University of Missouri - St. Louis Summer Institute 2002
June 4, 2002, 2:30pm - 4:00pm ; June 12, 2002, 2:30pm - 4:00pm

Creating Online Bibliographies
Proprietary vs. Non-Proprietary Sources

by Raleigh Muns (muns@umsl.edu)

Non-Proprietary Sources

Working Defnition: Those resources to which there is unrestricted access. This does not mean a copyright free resource, rather for the purposes of creating an online bibliography, those resources to which everyone has access. Examples of Non-Proprietary sources:

• Britannica.com (http://www.britannica.com/)
• CIA World Factbook 2001 (http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2001/)
• Making of America (http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/)

Non-proprietary sources tend to have one or more of the following characteristics: Government produced information (state and federal); public domain items; grant supported research; dubious value or provenance.

Proprietary Sources

Working Definition: Those resources to which registration is required before accessing, and usually incurring a fee or subscription. Access is restricted by contract to a specified set of users, such as the faculty, staff, and students of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Examples of proprietary sources include the majority of the databases containing full-text articles to which the library subscribes:

• UM-St. Louis Libraries Databases (http://www.umsl.edu/library/)

Some Issues to Consider in Making an Online Bibligraphy using Proprietary Resources

Most UMSL databases restrict access by IP address or by Proxy Server. Restriction by IP address means that a user must be using a machine connected to the campus network (which can include dialing up the campus network). For those coming from a non-UMSL Internet Service Provider (e.g., America Online), before accessing a database they will be prompted for their UMSL Gateway ID and password. Therefore, even though an online bibliographic citation may be accurately constructed, it still may not allow all users access.

Many databases have limited licenses. If too many users are attempting to access a cited article at the same time, most of them may still be denied access.

With these issues (and this is not a comprehensive list) in mind, one can consider using Special Linking Tools to actually create an online bibliography.