Monographs
Typical paper information resources in an academic Arts and Humanities scenario can be deemed as comprising monographs and serials. The advantages and disadvantages of these resources can be enumerated copiously, some of which will be mentioned below.
Many monographs such as books are available in electronic formats that can be read in various Portable Document Format (PDF) readers or by using a reader provided by the publisher or e-content provider. The advantages of electronic books are that often more than one person can access the resource concurrently, therefore maximising access to the resource and also minimising the need to buy multiple copies for libraries with restricted space or budget. Some of the added features of these formats are that a search of keywords can be made, so that one can browse through the book considerably fast than trying to use an index or by scanning through pages; one can also use an audio feature that can read out the text, a feature of value to those researchers who are visually impaired. Finally, researchers also have the facility to highlight text, something that one may only do if they own the text book. The disadvantages, however, are that not everyone prefers to read from the screen, despite having access to an electronic resource, there is preference to print. Unlike a printed book, there are often restrictions to printing from ebooks stipulated by the publishers to ensure the copyright laws are enforced. Another limitation on ebooks is that unrestricted access is not provided by all e-content providers, some impose restrictions to the number of times the resource can be accessed and others restrict the numbers of concurrent users.
