A comprehensive literature search was undertaken, one strand focussing upon the literature concerned with methodology, and the other dealing with previous research on the provision and uptake of electronic information resources in academic libraries. The literature search was scrutinized by the Project Board and the Advisory Board, and modified accordingly.

Searches were undertaken on LISA, AltaVista, BUBL archives and Current Cites, and the results integrated with the Strand D bibliography from the University of Northumbria. BUBL is being used as a continuing source of new material.

In the region of 290 items were located, of which about 180 are felt to be of specific relevance to strands A and C. A number of these are methodological, leaving about 137 on the provision and uptake of electronic information resources in academic libraries. Annotations, in the form of informative and sometimes evaluative abstracts, were created and constituted the basis for the literature review which has been completed and will form the basis for a published article.

The areas identified in the literature review comprised:

• Users (User education/resource evaluation/expectations; System abuse; Requirements of special-needs users; Information rich and information poor (individuals/ departments/ institutions); Effect on scholarship and publishing; Effect on teaching, including distance learning and curriculum support (access problems))
• Interfacing With Users (Getting users on board; overcoming opposition to electronic formats; Communicating with users: library Web sites; User authentication; Resource finding/finding tools; Multiple interfaces, flexibility for different users)
• LIS Staff (Staffing, staff attitudes, costs; Qualified/unqualified gap)
• Management (Effect on library organisation and management, decentralisation; Document delivery; Charging, cost recovery; Licensing, copyright; Management/collection development)
• Systems And Facilities (System reliability; System usability; Costs of provision: hardware, buildings)
• Planning Principles and Practice
• Consortia; Cooperation
• Hybrid Libraries
• Historical Literature Reviews
• Methodology
• Provision of EIS
• User Studies
• Website

Elements of the comprehensive literature review have been integrated into the body of Sections 4.1, 5.2 and 6.2 below.

The literature review confirmed that there is a substantial gap in the evidence surrounding user behaviour concerning HEI electronic information services. The data from this research project will fill a gap in the research evidence required for informed policy-making.