Tuesday, January 31, 2006

New Trials

New trials posted at
http://weblogs.ucalgary.ca/electronic_resource_trials

Social Works Abstracts Plus (OVID)
* a test of the OVID platform

Historical Newspapers
* mostly interested in the NY times

Preview upgrades to EBSCO

Dear EBSCO Customer,

Thank you for the positive excitement surrounding our new EBSCOhost release, which we announced at ALA midwinter. Highlights of this release include our new Clustering of results sort option, a graphically-rich Visual Search mode, Alerts in RSS Feeds, as well as Database Groupings by Subjects. In response to requests from many of you, we are pleased to provide you with the opportunity to preview the upcoming EBSCOhost enhancements over the next several days, all of which will be fully released in the coming weeks.

The preview includes two links for your review: one will connect you to a sample profile that has the Database Groupings by Subject feature turned on. The second link will connect you to a profile that does NOT have that feature enabled. Once the features have been released, you will have options as to how you display and utilize them. For a review of the key features of this release, click here. Note: You will be previewing a BETA of the upcoming release, which can sometimes exhibit stability variances.

To Preview the new features:

* Click on this link to access a sample profile of all key software enhancements, including the Database Groupings by Subject feature. Database Groupings can be presented in the database drop-down list, if opted by the library administrator, to offer users groupings of databases sorted by popular subjects, such as technology, business, medical science, psychology or education.

* Click on this link for access to a sample profile of all key software enhancements, with the Database Groupings by Subject feature turned off:


To view all of our FAQs about these new features, click here. We encourage your feedback. To send us your comments, click on the E-mail Support link along the top toolbar of this site.

Preview upgrade to CSA Illumina

If you want to try this out let me know and I'll send along the login and password.

An advance preview of forthcoming upgrades to the CSA Illumina platform is currently available. Simply login to the site preview.csa.com using your current username and password.

Upgrades that will be implemented in February include:

Improved organization of search results
Search results now have an initial selection of tabs for "Published Works," "Scholars," and "Web Sites" with additional selections available under "Published Works."

Improved author profile presentation
Scholar profiles can be filtered using the academic Community Tree to find scholars working in specific fields.

If you have technical questions about these upgrades, please contact support@csa.com.


In addition, upon implementation of this upgrade, the full version of Community of Scholars will be available. This authoritative resource provides unique keyword access to researchers working in specific areas. The database features more than one million verified scholar and institution profiles to help you find scholars working in relevant areas of study.

Link added for netLibrary collection

Susan Beatty pointed out that the main entry for netLibrary in the catalogue did not have a link.

Thanks to BibServices for adding this link which makes it possible to search our entire suite of netLibrary titles simultaneously.
http://ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca:2048/login?url=http://www.netlibrary.com

Note this collection contains access to many titles purchase by other COPPUL libraries under our consortial agreement. I've attached a file of titles and UofC use for the phase2 collection to give you an idea of how large our netLibrary collection is becoming under this arrangement.

Again with the marc, this is something we hope to see move ahead. We are discussing moving away from a one record policy with netLibrary--where the url would be added to any existing print record, and simply loading records directly. This will mean duplication of entries in the catalogue, but it will also mean we will be able to get the records into the system.

Calgary Public Library digs to stay in place

Library turns page on digs

what nifty wordplay in this headline, sigh....Libraries the motherlode for puns.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

New Trials

The following have been added to the trials blog....

Austlit: The Resource for Australian Literature
Conference Board of Canada
Papers Invited
International Security and Terrorism Reference Centre

PS: it appears some folks can't get into the trial blog because they have misplaced their login/password. Don't be shy, if this has happened to you Linda Ryan provides a discreet and helpful service that will get you back in the blog in no time.

Monday, January 23, 2006

New Product Announcement-->Gale Virtual Reference Library

Gale Virtual Reference Library


A new addition to our e-reference collection, this one is a selection of about 100 titles from the Gale catalogue. Basic reference materials, searchable individually or as a group.

Individual catalogue records...these will be a problem as the records from GALE will need some work. When asked priority for GVRL, I put them below titles like Past Masters or netLibrary because people usually don't use the catalogue to find reference works, while for the other packages the catalogue is a critical access point. Comments?

Arts
Contemporary Fashion
International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers

Biography
American Men and Women of Science

Business
Encyclopedia of American Industries
Encyclopedia of Small Business
Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce
International Directory of Business Biographies

Education
Encyclopedia of Education

Environment
Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America
Environmental Encyclopedia
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia
Water: Science and Issues

History
Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World
Dictionary of American History
Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion
Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security
Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
Encyclopedia of Modern Asia
Encyclopedia of Russian History
Encyclopedia of the Great Depression
Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa
Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
The People's Chronology
Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia

Law
Canadian Parliamentary Guide 2005
Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law
National Survey of State Laws
West's Encyclopedia of American Law

Literature
Reference Guide to Holocaust Literature 2002
Reference Guide to World Literature
Writers Directory 2006

Medicine
Drugs and Controlled Substances: Information for Students 2003
Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer
Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence
Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders
Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders
Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health
Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery: A Guide for Patients and Caregivers
Nutrition and Well-Being A to Z

Multicultural Studies
Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America
Who's Who Among African Americans

Nation and World
Cities of the United States
Cities of the World
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook 2006
Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia

Religion
Encyclopedia of Buddhism
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
Encyclopedia of Religion
Encyclopedia of Science and Religion

Science
Animal Sciences
Biology
Chemistry: Foundations and Applications
Computer Sciences
Gale Encyclopedia of Science
Genetics
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy
Plant Sciences
Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery
Science in Dispute
Science of Everyday Things
World of Earth Science
World of Forensic Science

Social Science
Child Development 2002
Encyclopedia of Aging
Encyclopedia of Bioethics
Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice
Encyclopedia of Leadership
Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology
Encyclopedia of Population
Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics
Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology
International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family
Learning and Memory
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying
Psychologists and Their Theories for Students
Social Trends and Indicators USA

New Product Announcement-->Faulkner advisory for IT Studies

Faulkner advisory for IT studies


These reports are good basic introductions to IT issues, we hope they'll serve as a complement to the soon to be launched Gartner Services Reports.

"Organized by topical subject area, FAITSallows you to any one of nine core modules and gain immediate access to a vast library of content-rich reports covering IT infrastructure, telecommunications, wireless communications, data networking, convergence, information security,
enterprise systems, Internet and Web, and technology vendors.

As an added feature, FAITS also provides convenient links to several online technology and business news resources such as TechWeb, NewsFactor, CBS MarketWatch, BBC, and others. Plus, get direct links to a wealth of bibliographic resources covering computer science, education and library sciences, the humanities, mathematics and science, health sciences, and business. "

Outcome of the CRKN negogiations

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (the re-incarnation of CNSLP) has finished negotiating a new basket of license. To give you all a heads up, this is what you can expect to see coming down the pipe:

Alexander Street Press
* = product we have already purchased

• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
• Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama and Fiction
• Oral History Online
• Twentieth Century North American Drama
• North American Women’s Drama
• North American Theatre Online
• Black Drama
• American Film Scripts
• British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries*
• North American Women’s Letters and Diaries*
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories*
• North American Indian Biographical Database
• Black Thought and Culture
• Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures and the Environment*
• Classical Music Library

ArtStor Digital Library

Early Canadian Online (we already have a subscription)

Economist Intelligence Unit
* Country Reports
* ViewsWire

Canada's Heritage from 1844- (Globe and Mail)
We already had access, but are now in a purchase to own agreement

SAGE Journals Online and SAGE Collections
Combines the access we already have through CSA with new access to remaining titles through HighWire Press.

Wiley Interscience
We already have access.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online
We already have access.

L'annee Philogique now SFX enabled

Thanks to BibServices and ITS for this.

New Product Announcement-->Making of Modern Economy

Making of Modern Economy

Take this one for a drive and see that its much more then just Economics--combined with its sister database, "Making of Modern Law" it provides the essential documents that outline the creation of modern society. From women's rights, slavery, philosophy, to technology its all here.

"The Making of the Modern Economy: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850" provides digital facsimile images on every page of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850. Full-text searching on more than 12 million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.

Platform Change--Geobase

Geobase has moved from the Silverplatter platform to the Science Direct platform. The new url is
http://ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca:2048/login?url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/search/database/geobase

Factiva records in catalogue

BibServices has loaded the individual title records for Factiva into the catalogue from Serials Solutions. You can see them by searching under "Factiva" in the catalogue.

Factiva lists 4900 sources, of these Serials Solutions was able to provide 2163 records. However, a quick check of the sources without records didn't reveal any really problematic gaps--ie the Wall Street Journal and the Globe and Mail have records.

One problem with Factiva is that it won't provide a link that will take the user directly to the journal. So even if you link from the catalogue you will only get as far as the Factiva start page. But we decided it was better to have the links with this problem then to not have any links.

Yes we know that Canadian Periodical Index still shows as having current holdings for G&M even though it doesn't. This is something we keep trying to get followup for, but BibServices hasn't had any luck getting the issue resolved to date. We'll keep trying.

Good review article on the future of libraries

Changing a Cultural Icon: The Academic Library as a Virtual Destination

-from ResourceShelf

Friday, January 06, 2006

New Trials

Go to the trial blog to take the test products for a spin

Digital Engineering Library
Periodical Archives Online

Thanks to the folks who take the time to leave comments. These are very helpful.

New Product Announcement--Factiva

Factiva

Hope you guys like this because its pricey :'( . It replaces the Carswell AllNews Product, and will be our main source for current Globe and Mail as well as other newspapers. I hope that Factiva will serve as our main news database, but only time will tell, so give me any comments.

It is a simultaneous user product, we purchased 6 s.u.'s, the same as UBC and UofA, but remember this if you are planning training.

BibServices is working on getting Serials Solutions Records for the catalogue....it appears that the records will only link into the database level and not to the journal title...sigh.

What makes the Factiva content set the best?
Nearly 9,000 sources from 152 countries in 22 languages, including more than 120 continuously updated newswires. And, more than 900 sources are available on or before the date of publication.

What are Factiva's Top Sources?
Think of a major city in the world, and Factiva has the local coverage you need: The Wall Street Journal; New York Times; USA Today; Singapore's Straits Times; The Australian; Hong Kong's South China Morning Post; India's Economic Times; The Times of London; Le Monde; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Pakistan's Business Recorder; Japan's Nikkei Weekly and Nikkei Report; Indonesia's Jakarta Post; Thailand's Bangkok Post.

What key newswires does Factiva offer?
More than 120 continuously updating newswires, including the exclusive combination of Dow Jones, Reuters, and The Associated Press. Factiva offers more than 500 wires, including Asia Pulse, Dow Jones-VWD, Agence France Presse, Agencia EFE and other industry, press release, and local newswires.

What key newspapers does Factiva offer?
Same-day and archival coverage of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, Financial Times, Les Echos, South China Morning Post, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Straits Times, Yomiuri Shimbun, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Irish Times and local newspapers from every corner of the globe.

What key television and radio transcripts does Factiva offer?
BBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, NPR, and more.

What key magazines does Factiva offer?
General business and industry must-read publications like The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Finanz & Wirtschaft, Satellite News, BusinessWeek, Focus, L'Express, The Bulletin, Far Eastern Economic Review and more.

What other content is available through Factiva?
Pictures from Reuters and Knight-Ridder, company reports, historical market data, and Web content � all surfaced alongside regular publications in a single search.

New Product Announcement-->Child Development and Adolescent Studies

Child Development and Adolescent Studies

Child Development & Adolescent Studies is today’s source for references to the current and historical literature related to growth and development of children through the age of 21. This database includes all of the issues of Child Development Abstracts & Bibliography from 1927 - 2001 previously published by the Society for Research in Child Development plus new coverage on Child Rights and welfare issues. Book reviews and abstracts from hundreds of journals and a bibliography of thousands of technical reports, books, book chapters, theses and dissertations covering biomedical and social sciences worldwide are indexed. More than 177,000 records are included with over 10,000 new records added each year.

Products moving to new Platform

The following databases have moved to EBSCO

Mental measurements yearbook

Family & society studies worldwide

Gender studies database

New Linking Function in JSTOR

A nifty feature and good to know about. It lets the user link from references to the referenced item, as long as it is in JSTOR also.

Dear JSTOR Participant:

We are pleased to present you with an opportunity to preview JSTOR's new reference linking functionality. The new reference linking feature will enable JSTOR users to follow a link from a reference in an article directly to the cited article. At this time, the reference linking capability is internal - links are currently available only between journals archived in JSTOR. In the future, we expect to provide reference links to content external to the JSTOR archive.

For more details about this reference linking preview, and to view articles that contain reference links, please see the preview information page at:

http://www.jstor.org/about/reference_linking/reflinking.html

The preview site is open to all JSTOR users and will be available for approximately 8 weeks. JSTOR plans to incorporate user feedback prior to the public release which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2006. Today, approximately 12,000 links are available from a small number of journals, and we will continue to add to the available links during the preview and throughout the coming months until all citations in the archive have been captured.

We encourage you to contact us with your comments about the reference linking feature. A special feedback survey form is linked to the preview information page, but you may also contact us via support@jstor.org if you have any questions.

Upgrades to Nature Interface

Dear Valued Customer,

Just some of the new features which will enhance your users
experience include:

Enhanced accessibility - several changes have been made to the site to make them accessible to a wider range of people, including those using assistive technology. For example readers now have control over the display of the page, and can increase or decrease browser font and screen size to better fit their needs and preferences.

Improved site navigation - archives of Posters, Article Series and Web Focuses are now clearly located on the navigation bar, enabling your users to go straight to the content they are looking for.

Advance Online Publication - next month's issue will now be available online ahead of the print issue, ensuring that your users have the most timely, up-to-date information on the developments in their discipline.

Increased links to further information - All articles link to useful databases identified by the editorial teams including: PubMed, CrossRef, ISI, ChemPort, OMIM, Entrez Gene, BIOSIS, CAS, plus other recommended web sites, online animations and movies.

Bookmark in Connotea - Nature Reviews articles are now directly connected to Connotea, a new online reference management service from NPG. Clicking in this link allows users to quickly and easily add the article to their personal, online collection of references and other online resources.