Thursday, July 28, 2005

Changes to EBSCOhost begin

Dear EBSCOhost Customer,

We are preparing to implement the EBSCOhost and EBSCOadmin features outlined in our message sent to you on July 15, 2005. You will begin to see the new features in the next few days.

For an overview of the key features in this software upgrade, please visit the Release Information table on our customer support site.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

OVID HealthStar changes

(I'm not sure if we use the jumpstart syntax, but included the information just in case)

We are pleased to announce that Ovid HealthSTAR will be reloaded this week.

The reload includes journal records but no longer includes the small percentage of the database represented by non-journal records. It employs the current 2005 version of MeSH® and reflects other current MEDLINE® enhancements made by NLM®.

For example, HealthSTAR will now include the extensive and recently updated Clinical Queries feature to allow users to restrict search retrievals to clinically relevant studies. Also added are the PubMed subject limits as well as many new search fields. For additional details about new and deleted fields please see the Reload News.

As before the reloaded version is a source for citations to journal articles that are retrieved using the NLM HealthSTAR search strategy. It will support the old JumpStart syntax but coverage dates will change as shown below:



· hstr=HealthSTAR/Ovid Healthstar <1975 to May 2005> will become <1966 to June 2005>

· hstf=HealthSTAR/Ovid Healthstar <1987 to May 2005> will become <1999 to June 2005>

· hstb=HealthSTAR <1975 to 1986> will become <1966 to 1998>

Monday, July 25, 2005

Alexander Street provides free access to new index for personal memoirs

In the First Person

"This release of In the First Person provides in-depth indexing of more than 2,500 collections of oral history in English from around the world. With future releases, the index will broaden to identify other first-person content, including letters, diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies, and other personal narratives."

Not just Alexander street collections, but many many others.

A search for Calgary got 44 hits.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Welcome new librarian--Sociology & Communication Studies

Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Christopher Thomas has accepted a limited term assignment as Liaison Librarian for Sociology and Communication Studies. Chris will be joining us on July 4, 2005 and will be assigned the office which is being vacated by Kelli Bellew-Martin during her leave. Chris' phone number will be 220-7737 and his email address will be cthomas@ucalgary.ca .

Chris' most recent library experience was with the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology where he served for five years as Information Literacy and Public Services Librarian. Before that he worked in Calgary, from 1999 to 2000, as Business Information Specialist at TransCanada Pipelines library here in Calgary. Chris received his MLIS from the University of Western Ontario in 1999 and he has a BA (Honours) in Sociology from McMaster University.

Please keep an eye out for our new colleague and join me in welcoming him to the University of Calgary.

Regards,

Darlene

Darlene Warren

Welcome new librarian--English, French, Italian and Spanish Languages and Literatures

Colleagues,

Please join me in welcoming Diana Zimmerschied to Information Resources. Diana has accepted a limited term assignment as Liaison Librarian for English, French, Italian and Spanish languages and literatures and will be joining us on July 25, 2005. Diana will be assigned the office space which is being vacated by Mary Hemmings during her leave. Her phone number will be 220-6577 and we will forward an announcement of her email address when it is assigned.

Diana is a recent graduate of the University of Alberta's Library and Information Studies programme. She also has an B.Ed with Distinction (Generalist with a French as a Second Language minor) from the University of Alberta. She has worked as an elementary school teacher where she specialized in music instruction and French as as Second Language.

Please keep an eye out for our new colleague.

Regards,

Darlene

American Psychological Association launcheds Librarian's Resource Center

Librarian's Resource Center

Includes links to training and user support documents.

University of Texas to shelve the whole books thing

Variation on the information commons theme. Differs from our approach because the commons is separated from the books.

While the jury is out, I'm not sure I would have said that...
"content is now decoupled from context".

Thursday, July 14, 2005

OCLC offering book sale links in Open World Cat

This article in Information Today outlines upcoming changes in Open World Cat and mentions that OCLC will begin charging Libraries to participate in OWC.

Some of the services

Serials--a union catalogue of electronic journals and sources. Libraries will be able to register resolvers so users can connect directly.

Reference--libraries that offer virtual reference can have a icon added to indicate this when users search for libraries that hold an item

Book Buying--users can buy books direct from Baker & Taylor, if a home library is named by the buyer, then the library will get a portion of the sales as a credit on their OWC invoice

whew!

Thursday, July 07, 2005

New Product Announcement-->Religious and Theological Abstracts

Religious and Theological Abstracts

Provides objective summaries of articles appearing in scholarly journals in the fields of Religion and Theology. Database lists a wide variety of periodical literature, including Christian, Jewish, and other world religions, and provides English language abstracts of articles in English, Hebrew, Afrikaans, and major European languages. Indexes and abstracts articles in the fields of sociology, anthropology, criminology, demography, education, law and penology, race relations, social psychology, and urban studies. Coverage also includes policy issues in areas such as aging, violence, abuse and neglect, crisis intervention, urban development, and development policy.

New Product Announcement--->Evidence-based complementary medicine

Evidence-based complementary medicine


Research shows that many patients use herbs and supplements, but do not tell their healthcare providers. Furthermore, many patients do not trust conventional practitioners to be adequately informed about these therapies. This database is specifically designed to help healthcare providers overcome these challenges.

This scientifically accurate, comprehensive material is extensively referenced and regularly updated. It currently cites more than 12,000 published primary sources, many of them translated from foreign languages, and analyzed and integrated by healthcare professionals with extensive experience in the alternative medicine field.

This database:

* Covers over 75 medical conditions and more than 160 herbs and supplements
* Identifies potential interactions between herbal therapies and drugs
* Guides healthcare providers to ask appropriate questions to learn about their patients' usage of natural therapies
* Equips providers to knowledgeably answer patients' questions about the use of natural therapies
* Provides a summary of clinical research and rates the strength of evidence behind specific natural therapies
* Provides detailed and practical information on dosage and safety issues

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Information and Communications Technology Assessment

All you info literacy types probably know all about this.

But in case you don't it appears to be a standardized test for information literacy.

"As part of the National Higher Education ICT Initiative, ETS and a group of colleges and universities have collaborated to create the ICT Literacy Assessment, a comprehensive test of ICT proficiency specifically designed for the higher education environment."

There is a short story about the test posted on Inside Higher Education.