The View from the VA

A continuing goal that the VA Library shares with the UAMS Library and others is to make accessing its resources as easy as possible. To that end, we have instituted two enhancements to our service this year:

• access to the electronic versions of many of our print journals.
• the electronic delivery of interlibrary loans.

Over the last few years, a number of journal publishers have established a presence on the Internet. Quite a few of them have offered various versions of their print journals in electronic format. Recently, the majority have decided to allow libraries which subscribe to the print version access to at least the current year full-text online. Many of them also offer access to several years of the journals backfiles. Two formats are usually available: full text or pdf. The pdf version is basically an image file of the original article. The full text contains the printed material and, usually, any figures or illustrations, but the layout is different from the published version. In other words, the pagination is not the same and the way it appears on the screen or as a printout differs from the article in the print version.

UAMS has offered access to these electronic versions for a while but the VA has not. This has now changed. I am in the process of preparing a hyperlinked journal holdings list for the VA so that anyone who wishes to view an article in a recent issue of a journal can check the VA's holdings list and can click on the title and usually go directly to the journal. Usernames and passwords are sometimes required. If so, I have tried to list them on the holdings list. The holdings list will be available on the Learning Resources web site http://vaww.learnres.little-rock.med.va.gov.

Another enhancement we now offer to our users is the electronic delivery of interlibrary loan articles, which they have requested. The libraries at Little Rock and at North Little Rock have each acquired a scanner and can scan interlibrary loans obtained from other libraries and deliver them as pdf attachments to Outlook messages. All the user has to do is have a valid e-mail address and request that his interlibrary loans be delivered that way.

For further information about these improvements to our service, please don't hesitate to give us a call. Our goal is to be as near to you as your personal computer!

George M. Zumwalt,
Chief, Learning Resources Service