September 2006 Archives

Please see below for a message from EBSCO with regard to the recent EBSCOhost interface enhancements that are affecting your users’ searching experience:

While the ability to "right click" has never been an explicit feature of EBSCOhost, we recognize that many users rely upon it as a common technique for accessing content, from a variety of internet sources, at the same time.

We apologize for the incontinence this loss of functionality has caused you and your patrons and are taking the necessary steps to allow its use across our many products & interfaces. As fundamental pieces of our service must be updated to fully support, and to ensure proper implementation, release of this feature is currently scheduled for November 2006.

We thank you in advance for your patience while we make this improvement. We appreciate your continued feedback and sincerely hope that you will allow us the opportunity to serve you better in the future.

We’ve added several more group subscription offers for the Fall 2006 group subscription period. The new offers include:

• CSA Sociological Abstracts, CSA Social Services Abstracts, and CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts with ProQuest Full Text
  
• Computer and Applied Sciences Complete
  
• Environment Complete
  
• Humanities International Complete
  
• International Bibliography of Theater and Dance with Full Text
  
• Literary Reference Center

Like most of the fall group offers these subscriptions will have a start date of January 1, 2007.

If you’d like to receive pricing for one or more of these products, please send an email with your library name, contact details, and most recent FTE (academic), population served (public), or enrollment (K12) by October 13, 2006.

Find information about these new group offers on the MINITEX Web site

Some of you may have noticed a few unexpected changes associated with the recent EBSCOhost interface enhancement. We’ve learned from EBSCO that these functional changes that affect your users’ searching experience will be present until an enhancement request has been processed and completed.

Until the enhancement is in place, it is our understanding that users are no longer able to do the following:

• Open your library’s Web site in a new window using the link in the upper right corner of EBSCO’s search screen, which keeps EBSCO search results visible and accessible.

• Open several full-text articles at once to permit toggling between articles.

• Branch out from an initial search with different search terms, limiters, etc. to compare search results.

• Open the dictionary in a new window to look up words from a full-text article without losing the article.

This enhancement request has been put forth and will be reviewed by EBSCO for consideration. At this time EBSCO does not have a target date for completion of the enhancement request.

Please send me an email if you have any questions or concerns.

CSA announces the completion of the 2006 PsycINFO reload on CSA Illumina. With this reload, approximately 15,000 new records with cited references are now available, along with enhancements to several fields. Regular updating of PsycINFO will now resume.

The 15,000 new PsycINFO records correspond to documents added to PsycARTICLES with the 1894-1984 historical file of nearly 73,000 full text articles from APA journals. Cited references corresponding to these articles were also added to existing PsycINFO records with the 2006 reload.

Record structure enhancements include:

• Addition of a Grant/Sponsorship field, which provides access to descriptive information on grants, including the grant number and information on the recipient, that funded the research reported.

• Addition of new qualifiers to the ISBN field in PsycINFO to include electronic formats such as CD, DVD, or XML.

• Elimination of the Journal URL and Publisher URL fields from the records. At the request of librarians, these fields are being replaced with an interactive Journal and Publisher table, which will be available soon on the APA web site at www.apa.org/psycarticles/coverage.

CSA will be releasing the historical backfiles of PsycARTICLES by mid-October. Reloads of PsycBOOKS and PsycCRITIQUES will follow.

If you have any questions, please send an email to CSA Technical Support or call 1 800 214 2462. (Source: CSA; edited)

The ACLS History E-Book Project has just added 130 books to its collection, bringing the total to 1,398.

The ACLS History E-Book Project is a collaboration of eight learned societies, nearly 75 contributing publishers, and librarians at the University of Michigan's Scholarly Publishing Office. The result is an online, fully searchable collection of high-quality books in history, recommended and reviewed by historians and featuring unlimited multi-user access and free, downloadable MARC records.

Check the MINITEX Web site for more information about ACLS History E-Book Project

Project MUSE is now compliant with the Z39.50 protocol for information retrieval. The Z39.50 protocol provides another way for users to search and locate articles in MUSE using a Z39.50 compatible client. The Z39.50 functionality in MUSE is still in the beta phase and therefore, Project MUSE encourages subscribers to contact them with feedback about the helpfulness of this protocol in searching and retrieving articles in MUSE. Feedback may be sent to the MUSE Customer Support desk. An institution must maintain a Project MUSE subscription in order to access the full text articles retrieved via the Z39.50 compatible client. (Source: Project MUSE; edited)

PsycBOOKS added 29 titles to its coverage list in September 2006. Of the titles added, 6 were APA books and 23 were designated classic books. Classic books are landmark titles in psychology and are selected by APA experts.

Review the complete coverage list for PsycBOOKS

Find out more about MINITEX's group subscription to PsycBOOKS

MINITEX is pleased to announce the reopening of many of its NetLibrary Shared eBook Collections. In the past it was not possible to join a Shared Collection after its closing date. MINITEX and NetLibrary are now offering the opportunity to pick up one or more of the Shared Collections you may have missed, some at a significant discount.

This is a limited-time offer; we must receive your order by December 15, 2006. Access for all new participants will begin on January 1, 2007.

Find out more about the NetLibrary Shared eBook Collections

Check out H.W. Wilson’s special price programs in effect from September 2006 through March 30, 2007:

For All Libraries

Library Literature Full Text Upgrade Program

• Library Lit Index customers can upgrade to Full Text at the same SU level at no extra charge
  
• If you’ve cancelled your Library Lit Index subscription you can subscribe to Library Lit Full Text at the Index price
  
• Library Lit Full Text subscribers can upgrade their SU one level at no charge
  
• Renewal pricing: Discount reduced by 3% in subsequent years until the list price is reached

Essay and General Literature Index

• Essay and General Literature Index print customers are eligible for special pricing; contact Chris Kline for more information

Biography Reference Bank / Biography Index Past & Present Pack

• Existing Biography Reference Bank customers can add Biography Index Past & Present at a reduced rate; contact Chris Kline for pricing
  
• New Biography Reference Bank customers also receive a reduced rate on Biography Index Past & Present

Art Gallery and Art Full Text Package

• Purchase both products and get a 25% discount off both products
  
• If you already have a subscription to one of the products, take 25% off the other product
  
• Renewal pricing: Discount reduced by 3% in subsequent years until the list price is reached

Public Libraries

• Special pricing on Readers' Guide packages; contact Chris Kline for more information
• Professional Package: Subscribe to Library Lit Full Text and the Standard Catalogs 5 Pack at a special package rate
• Move your Book Review Digest print subscription to Book Review Digest Plus on the Web and receive a 65% discount; applies to first-time Book Review Digest Plus subscriptions only. Renewal pricing: Discount reduced by 5% in subsequent years until the list price is reached

Small Colleges (2- or 4-year colleges with less than 2,000 FTE)

• All databases, excluding the retrospective databases, offered at 20% off list price; applies to new subscriptions only
• Renewal pricing: Discount reduced by 3% in subsequent years until the list price is reached
• Get 10% off retrospective databases; cannot be combined with other promotions

Check the vendor site for more product information

Check the MINITEX site for ordering information and to request a trial

It’s renewal time for the MINITEX fall group subscriptions. Participate with other MINITEX libraries and save even more on your electronic resource subscriptions. This fall’s group subscription offerings include:

• AccessMedicine
  
• Art Full Text
  
• Biological Abstracts
  
• Environmental Impact Statements-Full Text NEW!
  
• MathSciNet
  
• MLA International Bibliography (CSA)
  
• Philosopher's Index (CSA)
  
• Project MUSE
  
• ProQuest Psychology Journals
  
• PsycARTICLES
  
• PsycBOOKS
  
• PsycCRITIQUES
  
• PsycEXTRA
  
• PsycINFO
  
• SPORTDiscus

Find more information about these group subscription offers

ProQuest offers a variety of free email newsletters designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their ProQuest subscriptions. The newsletters also provide classroom resources and offer tips for using your ProQuest databases in a variety of settings.

Check the ProQuest Web site to sign up for free email newsletters for the following ProQuest resources:

• ProQuest Teachable Moments
  
• eLibrary Curriculum Edition
  
• eLibrary
  
• SIRS Spotlights
  
• SIRS ChallengeQuests
  
• SIRS Knowledge Source
  
• SIRS Discoverer
  
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers
  
• ProQuest Platinum
  
• CultureGrams Culture Matters
  
• ProQuest LearningPage

Computing Reviews' latest Hot Topic, “Game Theory and the Design of Electronic Markets,” is now available for Computing Reviews subscribers. Hot Topics are a series of essays on emergent areas of computer science and can only be read in the online version of Computing Reviews.

Check the vendor site for more product information

Check the MINITEX site for pricing and ordering information

From September 15 to October 15, 2006, Thomson Gale will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by offering free or trial access to a variety of online resources, educational activities, and authoritative information about the history, influence and achievements of the Hispanic culture.

Check the Gale Web site to find free activities, biographies, links, music, and more.

As a result of a comprehensive study into user behavior, the search facility within the MyiLibrary platform has been redeveloped to reduce the time it takes the researcher to perform comprehensive searches. This has been achieved via technical and visual developments, such as reducing the amount of clicks required to perform a search.

MyiLibrary currently hosts in excess of 50,000 eBook titles, all available for individual purchase from the world's leading academic and professional publishers. (Source: MyiLibrary; edited)

Check the vendor site for more product information

Check the MINITEX site for pricing and ordering information

Ovid announces that nearly all of their medical, nursing, and allied health titles from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) are now available for purchase—with no limits on the duration of access rights.

More than 280 LWW eBook titles are available for purchase. Libraries can customize their collections by selecting as few as 5 titles or as many as 200. The more titles you purchase, the less your per-title price. Standard book collections are also available.

Special offer! Purchase one or more LWW titles by December 15 and never pay a maintenance fee. Or sign up for Ovid's extended subscription offer for new orders, where you can receive up to 15 months for the price of a 12-month annual subscription.

Contact Chris Kline at MINITEX for more information.

WebJunction Minnesota, an online service for the Minnesota library community, launched on September 10, 2006. It is a collaborative effort of Minnesota State Library Services, a division of the Minnesota Department of Education; MINITEX Library Information Network; Metronet, a Minnesota Multitype Library Cooperation System; and WebJunction.

WebJunction is an online community and portal that supports library staff with technology and library development materials; provides courses for online learning and professional development; and brings the library community together in online discussions and programs.

WebJunction Minnesota will be promoted in various venues this fall, including the annual conferences of the Minnesota Library Association and the Minnesota Educational Media Organization. Get started now by signing up for a free user account.