ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ J a n u a ry 1999 / 15 in ten t is to p ro v id e a n o p tio n , b u t n o t a re ­ quirem ent, for ex perim ental content. O rganic Letters is a n o u tg ro w th o f th e ARL’S SPARC en d eav o r. M ichael N ew m an, from H ighw ire Press, sp o k e o n th re e asp ects o f electronic p u b lic a ­ tions: th e div erg en ce o f electronic fro m print, archiving, a n d pricing. T h e re a re lin k s to m ed ia a n d s u p p le m e n ta ry m aterial, su c h as “cite a lert,” w h e n a n e w article cites a d e sig ­ n a te d o n e. Also, in so m e cases, th e cited ref­ e re n c e will allo w full tex t to th e cited article w ith n o charge. T h e B ritish M ed ica l J o u r n a l offers interactive responses w ith “R ecent Rapid R esp o n ses,” active letters to th e editor. A rchiving ch allen g es include p re se rv a tio n o f u n iq u e co n ten t, functionality as c o n te n t (i.e,, elec tro n ic is m o re th a n print), evo lv in g tech n o lo g y , c h a n g e s in interfaces, a n d lack o f stan d ard s. In a n o v el a p p ro a c h to pricing, th e p ro c e e d in g s o f th e N ational A cadem y o f S ciences h as o p e n e d its backfile o f 1996 to free access fo r ev ery o n e. O n e o f th e areas o f d e v e lo p m e n t o f W eb p u b lish in g is d issertatio n s. B o n n ie L aw lor described the current initiatives of UMI (h ttp :// w w w .u m i.c o m /) a n d Virginia T ech ( h t tp : // w w w .n d ltd .o rg /). UMI accep ts electronic dis­ sertatio n s a n d digitizes all n e w titles. As o f J u n e 1998, 83,700 d issertatio n s/th e- ses w e re available o v e r th e W eb from UMI w ith n e w titles a d d e d daily. T h e Virginia T ech objective is to h av e all universities p articip ate a n d e a c h lo a d th e ir o w n dissertations o n to th e ir o w n server. O n e u n re so lv e d q u e stio n is w h e th e r this co n stitu tes p rio r p u b licatio n re ­ sulting in rejections by publishers. ACS “largely allow s ed ito rs to m a k e decisions [of] w h a t constitutes prio r publication, m ost will b e c o n ­ sid e re d p rio r p u b lish e d if it is o n th e W eb b e fo re su b m itte d to a n ACS jo u rn al.” L ooking a h e a d in electronic pu b lish in g , P e te r M urray-R ust, fro m th e U niversity o f N ottingham , p re se n te d Chemical M arkup Lan­ g u ag e (CML) for dealing w ith the special chal­ le n g e s th a t m o lecu lar inform ation p re se n ts (http://ala.vsm s.nottingham .ac.uk/vsm s/talks/ a c s /in d e x .h tm l a n d h tt p :/ /w w w .x m l - c m l. o rg /). Steve H eller from NIST gave a v isio n ary p re s e n ta tio n o f th e m o v e into electronic o n ly p u b lish in g (h ttp ://w w w .h e lle rs .c o m /s te v e / p u b -ta lk s/b o sto n 9 8 /). E lectronic fo rm at p e r­ m its e n h a n c e m e n ts u n av ailab le in print, su c h as g e n e ra tio n o f tab les o n th e fly from e q u a ­ tio n s a n d ro ta tio n o f m olecules. T h e In te r n e t J o u r n a l o f C h e m istr y ( h t t p :/ /i jc .c h e m .n iu . e d u /) is a n elec tro n ic o n ly jo u rn al w ith an in terestin g p o licy o n copyright. T h e journal retain s “co m m ercial co p y rig h t” w h ile th e a u ­ th o r retain s “n o n c o m m e rc ia l rights,” w h ic h in c lu d e rights to d istrib u te th e article. H eller also d is c u sse d p la n s fo r th e J o u r n a l o f P h ysi­ c a l C h em ica l R eference D ata, w h ic h will b e a n o n p rin t jo u rn al o f m ostly d ata a n d e q u a ­ tions. U sing th e capabilities o f elec tro n ic for­ m at, th e jo u rn al will b e a d atab a se, a shift from th e c o n c e p t o f e a c h m an u s c rip t b e in g a se p a ra te entity. E lectro n ic p u b lish in g a n d th e W eb are firm ly estab lish ed as integral to ch em ical in ­ form ation. T h e d e v e lo p m e n t o f 3D stru ctu re so ftw are is a n exciting a re a o f g ro w th . En­ han cem en ts to publications, searching m ech a­ nism s, a n d lin k in g b e tw e e n in d ex es, articles, citations, o th e r d atabases, a n d su p p lem en tary m aterial h as just b e g u n , a n d th e electronic o n ly “jo u rn a l” h as p o te n tia l lim ited o n ly b y th e im agination. ■ Letters to the editor D ear editor: G re a t article b y Ja m e s F arm er in th e N o v e m b e r 1998 is s u e o f C&RL N ews, “D o n ’t le a d a ro a d w arrio r e x is te n c e .” I th o u g h t th e “in fo rm atio n h ig h w ay ” m e ta p h o r h a d b e e n o v e ru s e d to th e p o in t o f an n o y a n c e , b u t h e b ro u g h t n e w life to it a n d m a d e an e x c e lle n t p o in t as w ell.— K a th y K aldenberg, lib ra ria n , K a ska skia College Library, e-m ail: kathyk@ kc.cc.il. us D ear editor: Jim K apoun’s July/A ugust article in C&RL News, “T eaching undergrade WEB evalua­ tio n ,” sh o w e d his obvious u n d erstan d in g o f college students especially in his state­ m ent, “I h ad to first ack n o w led g e that m ost students to d ay te n d to c o n d u ct research w ith sp e e d rath er th an accuracy a n d rarely evaluate reso u rces.” His chart for evaluat­ ing W eb p ag es is excellent a n d quite easy to understand. It is th e first I’ve se e n that I w o u ld ev e n co n sid er d ro p p in g o n a Fresh­ m a n C om p, class.— Sara Dodge, Toccoa Falls College, e-m ail: library l@toccoafalls, ed u ■ http://www.umi.com/ http://www.ndltd.org/ http://ala.vsms.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms/talks/ http://www.xml-cml http://www.hellers.com/steve/ http://ijc.chem.niu mailto:kathyk@kc.cc.il