Electronic resources are playing an increasingly important role in Prospector. Although the union catalog is still primarily used for discovering and requesting physical items (books, DVDs, and CDs), e-resources are playing a growing role in the system. Prospector currently has 4 million e-resources (electronic resources) which represents almost 1/3 of its unique holdings. It is estimated that over 1.5 million of these are openly accessible and include items such as government documents (federal and state), ERIC ED reports, agency reports, open access ebooks, open access journals and other free materials. By merely clicking on link a user is taken to the full-text resource. It is sometimes not clear if a resource is free, but users are encouraged to follow links and if they can get in the resource is free.
The Colorado Alliance is making a concerted effort to get interlibrary loan privileges (resource sharing) for ebooks which it licenses.
Some examples include:
Springer ebooks- over 45,000 Springer imprints in science, technology and medicine are available for lending to any Prospector member even though only twelve libraries in Prospector license the package. Borrowing is done like a printed monograph except that the user receives a PDF of the book without DRM
Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) – Starting in fall 2012, nine Colorado Alliance member libraries licensed this package. As part of the contract, free access is made available to any other public or community college library in Colorado or Wyoming. A site may contact Oxford for free MARC records and access.
Tips
Librarians use the phrase “electronic resource” following the title to indicate if something is digital. So if you want to narrow your search to ebooks or other e-resources when doing “keyword” searches enter your search terms and add the phrase “electronic resource.”
The ability to download e-resources into Kindles, Nooks, iPads, smart phones and other devices is a function of both the device, its apps and the provider of the e-resource. If you can’t figure out how to download something when you get to the full-text of an e-resource contact your home library for advice and help. Your local library is there to help. Remember that not everything can be downloaded into a local device so it may have to be viewed on the host server.
If you find an e-resource in Prospector from your local library you can get in by using your library (or student) card. Remember that public libraries in Colorado participate in the Colorado Library Card (CLC) program where you can visit almost any public library (a few exceptions) and get a card. With these cards you can get additional e-resources from those libraries. Academic libraries normally limit access to their e-resources to faculty, staff and students.
Always feel free to click on links to see if you can get in even if the link is from a library where you don’t have a card. If you gain access to the resource then it is open access for all.
Contact your local library for help and advice
