[Eril-l] Cambridge adopted the same bad platform as Taylor & Francis?

[Diane Westerfield]

Seems like most, if not all, accredited residential colleges and universities have computer labs, computers in dorms, and laptops to check out. And many college students have their own laptops. The cheapest ones are now a few hundred dollars. Why pander exclusively to the lowest common denominator (smart phone) at the expense of better devices? How can you do extensive research in an efficient manner on a device with a tiny screen and (most likely) no keyboard? I’m sure it’s physically possible to find a random article, but don’t we expect better research skills on the part of our students? Why can’t we have screen formatting for several different sizes?

No advanced search? No title searching or browse A-Z list? It’s OK for any large journal platform in this day and age to drop these features? How can you reconcile a long title list in this kind of environment? (since very frequently the entitlement lists will not show title changes, and will sometimes omit titles that you have access to). These redesigns make me feel like I’m trying to “librarian” with my dominant hand tied behind my back.

I do like the checkbox on Cambridge Core for “Only search content I have access to”.

BTW the one-click article resolution  broke for Taylor & Francis, for Serial Solutions360. At least for us. The article never loads; you have to go to the detail screen and hope the article link takes you directly to the article. I’ve sent SerialSolutions a request to fix this. (it’s now the Ex Libris help portal). Don’t know if this is happening with Cambridge.

Diane Westerfield, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian
Tutt Library, Colorado College
diane.westerfield at coloradocollege.edu<mailto:diane.westerfield at coloradocollege.edu>
(719) 389-6661
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