Library and Information Services, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Thursday 4 December 2014

What's in a Name? That which we call a Rose (Electronic Resource, E-Resource, Online Resource) ...

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet. *

In library-speak, electronic resources are all the databases, online music streaming, electronic journals, encyclopedias and so on that we subscribe to on your behalf.  We tend to talk glibly about electronic resources, assuming everyone knows what we mean, but maybe we're wrong to assume that!

You may have your own Spotify subscription.  We have Naxos and the Alexander Street Press Classical Music Library.

You may subscribe to one or two magazines.  We have online access to hundreds!

We also have online indexes to tell you where you can find journal articles on music, drama or stage subjects, and we have Oxford Music Online, which is the world's greatest music encyclopedia.

Nearly all these online resources are accessible from anywhere with internet access, either in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland or beyond it.  (There are one or two exceptions.  IPA Source, the phonetics database for opera pronunciations etc, is only for use on site, because it's tied to our computer network IP addresses.)

Anyway, we call all these things, "electronic resources", or "e-resources."  Maybe "online resources" would be easier to remember? 


* Romeo and Juliet soliloquy

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