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.