Ejournals and subjects

[Eileen Lutzow]

Larry,

We use Serials Solutions to manage our ejournals, and their service 
includes subject browsing based on "nearly 700 subject headings from 
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory"  (to borrow the marketing from their webpage 
 http://www.serialssolutions.com/sb_home.asp)  If you want to look, our 
Serials Solutions search page is at 
http://vg2ha6lg5r.search.serialssolutions.com/

I looked at our Serials Solutions usage stats for 9/1/04 thru 11/30/04.  Of 
the 5,639 total searches of the ejournal title list, 908 (16%) used Browse by 
Subject.  In comparison 2,721 (48%) used Title Begins With, and 1,515 
(27%) used Browse by Alpha.  Those percentages are comparable for the 
year as well, with 18% using Browse by Subject for Jan thru Nov 2004.

We aren't a large library, and 16-18% isn't the predominant chunk of our 
relatively small usage, but obviously a sizable group of our students, 
faculty, and staff find subject browsing of ejournal titles useful.  When the 
librarians here teach classes, we usually demo how to search the Serials 
Solutions list using Title Begins With, but we generally don't demo the other 
search options.  So the folks who are using Browse by Subject are 
discovering and using it on their own.

Eileen Lutzow
Charleston Southern University Library


On 29 Nov 04, at 14:26, Larry Campbell wrote:

> 
> Hi all.
> 
> I'm interested in the subject-, topic-, or discipline-based 
> categorization of ejournal titles, and hoping to get some information
> about practices at different libraries. I'd appreciate any details re: -
> do you provide such subject access for ejournal titles at all? - if so,
> what is the basis for determining the subject categories:
>    -- LC or Dewey classification?
>    -- LC, Me or other Subject Headings?
>    -- Academic disciplines (how defined?)?
>    -- Other (what?)?
> 
> Thanks for any help at all -- reply to me personally, and I'd be happy to
> summarize for the list if anyone is interested.
> 
> Larry Campbell
> Librarian, Information Technology Services
> UBC Library
> Email: larry.campbell at ubc.ca
> Telephone: (604) 822-2076
> 
>