(3) Reply-To: swalter_at_wsu.edu
This question has been discussed at length on more than one occasion on
EBSS-L. Here's one message on the subject that I sent last April when
Virginia Tech was facing the same question (they decided to keep the
fiche). Also, take note that EDRS has been having MASSIVE problems with
E*Subscribe for the past month. If we didn't have the fiche, our users
would have been out of luck on more than one occasion.
Let me know if I can flesh any of this out.
***********************
Susan - you do NOT want to cancel the fiche. Here's why:
1) you are correct that there is a small percentage of materials that
appear only in fiche (my last report from EDRS was that this was around 15%
of the annual materials, but it depends simply on how many of that year's
authors don't authorize electronic distribution).
2) if you cancel the fiche, you can no longer get the full-text at the flat
rate offered to fiche subscribers and will, instead, have to pay according
to FTE. For a large university (and I believe Tech qualifies), this can be
very costly.
3) you always have the fiche even when the EDRS server goes down (and it does).
Scott Walter
Head, George B. Brain Education Library,
Interim Head of Library Instruction, and,
Visiting Assistant Professor of Education
130 Cleveland Hall
Washington State University
P.O. Box 642112
Pullman, WA 99164-2112
(509) 335-5579 (voice)
(509) 335-6425 (fax)
e-mail: swalter_at_wsu.edu
URL: http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/educ/walter.htm
=====================================================================================================================
(4) From: Dottie Persson dorothy-persson_at_uiowa.edu
Our distance education and alternative delivery students as well as our
regular delivery students have benefited tremendously from e*subscribe. We
have a subscription for 1996+, but we continue to acquire the microfiche.
At this point, students are printing documents free in the library if the
ED is available from e-subscribe. At home, they maintain their hardware and
software and pay for their ink and paper.
Students like the convenience of printing from an electronic copy of a
document. We have had the same access problems as everyone else, but
students view them as temporary.
We do not know how long we will be able to provide free printing from
e*subscribe in the library. Students do pay to print from microfiche.
I agree with Debra Quast: "I would keep the fiche for documents prior to
1996. If you are the only library in WRLC--I would not eliminate the
collection!"
We have not decided if or when we will stop our subscription to the
microfiche. We need access to all of the microfiche, and not all are
available online. Also, we have not determined the long-term implications
of free printing of the EDs nor how we may recoup the costs if we face more
budget challenges.
Sincerely,
Dottie Persson
Received on Fri Mar 29 2002 - 18:01:54 EST