Libraries Add 720 Journals to Internet

As of this month, Harvard affiliates have online access to an additional 720 academic journals that previously could only be accessed through a visit to the library.

With the addition, affiliates now have access to over 2,600 electronic journals through the library’s lib.harvard.edu website.

The new offerings are made possible through a deal between the University’s libraries and Kluwer Academic Publishers, a Dutch company that publishes journals in a wide array of academic fields.

The Kluwer journals now available online cover a broad range of topics, including such titles as Aquatic Geochemistry and the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights.

Most of the journals now online are available for all issues printed since 1997.

Adam Chesler, manager of marketing for Kluwer, said that the publisher has begun to offer its journals in electronic formats based on the requests of its customers.

“This is what our subscribers and readers want,” Chesler said.

Chesler said that most institutions use the electronic versions of the journals as a supplement to the print versions.

Kluwer has only seen a small decrease in its print journal subscriptions since beginning to offer the electronic version according to Chesler. He said that the company has no plans to move exclusively to electronic publication for its journals in the immediate future.

Because the electronic versions of journals can become available as soon as they are finalized, instead of having to wait to be printed and mailed, Chesler said they are typically available two to eight weeks before the print versions arrive in subscribers’ postal mailboxes.

Harvard’s contract with Kluwer is part of a larger contract negotiated between the company and the Northeast Research Libraries Consortium (NERL).

The consortium, made up of the libraries of all Ivy League schools and several other elite universities, attempts to achieve cost reductions in electronic library acquisitions for member institutions.

—Staff writer Daniel P. Mosteller can be reached at dmostell@fas.harvard.edu.