ABSTRACT
The number and variety of e-resources available to libraries have increased exponentially in past years. Patrons expect to find resources online and available to them at any hour of the day and from any location. Often, the challenge librarians face is not whether to select the print version or the electronic version of a resource, but rather, to select the most appropriate e-resource. There are many types of e-resources available to libraries, including e-journals, abstracting and indexing (A & I) databases, full-text databases, e-books, and free Internet resources, to name a few. In many cases, the lines between these resources are blurred. A & I databases may incorporate full-text content or provide direct links to the full text in other resources. E-journal collections, from a single publisher such as the American Chemical Society Web Editions or from an aggregator like JSTOR, can be searched for citations in the same way an A & I database can. A single journal title may be available in several different e-resources, with different dates of coverage in each resource. This cross-purposing of content can make it even more difficult to come to a clear-cut decision as to whether or not to acquire or to provide access to a resource.
