The electronic library: responses from the State University of New York (SUNY)

Illustrates the methods of pointing to remotely‐accessible electronic resources in libraries in a university system ranging from research centers to community colleges. The online catalogs of libraries in the State University of New York (SUNY) system were tested for remotely‐accessible electronic resources. Each library's internet home page was also searched for means of linking to journal titles. The libraries at SUNY campuses have shown different responses to the issues of making available aggregator databases, web sites, and e‐books. A marked decrease in the use of the online catalog to make available remotely‐accessible electronic resources at academic libraries other than those at the research level was noted. The findings are limited insofar that no effort was made to determine the reasons why each library did or not include records for remotely‐accessible electronic resources in their online catalogs. Academic libraries find desirable a single search interface for remotely‐accessible electronic resources, and this may include the library's online catalog. This study will be of value to those who are concerned with the ways in which remotely‐accessible electronic resources are made available in various sizes of academic libraries, particularly those engaged in decision making about online resources.