The longevity of printed guides to resources on the web is a topic
of some concern to all librarians. This paper attempts to determine
whether guides created by specialist librarians perform better than
randomly assembled lists of resources (assembled solely for the purpose
of web studies), commercially created guides ('Best of the web'-type
publications), and guides prepared by specialists in library science
and other fields. The paper also attempts to determine whether the
characteristics of included web resources have an impact on guides'
longevity. Lastly, the paper addresses methodological issues of concern
to this and similar studies.
With increasing costs and decreasing budgets, it is important for librarians to make sound purchasing decisions for electronic resources. What factors are important to consider in making a decision? How can librarians balance these factors, which may appear to be contradictory, and also meet the expectations of administrators, staff, and users? This article describes a strategy for making delivery decisions that address local conditions, pricing, feature options, hardware costs, and network availability. Finally, a model is presented for evaluating the decision based on dollar requirements and local issues.
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