The College of Charleston Libraries offer trials of potential new databases during the Fall and Spring semesters. Trial requests may be submitted by all members of the campus community at any time by completing the New Databases & Journals Request Form. In most cases, there is no trial process for adding new journals. Instead, the Collection Development Committee considers the cost and scope of each journal requested, whether usage statistics are available on an annual basis, mode of access, whether a journal will be used to support teaching and instruction, and the depth of coverage provided by the publisher.
Should you have questions about adding new databases or journals to the collection, contact Allison Jones, electronic resources & serials librarian, at jonesak@cofc.edu.
There is a Collection Development Committee within the library that reviews requests to add new resources to the collections once a month from August until April of each academic year. All requests for adding new databases and journals are sent to the electronic resources & serials librarian via the form who then gathers additional information about the requests to present to the Collection Development Committee.
When considering the addition of new databases, the College of Charleston Libraries aim to host campus-wide trials of at least 30 days. This allows time for the campus community to interact with the resource and submit feedback via the Electronic Resource Trial Evaluation Form.
When making decisions about whether or not to add new databases to the Libraries’ collections, the Collection Development Committee closely reviews the depth of coverage and accessibility of the resource, every Electronic Resource Trial Evaluation Form submitted, and the usage data during the trial period (when available). Other factors considered are the cost of the resource, the average cost inflation over time, and the scope of the resource.
When trials are available to the campus community, they will be discoverable on the Libraries’ A-Z Databases List to the right of the page under New/Trial Databases. Feel free to try them out and provide us with feedback through the Electronic Resource Trial Evaluation Form.
Since trial resources are only available temporarily, it is not recommended to include trial links in syllabi.
In most cases, the Libraries do not trial, subscribe to, or purchase white papers. Other resources not eligible for trial, subscription, or purchase are ones that have a textbook/token and/or voucher payment structures and most datasets.
Should your journal request be approved, the electronic resources & serials librarian will reach out to you when access is available. Please be aware that it may take several weeks for access to be turned on.