The TUT LIS currently own and subscribe to a number of licensed electronic resource collections.
These various electronic resources are made available through various types of databases and products, but before these are discussed, lets take a look at what is the difference between Full Text vs Bibliographic information resources.
Full Text refer to an information resource where the entire article or book will be immediately accessible to the user.
Bibliographic information resources refer to the description of the entire information resource, such as title, publisher, date of publication, authors etc.
The following types of information is available within the TUT's collection of electronic resources:
Platforms:A platform contain a number of databases and different information types and collections on a single space.
Databases:Databases provide access to a wealth of useful research materials from academic journals, newspapers, and magazines. Some databases also include e-books, relevant Web resources, and various multimedia. These records could either be bibliographic or full text. There are an array of types of databases, although only the most important once will be discussed below:
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic descriptive records. The descriptions are used to describe the information in order to locate the physical or electronic item when needed. These records is then organized in a digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc.
Citation databases compile the citations in the bibliographic lists or databases of scholarly publications, in order to establish research impact. Citation database records also include bibliographic content that identify a publication: article title, journal name, author, abstract, etc.
The purpose of these databases are to provide research trends in specific subject areas, provide information about the specialists in certain subject fields, it also provide an overview of what has been published in certain subject areas, provide lists of accredited journals and provide access to institutional and individual research output reports. TUT LIS licensed examples of Bibliographic and Citation Databases include:
Aggregator Database Platforms, host several different databases containing content from thousands of different publishers on one single platform. The content hosted contains eBooks, eJournals, eMagazines, eNewspapers and Videos. It is important to note that content hosted is determined by each publisher and publishers, who could at any time decide to include or withdraw content from the platform without prior notice. Whatever full text might be available is also determined by each publisher. Many publishers therefore provide content to there journals with an embargo of 6 to 24 months, meaning that the latest articles published might not be available in full text.
Because there are so many publishers providing attractive and relevant information to academic institutions, libraries cannot afford to have publisher deals with each and every one of them and being subscribed to aggregator databases, fill-up these gaps for smaller publisher content as well as older material from various publishers, the library does not necessarily have licensed content for. TUT LIS licensed examples of Aggregators include:
Publisher databases are collections of journals and/or books from a specific publisher or publishing house. Most of the journal content in these databases are recent but TUT does not necessarily have subscriptions to material older than 1997. Most journal titles might be included into the collection but there might be society and take over titles that will not be part of the collection, which we would have to subscribe to individually. Journal content will be the most recent articles published.
Publisher eBook collections we own are random and we do acquire collections as resources are made available based on needs analyses. TUT LIS licensed examples of Publisher Databases include:
eJournal CollectionsThe TUT LIS subscribe to various online journal collections, either via aggregators or via publisher databases. These collections are available in full text. Please note that journal collections might not always be complete from volume 1 issue 1, as the library focuses mainly on more recent published material, and therefor select archival collections carefully. Aggregators might also fill the gap for older material. The TUT LIS currently have access to more or less 23,000 peer review journals.
eBook CollectionsSubscribed or purchased e-book collections are randomly available and acquiring these are done as the TUT LIS has the necessary funds to do so. Most e-books are available on a pick and choose model and most of those e-books can be accessed via the TUT LIS Catalogue. We currently do have access to around 400,000 e-books most of them via aggregator and publisher platforms. Some e-book collections include Elsevier, EbscoHost Academic eBook collection, Credo Reference Online, Knovel, McGraw-Hill Access Engineering and Access Pharmacy some Springer collections, etc.
eNewspapersThe TUT LIS currently subscribe to a product called PressReader that provide access to electronic newspapers and popular magazines around the world, before the print hit the streets. It contains both local and international content.
We also have products like Regional Business News and Newspaper Source, but those mainly focus on American content.
eArticlesThere are a number of databases that provide articles, but do not provide the articles in a journal format. Especially encyclopedia and some reference works and related resources. Examples include: Gartner, McGraw-Hill Access Science, Encyclopedia of Life Science etc.
eCase Study CollectionsA case study is a process or record of research into the development of a particular person, company, group, or situation over a period of time. Electronic Case Study collections are rare. TUT therefore currently subscribe to some databases that include case studies like Euromonitor and Business Source complete. The biggest case study collection we currently subscribe to is the Emerald Case Study collection. The database comes with a special access portal for lecturers only, where students will have access to only the case studies alone.
eReference WorksA reference work is a work, such as a book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), contain general or subject specific facts. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed and is popular in order to understand a certain concepts. Such works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read beginning to end. This includes: dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs etc. Some examples include: Credo Reference Online that contain general and subject specific references, Elsevier Reference Modules, McGraw-Hill's Access Science, Access Pharmacy and Access Engineering etc.
eStandardsA technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task. It is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes, and practices. TUT currently subscribe to the full South African National Standards from the SABS.
DataCollections of data entail facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis. We currently subscribe to a number of databases that contain and provide statistical data. One of these resources are Euromonitor that provide market related, industry related, country and company related statistics. Other resources that might include these resources are Business Source Complete, Gartner, Knovel etc.
Multi-mediaMulti-media databases use more than one integrated medium to deliver information, especially video, text, audio, animation and pictures. TUT currently subscribe to various such resources, although the most prominent is Primal Pictures that combines all of the above to provide premium anatomy and physiology modules. Other resources include McGraw-Hill's Access Science, Access Engineering, Knovel etc.