April 2009 Archives

from EBSCO:

Dear Librarians and Information Specialists,

With the recent outbreak of Swine Flu, we hope the following information is of value to you. Please feel free to pass along this information to healthcare professionals at your institution as well as faculty, staff and students.

Due to the recent global outbreak of Swine Influenza, EBSCO Publishing and the DynaMed Editors have made DynaMed’s information about Swine Influenza free to health care providers and institutions throughout the world. The DynaMed topic on Swine Influenza consolidates information from multiple sources for health care providers to stay current with recommendations for monitoring, diagnosing, and treating patients with flu-like illnesses during this outbreak. DynaMed Editors will continue to monitor information and update this topic as needed throughout this global crisis. Please click on the following link for information regarding Swine Influenza:
http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/swineflu/.

from Gale:

Free Access Through May 15, 2009

Gale is offering free access to some of its most highly praised online resources through May 15, 2009. Librarians are encouraged to visit www.gale.com/libraryweek to download a free widget and install it on their library's homepage, giving library users single-click access to online resources like Gale Directory Library and Global Issues in Context.

New Updates for Science Resource Center

Science Resource Center provides newly updated content, including new experiments in Experiment Central. So far in 2009, more than 1,000 topic overview entries from five content sets have been fully reviewed and updated: Earth Science (MLR), Beacham's Guide to International Endangered Species (Gale), Genetics (MLR), Experiment Central (UXL), and the Encyclopedia of Endangered Species (Gale).

OCLC has redesigned detailed record displays to help users find location information more quickly. It also puts evaluative content directly into the page layout. The changes were made after months of rigorous usability testing with university students, public library users and general Web searchers. In addition, the redesign will make library results even more visible to major search engines.

Changes include:

• A larger, more persistent search box


• New utility toolbars that gather common actions for saving or citing information and adding social contributions such as reviews and tags


• More prominent placement for "more like this" links that help you find similar items


• A narrative summary for many items


• Preview button that presents options for viewing content excerpts

See a new detailed record on WorldCat.org

There are three WorldCat Webinars coming up—one on the WorldCat Mobile pilot TOMORROW, and two in May on WorldCat.org. Sign up for a webinar to ask questions, give feedback and get the latest on recent and planned enhancements:

WorldCat Mobile pilot Webinar
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
10:00 – 11:00AM US Eastern Daylight Savings time (3:00 - 4:00PM BST)
Register

WorldCat.org Webinar
Thursday, May 21, 2009
9:00 – 10:00AM US Eastern Daylight Savings time (2:00 - 3:00PM BST)
Register

WorldCat.org Webinar
Thursday, May 21, 2009
4:00 – 5:00PM US Eastern Daylight Savings time (1:00 - 2:00PM US Pacific Daylight Savings time)
Register

from EBSCO:

Dear EBSCO Customer,

We are pleased to announce EBSCO Discovery Service, which will harvest metadata from internal and external sources, creating a centralized pre-indexed service of extraordinary size and speed. It will provide libraries with a single, simple entry point for research and launch users into the entire array of a library’s collection. The new service will enable users to search a wide-ranging collection of metadata and link quickly to the content to which they have rights.

from Oxford University Press:

Oxford is delighted to announce the arrival of two brand-new encyclopedias to the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf:

THE OXFORD INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LEGAL HISTORY
This is a comprehensive, international, interdisciplinary reference work that includes approximately 1,000 articles on all aspects of legal history throughout the world from ancient to modern times. Articles deal with private law, public law, and constitutional/higher law throughout the world and are written and signed by one of the many noteworthy contributors, which include major scholars and experts. The Encyclopedia is the first of its kind to provide historical and contemporary comparisons of world legal systems.
Edited by Stanley N. Katz

THE GROVE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE
In more than 1,500 entries, the Encyclopedia deals with all aspects of this important area of study, ranging from the Middle East to Central Asia to Southeast Asia and Africa as well as Europe and North America. The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture covers all subject areas including: artists, ruler, writers, architecture, ceramics, sculpture, painting, calligraphy, coins, textiles, and much more. This exciting reference work is accessible to scholars, students, and general readers, making it a reliable and essential resource covering this topic of burgeoning importance in world history and the visual arts.
Edited by Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair

Special note for Oxford Reference Online Premium subscribers: all Oxford Digital Reference Shelf titles, in addition to being accessible at their individual URLs, seamlessly integrate and are cross-searchable within Oxford Reference Online Premium.

Contact CPERS for pricing.

COMING ONLINE MAY 2009
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th Edition

from OCLC:

Sign up today for a free, live Web session to learn more about plans for single-search access to your library’s OCLC eContent through the familiar WorldCat.org interface.

In July, WorldCat.org will add library-branded, single-search-box access to NetLibrary® eBooks and eAudiobooks, Electronic Collections Online™ eJournals, OCLC FirstSearch databases, ArchiveGrid® archival collection descriptions and CAMIO®—the Catalog of Art Museum Images Online. (Current interfaces for OCLC eContent services will continue to be available through 2011 to give you and your users ample time to become familiar with the new interface. )

This will give information seekers easier access to a wide range of electronic resources on WorldCat.org in a way that eliminates the need for multiple access points.

Whether your library subscribes to a single FirstSearch database or NetLibrary eBook or to a wide range of content, your users will be able to connect with this content - and the entire WorldCat database - through a WorldCat search box branded for your library.

Please join us for a Web information session on Thursday, April 30, 2009 to learn more about plans for single-search access to your library’s OCLC eContent through the familiar WorldCat.org interface. The program will include a “sneak preview” of the new interface that will be included with your OCLC eContent subscription at no additional charge.

To celebrate libraries and the world of information they provide—ProQuest is offering free, open access to three of their most popular student resources at www.proquestk12.com/go/celebrate. Access will be available Monday, April 13 through Friday, April 17. No username or password needed!

Here are the featured resources:

• CultureGrams: local experts document the culture and daily life of the world's peoples—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe
.

• eLibrary: high-quality, high-interest, and highly usable full text and multimedia aligned to over 20,000 most-studied topics
.

• SIRS Discoverer: a safe, kid-friendly online discovery environment for young learners from elementary to middle school.

from EBSCO:

EBSCO A-to-Z® (both Administrator and Reader Sites), EJS (Admin and Reader Sites) and LinkSource will be unavailable on Saturday, 11 April 2009 from 10:00 p.m. to 10:20 p.m. Central time (12 April 2009, 03:00 – 03:20 GMT) to allow for necessary maintenance. Site messages have been posted in order to alert end users.

Questions? Contact EBSCO Customer Care at 1-877-327-2622 (U.S.A. and Canada) or +1-205-981-4000 (Worldwide), Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. CT (12:00 – 22:00 GMT). Email: customercare@ebsco.com. Context-sensitive help screens are also available to assist you. For more in-depth training, classes are available via http://training.ebsco.com.

Alexander Street Press has released Music Online. For libraries who subscribe to two or more Alexander Street Press music resources (streaming and/or reference), Music Online provides a cross-searchable platform. See the Alexander Street Press website for more information. Additionally, Alexander Street Press is adding Contemporary World Music, at no charge, to Music Online: Listening and they are adding Jazz Music Library to Music Online: Listening PLUS.

from ProQuest:

Dear ProQuest Customer,

The next ProQuest® platform maintenance window will be on April 18, 2009. An eight (8) hour maintenance window will take place for infrastructure maintenance. The window will take place from Saturday, April 18, 2009, at 22:00 Eastern Standard Time to Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 6:00 Eastern Standard Time. See below for a more complete list of times and time zones.

The following products will be unavailable during these windows:

• ProQuest platform products, ProQuest Historical Newspapers (traditional and graphical K12 interface), American Periodicals Series


• K-12 products such as eLibrary®, SIRS®, and CultureGrams™


• COS/RefWorks

Alexander Street Press has released a new resource, American History in Video, and they are offering free access--with no username or password--through April 30th, 2009: http://ahivfree.alexanderstreet.com.

American History in Video features thousands of rare newsreels from 1929 through the 1960s, including the entire series of both Universal and United. Also included are historic Longine Chronoscope broadcasts and hundreds of hours of documentaries from leading producers such as The History Channel.

Contact CPERS for pricing.

The renewal deadline for LexisNexis subscription(s) is early this year, in just four weeks: April 24, 2009. Any renewals received after April 24 will be considered late and Solinet will not guarantee access on July 1st.

For those institutions wishing to subscribe to LexisNexis resources, the time to place an order or order a trial is now. All LexisNexis subscriptions run from July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010.

Please see below for details of this year’s renewal.

Pricing:
Good news: pricing is the same as last year. See the Minitex website for pricing.

Subscription Dates:
July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010

Renewals Process:

• Existing subscribers do not need to complete a new license agreement.


• IP address is not needed for renewals.

Find more information about the LexisNexis products available through MINITEX.

Trials can be requested directly from LexisNexis.

Contact CPERS with questions.