Putting it together just right: CSUN library links its electronic holdings through EBSCO
Doris Small Helfer
Searcher; May 2000; 8, 5; ABI/INFORM Complete
pg. 18
Putting It Together Just Right: CSUN Library
Links Its Electronic Holdings Through EBSCO
by Doris Small Helfer
Science Librarian and Chair,
Technical Services Library
California State University, Northridge
In many ways this column connects
and continues v.vo earlier columns "The Trend in Academia: One-Stop
Shopping for Students" [November/
December 1997] 1 and "Making Digital
Collection Development a Reality: The
CSU JACC Project" [May 1999] 2 . Both
columns discussed two California State
University (CSU) Consortium projects,
which were still in the early stages of
development at the time I wrote about
them. Each article discussed a project
within the CSU system that pushed the
boundaries in academic libraries. Due
to these and several other initiatives, the
right support, and the efforts of good
people inside and outside the CSU
system, my library at CSU Northridge
has joined leading libraries around
the country in directly linking our cataloged journal records to online electronic journal articles.
To catch you up, the UIAS (Unified
Information Access Systems) project
discussed in the 1997 column has been
renamed Pharos. Pharos was envisioned
as a Web-based service that provides integrated access to a full range of library
resources, including a system-wide
union catalog, other library catalogs,
and indexing/ abstracting and full- text
databases. \Vhen complete the Z39.50
compliant Pharos gateway should
perform "broadcasts" that integrate
electronic journal content with multipie database searches. (Ameritech Li-
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brary Systems won the bidding for the
project. Ameritech itself was recently
sold to investors who changed its name
to epixtech.)
As with most large and complex systems, bringing Pharos up and making it
as robust and fully functional as envisioned has taken considerably longer
than planned. Currently it is projected
that the system will be fully functional
in June 2000. Scattered campuses in the
CSU system use it now, but most plan to
wait for more reliable functionality
before on-campus implementation. A
number of issues concerning the consistency of the information have slowed
down systems implementation on the
campus level.
JACC Electronic Journals
The second column on CSU activities
discussed the California State University
Journal Access Core Collection (JACC),
which specified the journal titles CSU
wanted to access electronically. The
2-year project culminated in a list of
nearly 1,300 titles. Journals on the JACC
list were selected from titles for which
15 or more of CSU's 21 campus libraries
subscribed to in print.
EBSCO Subscription Services won
the bid on the RFP. The number of subscriptions from the list has dwindled to
a mere 388. The decline in numbers resulted from a combination of factors, ineluding lack of electronic availability or
high costs for electronic formats. It became obvious that the half-million dollars allocated to the project would not
nearly fund all the electronic subscriptions desired. To meet the budget, it was
decided that subscriptions costing over
$500 would be cut. This eliminated
many of the more expensive science
journals from the core collection.
JACC electronic subscriptions purchased by CSU system members should
become part of the electronic databases
available through Pharos when it comes
to the campuses. The integration of the
two projects will extend the Pharos interface to available electronic journals.
Ultimately, end users will benefit from
this project by having titles with easyto-access full text readily available.
Users will be able to access the full text
either by browsing the OPAC for journals and linking through tables of contents or by searching indexing and abstracting databases and linking from
citations found.
In the meantime, several developments occurring outside the CSU system also helped to enable the CSU
Northridge campus to link directly
from its catalog to electronic journals.
EBSCO Subscription Services developed
two new products: EBSCOhost and
EBSCO Online. In addition, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC)
Policy Committee, an international
cataloging initiative led by the Library of
Congress, charged its Standing Committee on Automation's Task Group on
Journals in Aggregator Databases to
investigate providing records to identify
full-text electronic journals acquired in
aggregator databases. EBSCO participated in this endeavor as well.
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Currently, more than 2,800 journals
are available via EBSCO Online, with new
titles added regu Ia rly.
EBSCOhostand EBSCO Online
EBSCO announced EBSCOhost and
EBSCO Online early in 1999. Visitors to
EBSCO's Web site [http://www.ebsco.
com] can view a list of publishers and
titles available through EBSCO Online,
the electronic journals service from
EBSCO Subscription Services. [Click on
"Electronic Journals" and then "Complete List ofEBSCO Online Journals."]
According to the EBSCO Web site,
"EBSCOhost is an online reference system accessible via the World Wide Web
or Internet connection. The system
offers access to more than 60 proprietary and licensed [third-party] databases. These databases provide a variety of full text articles from a diverse
group of publishers, as well as indexing
and abstracting information from thousands of publications."
A key feature on EBSCO Online is the
ability to search across journal content
regardless of publisher. Administrative
features enable librarians to manage a
dynamic electronic journal collection,
order new electronic journals, and track
usage. EBSCO Online handles authentication, so customers do not have to deal
with the problems of keeping up with
multiple URLs, usernames, and passwords. Administrators can choose from
a variety of authentication methods to
accommodate access depending on user
community needs. Currently, more than
2,800 journals are available via EBSCO
Online, with new titles added regularly.
Citations in proprietary databases
available through EBSCO now link to
full- text articles available via EBSCO host
and EBSCO Online. Customers can use
EBSCOhost to search against their
favorite indexing and abstracting databases. Database results will appear as
usual. However, if a citation references a
publication to which a customer has
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access through EBSCO Online, an icon
indicating the link to the full text will
appear as part of the search results. The
new link creates a seamless interface for
electronic journals, from indexing and
abstracting services through to full text.
"We chose to focus on links from
databases to full-text articles first," said
John Fitts, vice president and general
manager ofEBSCO's Information Systems and Services department. "Our
customers are driving our priorities,
and links from indexing and abstracting databases to full text are in high
demand." According to Oliver Pesch,
chief technical officer for EBSCO Publishing, 'This link signifies a major advancement for customers of our licensed
databases that traditionally do not provide full text. The link, coupled with the
previously existing 'Local Holdings' feature, allows EBSCOhost to go beyond
mere identification of resources by
facilitating access- the next logical step
in the research process.
EBSCO Online customers who also
subscribe to aggregated full-text databases on EBSCOhostcan use the EBSCO
Online interface to browse tables of contents for these journals and retrieve the
full text. "This feature will further expand
EBSCO Online's value as a central access
point for all of the library's electronic
journal holdings," Fitts added. Eventually, the services will be tightly integrated
with seamless access to all information
to which a customer subscribes, regardless of the service in which research
begins. Such enhancements will allow
EBSCO to offer customers a true "onestop" location for electronic information.
With the release of EBSCO Online in
January 1999, the first step of the integration process began. EBSCO Online
can now display the status of forth coming and missing issues on the "Journal
Homepage," along with descriptive comments. This helps users know why they
can't find something they seek.
EBSCO Online now displays the
"Linking URL" for journals offered on
the site, allowing the user to link directly
to a specific journal's home page on the
service without having to search or
browse to find the journal. The user can
copy and paste the URLs into their own
Web pages or OPAC to set up direct
linking. URLs display almost everywhere
a journal's name is located, e.g., on all
the TOCs and article pages. Alternate
content formats allow users to retrieve
content in whatever formats the publisher may offer. For example, Catchword now offers content in both PDF
and RealPage formats.
EBSCO has to work closely with publishers to make the links happen. Some
publishers are more willing than others.
Publishers have to feel that there would
be continuing revenue for them to want
to work with EBSCO on this matter.
When EBSCO won the JACC award,
the company offered all CSU libraries
access to a number of additional electronic journals through EBSCOhost's
Academic Search Elite for the course
of the JACC project and at a price too
good for the library at CSU Northridge
to pass up. About 16 of the 21 CSU
campus libraries added the EBSCOhost subscriptions.
EBSCO Publishing Supports PCC
Policy Committee's Task Group
The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Policy Committee charged
the Standing Committee on Automation's Task Group on Journals in Aggregator Databases to investigate and make
recommendations for a useful, costeffective, and timely way to provide
records that identified full- text electronic
journals acquired in aggregator databases. EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) participates in this endeavor to provide
"proof of concept" by implementing the
recommendations into a record set that
members of the group can load and test.
In the course of this project, EBSCO
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EBSCO Subscription SeN ices has shown incredible
dedication to working with their librarian customers.
Publishing works in conjunction with
the Task Group by culling sets of MARC
records that represent the journals in
their databases. The CONSER records
for the corresponding print journals are
available for download from EBSCO at
no charge.
This project is in response to the
needs of today's libraries identified by the
Task Group. A recent survey oflibrarians
in PCC libraries revealed that a large rnajority wanted records in their catalogs
matched with the full- text journals available electronically. EBSCO Publishing
has also lent the Task Group developmental expertise. [For the final report of
the Task Group, go to http:/ !lcweb.loc.
gov I catdir I peel aggfinal.htrnl.]
CSU Northridge's Implementation
CSU Northridge's librarians did not
feel that Pharos was ready for implementation on our campus in the Fall of
1999. CSUN's Cataloging Coordinator,
Jina Wakimoto, did not want to wait
to implement Academic Search Elite
records until Pharos was ready. Since
CSUN had already started paying for the
online subscriptions, making them accessible quickly became a high priority.
In addition, we already spent a lot of staff
time maintaining a separate electronic
journal list [http:/ /library.csun.edu/
techserv I eltrnjls.html], which we considered- at best- an interim solution. Staff time would be better spent
integrating URL information into catalog records.
The JACC RFP had requested the provision of MARC records for all the journals we received. CSUN chose not to use
the original print record version of the
catalog. We contacted EBSCO in early
October 1999 and expressed interest in
the MARC record sets. EBSCO provided
us 'A-ith access to the FTP site containing
the US l'v1ARC/CONSER records for print
versions of the journals. CSUN Library
Systems Administrator, Eric Willis, re-
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trieved the file using FTP and loaded the
records onto the Geac Advance system.
The Geac system provides for the creation of a load profile to define the treatment of incoming bibliographic records.
We stripped out the EBSCO title
number and matched the entries in
the file against our current catalog using ISSN s. Records that did not match
were new titles and written directly into
the main database. Matching records
went into a cataloging work file with a
notation that the records came from
EBSCO. Our systems administrator
suggested creating a subset of our catalog comprising only the electronic
journals. These records appear in the
main catalog as well. The subset included not only EBSCO records, but
also other electronic journal subscriptions we hold, including those from
the American Chemical Society Web
edition and JSTOR.
Several very important decisions were
made. First, the library's central catalog
had to be the source of access to titles,
just as for everything else in our library.
We would take the single composite
record approach, when we had a title in
various formats, but a separate record
approach when we only have the title
available electronically.
The immediate goal was to load these
records into our database and make
them available to our users. We would
solve any problems after we had the
records loaded. We also needed to add
the library's holdings to these records.
Initial procedures were written and
tested by ]ina Wakimoto, Mary Woodley,
and Gina Hsiung. Once we had tested
and adjusted the procedures, we notified Eric Willis, our indispensable systems administrator, to load the complete set ofEBSCO records. At a meeting
of the technical services staff, we notified everyone of the project and looked
for volunteers to work on the project.
Volunteer staff helped make sure the
URLs taken from the EBSCO records
were attached to each of the existing
records. Once we had integrated all the
URLs into our existing records, the systems administrator created a subset catalog that listed only electronic journals.
[To take a look at what we offer, check
out our library Web page at http:/ I
library.csun.edu/ cgi/web/ geac.html.]
Future Steps
The last missing component, scheduled for completion by the time you read
this article, is the direct link into the Web
site. EBSCO has to work these direct links
out with the publishers.
This whole complex process demonstrated to me, again, the need for librarians to work v\ith their vendors and systems administrators in order to succeed.
California State University, Northridge,
is fortunate to have a talented and dedicated staff committed to finding a better way to access electronic journals and
fortunate also that the CSU system and,
in particular, the Council of Library Directors, has had the insight and courage
to forge new ground with Pharos and
JACC. I should also say that EBSCO
Subscription Services has shown incredible dedication to working with
their librarian customers and with
publishers. Only by all of us working
together can we all succeed.
Special Thanks: At Northridge we've
had the privilege to work with Kittie Henderson of EBSCO, who has labored long
and hard on the ]ACC project throughout the CSU system. She also provided me
with help in producing this column, for
which a special thanks goes out.
*
Footnotes
1 Helfer, Doris Small. "Making Digital Collection Development a Reality:
The CSU JACC Project," Searcher: The
Magazine for Database Professionals,
May 1999, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 57-59.
2 Helfer, Doris Small. "The Trend in
Academia: One-Stop Shopping for Students," Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals, November/December 1997. vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 12-15.
The Magazine for Database Professionals
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.