Why are e-Resources important?

BPL circulated more than 1.1 million books and print items in 2009. Impressive! So with all of these books, magazines, and newspapers passing through customer hands in print and in microfilm, why is it still important to have a thriving, evolving e-Resource collection?

There are several advantages:
  • Our e-Resources provide access to literally thousands of magazines and newspapers—far more than the library could possibly subscribe to in paper format.
  • Some e-Resources include publication subscriptions dating back the last 10 years (or more!). While we do have backdated microfilm for a handful of newspapers, most magazines and newspapers are only kept for a period of months.
  • You can search our e-Resources to find articles on a particular subject from many different publications at the same time without having to search each publication separately.
  • They are especially useful for finding information not yet available in books, or obtaining up-to-date information on current events or issues. 
  • e-Resources provide us with authoritative, accurate, current, objective reference material not readily available through a search engine like Google (more on this later...).
  • e-Resources are free to library users, and if you have a BPL card you can access them from any computer with Internet access, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—you don’t have to wait for the library to open to access them!
Perhaps most important however, is that everyday more and more of our library resources become electronic. This trend is particularly noticeable as it applies to the information desk and reference questions. But this should come as no shock to the practiced Information Service provider—we’ve all watched as the Internet has become a staple in our tackle box of reference tools:
Will everyone want a website instead of a book? No.

Are there risks incurred when we move away from print into the electronic? Of course.

Is this electronic system perfect? Not even close...

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't recognize the importance of this format or the benefits of it's use. It's also important we recognize that slowly but surely our trusted print standbys are being eked out by their cheaper (and arguably more convenient) electronic counterparts, whether we like it or not.

But publishing costs and convenience are not the only reasons to support our e-Resource collection...

How is library access changing?
Posted by Library Lady