Wednesday, December 22, 2004

New Muse Journal---> Tolkien Studies

Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review presents the growing body of critical commentary and scholarship on both J.R.R.Tolkien's voluminous fiction and his academic work in literary and linguistic fields. The founding editors are Douglas A. Anderson (The Annotated Hobbit), Michael D. C. Drout (Beowulf and the Critics), and Verlyn Flieger (Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World).

For more information about the journal:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tolkien_studies/

New Muse Journal--->Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism

Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism

Aleph explores the interface between Judaism and science and studies the interactions between science and Judaism throughout history. Science is conceived broadly and includes the social sciences and the humanities. Likewise, the history of science is broadly construed within the journal's purview and includes the social and the cultural dimensions. Aleph also publishes studies on related subjects that allow a comparative view, such as the place of science in other cultures. It regularly includes full-length articles and brief communications, as well as notes on recently published books.

Aleph, which is an annual, is a joint publication of the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine and the Institute for Jewish Studies, both at The Hebrew University, and Indiana University Press.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/aleph_historical_studies_in_science_and_judaism/

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

New Product Announcement--->Addition to 19th C Masterfile

Paratext has received a great deal of interest in our announcement of the first installment of the 'Catalogue of Scientific Papers 1800-1900' now available online for searching in our *19th Century Masterfile.*

This first installment, now online, comprises the three (3) Subject Indexes to the original 19 volume author/title catalogues published between 1867 and 1902. Seventeen subject index volumes were planned, but only the initial three were ever completed.

These three indexes now online are:
--Mathematics (1908)
--Mechanics (1909)
--Physics (2 volumes)(1912 and 1914)

The three Subject Indexes contain English language subject headings based on the Schedules of the *International Catalogue of Scientific Literature.* The 19th Century Masterfile edition of Catalogue of Scientific Papers will include expanded journal titles, unlike the abbreviated titles in the print volumes.

Paratext is currently processing the 19 author/title volumes. As these volumes work their way through quality control and verification over the next few months, they will be added to the 19th Century Masterfile database.

We are very excited about the inclusion of this important resource for students of the history of science, technology, medicine and the history of ideas. Current and prior editions of the *Guide to Reference Books* have labeled CSP a "monumental index of first importance."

We anticipate a great deal of scholarly interest in the file and will, of course, keep you apprised of new developments. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Monday, December 20, 2004

"Libraries will survive the digital revolution because they are places of sensuality and power"

Times Online - Comment

Read this and decide if sentences like

"Or perhaps the moment came earlier yet, when my father took me into the bowels of the Bodleian in Oxford and I inhaled, for the first time, that intoxicating mixture of vellum, paper and dust"

make you laugh, feel inspired, or just sneeze.

Just don't think about inhaling in the bowels of anything for too long.

-from Arts and Letters Daily

Library Scoundrels Number One

AP Wire | 12/18/2004 | Former library employee pleads guilty to selling ancient texts

-from resourceshelf

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Enhancements Coming to Engineering Village 2

scitech library question - Enhancements Coming to EV2

-from STLQ

Christmas Fun----30 second bunny movie "Its a wonderful Life"

Bunny movie

New Muse Journal--->Women and Music

Women and Music:

A Journal of Gender and Culture, an annual journal of scholarship about women, music, and culture, is published for the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) by the University of Nebraska Press. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines and approaches, the refereed journal seeks to further the understanding of the relationships among gender, music, and culture, with special attention being given to the concerns of women. For further information about IAWM, see the membership information at the back of this issue.


For more information about the journal:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/women_and_music/

Online Document-->The Muslim World After 9/11

ResourceShelf's DocuTicker: The Muslim World After 9/11

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

New Product-->Visual Thesaurus

This can't be beat for hours of harmless fun!!

Visual Thesaurus

Creates an animated display of words and meanings - a visual representation of the English language. The Thinkmap visualization places the word in the center of the display, connected to related words and meanings. It is possible to click on these words or meanings to explore further

It isn't just Google digitzing books--->Internet Archive

Internet International Libraries and the Internet Archive collaborate to build Open-Access Text Archives

Internet Archive: Canadian Libraries

Internet Archive: Million Book Project

Links to stuff about Google Print

Google Print

University of Michigan

Harvard University

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: More on intrastructure

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: More on intrastructure

Links to some good stuff on this topic.

Monday, December 13, 2004

New Web Site--The Philological Museum

The Philological Museum
A site devoted to Humanistic Letters, principally British,
published under the auspices of the Shakespeare Institute
of the University of Birmingham.

The site consists of two parts:

Library of Humanistic Texts

Bibliography of Neo-Latin Texts on the Web
"... an analytic bibliography of Latin texts written during the Renaissance and later that are freely available to the general public on the Web...."


-from open access news

An Oncampus storage facility---sigh

Crowded library receives shelf space

New Storage facility for the University of Illinois

-from ResourceShelf

Google Sued Over Google Scholar Name

Google Sued Over Google Scholar Name

I hope we aren't going to be paying for this through our subscriptions.

Friday, December 10, 2004

New Web Site--->moneyscience.org

moneyscience.org

An open-access resource for academics and practitioners working in finance and economics, physics, applied mathematics and computing. We aim to provide the single most comprehensive aggregated source for information in the broad field of quantitative finance.

Academic and Scholarly Search Engines List

Academic and Scholarly Search Enginers

"Internet MiniGuide Annotated Link Compilation white paper titled "Academic and Scholar Search Engines and Sources" is a 32 page research paper listing selected resources both new and existing that will help anyone who is attempting to find academic and scholarly information and knowledge available on the Internet."



-from open access

ALA | Information Literacy Standards for Science and Technology

ALA | Information Literacy Standards for Science and Technology

Here they are for what they are worth.

Stitching services into user environments - intrastructure

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: Stitching services into user environments - intrastructure

A short very worthwhile read. Puts a perspective on recent developments.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

ALA | Alternative assessment in higher education

ALA | Alternative assessment in higher education

Between inquiry based and blended learning there is a plethora of emerging trends in higher education and assessment. This looks to be a good basic introduction to information sources online.

Researchers create tool to automatically search handwritten historical documents

Researchers create tool to automatically search handwritten historical documents

More developments on the text mining front.

Oxford English Dictionary--newsletter

December 2004 newsletter - Oxford English Dictionary

-includes an interview with the OED archivist.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

mmmm, a library toolbar what a nifty idea

Stanford Graduate School of Business: Jackson Library: Jackson IE Toolbar

-take a peek and think about this, especially in relation to Lorcan Dempseys ideas of intrastructure.

Thanks to Paul for this.

Peter Jasco's Review of Google Scholar

Gale - Free Resources - Reference Reviews - Peter's Digital Reference Shelf - December

-thoughtful critical appraisal of the Beta site.

CAUT'S freedom to publish statement

2004novfreedompublish.pdf (application/pdf Object)

"A commitment to the unfettered transmission of knowledge is a core value in the academic community. Scholarship, education and research are best served by the unconstrained sharing of information. This openness has been challenged at various times by religious, political, state and commercial interests. Today, with growing concerns about terrorism, there is a resurgence in demands for research secrecy from the state. As universities and colleges are increasingly encouraged to commercialize, pressure is also growing to accommodate the private sector need for secrecy – a need arising from a desire to deter competition, suppress negative product information or ensure patentability of research results."

-from Open Access News

Pepys' Diary as a Weblog

Pepys' Diary: About this site

What fun! Pepys' Diary as a weblog. But take a peak and see the added value, hyperlinks to more information on people and places named in the diary. (all this from the free Project Gutenburg edition). As well, readers are free to add anotations with more information or links to related sites.

-from Locan Dempsey's weblog

Problem in Compendex with SAE publications

The Indexing of SAE Publications in Compendex - The Ongoing Discussion

-from STLQ

Review of Citation Tracking on the Web

With Amazon and Google Scholar in the game, Citation Tracking is the new hot thing in web searching. Interesting to me because citation tracking, while a core strategy for all research, is often poorly supported in library designed systems. Is the web again pointing the way to true user focused design?

Citing
-an overview of Google Scholar and Amazon from Lorcan Dempsey's weblog

HubLog: TouchGraph browser for Google Scholar
This link was down last time I tried, but it is a tool for letting you graph linking between pages in Google Scholar

CiteULike Tracks Favorite Citations
I'm not sure about this one as it was a bear to set up on my computer and it doesn't do many sources. But the idea is very cool, you can marke an article you like and then get an alert if it is cited later.

Monday, December 06, 2004

The library website--comments and link to an article

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog. : The library website

Lorcan Dempsey, from OCLC has a new weblog, which often includes some good comments. Here he discusses the question of the Library web site, and links to an article by Krisellen Maloney which discusses the future of the idea of a the Library Portal as a monolithic gateway or entry point to library information.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Monday, November 29, 2004

CAUT article on why copyright reform is important to Canadian Eductional Institutions

In case you missed this in the CAUT bulletin, a good overview on the copyright issues in Canada and why educational institutions need to stop being complacent and "get in the game".

CAUT Bulletin Online - November 2004

-from Open Access News

Inspirational Article on free book service: The Give-and-Take At the Book Thing

The Give-and-Take At the Book Thing (washingtonpost.com)

-from Arts and Letters Daily

Abortion Surveillance --- United States, 2001

Abortion Surveillance --- United States, 2001

Interesting to see that the Centre for Disease Control is tracking this procedure, and I was a little intimidated by the use of "Surveillance". Although they use the term for all the disease tracking they do.

-from DocuTicker

Article from U of Western Ontario-->The Library Visit Study"

-from Information Research

Another nifty open source tool---> Try Textpresso

The Scientist :: Want a Jolt of Literature? Try Textpresso!, Nov. 8, 2004

This isn't available for download yet, but it is another example of how these relatively small open source tools will enable the creation of personally customized spaces and collections with functionality far beyond a simple list of references.

To see the texpresso site directly go to http://www.textpresso.org/

-from ResourceShelf

Short article on staff concerns re RFID tabs

Privacy Advocates Promise to Fight Electronic Tags in Library Books

Friday, November 26, 2004

Amazon gets into the citation business

Amazon gets into the citation business...

Citation tracking is key research technique, but outside of the sciences there haven't been really good tools to support it. With the advent of Google Scholar, and now the growing interest from Amazon, digital tools for this technique may become much more available for scholars in other disciplines.

-from On Google Scholar

Charleston Advisor--awards for person, product, and lemon of the year

Charleston Advisor Readers' Choice Awards

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Interesting Article---> Information problem solving by experts and novices: analysis of a complex cognitive skill

ScienceDirect - Computers in Human Behavior : Information problem solving by experts and novices: analysis of a complex cognitive skill

The difference between experts and novices in complext task domains is always fascinating....n'est pas?

Upcoming changs to Digital Dissertations interface

Complete information is now available at the PQDD Migration Information Center.

PQDT will start its phased migration to the ProQuest platform during December. The new name of the database, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, better reflects its long-standing inclusion of both master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. Master's theses contain important research and writing in many disciplines that are often overlooked.

Among the new features available in Phase 1 of the migration:

* Email alerting service when new dissertations are added in a specified subject area

* Full-text dissertations in PDF format may be downloaded and viewed without waiting for an email and PIN

* Multi-language interface

* Online usage reports

* Support for citation downloads into RefWorks and EndNote

* Interface support for text-only functionality and other ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) recommendations

* School branding and direct links back to the school library

* Cross-searching capabilities between PQDT and databases in the classic vault

Moving Beyond Metasearching: Are Wrappers the Next Big Thing

Moving Beyond Metasearching: Are Wrappers the Next Big Thing

"A student searches a ProQuest database and has found a pertinent article. That article would contain a variety of "anchors" or icons links related to the author or keywords. Clicking on the icons would lead to content in the book catalog or in other databases; a video in a digital repository; notes a local professor has added to the article; or the author's web page. It might even link to services like MapQuest or an "Ask the Expert" page.

It's simple: users don't have to think about what they're doing. And unlike federated searching Bieber claims the native power of each interface will still be maintained."

Kerry Tops Cheney: BookFinder.com Unveils Top 10 Out-of-Print Books of 2004

-from Resourceshelf

JISC report on PDA's and education

Mobile and PDA technologies and their future use in education

"In order to assist with the process, this JISC TechWatch report aims to review the current technical situation with regard to mobile devices and then begin to map out the future directions these devices might take. Although much research has been conducted within schools on the use of PDAs to enhance education, it is more likely that future versions of smartphones (a hybrid of PDA and phone technologies) will form the basic technical platform. We review these issues from a primarily technical viewpoint, but also with respect to the educational and social issues that are raised. Despite the obvious pressure to make more use of devices that most students will possess there is little point in investing resources to develop infrastructure and support services unless there are strong educational or administrative reasons to do so."

-from ResourceShelf

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

New Product Announcement-->Snapshots North America

Snapshots North America

Sorry, no pictures :-(

"Snapshots International Ltd is the only market research company to specialize in top-line international market research overviews. The Snapshots International Series - North America of 630+ reports is designed to provide an instant overview of this geographic region, and the data is supplied in both graphical and tabular format for ease of interpretation and analysis. All data is compiled in house by the Snapdata Research Department, an international team of research experts."

New Product Announcement--->Hoover's Company Records

Hoover's Company Records

Provides up to date proprietary editorial content covering more than 40,000 public and non-public companies and 225,000 key executives. Hoover's, widely recognized as a leading provider of corporate data, delivers in depth industry analyses, information on a company's location, summary financials, top competitors, top officers, and more.

New Product Announcement--->Financial Times

Financial Times

In addition to very important business news, can you read up on Barbara Amiel's latest forays.

New Product Announcement-->OxResearch

OxResearch

This is a different type of product and worth checking out. Look up the World Trade Towers and see the report from September 12 showing what changes the think-tank predicted would take place.

"Provides succinct analytical articles covering world and regional economic and political developments of major significance. Evaluates issues and events within a coherent political, social, and economic framework. Contains objective, multi-disciplinary articles compiled by an extensive international network of over 1,000 faculty members at Oxford and other leading universities around the world, as well as think-tanks and institutes of international standing"

Creative Commons Unique Search Tool Now Integrated into Firefox 1.0

Creative Commons Unique Search Tool Now Integrated into Firefox 1.0

Firefox is the newest version of Mozilla, the search tool is part of the task bar and can be customized to include different search engines. Having creative commons as a standard option is a big leap for open access.

-from Resource Shelf

Google Scholar vs Native Search

Google Scholar vs Native Search

Peter Jasco's tool offers the chance to do a side by side comparison of Google Scholar and native interfaces. But be aware these searches don't include the books and open access sources Google Scholar will search when you use the full system.

-from ResourceShelf

Monday, November 22, 2004

Books that changed the world

Books that changed the world

I hope you guys are keeping up with buying these things.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Google Scholar--some key links---idea for Library Council

Welcome to the brave new world. I wonder if a library council meeting on how internet developments and applications will change our public web face and the delivery of content might not be apropo? Besides Google Scholar, I'm thinking of Furl's, RSS's, Blogs..... If you are interested let me know.

Link to Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/

Resource Shelf Announcement
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/11/wow-its-google-scholar.html

Article in Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/free/2004/11/2004111901n.htm

New York Times Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/technology/18google.html?th

BioMed Central in Google Scholar
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/pr-releases?pr=20041119

Friday, November 19, 2004

New JSTOR titles

Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 68 (1928–1998)

Asian Folklore Studies
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 57 (1942-1998)

Church History
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 67 (1932–1998)

Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 18 (1983–2000)

History of Religions*
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 42, No. 2 (1961–2002)
*At the publisher’s request, JSTOR is releasing content beyond the 5 year moving wall.

International Journal of American Linguistics*
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 68 (1917–2002)
*At the publisher’s request, JSTOR is releasing content beyond the 5 year moving wall.

Signs*
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 28, No. 1 (1975–2002)
*At the publisher’s request, JSTOR is releasing content beyond the 5 year moving wall.

Technometrics
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 40 (1959–1998)

New Product Announcement--->Gender Studies Online

http://80-biblioline.nisc.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca:2048/scripts/login.dll?BiblioLine&dbname=QGSD

The Gender Studies Database (GSD) combines NISC's popular Women's Studies International, Men's Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies databases with relevant contributions from the Child Development & Adolescent Studies as well as Family & Society Studies Worldwide databases. GSD covers the spectrum of gender engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. Links to freely available and indexed full-text articles and documents on the web are available. Several hundred links provide access to carefully selected websites.

Interesting web sites--->Tools for Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Tools for Engineering, Computing and Mathematics


"...EEVL is now making availabe FOUR specialized databases that provide access to full-text ejournal material. Here's a rundown:

+ The Computing database searches the content of 60 freely available full-text ejournals in computing.

+ The math database searches the content of 28 freely available full-text ejournals in mathematics.

+ Engineering searches the content of 160 freely available full-text ejournals in engineering.

+ The last one, searches the content of all 250 freely available full text ejournals in engineering, mathematics and computing.

If you would like to review a listing of the publications available, it's also available. Included in the mix are trade journals, house journals and even some peer-reviewed journals.

Finally, we can't mention Roddy MacLeod without pointing out that his work and dedication has been (and continues to be) an inspiration and motivator to the ResourceShelf and DocuTicker team.

See Also: On a somewhat related note, don't foget that OAISTER is a wonderful, powerful, and free database containing scholarly material on the open web. Is some/all of this material in Yahoo and Google? The answer is yes. However, the native OAISTER interface offers many powerful search options not available from G and Y."

-from ResourceShelf

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

The Faith-Based Encyclopedia--article on the quality of entries in the Internet Encyclopedia

The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

The Interpedia is an online encyclopedia with entries created and edited by volunteers. This is an interesting review of how this approach affects the quality and stability of the source.

Article on Copyright--->Protecting ourselves to death

Protecting ourselves to death

A very readable article on the rhetoric of copyright discussions in Canada. Some good insights on how the debate is framed in terms of culture and heritage.

Monday, November 15, 2004

New Muse Journal---->Canadian Modern Language Review

THE CANADIAN MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW DEBUTS IN PROJECT MUSE

The Canadian Modern Language Review publishes peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of language learning and teaching - linguistics, language skills, curriculum, program design, psychology, methodology - making this a great tool for teachers, researchers, professors and policy makers who deal with the realities of second language learning. Article topics range from ESL, to French immersion, to international languages, to native languages. The journal's quarterly issues include reviews of relevant books and software, along with research-based articles dealing with second language teaching in the "Focus on the Classroom' section.


New Open Access Site-->Science Commons

Science Commons

"The mission of Science Commons is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others. Science Commons works within current copyright and patent law to promote legal and technical mechanisms that remove barriers to sharing."

-from resourceshelf

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

New Free Source--->Historical Statistics of the United States

Historical Statistics of the United States - Colonial Times to 1970

-from DocuTicker

Article on RSS Feeds in Libraries

RSS_and_libraries_EN3.pdf

"Abstract: Examines RDF Site Summary, or Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, a means of distributing news or other Web content from an online publisher to users. Outlines RSS background and XML-based structure. Explains feed readers and web-based content aggregators, the two chief tools used for reading RSS feeds. Lists some advantages of RSS use and some reputable RSS feed sources, also known as RSS feed directories. Offers suggestions on potential library uses of RSS including: general communications and marketing; library user education (via book lists); current awareness services (via table of contents analysis for journals); and, augmenting of reference services."

-from Catablog

Monday, November 08, 2004

Article on CLIR initiative to use humanists as librarians

Library Journal - Just Another Field?

Critical article on the initiative from CLIR to enlist Humanists as academic librarians. It employs a post doc fellowship in lieu of an MLS.

-from ResourceShelf

Technology to deliver reference over cell phones

Reference by SMS

"Reference by SMS" is an exciting new service designed specifically to allow libraries to expand their reference delivery methods to include SMS, the mobile phone text messaging system so popular with the youth of today. Your clients can use this service to contact the library no matter where they are - for example they can use it to ask for assistance at a library computer carousel, without having to relinquish the computer, or move all their gear to a reference desk."

-from Library Blog

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

B.C. review of impact of patriot act on the privacy of Canadians

Patriot Act Report

Includes a link to the full (150 page) report. I've printed a copy of this for myself in case anyone wants to see.

Here is a link to the 13 page summary.

Earlier this year the Information and Privacy Commissioner invited submissions on two questions relating to possible implications of the USA Patriot Act for outsourcing of public services by public bodies in British Columbia.

-from ResourceShelf

EBSCO Adding Full-Text Conference Papers

EBSCO Adding Full-Text Conference Papers

EBSCO Publishing has entered into an agreement with All Academic, Inc. that will provide researchers with access to a collection of full-text conference papers from scholarly societies. The partnership with All Academic will bring nearly 25,000 full-text conference papers into appropriate EBSCOhost databases including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, and Communication & Mass Media Complete. The companies anticipate that approximately 20,000 records will be added to EBSCOhost databases on an annual basis beginning in 2005.

-from STLQ

Monday, November 01, 2004

Nature Journals offer RSS Feed

RSS

By David Bigwood

Here is a publisher who gets it.

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is pleased to announce the completion of the current phase of its RSS newsfeed collection which delivers tables of content for its journals and other timely information to scientists' desktops. This crop of newsfeeds covers the non-Nature-branded titles and complements our existing RSS offerings for the Nature-branded titles. Specifically the newsfeeds deliver information about NPG's Advanced Online Publication (AOP) series and announce articles published online ahead of being published in an archival issue. As with NPG's existing newsfeeds, this new batch of RSS newsfeeds comes with rich metadata. The titles covered by the new release are:

* Bone Marrow Transplantation
* British Journal of Cancer
* Cancer Gene Therapy
* Cell Death and Differentiation
* The EMBO Journal
* EMBO Reports
* European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
* European Journal of Human Genetics
* Eye
* Genes and Immunity
* Gene Therapy
* Heredity
* International Journal of Impotence Research
* International Journal of Obesity
* Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology
* Journal of Human Hypertension
* Journal of Perinatology
* Laboratory Investigation
* Leukemia
* Modern Pathology
* Molecular Psychiatry
* Neuropsychopharmacology
* Oncogene
* The Pharmacogenomics Journal
* Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases
* Spinal Cord


See nature.com for a complete listing of all Nature newsfeeds, as well as a brief introduction to the advantages of using RSS. Additionally the listing of newsfeeds is accessible as an OPML file to facilitate the ready import of NPG newsfeeds into RSS newsreaders. A master RSS newsfeed of all NPG newsfeeds is also available for alerting subscribers to new NPG newsfeeds.

These newsfeeds are all based on the RSS 1.0 format which builds on the W3C Resource Description Framework and allows rich metadata (both PRISM and Dublin Core) to be included at both the channel and item level. Linking to the article full text is effected using industry-standard mechanisms for persistent linking: DOI and CrossRef.

That's a lot of structured metadata. As metadata specialists maybe we should be doing something useful with it. Maybe the jake folks could use it? Just musing?

Friday, October 29, 2004

Internet visits count as trips to the library

Kablenet article

Short note regarding new public library standards in Europe.

The British Library - Catalogue of Photographically Illustrated Books

The British Library - Catalogue of Photographically Illustrated Books

Use this website to search and view information and images from one of the world's most comprehensive collections of photographically illustrated books and texts in many languages relating to the history and development of photography, from 1839 to 1914.

-from ResourceShelf

Discussion of Lancet's publication of later discredited article on cause of autism

spiked-health | Article | MMR: 'A reparation, of sorts'

"Lancet editor Richard Horton's new book on the MMR debacle doesn't explain why he published Andrew Wakefield's flawed research in the first place."

Thursday, October 28, 2004

STLQ: PGM (Platinum Group Metals) Database Now Available

PGM (Platinum Group Metals) Database

The PGM Database is now live. This database comprises the most comprehensive collection of physical, mechanical and chemical data for the platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium) and their alloys.

-from STLQ

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

More on upcoming changes to Cambridge Interface

CSA is in the final stages of preparing to release our new online platform, CSA Illumina. The service, which will replace the existing CSA Internet Database Service, features a totally new user interface as well as enhanced search capabilities.

CSA has received a great deal of valuable feedback from users accessing the preview version of CSA Illumina . We are fine-tuning certain features on the CSA Illumina service as a result of the feedback.


In mid-November we will officially release the CSA Illumina service. It will be available in parallel with the current Internet Database Service (IDS) platform and administrators may switch their institutions' accounts to the new CSA Illumina service at this time, should they wish to do so. The IDS platform will be phased out at the end of January 2005.

The transition to the new interface will be seamsless for the user. Login links, usernames and passwords, and database availability will remain the same on CSA Illumina as on IDS. If you need a reminder of your username and password, please contact service@csa.com; if you have any technical questions about the transition, please do not hesitate to contact support@csa.com.

We will send subsequent messages to advise you of the specific dates when CSA Illumina is available.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Impact of changes to ISBN

Get Ready for the New ISBN! - National Information Standards Organization (NISO)

Site includes the following FAQ and links to other resources.

How will I order books when I only know the 10-digit ISBN?

Data processing systems in the book distribution and supply chain will convert to carry 13-digit ISBNs for all items in their catalogs by 2007. Because customers, including libraries, will have books or bibliographic records that carry only the original 10-digit ISBN it is anticipated that for the foreseeable future these systems will need to accept queries with either 10- or 13-digit ISBNs for the older materials. Queries with 10-digit ISBNs can be algorithmically converted to their 13-digit equivalent in the search process. For communication with legacy data, it is also possible to convert a 13-digit ISBN beginning with “978” to a 10-digit ISBN. However, the presence of “978” at the beginning of an ISBN will not guarantee that the ISBN was ever issued as a 10-digit number: some ISBNs with prefix 978 will be created after 2007 because publishers will continue to use the ISBNs that have been assigned to them previously until all have been used.

Will I have to switch to using 13-digit ISBNs for searches in my library database?

Library systems will face the problem of potentially having a database with ISBNs of different lengths. A librarian with a book in hand with a 10-digit ISBN will not know if the database record has a 10-digit or 13-digit number. Because the conversion of the 10-digit ISBN to 13 digits requires a re-calculation of the check digit, this must be a system function, not a user function. Whether library system databases covert the legacy ISBNs in their indexes to 13 digits or not, to provide successful searching they will have to be able to retrieve the ISBN using either its 10-digit or 13-digit format.

What are library vendors planning and when will we see changes?

To date, library vendors have not announced their plans for meeting the 2007 conversion deadline for input, validation, and searching on 13-digit ISBNs. In the meanwhile, records will be issued by the Library of Congress, the British Library, and the Library and Archives Canada with both 13-digit and 10-digit ISBNs in the 020 (ISBN) field, qualified respectively as ISBN-13 and ISBN-10. NISO will continue to coordinate discussions in the library vendor community as this transition takes place.

-from resourceshelf

Good Web Site--->Policybot link to free-market think tanks

The Heartland Institute

PolicyBot is the Internet's most extensive clearing-
house for the work of free-market think tanks, with more than 12,500 studies and commentaries from over 350 think tanks and advocacy groups.

-from ResourceShelf

Friday, October 22, 2004

Project Muse Journal----The Canadian Journal of Linguistics

The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique

The Canadian Journal of Linguistics publishes articles in linguistics in both English and French. The articles deal with linguistic theory, linguistic description of English, French and a variety of other natural languages, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, first and second language acquisition, and other areas of interest to linguists. The journal also includes reviews of recent books in linguistics.

For more information about the journal:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/canadian_journal_of_linguistics/

ProQuest Interface Changes

Go to the link for the whole story

The Three Stages of library search

CILIP | Guest column: The Three Stages of library search

A very brief review of where library search products/strategies may be evolving.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

New Journal--->Systems Biology

IEE launched a new interdisciplinary journal at mid-year, Systems Biology .

The new title is now available in IEEE Xplore for subscribers to the IEL package.

Free access to RLG catalogue

1-2-3 RedLightGreen

What happens when you take a massive database of bibliographic descriptions and redesign it for the Web, not just as a resource for librarians, but as a tool for students and the public at large? That’s the idea behind RLG’s RedLightGreenSM.

RLG’s largest bibliographic database has been reinvented as an online information service, accessible over the open Web. It helps undergraduates and other researchers zero in on the most authoritative, useful sources of information—with the kind of interface and usability expected by Web-savvy students.

-from STLQ

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

New Issue of Information Research

A New Issue of Information Research is Now Online (Vol. 10 No.1, Oct. 2004)

This issues includes papers presented at ISIC 2004: the 5th Information Seeking in Context Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 1-3 September, 2004

Papers include:
+ Information behaviour that keeps found things found
+ Choosing people: the role of social capital in information seeking behaviour
+ A new model of information behaviour based on the Search Situation Transition schema.
+ From information behaviour research to the design of information systems: the Cognitive Work Analysis framework
+ Talking about the problem: a content analysis of pre-search interviews

-from Resource Shelf

Even more Information Literacy tools from the UK

THE BEST OF THE WEB
The latest from the Resource Discovery Network
October 2004

We bring you a round-up of the latest news from all the Resource Discovery
Network services. HTML and colour PDF versions of the full newsletter are
available at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/news/nl/oct2004/.

BOOK NOW: INTERNET RESEARCH SKILLS SEMINARS FROM SOSIG

A new Social Science Online seminar series has just been announced, building
on the successful events run last year by SOSIG, with a focus on Internet
research skills.

GET CREATIVE WITH ARTIFACT

Artifact is our guide to the best of the web in the arts and creative
industries and describes over 4,000 high quality web sites for architecture,
communications and media, design, fashion and beauty, performing arts and
visual arts.

BIOME PASSES 25,000 MARK

BIOME, the RDN's free service for accessing web resources in the Health and
Life Sciences, now contains details of well over 25,000 high quality
Internet resources.

INTERNET RESOURCES FOR ENGLISH

Humbul has produced its first subject booklet, Internet Resources for
English, which lists a wide range of useful online resources for English
Studies.

ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, SEARCH....

.... with Sport & Leisure Index, a searchable database of over 42,000
references to articles from journals and magazines covering the many
different aspects of sport, physical activity and leisure studies available
from Altis.


EXTENDING THE RDN VIRTUAL TRAINING SUITE FOR ADULT LEARNERS</span>

Five new tutorials are now being developed specifically with adult and
community learners in mind.

We hope you will find this information useful. Please let us know if you
have any questions or comments - we welcome your feedback.

Regards,
Alison.

------------------------------------------------------------
Alison Murphy, RDN Executive, MIMAS, Manchester Computing,
University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL

email: info@rdn.ac.uk
tel: 0161 275 0620
fax: 0161 275 6040

Friday, October 15, 2004

New Muse Journal--->Journal of Latin American Geography

Journal of Latin American Geography

The Journal of Latin American Geography (JLAG) will publish original geographical and interdisciplinary research on Latin America and the Caribbean. The University of Texas Press will publish and distribute the journal with two issues of scholarly papers and book reviews annually. The journal is published by the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (CLAG), established in 1970 to foster geographic education and research on Latin America through conferences and publications. The Journal of Latin American Geography will continue and expand the tradition of the annual CLAG Yearbook which has published a selection of peer-reviewed papers by distinguished geographers and other scholars for more than 20 years. The editor will work with an international editorial board to promote the publication of original, high quality, and refereed manuscripts that represent the broad spectrum of geographic perspectives on and from the region.



Thursday, October 14, 2004

JSTOR new titles

American Journal of Agricultural Economics
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 80 (1919–1998)

The American Journal of Theology
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 24 (1897–1920)

Assemblage
New Content: No. 1 – No. 41 (1986–2000)

Michigan Law Review
New Content: Vol. 1 – Vol. 99, No. 3 (1902–2000)

Oxford University Press Signs Archiving Agreement with Netherlands National Library

To: OUP Journals Library E-Mail List

Oxford University Press and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek sign Archiving Agreement
October 13, 2004

Long-term accessibility of Oxford Journals' archive is assured

The Hague, October 13th, 2004 -
Today, Martin Richardson, Managing Director of Oxford Journals, a Division of OUP, and Wim van Drimmelen, Director General of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the National Library of the Netherlands, signed an agreement securing long-term digital archiving of Oxford Journals' entire collection. Under the terms of this agreement the KB will receive digital copies of all current and digitized back-archive journal issues made available on the Oxford Journals online platform, and with the agreement of the journal owners where they are not owned by OUP (www.oupjournals.org). This would include 184 scholarly journals spanning the academic spectrum from humanities to science.

"This is an important agreement for Oxford Journals," commented Richardson. "Being able to guarantee secure, long-term preservation of everything that we publish online is a key requirement for us as well as for our authors and readers. In addition to continuing to maintain our own repository, it is our responsibility as part of the academic community to ensure that multiple copies of our digital archives are preserved for use by future generations. We are delighted to be collaborating with the KB, which has made a major contribution to the long-term archiving of digital collections.''

In 1994, the KB decided to include electronic publications in its depository collection. Since then, research and development on long-term digital archiving has been a top priority for the KB, who have worked in close collaboration with IBM to develop an electronic deposit system (e Depot). This was implemented in December 2002 and was the first such system to be owned by a national library.

"For everybody involved in research and the communication of research results - authors, researchers, librarians and publishers alike - this agreement should be viewed as yet another step forward in securing permanence of the records of scholarly research", commented Wim van Drimmelen. "The KB have signed similar agreements with several major publishers and hopes to work with others in the future."

The KB will provide on site access to the Oxford Journals Collection to all who come to the library and are permitted access to the library's collections. In addition, should there be a major interruption to the service offered on the Oxford Journals online platform, the KB would be part of the interim service system.

New Product Announcement--->Hospitality and Tourism Index

Hospitality & tourism index
Bibliographic database providing access to scholarly research and industry news relating to all areas of hospitality and tourism. Combines the records of three collections: Cornell University's former Hospitality database (previously unavailable for public use), Articles in hospitality and tourism, and the Lodging, restaurant & tourism index.

New Product Announcement--->Health Source Consumer Edition

Health Source Consumer Edition
This database provides full text for nearly 300 consumer health periodicals, nearly 1,100 health-related pamphlets, 135 health reference books, and more than 4,500 Clinical Reference Systems reports, as well as indexing and abstracts for more than 300 periodicals. Also includes Stedman's medical dictionary. In addition, this database includes Clinical Pharmacology, which provides access to up-to-date, concise and clinically relevant drug monographs for all U.S. prescription drugs, hard-to-find herbal and nutritional supplements, over-the-counter products and new drugs. Full text coverage dates back as far as 1985.

New Product Announcement--->Canadian Reference Centre

Canadian Reference Centre

Canadian Reference Centre combines Canadian magazines, newspapers & newswires and reference books to create the largest collection of regional full text content available to Canadian libraries. This database includes leading Canadian periodicals and international (U.S. and U.K.) periodicals in full text; full text reference books; 82,968 full text biographies and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags. Provides full text information for over 150 Canadian periodicals and over 400 international periodicals.

New Product Announcement--->Canadian Literary Centre


Canadian Literary Centre


Canadian Writing Press (ECW Press). ECW Press also provides several individual monographs and biographies, essays and literary criticism. The database includes book reviews, essays, author biographies, and much more.

columbia earthscape--->try this product out

columbia earthscape

If you have responsibilities in a subject that deal with environmental/earth science topics than I encourage you to give this product a try. The link above will take you to a description of new content and changes over the summer.

This month at columbia earthscape we publish a new batch of reports about water ecosystems. The Preliminary Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy provides a comprehensive review of policy regarding oceans and recommendations for future reform. Reports from government and non-profit organizations highlight challenges such as invasive species, pollution, global warming, and natural disasters to the world's saltwater and the freshwater environments. Visit the newly updated Hydrosphere section of columbia earthscape's course content for even more content for use in the classroom.

Also, this summer we've revamped the search engine. We invite you to test out the added functionality. New features of search include the ability to search by subject, by region and by publication format. The subject list covers everything from agriculture to oceans.

Online tool that will compare search engines--good for library instruction?

Try this out, it allows you to compare hits and shows what google is missing

jux2

-from Resource Shelf

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

WorldCat heading to the Open Web

All of OCLC’s WorldCat Heading Toward the Open Web

Excited by the “resounding success” of the Open WorldCat pilot program, the management of OCLC, the world’s largest library vendor, has decided to open the entire collection of 53.3 million items connected to 928.6 million library holdings for “harvesting” by Google and Yahoo! Search.

-from ResourceShelf

Combined Search engine for Amazon/The Web

A9.com Home Page

This site combines web searching with Amazon's "search inside the book" function. Part of a general trend for web engines to search the "deep web".

Related is the ResearchBuzz tool for searching full text in Google
http://www.researchbuzz.org/archives/002027.shtml

-from ResourceShelf

Subject Guides for Physical Science/Geog/Env from the UK

Dear Colleague,

...Each Pack comprises a list of up to 10 websites that will provide useful, detailed, high quality information in the specific topic covered and at the appropriate level. Included are tutorials, lecture notes, case studies, etc. that can be used immediately.
.....

The Packs may be accessed at:

www.psigate.ac.uk/education
www.gesource.ac.uk/education

UofT first to license SCOPUS

Announcement

SCOPUS is the new index from Elsevier. I anticipate great demand for it once its released, and it is an example of the type of new product we aren't going to be buying unless we get re-investment in the book budget.

-from ResourceShelf

New Web sites of Interest--Financial Data

FRASER * Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research

St. Louis Fed: Economic Data - FRED II

-from ResourceShelf

All sorts of articles on LibQual

Journal of Library Administration

Friday, October 01, 2004

Update on ERIC

New ERIC Database
A redesigned system opened to the public with access the existing ERIC bibliographic database (1966-2004).

E*Subscribe
This also has accesss to ERIC documents--this marks the end of E*subscribe, full text documents are now available through the ERIC interface above.

At this point SFX does not support linking through to documents in the New ERIC. Students are sent to a re-direct page that will take them to the New ERIC, but not directly to the document.

Embedded (non SFX) links to documents still worked in Ovid/Silverplatter and OCLC versions of ERIC.

December
ERIC will begin adding new bibliographic records and full-text journal and non-journal resources from 2004.

Newly indexed materials that are not available free-of-charge will be made accessible through database links to commercial sources.

Website--->CIA - The World Factbook

A reminder of this product which is now regularly updated.

-from Resourceshelf

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Article-->Impact of open access articles

Do open access articles have more impact?
From the E-LIS e-prints archive.

-from ResourceShelf

Website---->INFO CONNECT: Union Catalogs of the World.

INFO CONNECT: Union Catalogs of the World.
Listing of union catalogues worldwide.

-from ResourceShelf

Search Engine update--->Clusty the Clustering Engine

Clusty the Clustering Engine
Try searching the term bears in Google and then in Clusty. Illustrates how clustering can be a great alternative to Googles page ranking system. Clustering may become an option we see more of in databases, and with big full text databases may be very useful.

-from ResourceShelf

Report--->Canada's Ecological Footrpint Report

Also does breakdowns by municipality.

-from Docuticker

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Report--->Center for the Digital Future Identifies the 10 Major Trends Emerging in the Internet’s First Decade of Public Use

Center for the Digital Future Identifies the 10 Major Trends Emerging in the Internet’s First Decade of Public Use

An excerpt of findings re trust in internet based information.

• Although the Internet has become the most important source of current information for users, the initially high level of credibility of information on the Internet began to drop in the third year of the study, and declined even further in Year Four.

• The number of users who believe that only about half of the information on the Internet is accurate and reliable is growing and has now passed 40 percent of users for the first time.

• The study showed that most users trust information on the websites they visit regularly, and on pages created by established media and the government.

• Information pages posted by individuals have the lowest credibility: only 9.5 percent of users say information on those sites is reliable and accurate.

-from ResourceShelf

Web Site--->Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources

Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources

"This bibliographic essay originally appeared as "Canadian Studies: A Core Collection," CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries 35 (September 1997): 71-84, and since June 1999 has been regularly updated for the International Council for Canadian Studies World Wide Web Service. Reprinted with permission from CHOICE. Copyright © 1997-2004 by the American Library Association and the authors. All rights reserved. Comments and suggestions are welcome. [Latest update: 16 September 2004.]"

-from ResourceShelf

Web Site--->Foreign Relations, 1964-1968, Volume XXXI, South and Central America; Mexico

Foreign Relations, 1964-1968, Volume XXXI, South and Central America; Mexico

"The volume features eleven bilateral and two regional compilations, demonstrating the breadth of the U.S. Government’s relations with the countries of South and Central America...."


-from ResourceShelf

Web Site---> Cabinet Conclusions searchable in ArchiviaNet

Search Cabinet Conclusions papers in ArchiviaNet - Library and Archives Canada

-from ResourceShelf

Blog--->ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

Blog that announces new documents, reports etc. available on the web.

-from ResourceShelf

Article----> Canada's Innovation Deficit

Canada's Innovation Deficit

I haven't read this yet, but though it might interest some.

"Michael Geist, Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa, has written a through-provoking and timely article in the Toronto Star about the innovation deficit in Canada

from STQL

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

30 second bunny movies (humour)

Angry Alien Productions

In case you need entertainment and only have 30 seconds. Not related to libraries in any way.

OCLC report on Information Format Trends

2004 Information Format Trends

A short update of the 2003 report. Looks at emerging trends including:
Social publishing (blogs)
Micro-content
Person to person exchange
Impact on academics
Contextual searching

Basic premise is that libraries need to pay attention to changing user behaviour, authenticity and provenance, tools for synthesizing knowledge.

New web site for employers and job seekers in the life sciences

Welcome to Adsumo: Your source for biotech, pharmaceutical, medical & academic research jobs

A joint venture of BioMed Central and The Scientist.

-from ResourceShelf

ARLStatistics 2002-03: Research Library Trends

ARLStatistics 2002-03: Research Library Trends

A good read if you are interested in trends in measuring library quality.

-from ResourceShelf

Indiana University opens second Information Commons

Library Journal - At Indiana University, Success of First Information Commons Leads to a Second

-from ResourceShelf

Pick up a Portal - Lorcan Dempsey

CILIP | Pick up a Portal - Lorcan Dempsey

Dempsey looks at the different meanings of portal, and how libraries may need to change their approach to accomodate user behaviours.

-from ResouceShelf

Friday, September 17, 2004

New JSTOR Titles

Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
Folklore
The Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Research
The Journal of Religion
Religion and American Culture

NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server

NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server

The NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS) and provides students, educators, and the public access to NASA's technical literature.

NTRS also collects scientific and technical information from sites external to NASA to broaden the scope of information available to users.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

July August New books Report

I'm testing two new formats. Let me know if you have any comments.

HTML Version
This version has a navigation bar at the bottom, so you can click through different subjects. Use the scroll bar to move left and right so you can see all the different topics.

You can copy and paste the url to send this version to researchers.

Excel sortable by fund number
This is an Excel version of the entire file. You can use this one to sort by call number, title or fund. The Title, Call Number, and Location information is preformatted for easy cut and paste.

Changes to Grove Art Online

EXPLORE
Allows users to customize searches with combinations from five major subject categories:

Art and Art Forms
Geography
People
Time Periods
Styles and Cultures.

For example, users can create a list of all articles in Grove Art Online related to Italian sculptors of the Renaissance, or view all articles pertaining to photography in the twentieth-century


ART IMAGE PROGRAM
Grove Art Online begins a new art image program to illustrate important
articles with key images in art history.

Users can find illustrations for major works of art in articles such as: African
American Art, Cassatt, Delacroix, Michelangelo, and more. The integrated
images will be accessible from within the body of the article and from the
Illustrations tab in the relevant articles.

Grove Art Online will continue to direct users to a variety of online image
resources including Art Resource, Bridgeman Art Library, and links to museums
and galleries.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Reminder of YBP selection lists

YBP selection lists

Reminder that YBP does many different subject specific selection lists. The link above will take you to the Academic Essentials page, but other tools are listed in the left hand column.


Example of University of Alberta Subject Newsletters

Library News: Subject Newsletters

Article: Medical journals to require clinical trial registration

Medical journals to require clinical trial registration

Eleven prestigious medical journals around the world have announced a new strategy intended to force drug companies to disclose more information about clinical trials.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Automated Web Cataloging

Short outline of LC's automated cataloguing assistant.

Web Cataloging Assistant (the "webcat assistant") is an outgrowth of BEAT’s Web Access to Publications in Series project and evolved from the experiences the team gained in providing access at the individual monograph level for selected series. BEAT has now started to use a more automated approach to this work. Using programming developed by a team member it is now possible for a cataloger to effect the creation of a MARC record that is automatically added to the LC database. A cataloger subsequently enhances the cataloging data. The capability greatly reduces manual aspects of the project and allows catalogers to concentrate on the intellectual work.

Article critiquing personality tests including Myers-Briggs

Against Types

It always cheers me up when I read something that confirms my own prejudices.

Friday, September 10, 2004

New Product---> Clase and Periodica

Clase and Periodica

Index of Latin American journals in the sciences and humanities. Combines CLASE (Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades), which indexes documents published in Latin American journals specializing in the social sciences and humanities (over 1,200 sources) and PERIODICA, which covers journals specializing in science and technology (over 1,400 sources).

Offers access to more than 300,000 bibliographic citations from documents published in 2,600 scholarly journals published in the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English languages.

Contains information from articles, essays, book reviews, monographs, conference proceedings, technical reports, interviews and brief notes published in journals edited in 24 different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from publications that focus on Pan-American issues.

Life as a library researcher

Short article by a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary.

-from ResourceShelf

New Product--->Health and Psychosocial Instruments

Health and Psychosocial Instruments features material on unpublished information-gathering tools for clinicians that are discussed in journal articles, such as questionnaires, interview schedules, tests, checklists, rating and other scales, coding schemes, and projective techniques.

Over 2/3 of the tools are in medical and nursing areas such pain measurement, quality of life assessment, and drug efficacy evaluation.

Economic Intelligence Unit Information added to ABI Inform Global

EIU ViewsWire covers the critical aspects of global business.

* Country alerts offering briefings on key market developments around the world

* Country views for timely assessments and forecasts of changing market country updates, consensus currency, interest and equity forecasts, country forecast and risk summaries

* Country background covering facts and figures on local market and regulatory environments, including country fact sheets, economic indicators, trade, tax and foreign exchange regulations, and weekly interest rates.

Project Muse-->Steinbeck Studies Journal

Steinbeck Studies is the authorized publication on the life and works fo John Steinbeck.

It publishes scholarly articles, essays, photographs, notes, book and performance review, and contemporary references about the author.

Manuscripts are subject to blind peer review. Steinbeck Studies is issued twice yearly and includes a membership in the Steinbeck Society. Members will be informed of panels at the American Literature Association as well as events sponsored by the Center for Steinbeck Studies and the National Steinbeck Center.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Looking for Good Art: Web Resources and Image Databases, Part 1

by David Mattison
Access Archivist, British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum Corporation

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Changes to Approval Plan Procedures

The Cambridge Oxford approval plan books have started coming as shelf ready (spine labels, cataloguing etc). This is leading to a slight change in the approval book process.

The shelf ready process involve loading marc records and copy information. Upon receipt and loading of the records, location information will be available. As a result the turn around needs to be quick in order to have books on the shelf at the same time as records are in the system.

The process will be as follows
- The approval books will now be put onto the shelf once a week (Mondays)
- Susan will send a message notifying those with books waiting
- The books will be available for your review for one week.
- The books will be removed the following Monday
- New titles received during the week will go up and Susan will send a new message.
- Any titles not reviewed during the week will be signed off by Collections (myself or Helen). This is usually the case when someone is away etc.

This will apply to all approval plans/books, in the interests of simplicity.

Brochures handed out

We've sent out copies of the digital text brochure you all had a look at earlier in the month, to faculty in the following departments, with the appropriate liaison business card.

EVDS - 26 - Nasserden
English - 52 - Hemmings
Germanic, Slavic, East Asian - 22 - Vaska
Greek and Roman - 16 - Robins
Philosophy - 23 - Lipton
Religious Studies - 18 - Lipton
Anthropology - 13 - Neary
History - 28 - Robins
Political Science - 28 - Pahulje
Centre for Military & Strategic Studies - 3 - Roseneder
Communication and Culture - 30

We know have some more copies on hand, let me or Linda know if you want to request some.


http://www.ucalgary.ca/library/collections/digitaltext.html

Monday, August 30, 2004

Friday, August 27, 2004

Have e-books turned a page?

"After more than a decade of false starts and empty promises, publishers may finally be starting to understand what consumers want from electronic books..."

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Writing for the Profession

"Many information professionals, understandably busy with both
day-to-day responsibilities and keeping up with our rapidly-changing
field, may feel overwhelmed by the idea of making original
contributions to the profession. One of the best ways to remain
current and connected, however, is by taking the time to contribute
through writing for publication...."

Library Journal - The Information Playground

Good article on trends in the electronic resource market.

Meta Data's Bitter Harvest

Library Journal - Metadata's Bitter Harvest

Bad news for information seekers if the metadata's no good.



Attorney General asks depository libraries to destroy documents

Letter from Congress to the Attorney General asking about this request.

Peristats - March of Dimes

The March of Dimes announced today that it has released a complete redesign of its popular PeriStats Web site, offering the most current and detailed maternal and infant health statistics available in the United States.

PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information) and Safekeeping

This report concentrates on the practical aspects of the National Library of Australia’s PADI Safekeeping project, including selection, archiving and workflows. Some technical aspects of the National Library of Australia’s in-house web archiving system, PANDAS, are also discussed.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

New Muse Title--Nabakov Studies

Sponsored by the International Vladimir Nabokov Society, Nabokov Studies is a refereed journal publishing critical and theoretical articles and forums on one of the twentieth century's most important writers.

Nifty flow chart on Electronic Resource Management

The flow chart is the appendix to the main document

Collection Management and Coordination: A Strategy for the UC Libraries

Monday, August 23, 2004

HoustonChronicle.com - Lawsuit alleges fraud in sale of subscriptions

It might have seemed a good idea at the time, but really......

Friday, August 20, 2004

HeinOnLine gets new look

Dear HeinOnline subscribers,

Recently I informed you that the HeinOnline home page (http://heinonline.org) would be getting a facelift. I am pleased to let you know that this facelift is now complete, and the home page now features a more up-to-date look for visitors who wish to learn more about the product.

As mentioned previously, this new look does not impact the way in which HeinOnline operates for the researcher; it is merely a cosmetic change to the home page. Regardless, we still welcome any comments that you may have, which you can feel free to send to me at b_jablonski@wshein.com.

Also, how quickly names can change! In my last list-serv message, I announced our forthcoming “Early American Law” monograph collection, which would be loosely based on Morris Cohen’s 7-volume, award-winning “Bibliography of Early American Law” collection that was published by William S. Hein & Co., Inc. in 1998 (bound sets are available at a special price if you are interested).

Today, we have “officially” chosen the name for the future monograph collection in HeinOnline. Due to the substantial number of monographs that have now been identified for release, with broader coverage beyond early American law, the new library module will be called the Legal Classics Library.

In addition to the 100 titles identified by Morris Cohen, 125 additional “A”-rated titles have been selected for immediate inclusion from AALS Law Books Recommended, and dozens of other titles from several other sources have been located, as well. It now appears that the first release of this new HeinOnline library module will include at least 200 titles and take place before the end of 2004.

In subsequent years, approximately 500 new legal classics will be released annually. It is our intent to work closely with subscribers and legal researchers to identify the most significant contributions to legal history. Therefore, we welcome your input about the titles that you would like to see in HeinOnline’s Legal Classics Library. Again, please do not hesitate to contact me at b_jablonski@wshein.com.

Last, but certainly not least, the following new material has just been added to HeinOnline. All told, this release provides researchers with 225,000 new pages of online research material.

New or significantly expanded journal coverage in HeinOnline:

Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal
Vols. 1-23 (1976-2002)

Foreign Affairs
Vols. 16-82 (1937-2003)

International Labour Review
Vols. 91-140 (1965-2001)

Oregon Law Review
Vols. 1-81 (1921-2002)

Roger Williams University Law Review
Vols. 1-8 (1996-2003)

Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas
Vols. 1-9 (1994-2003)

More than 25 new Slip Opinions have been included with this latest release.

Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support of HeinOnline!

Sincerely,
Brian Jablonski
b_jablonski@wshein.com

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

GlobalSpec Introduces “The Engineering Web

"GlobalSpec, a specialized online resource for engineering, has launched a new interface, added more powerful search functionality, and has introduced a specialized search engine it is calling “The Engineering Web,” which it says provides “engineering context and relevancy” and access to hidden Web resources. The newly introduced engine searches more than 100,000 engineering and technical Web sites and provides searching of specialized content the company says is not available on any other search engine—application notes, patents, material properties, and standards."

-from ResourceShelf

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

New Issue: Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship

CONTENTS

ARTICLES

* Access and Retrieval of Recent Journal Articles: A Comparative Study
of Chemists and Geoscientists
by Julie Hallmark, The University of Texas at Austin

* Death of an Encyclopedia Salesman? The Fate of Science Reference
Resources in the Digital Age
by David Flaxbart, University of Texas, Austin

* Building a RefWorks Database of Faculty Publications as a Liaison and
Collection Development Tool
by Scott Marsalis and Julia Kelly, University of Minnesota

* Agriculture Journal Literature Indexed in Life Sciences Databases
by Jodee Kawasaki, Montana State University - Bozeman

* Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Forestry: A Bibliographic
Essay
by Caroline D. Harnly, San Francisco State University

* The Web-Based Academic Field Trip Bibliography: A Multi-Use Library
Tool
by Lura E. Joseph, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

* Science, Technology and Research Network (STARNET)
by Walter R. Blados, Research and Technology Organization, NATO

REFEREED ARTICLES

* Access to International Plant Sciences Journals - An Endangered
Species
by Kathy Fescemeyer, The Pennsylvania State University

ACRL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SECTION

* ACRL Strategic Plan Implementation: Science and Technology Section

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET

* Selective Webliography for Health Sciences Authors
by Mark A. Spasser, Jewish Hospital College of Nursing & Allied
Health Library

BOOK REVIEWS

* A History of Online Information Services: 1963-1976
Reviewed by Gregory K. Raschke, North Carolina State University

* Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age
Reviewed by Mary Ann Mahoney, University of California, Berkeley

* The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious
Searcher
Reviewed by Margaret Henderson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

* Biology Resources in the Electronic Age and Biosciences on the
Internet: A Student's Guide and Biosciences on the Internet : A
Student's Guide
Reviewed by Catherine Jeanjean, Kansas State University

* Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Reviewed by David Flaxbart, University of Texas

CONFERENCE REPORTS

* Special Libraries Association 2004 Annual Conference: Putting
Knowledge to Work
by Zsuzsa Koltay, Steven Rockey, and Kizer Walker, Cornell University

* Library Management in a Changing Environment: 25th IATUL Conference
by Patricia B. Yocum, University of Michigan


===========================================================
Andrea L. Duda
Sciences-Engineering Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
E-mail: duda@library.ucsb.edu
===========================================================

Library Journal - Target Your Brand

This is mostly the usual blah blah about fonts and colours. But it has an interesting passage that refers to the brand as the totality of the experience we want users to have--what impressions and ideas we want them think of in association with the Library.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Changes to Books@Ovid

Ovid has a preview set up for changes to the Books@Ovid interface.

To view go to
trial.ovid.com/training

Even though it asks for login password, I didn't need to enter one I just pressed the "start Ovid" button.

One new feature is the ability to link out from book bibliographic references to Ovid databases and journals as well as to external resources.

You can also....
"Sign up for an extensive “train the trainer” program, which will be run by our Training Department beginning August 2, 2004. To view the current schedule go to our website www.ovid.com/bookstraining; we suggest that you book mark this URL for reference during the preview period."

Study done at Mackimme: GIS in the management of library pick-up books

Hurray, we're famous.

GIS in the management of library pick-up books

I haven't read this article, but since its set in the UofC I had to pass it on. If you have comments you can always attach them using the little red Comments link at the foot of the post.

CARL submits brief to SSHRC re scholarly communication

From the cover letter

"...Knowledge mobilization – central to SSHRC transformation – forms the very essence of what research libraries plan design and build on behalf of the communities that they serve.

In this context CARL strongly urges that a full and critical appraisal of the scholarly communication research cycle form part of the transformation debate. CARL feels that the success of transformation will depend in part on the decisions taken on the basis of such an assessment. "

Thursday, August 12, 2004

New JSTOR titles

African Issues
The Black Perspective in Music
Cinema Journal
Contemporary Literature
Film Quarterly
History in Africa
Land Economics
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development
Stanford Law Review

Scholarly Sport Sites

Yay Gretchen!!

"This subject directory brings together the websites which will assist the serious sports researcher, kinesiology librarian, sport information specialist, college/university student and faculty." Features annotated links to archives, associations, bibliographies, databases, libraries, museums, photo collections, and other resources for sports research. Includes a section on Olympic Games sources. From librarian Gretchen Ghent.

-from Librarians Index to the Internet

Ask a Librarian (Library of Congress)

Service offers an opportunity to "chat" with a librarian.

-from ResourceShelf

Open Access Journals: revenue beyond author charges

"This page will attempt to outline the current pricing models that are being tested for supporting Open Access to electronic journals. My definition of open access is: freely available immediate access to published peer reviewed research articles."

-from ResourceShelf

Virtual Reference News

OCLC and MCLS to combine QuestionPoint, 24/7 Reference services.

-from ResourceShelf

History of disability rights/independent living movement

New website. Let me know if you want to add to catalogue.

-from ResourceShelf

IFLA Guidelines for Information Literacy

One page outline with references.

-from ResourceShelf

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Vendor Visit--Gary Gibson

Gary Gibson of Gibson Library Connections (www.gibsonlibraryconnections.ca) will be visiting us on Wednesday, October 20th, to talk about a number of the electronic publishers and products that he represents, including a look at both newly released and forthcoming collections from Alexander Street Press.

The presentation will be held in LT 909 and will be divided into two segments to allow people the flexibility of attending either or both.

From 14:30 to 15:30, Gary will present updates on products from a number of publishers, including Paratext, Classical Music Library, CLCD, Thieme, xrefer and others.

At 15:30, Gary will move on to an examination of a number of new digital resources in the Humanities and Social Sciences being developed by Alexander Street Press (www.alexanderst.com). Offerings in Literature, Drama, Film, Women's Studies, History and other disciplines will be covered with exciting news about significant Canadian content in a number of collection

Monograph Buying and Circulation--1998 to 2003

Using statistics provided by ITS, Collections has put together a report on buying and circulation patterns for monographs received in the fiscal cycles 98/99 through 02/03.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. The stats are arranged by fund and by subject. Subject was based on call number using the Conspectus categories.

The report is available by section and as a complete 104 page document.

I've included the original Excel files with the title level records if anyone wants to dig deeper--for example find out the specific titles received.

The circulation counts are a means of getting feedback on how different parts of the collection are used, but funds and subjects aren’t expected to compete with each other, —it’ is understandable that more specialized areas will be used less heavily than more general areas that appeal to undergraduates.

Look for anomalies, places where use or buying patterns don’t fit with expectations or assumptions.

RLG Focus, Issue 69, August 2004

Of interest is a short article on testing of RLG's experimental catalogue, Red Light Green Light.

Peru's National Library suffers for lack of funds

"....“This page is so fragile and damaged, as much by humidity as by air pollution,” says Gonzales, carefully leafing through a 450-year-old copy of Lope de Gomara’s account of the Spanish conquest.

The yellowed, frayed margins contain notes jotted by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — the son of a conquistador captain and an Inca princess, who in his time penned the most influential accounts of Inca history and culture. ..."

-from Resource Shelf

Internet and need for new search engines

A brief article, but what I found interesting were the estimates on the size of the universe of documents. Reinforces the suggestion that content is easy to add, its the tools for manipulating and searching the content that will be difficult to achieve.

"About 100 million different books have been published in history, Kahle said, citing estimates from professor Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon University. About 28 million sit in the Library of Congress. On average, a book can be condensed to a megabyte in Microsoft Word. Thus, the books in the Library of Congress could fit into a 28-terabyte storage system.

"For the cost of a house, you could have the Library of Congress," Reddy said, adding that mass book-scanning projects are currently under way in India and China.

"Universal access to all human knowledge is within our grasp. It could be one of the greatest achievements of all time."
-- Brewster Kahle, founder, Internet Archive

Only about 2 million to 3 million audio recordings--mostly music--have ever been published for public consumption. The Internet Archive has begun to store digitized recordings of concerts as well and has about 15,000 shows in its database to date. There are between 100,000 to 200,000 theatrical movies--half of them from India--in existence and about 20 terabytes of TV broadcasts a month. The Web grows by about 20 terabytes of compressed data a month as well. (One terabyte equals 1 trillion bytes.) Since 1984, about 50,000 software titles, including CD-ROMs, have emerged"

-from Resource Shelf

A Bibliography of Recommended Websites for Global Research Issues

"This bibliography includes links to 73 websites that Barbara and Sabrina presented during their July 13 program at the 2004 AALL Annual Conference in Boston. These sites represent a broad but selective range of resources on topics that include business and corporate data, global news, search engines, guides to international and comparative law, country profiles and statistics, locating people, businesses, places and useful services around the world, banking resources, and data on terrorism and security issues. For the most part, the sites we chose are free, although several may have a fee-based component and/or require registration to obtain access to the full complement of data available."

-from ResourceShelf

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

New Titles added to Oxford Scholarship Online

With the August update, 26 new and recently published titles have been added across all four subject modules of Oxford Scholarship Online.

Highlights include:
Evidentialism, by Earl Conee and Richard Feldman;
Problems of Rationality, by Donald Davidson;
The Black Sea, by Charles King;
International Migration, edited by Douglas S. Massey and Edward J. Taylor;
Ethics, Economics and Politics, by I.M.D. Little; and
The Pension Challenge, edited by Olivia S. Mitchell and Kent Smetters.

This brings the total collection to 770 titles, with 68 titles added since launch. A list of new titles is available at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/whats_new.html.

E-mail on September Issue of InfoServ

Collections will be doing a September InfoServ to create awareness of new products purchased over the last 18 months. I know most liaison librarians will be beavering away on getting ready for instruction. But if you are interested I have a few stories up for grabs.....Deadline September 3rd.

*Researcher(s) stories from the trenches...do you know someone who has benefited from the new products...could you interview them for a story? DITTO stories on using new products for inquiry based learning.

*How primary source material (digital or traditional) is important for developing information literacy and research skills.
* Any other collection related stories you are interested in doing? suggestions welcome.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Note Regarding Location Changes

Dear Colleagues:

One of the strategic themes of the restructuring project "Re-engineering of technical services processes" has resulted in the implementation of a new process within the Library which will have an impact on location information within the Library catalogue.

Over the next few months you will begin to see the following changes in the type of location information included in the catalogue records:

· For main stack materials in the MacKimmie Block and Tower (basically, the existing floor locations 4LT, 5LT, 6LT, 7LT, 8LT, 9LT, 10LT, 3LB and BLB), the record will be changed to read either MacKimmie Block or MacKimmie Tower.

· Each catalogue record for materials on these floors with the basic floor location will also include a live link to the location information and cut-away floor plan of the stacks currently available from the Library home page so that users will still be able to identify the location of material from the on-line system. (This cut-away floor plan and call number information is in the process of being revised to reflect the collection moves that are currently under way within the Library.) David Brown has set up a test version in the iLink test system (use Internet Explorer), see: http://neter.lib.ucalgary.ca/uhtbin/webcat

· In addition to the floor plans that are currently located in all the elevator corridors, this information (in a format that meets current Fire Code - no paper in elevators!) will be posted inside each of the Block and Tower elevators.

· All other existing location codes will remain in use. (Eg. 6LT - OVRSZ for oversized materials, 8LT - PAM for pamphlets, 12LT for Special Collections, all branch locations)

· This change will provide savings in staff time within Collections and Technical Services related to basic processing and cataloguing. In addition, for current and future relocation of books from one floor to another, this change will save significant work in Information Technology Services and Bibliographic Services where records required individual manipulation to reflect new location information.

· This change was approved by I.R. Council on April 1, 2004. Most other university libraries follow similar practices with most not providing links to location information.

Time Lines: Transition Period expected to last approximately four months.

Within the next two weeks, new books acquired shelf-ready will appear in the system with the building-level locations (MacKimmie Block or MacKimmie Tower). Then slowly, starting with the books now on 5LT and working (10,000 or so items a day) up the Tower, the books that currently have incorrect locations in the catalogue owing to the Tower collection-shifting will be changed globally in the system to reflect these changes.

If you require further information, please contact Ada-Marie or Darlene.

We realize that this is a significant change and appreciate that users may require additional help from the service desks during the transition period. Your assistance in explaining this change and in assisting with the implementation will be greatly appreciated.

With thanks,
Darlene Warren
Mary Westell
Ada-Marie

Changes to EBSCO host

These changes will come out over the next few weeks.

More information at http://support.epnet.com/CustSupport/ReleaseInfo/ReleaseInfo.asp

# Customized Field Selection for Delivery (Print/E-mail/Save)
# Enhanced Thesauri Lists
# Full Text Link Display on Reference Result List
# Search Within this Publication link on Publication Detail page

Senator Wants Reason For archivist Removal

Short article in Library Journal concerning the resignation of the US National Archivist.

The Chronicle: Talking Tags

Short overview of the privacy concerns (real and otherwise) surrounding Radio Frequency Identity Tags.

Thomson Scientific aims higher

Thomson aims to expand, and expand, and expand.....

Cornucopia (database of library, museum, and archive collections)

Cornucopia is a fully searchable online database of some 6000 collections held by almost 2000 cultural heritage institutions in the United Kingdom. It allows those institutions to record and maintain collections descriptions and details in a unique shared national resource.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Institute of Physics Journals change publisher

Dear Subscriber,

I am writing to inform you that the following four Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP) journals have been acquired by Taylor & Francis plc effective December 30, 2004:

* Waves in Random Media
* Network: Computation in Neural Systems
* Combustion Theory and Modelling
* Journal of Turbulence

IOP will continue to publish the journals throughout 2004 and will fulfill all remaining content. Taylor & Francis will assume responsibility beginning in January of 2005, and will contact all subscribers in due course with subscription and access information. IOP customers (including consortia) who have purchased permanent rights to access these journals will retain those rights, which will be fulfilled by IOP.

For further information please visit http://ej.iop.org/pdf/tandf.pdf.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen M. Moss
Vice President
Institute of Physics Publishing

Monday, July 26, 2004

Updates to Early English Books Online

The latest release of EEBO is now available. Among the new features:

* More than 800 items from the unique collection of political tracts, broadsides and newspapers amassed by George Thomason (d. 1666) between the outbreak of the English Civil War and the Restoration in 1660.

* Many issues from the 400 periodicals that will be added later this year. A browsable list of all of the periodicals is available from What's New.

* New searchable keyed texts from the TCP, for a total of more than 6,100 for TCP members.

Advance Notice of New Products

We usually don't announce new products until they hit the catalogue. But I thought, since many folks are working on their instruction for the fall, it would be a good idea to give advance notice of the following. Both are newly available through the TAL Universal Core.

Canadian Literary Centre
Scroll down to choose database

The Canadian Literary Centre consists of book and reference content from Essays on Canadian Writing Press (ECW Press).

ECW Press also provides several individual monographs and biographies, essays and literary criticism. The database includes book reviews, essays, author biographies, and much more.

Canadian Literary Centre features full text sources such as Canadian Fiction Studies, Canadian Biography Series, Canadian Writers and Their Works (Poetry and Fiction Series), ECW's Biographical Guide to Canadian Novelists, ECW's Guide to Canadian Poets, George Woodcock's Introduction to Canadian Fiction, George Woodcock's Introduction to Canadian Poetry, The Annotated Bibliography of Canada's Major Authors, Essays on Canadian Writing (1974-present), Books in Canada (1971-present), Quill & Quire (1996-present), Textual Studies in Canada, University of Toronto Quarterly (1975-present), and many more.

This database is updated on a daily basis.

Canadian Reference Centre

Scroll down to choose the database

Canadian Reference Centre combines Canadian magazines, newspapers & newswires and reference books to create the largest collection of regional full text content available to Canadian libraries. This database includes leading Canadian periodicals and international (U.S. and U.K.) periodicals in full text; full text reference books; 84,606 full text biographies and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags.

Canadian Reference Centre provides full text information for over 150 Canadian periodicals and over 400 international periodicals. Examples of titles offered in Canadian Reference Centre include: Macleans, Beautiful British Columbia, Beaver, Canadian Economic Observer, Canadian Geographic, CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, Canadian Banker, Popular Science, Psychology Today, and many more.

This database also contains over 30 Canadian and international newspapers including Toronto Star, Canadian Associated Presse, Guelph Mercury, The Worldpaper, and others. In addition, this database provides over 20 Canadian reference books and 100 international reference books. This database is updated on a daily basis.