ELECTRONIC JOURNAL: USEFUL AND EFFECTIVE FOR USER AND DIGITAL LIBRARY

Electronic journal which are an important resource in a digital library are being widely used by the people now days. This paper deals with different aspects of electronic journals and their impact on users, authors, indexing services, scholarly communication, accessibility and libraries. Electronic serials may be defined very broadly as any journal, magazine, webzine, newsletter or type of electronic serial publication which is available on the Internet. Uses of electronic journals are increasing day by day. The changes are taking place in infrastructure of libraries due to the electronic journals. There is variation in the use of electronic journals from discipline to discipline. The electronic journal publishing is growing. Researchers have positive attitude towards electronic journals. Budget allocation for journals has been shifting from print to electronic form, which has necessitated for change in collection development policies of libraries. This article describes the evolution of e-journals, their advantages and disadvantages for contemporary libraries. Developments in information technology have brought e-journals as basic information sources to research community and these are emerging as major sources of scholarly communication.