Until February 28, 2008, UCLA has access to Literature Criticism Online. This database provides electronic access to most of the print content available in reference sources such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Drama Criticism, Children’s Literature Review, and Shakespearean Criticism–all of which we currently own in our print reference collections at UCLA. (By the way, if you haven’t used these valuable print resources, give them a try. In Young Research Library, these sets are kept on low shelves near the back of the Reference Reading Room. A reference librarian would be happy to give you a quick tour.)
Why are we even considering the online version if we have already paid for the print? A couple reasons: 1. These very expensive print sets don’t see much use anymore, even though there is a wealth of very useful information in them. This may be our fault as librarians for not promoting the print materials vigorously enough, but it seems that many scholars are–increasingly, and for a variety of reasons–erring on the side of convenience (full-text, online) rather than comprehensiveness (hunting down every single useful resource they can find). 2. Space is always an issue in our libraries and these sets take up a great deal of space. If they are not seeing much use, it might be preferable to relocate them to the bookstacks or to our off-site storage facility and use that space for reference materials that are not available in electronic form. 3. There may be cost-savings involved in the long term by going to one digital resource rather than having duplicate sets of the print in two or more libraries on campus.
This trial requires a password, so contact me if you are interested and I’ll give you the password. (I monitor all comments on this blog before posting them, so if you use the comment feature to request a password, I can respond to you without actually posting your comment/request to the blog.) If you do give Literature Criticism Online a try, please let me know what you think.
As usual, keep in mind that with a limited budget for electronic resources, the Library cannot purchase subscriptions to everything for which we get a trial. That said, if I know that a resource will be of use to UCLA scholars, I will place it higher on the priority list. Also keep in mind that for very expensive resources which are purchased at the University of California level, license negotiations may take up to a year or more. Another reason to fight hard for open access resources…
