VOL. 27 NO. 5 September - October 2006

 

 

Electronic Backfiles: The Third Wave

The third wave of the electronic transformation of the Library's resources continued during October with the purchase of the entire Science Direct backfile collection from Elsevier. Included are all Cell Press titles, The Lancet, FEBS Letters and 685 other leading health sciences journals in: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Immunology and Microbiology; Medicine and Dentistry; Neuroscience; Nursing and Health Professions; Pharmacology, Toxicology & Pharmaceutics; Psychology; and Veterinary Medicine. Patrons University-wide now have ready access to frequently requested pre-1995 volumes of Elsevier journals, retrospective to volume one in most cases, such as:

American Heart Journal, v. 1, 1925-
American Journal of Medicine, v. 1, 1946-
American Journal of Surgery, v. 1, 1926-
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, v. 1, 1947-
Brain Research, v. 1, 1966-
Cell, v. 1, 1974-
Experimental Cell Research, v. 1, 1950-
Experimental Eye Research, v. 1, 1962-
FEBS Letters, v. 1, 1968-
Journal of Molecular Biology, v. 1, 1966-
Journal of Pediatrics, v. 1, 1948-
Lancet, v. 1, 1823-
Trends in Neurosciences, v. 1, 1978-
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, v. 1, 1979-
Virology, v. 1, 1955-

The one-time purchase of all Science Direct backfiles was closely coordinated with and supported by the University's Richter, Calder and RSMAS libraries to help patrons find relevant material quickly and easily across all the sciences.

The electronic transformation began at the Calder Library in the early 1990s with the purchase of heavily used databases, such as Medline, CINAHL and Current Contents, and the subsequent cancellation of the print versions. The second wave began in the late 1990s with the purchase of the current volumes of leading health sciences journals and the subsequent cancellation of print subscriptions from publishers with reasonably sound archival policies for the electronic version.

The third wave began in 2000 with the digitization of backfiles of important journals, such as PNAS, the American Society for Microbiology titles, Genetics, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Nucleic Acids Research, and Science by open access and other initiatives such as the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central, Stanford's HighWire Press, and JSTOR. It will continue with the acquisition of backfiles of other journals during the coming months.

Continue to check the Library's A-Z list for the growing number of volumes retrospective to volume one.

back to top of page

UMMSM/JHS Archives at Calder

The Archives of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine/Jackson Health System have been the responsibility of the Calder Library since the School was formed in 1952. During the past 55 years, the Archives have grown to hundreds of running feet of file drawers and thousands of volumes donated to the Library by faculty and administrators. Located in the "Cage" area on the third floor, all gifts are organized upon receipt. In 2004, a full-time archivist position was created and Mr. Koichi Tasa was appointed to the newly created position to begin the preservation and digitization of the archival collections.

The primary components of the Archives are:

  • 320 linear feet of documents, clippings, and photographs dating back to the late 1940s
  • 1400 signed copies of textbooks and monographs authored by UM faculty
  • 700 UMMSM dissertations
  • Newsletters, yearbooks and other publications of the School of Medicine and Jackson
  • Special archival collections, including:
    • Dean Emeritus Emanuel M. Papper, MD, PhD Archive
    • Nobel Laureate Earl K. Sutherland, MD Research Notebooks
    • Karl Slotta, PhD Archive - discoverer of progesterone
    • WAD Anderson, MD Archive - past chairman of department of pathology
    • D. Ralph Millard, MD Archive - world renowned plastic surgeon

Patrons are reminded to donate important documents, images and files to the Archives where they will be professionally organized and preserved for future generations. To donate materials, please contact Mr. Koichi Tasa, Archivist, at 305-243-4034/ktasa@med.miami.edu.

back to top of page

Faculty and Staff News

Kimberly Loper assumed the position Assistant Director, Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery, following the departure of Peter Cruz, who relocated to Virginia after 17 years at the Calder Library.

Steve Machuca was promoted to Network Specialist III/Systems Administrator, following the departure of Michael Brennan, who relocated to North Carolina after 14 years at the Calder Library.

Anniversaries:
Ramute Bergstrom, Administrative Assistant, Medical Library Administration, celebrated her 30th anniversary of loyal and devoted service to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and

Carmen Bou-Crick, Director, Pomerance Library, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, celebrated her 25th anniversary,

Jose De Leon, Graphic Artist, Biomedical Communications, celebrated his 10th anniversary,

Yanira Garcia-Barcena, Senior Librarian, Reference and Education, celebrated her 20th anniversary,

Mel Gutgsell, Library Assistant, Technical Services, celebrated his 20th anniversary,

Frank Paolelli, Assistant Director, Circulation Department, celebrated his 15th anniversary.

Erica Powell, Director, Technical Services, celebrated her 20th anniversary.

back to top of page

Current Developments in Scientific Publishing

Two overviews of the current state of the world of scientific journal publishing became available in September - October, 2006. Following is a synopsis of the highlights of the reports for our patrons who are interested in scholarly communication.

  1. Journals are a core part of the process of scholarly communication and an integral part of scientific research itself. They disseminate information, maintain quality through peer review, and provide a mechanism for the registration of the author's precedence, a fixed archival version for future reference, and a way for scientists to navigate the ever increasing published material.
  2. The global market for English-language STM (scientific-technical-medical) journals is about $5 billion. There are about 2,000 publishers, made up primarily of learned societies, university presses and commercial publishers (though many society journals are published by commercial publishers). Their respective shares of article output are 30%, 2% and 64%.
  3. There are about 23,000 scholarly journals in the world in which 1.4 million articles per year appear. The 3% and 3.5% per year increase in article output during the past two centuries corresponds to the growth in the number of researchers, which now stands at 5-5.5 million.
  4. The development of online electronic versions of journals has revolutionized scientists' access to the literature and data suggest that journal usage is generally increasing. At least 60% and even more than 90% of STM journals are estimated to be available online, and many publishers have digitized earlier volumes retrospective to volume one. More content is available and the cost per use of each article is lower than at any time in history. Access to the literature is now a long way down on the list of possible barriers to research productivity, although researchers still experience access problems.
  5. The average cost of publishing a journal article with a print and electronic edition is estimated at $3,750, and journal publishing has become even more competitive over the last five years with the emergence of new business models: open access publishing and self-archiving.
  6. There are about 2-2,400 open access journals (about 10% of journals), responsible for 2-5% of total articles and using a variety of funding models. The best-known model is the "author-side payment" where a publication charge of $2-3,000 is levied to make the paper freely accessible on the web. Authors of recent papers in medicine and the life sciences infrequently select this open access option and neither of the leading pioneers, Public Library of Science and BioMed Central, is close to profitability.
  7. The other route to open access is self-archiving, whereby the author posts a version of the article (typically the revised manuscript after peer review but prior to copyediting) to an open web-based repository. Repositories can be either subject-based or a collection of the output of a particular institution. Studies to date have not confirmed either the belief that self-archiving is associated with a higher number of citations or the fear that widespread systematic self- archiving will have a serious impact on scientific journal publishing.

The full reports are easily accessible at www.stm-assoc.org/documents-statements-public-co/ and at www.rin.ac.uk/data-scholarly-journals/.

back to top of page

David S. Howell, M.D. Website

The Library is pleased to announce the debut of the David S. Howell, M.D. Website. Dr. Howell came to the University of Miami in 1955 and was one of the early physician/scientist/teachers to achieve international fame and bring prestige to the then new School of Medicine. Dr. Howell is also a recognized seascape artist and longtime supporter of the Calder Library. Dr. Howell retired in 2005 and now resides in Louisiana.

back to top of page