The EJOS system provides for secure local storage and a single point of access to electronic journal content.Endeavor Information Systems has recently announced the first general release of its EJOS (EnCompass for Journals OnSite) application, which enables users to locally store and access electronic journal content from any publisher, according to the company.
Using the system, users can access libraries with journal-specific features and have the ability to browse any journal, initiate cross-publisher searches, access full text articles, and load and store journals locally, as well as being able to tailor the user experience with user-unique productivity tools.
Des Plaines, Ill.-based Endeavor Information Systems Inc.'s EJOS application can be employed as a stand-alone system or in conjunction with other available EnCompass modules.
The EJOS loader application converts journal content from various journal publishers into a standardized format; the formatted content can then be successfully disseminated to other users by using the EJOS interface. EJOS is compatible with the Sun Solaris platform and the Red Hat distribution of Linux.
One of the benefits of employing EJOS is that using the application gives libraries more control of the content, and, as noted by the company on its Web site, libraries can then "act as a journal archive for the community they serve."
For instance, a library in Alaska might have a large local collection of content about oil drilling and content resource information on the impact of drilling in regard to the environment, animals and landscape. If the library employed the EJOS application, users would be able to identify and locally store and retrieve content directly related to that particular subject.
Endeavor also noted that many libraries are choosing this system for security reasons, in that local access to journal content within the EJOS system is not revealed to outside institutions, which becomes important when maintaining stringent security for research facilities or scientific research organizations.
"We took a very holistic approach to developing EJOS," said J. Michael Visser, an EnCompass product manager. "By focusing on the needs of multiple audiences—the system administrators who will run EJOS, the librarians who will use EJOS and the end users who will search EJOS—we intended to provide a total solution for libraries. And, I'm pleased to say, we succeeded."
