Electronic Resources in the Virtual Learning

From OPACS to library portals
Until recently the management of the library collection was primarily
undertaken by the library catalogue or library management system
(LMS) as they are increasingly known. This is presented to the user as
the online public access catalogue (OPAC). OPAC developments have
been significant in the last ten years, with most delivered via a web
browser and offering users facilities such as inter-library loan, self-
service, renewals and, increasingly, integration with the digital library.
Many major library management systems have developed modules that,
in addition to managing standard library functions such as circulation,
serials management, acquisition and ordering, will increasingly manage
the digital resources.
In comparing the management of electronic resources to print
resources Dempsey (2003) identified some of the problems specifically
associated with digital resources, including:
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The digital library
■
the variety of formats that makes them less ready to process and
present to users than printed materials;
■
the different licence conditions that come with digital resources;
■
the differing user interfaces associated with them;
■
the fact each resource may need individual, customised support.
Moreover, Dempsey argued that the digital environment currently:
… lacks consistency; it is as if each book coming into the library was
a different shape and had to be read in a different way. The benefits
of a more consistent environment are clear: library time and resource
should be freed to think about selection and use of the collection, not
consumed by the messy mechanics of acquisition and processing; and
the user experience should be shaped by learning and research needs
not by the arbitrary constraints of interface and format. (Dempsey,
2003, p. 5)
Library portals are one response to these problems and provide
intermediate layers between users and resources in an attempt to manage
and provide access to the diverse wealth of electronic resources available.
The portal aims to overcome the fragmentation of digital resources,
presenting the user with a unified interface rather than the individual
characteristics of different services or systems. Nevertheless, Dempsey
(2003) also stated that the word portal is one of the least helpful terms
coined in recent years. He presented two definitions of the term, the first
as an information hub or entry point to electronic resources. In the
second he suggested that a portal is the way in which a library mediates
the engagement of users and resources in a networked environment.
Portals are not exclusive to the library community and JISC have been
developing different types of portals for different purposes. They define
a portal as:
… a network service that brings together content from diverse
distributed resources using technologies such as cross searching,
harvesting, and alerting, and collate this into an amalgamated form
for presentation to the user.
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Currently research is being undertaken at Loughborough University to
investigate library portals. The LibPortal Project argues that:
The adoption of locally developed and commercial library portals in
academic institutions is having a profound impact on the use of
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Electronic Resources in the Virtual Learning Environment
quality information sources, as well as on internal library workflows
and efficiency. Library portals will be crucial to interoperation with
national services and institutional portal and VLE [virtual learning
environment] developments.
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The development of electronic reserves
A growing number of academic libraries provide electronic access to core
readings, and in the US in particular, electronic reserves services, as they
are known, have been running for a number of years. In the UK, the
services are generally known as electronic short loan, electronic course
packs or electronic off-print services. However, the principle is the same:
core readings are copyright cleared (where necessary), scanned and made
available to users via a network. For the purposes of this book the term
electronic reserves is used to include all the above services. Nevertheless,
this is an area where very little research has been undertaken and most
of the literature is based on anecdotal evidence. The Association of
Research Libraries (ARL) have run a mailing list on the topic since 1994
and this list has seen a steady number of postings. In addition, the