[from E-LIS editors' list] --- Tomas Baiget <bai...@sarenet.es> wrote:
> From: "Tomas Baiget" <bai...@sarenet.es> > To: "E-LIS editors list" <elis-edit...@lists.openlib.org> > Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 13:56:41 +0200 > Subject: [Elis-editors] Jacsó writes about E-LIS > > Péter Jacsó, University of Hawaii, > http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jacso/ > has writen a short article about E-LIS in the current issue of Online: > http://www.infotoday.com/online/may08/index.shtml > Vol. 32, num. 3, May/June 2008, page 20. > > Below I copy the text. > > Regards, > > Tomàs Baiget, Director > El Profesional de la Información > http://www.elprofesionaldelainformacion.com > > > > E-LIS > > > > The E-LIS database (http://eprints.rclis.org) is close to my heart > because it delivers for free what the publisher I pan later often does > not deliver even for a fee-timely information about research in library > and information science and technology. As of early 2008 it had 7,200 > papers from about 700 journals. > > > > As an open archive, it covers all fields of LIS from the theoretical to > the highly practical, from school libraries to national libraries, from > rare books to ebooks, all reflected in the excellent classified subject > index. Sure, you can argue if there is a need for separate classes for > use studies and for user studies, but the display of the number of > postings for each class -to my delight- offers a rather convincing > argument without saying a word. > > > > Its coverage is highly international both in terms of the language and > country of residence of the authors. The strong presence of Spanish > language documents is no surprise to me. It is not merely a sign of the > productivity of researchers from Spanish speaking countries (especially > from Spain) but a blessing for those whose English is not strong enough > to publish. Many of the leading LIS journals would be happy to accept > these papers -if they were written in excellent English. Obviously, > materials in some foreign languages, such as Turkish or Greek, have a > limited target audience. > > > > Actually, quite a number of the deposited papers were published in some > of the leading English language journals, such as JASIS, JASIS&T, > Journal of Information Science, Information Processing and Management, > Library Resources and Technical Services, Information Technology and > Libraries, and Information Services and Use. Looking at the results from > my search on citation indexes, it's obvious that there are few papers > from these and other mainstream journals. However, there are more than > immediately meets the eye, because the journal names are not spelled > consistently and are therefore scattered. > > > > I am glad that after my earlier criticism the four variants of El > Profesional de la Información have been consolidated into one entry, but > there are many others that need standardization. Often, these are just > punctuation differences hardly perceivable by the human eye, but an > eyesore in the alphabetic index during browsing. For example, this > "alphabetical" list of author names was obviously compiled using a > computer's rules rather than a human being's: > > > > . Álvarez, Alejandro (1) > > . Álvarez, Ángeles (1) > > . Álvarez, Olga (1) > > . Ünal, Yurdagül (5) > > . Aureliano Alarcón, Ramón (1) > > . Üstün, Ayfle (2) > > . Aviles Merens, Rafael (3) > > . Avila, Belén (i) > > . Avila, Rodolfo E. (3) > > > > This should also be fixed. > > > > Very often an article that catches my eye in a search turns out to be a > paper from a journal with which I was not familiar. > > The same applies to the more than 2,000 papers presented at hundreds of > conferences, which are particularly difficult to fínd. > > > > The strongest part of the software is its browsing feature, and E-LIS > stands out with the number of indexes that can not only be searched but > also browsed by subject, country, journal name, book name, author/editor > name, and publication year. The only significant limitation is that > there is no option to do exact phrase searching and differentiate > between, say, information industry and industry information. For > full-text databases this is important. > > > > The database is hosted by the CILEA Interuniversity Consortium, an > Italian organization dedicated to data processing. There are dozens of > supporting institutions with unfamiliar acronyms from around the world > behind this service. They deserve our recognition (http://eprints > .rclis.org/support.html) and should get a nod along with the > enthusiastic and competent staff and team of editors with LIS > educational backgrounds, volunteering from all the four corners of the > world [http://eprints.relis .org/staff.html). > > > > E-LIS is one of the many repositories that use the free and intuitive > EPrint software, which is the brainchild of Stevan Harnad, the key > figure of the open access movement. Harnad possesses an admirable > combination of mental prowess and hyperactivity as the "archivengalist" > of self-archiving who talks the talk and walks the walk tirelessly. > > > > E-LIS (together with DLIST, which was an earlier pick) can be also > important for preventing open aecess articles from disappearing into the > abyss. Years ago, Columbia University Press acquired JEP (Journal of > Electronic Publishing) the outstanding open access journal, and > immediately made it inaccessible (which must have helped to sell more > copies of its book on the subject). Columbia was sitting pretty on it, > like a rich senior citizen on a Harley Davidson prop for a photo > opportunity. Luckily, JEP was acquired back by the original publisher, > the University of Michigan, in late 2006, and it was again made open > access. > > http://www.journalofelectronicpublishing.org/ > > > > E-LIS is small, but it is growing. Its size doubled in the past 2 years; > it could have tripled if we, the authors, would not just feel good after > getting our papers published but would go that extra inch and legally > deposit them in E-LIS, DLIST, and the slowly emerging institutional > repositories, a process that takes just a few minutes. > > > Péter Jacsó > ja...@hawaii.edu > _______________________________________________ > Elis-editors mailing list > elis-edit...@lists.openlib.org > http://lists.openlib.org/mailman/listinfo/elis-editors > --- ---- Dr. Zapopan Martín Muela Meza, PhD, MLS SUNY-Buffalo, B.A.LIS UANL Doctor en Estudios de la Informacion University of Sheffield, Inglaterra ...y para que al morir se pueda exclamar ¡toda la vida y todas las fuerzas han sido entregadas a lo más hermoso del mundo, a la liberación de la humanidad! -- Nikolai Ostrovski (novela Así se templó el acero, Moscú: Editorial Progreso, 1969, p. 268, cap. 3, 1a parte) Solo son verdaderas personas quienes arrancan al hombre las cadenas que sujetan su razon. --Maximo Gorki (novela La Madre, cap. XVII, parte I)