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Conference Reports

Publisher/Vendor Relations Discussion Group Meeting at ALA Midwinter 2000
January 15, 2000

Catherine B Soehner
University of California, Santa Cruz
soehner@cats.UCSC.EDU

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The meeting featured overviews of electronic journal products by three publishers: Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley. Jerry Curtis from Springer spoke first and described Springer's e-journal package and two mirror servers. Curtis addressed previous miscues on Springer's part, particularly with requiring passwords for access to full text. Users' reports of problems with slow response time prompted establishment of two mirror sites with seamless access to both.

John Tagler from Elsevier spoke next and, in addition to the expected overview, he described a new standard called CrossRef. When implemented, this new standard would allow users to view an article from one publisher and link to full text of a referenced article from a different publisher. The standard and its implications are still under discussion. (Springer issued a press release on CrossRef in December 1999; it's available on the web at {http://www.springer-ny.com/press/crossref/index.html}

Christopher McKenzie from Wiley spoke last and described in detail Wiley's e-journal packages and purchase agreements made with various libraries. The general discussion afterward focused on several issues, including access to statistics and linking to full text from bibliographic databases, such as Web of Science. The CrossRef initiative was a major focus of the discussion, and questions were raised about who will participate and implications standard could have for librarians and library users.

Co-Chairs
Catherine Soehner, University of California, Santa Cruz
(soehner@cats.ucsc.edu)
Richard Llewellyn, Iowa State University
(RLlewellyn@gwgate.lib.iastate.edu)

We welcome your comments about this article.