, Library bibliographers have been reviewing journal subscriptions for possible savings. Since it is now possible to acquire many journals solely in electronic form, bibliographers have the option of eliminating subscriptions to print journals thus saving subscription, processing and storage costs. This year one of our major commercial publishers, Elsevier ScienceDirect, has offered this option, and bibliographers cancelled 211 print subscriptions, effective with the 2003 volumes.

Electronic journals do present some unique issues, which science bibliographers take into account before making the decision to rely on the electronic version. Some of these issues are: explicit archival policies and options for access to content, acceptance of electronic only access by most of the affected user community, functionality and stability of the electronic version.

The Library is dedicated to the information needs of faculty, students and staff.
Whether the information is provided in print or electronic format is an issue the
Library will continue to deliberate carefully and realistically.

Science and Humor Exhibit
By Barbara Kern

The nature of the scientific mind may be discovered in elegant mathematical expressions and beautifully
designed experiments, and also perhaps by reading "Drool science" or Robert Bakers, "A stress analysis of a strapless evening gown". Our exhibit has chosen this second discovery route by examining examples of scientist's humor and humor with a science theme. Our exhibit's contributors include Chicago faculty and
students as well as our own collection of jokes, cartoons, and funny bone-tickling stories.

The exhibit is on display until March 31, 2003 in the atrium of the John Crerar Library.

Contributions and comments are welcome : www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/exhibits/
or contact Barbara Kern at bkern@uchicago.edu - 702-8717.

Which Database Should You Use?
By Brenda Rice

Photos and Images on the Web

www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/sci/photos.html

You will find a listing of Photograph and Image Sources in the Sciences from the John Crerar Library homepage under Research & Subject Guides. This guide provides access to a wide range of quality photographs and images in various scientific disciplines. Most of the photos and images can be accessed free of charge – others require a subscription or fee for use.

American Environmental Photographs 1891-1936 memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/icuhtml/aephome.html
4,500 photographs documenting natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century; photographs were taken by Henry Chandler Cowles (1869-1939), George Damon Fuller (1869-1961), and other Chicago ecologists on field trips across the North American continent; from the University of Chicago Library.

Emilio Segre Visual Archives
www.aip.org/history/esva/
25,000 images with the collection focused on American physicists and astronomers of the twentieth century, but includes many scientists in Europe and elsewhere, in other fields related to physics, and in earlier times; part of the AIP Center of History of Physics site.

Royal Society of Chemistry Images Collection
www.rsc.org/lic/imagesintro.htm
8,000 images from the Royal Society of Chemistry Library and Information Centre including original prints, individual photographs, glass lantern slides, photomicrographs and illustrations from books, dating from the present-day back to the sixteenth century; the mainstay of it is the "Cribb Collection," with about 433 items ranging from 1538-1890, which contains portraits of famous scientists, cartoons and caricatures; there are many images of contemporary scientists including Nobel prize and other award winners, and analytical chemists.

The ERU (Electronic Resources Update) is written and produced by the Science Libraries at the University of Chicago. This quarterly publication is distributed in print, on the web and via email.

To receive this newsletter in print or via email contact Barbara Kern at 702-8717 or bkern@uchicago.edu.