Library Journals electronic access cut....

blucey

A most unfortunate event : see http://www.irelibrary.ie/news_detail.aspx?id=78

You will be aware that the current round of IReL funding came to an end in December 2009. The IUA Librarians' Group is engaged in positive discussions with the HEA and others to secure funding for IReL for 2010 onwards but it is likely that this will be at significantly reduced levels. Due to increasing publisher costs and other factors it is necessary for some IReL resources to be cancelled even if IReL funding were to be maintained at pre-2010 levels. Arising from this, and in the first of what will probably be a number of cancellation processes, the resources listed below will shortly become unavailable through IReL. To download the full list of journals and other resources, please click here.

The Consortium regrets the cancellation of any resource. The University Librarians are working with their colleagues, the HEA, university senior officers and others to maintain access to as many resources through IReL as possible. We will keep you updated as the situation evolves but in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact your library with any comments or queries.

Note : this is NOT a TCD decision its one that is forced on it. Feel free therefore to comment to the Senators and TD's.

Marvinthefish

Bad news indeed. The journals being cut seem to be mainly mathematics/engineering, which wouldn't be my area. Are there any very important journals on that list that people here would use?

I know from experience how annoying it can be when you try to look up an reference and can't access the journal. Any cuts like these should be strongly opposed, because access to high quality journals is essential for high quality research.

Kurtosis

There are some pretty significant databases and journals up there for the scientific area (Nature (even though only a partial cancellation), ISI Web of Knowledge, Wiley)...not good news at all.

Pet

Nature Immunology/Cell Biology? What the ****?

Does anyone know when this takes effect, or has it already done so?

Monkwood

Any journals to be cut, will have already have been cut, and those still there will remain so. However, this should only be temporary, and full access will be reinstated shortly, TCD has ensured that either way, they will get the money from somewhere.

I was one of the first people to hear about these cuts last year and so was able to bring this news to Ashley Cooke (the Education Officer) as soon as it broke. At last Tuesday's Student Council, he had this report:


"I have received a large number of complaints from mostly undergraduate health sciences and postgrad science students about the cut to the electronic journals funding recently. This was something that I expected to happen. Some background first would be in order. IRel is the Irish Research eLibrary which provides access to eJournals to support research in the Irish universities and was first conceived in its present form in 2004. Through funding from SFI (Science Foundation Ireland) and PRTLI (Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions) the STM (Science, Technology & Medicine) phase of IReL was launched in 2006.

The funding was only promised until December 2009 and as such final year students and research students began to notice a lack of access to journals and it became a massive problem for researches in the affected fields. I intended on bringing this up at University Council last week but I was beaten to the punch but several academic staff who insisted that the cuurent situation cannot continue if we are to perform quality research. All at Council were assured that the IUA (Irish Universities Association) is negotiating a deal to fund the STM phase of IReL again. SU Council should rest assured that College acts swiftly when its research is in jeopardy and that the difficult situation for students performing research is temporary."


The only concern we should have now is that we hope the funding will come from an external source, and that the college won't have to pay for these journals from the normal budget, which would naturally result in serious cutbacks elsewhere!

blucey

Monkwood wrote: »

Any journals to be cut, will have already have been cut, and those still there will remain so. However, this should only be temporary, and full access will be reinstated shortly, TCD has ensured that either way, they will get the money from somewhere.

I was one of the first people to hear about these cuts last year and so was able to bring this news to Ashley Cooke (the Education Officer) as soon as it broke. At last Tuesday's Student Council, he had this report:


"I have received a large number of complaints from mostly undergraduate health sciences and postgrad science students about the cut to the electronic journals funding recently. This was something that I expected to happen. Some background first would be in order. IRel is the Irish Research eLibrary which provides access to eJournals to support research in the Irish universities and was first conceived in its present form in 2004. Through funding from SFI (Science Foundation Ireland) and PRTLI (Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions) the STM (Science, Technology & Medicine) phase of IReL was launched in 2006.

The funding was only promised until December 2009 and as such final year students and research students began to notice a lack of access to journals and it became a massive problem for researches in the affected fields. I intended on bringing this up at University Council last week but I was beaten to the punch but several academic staff who insisted that the cuurent situation cannot continue if we are to perform quality research. All at Council were assured that the IUA (Irish Universities Association) is negotiating a deal to fund the STM phase of IReL again. SU Council should rest assured that College acts swiftly when its research is in jeopardy and that the difficult situation for students performing research is temporary."


The only concern we should have now is that we hope the funding will come from an external source, and that the college won't have to pay for these journals from the normal budget, which would naturally result in serious cutbacks elsewhere!

Trust but verify. Its essential that these not be allowed to be cut. The most effective way is to ensure that the voice of students, researchers and academics is heard at the top. This means lobbying the university senators, your local TD and the DoE to reverse this. Talk about spoiling the ship for a haporth of tar..

Marvinthefish

penguin88 wrote: »

There are some pretty significant databases and journals up there for the scientific area (Nature (even though only a partial cancellation), ISI Web of Knowledge, Wiley)

Hold on. It's bad but it's not that bad. ISI Web of Knowledge isn't being cut. ISI Web of Knowledge Derwent (basically a big list of patents) is. Wiley isn't being cut. Some encyclopaedias, a few "Current Protocols in..." journals and "Handbook of Psychology" are affected. I'd be scared back to 1st year if both ISI WoK and Wiley were completely cut!

Edit: Eek WoK Biosis Previews and WoK ISI Proceedings too. :-(

Sir Ophiuchus

JSTOR is being cut, I believe, which is a huge deal for humanities folks.

Boston

JSTOR is very important to the BESS subject block. Frankly, if these online journals are no returned, UCD (Which has a good if not better access) will really begin to win out over trinity. Online journals are tools of the trade for academic research. I'm uncertain as to how a final year Economics student is meant to do a dissertation without JSTOR

blucey

Boston wrote: »

JSTOR is very important to the BESS subject block. Frankly, if these online journals are no returned, UCD (Which has a good if not better access) will really begin to win out over trinity. Online journals are tools of the trade for academic research. I'm uncertain as to how a final year Economics student is meant to do a dissertation without JSTOR

it really would be useful to ...read the op.....:rolleyes:
This, to repeat, is a HEA decision. Not a TCD one. The irish electronic library is a system wide initiative. NOT a TCD one. If these are cut, they are cut in every library unless that university negotiates seperate access (ie more expensive access).
As for the last question...could I suggest Scopus, or Econlit?