May 2009 Archives

from AP Images:

As part of our effort to improve your experience while maintaining a safe searching environment, we will be launching an upgrade this weekend. The upgrade features a streamlined navigation toolbar that enables our ability to add more categories like the “World Elections” and “Beijing Olympics” spotlights. Also, changes to photo navigation make it easier to access features like the slide-show and make it easier to identify your search terms.

The first phase of the upgrade will be conducted during the early morning hours of May 30, 2009. During this time, AP Images will be fully functional and available for your use, though clients that authenticate with a username and password will see a slightly different screen. Clients may see a screen that will ask for your email address, please disregard this. Please enter the username that you have used in the past in this area. Most users, however, will not be affected. Phase two of the upgrade is tentatively planned for June 2, 2009. This phase applies a service pack to address items identified in the latest round of testing and to update the login screen.

Should you have any questions about this upgrade, please feel free to contact us at education@accuweather.com. Issues of a technical nature can be directed to apsupport@accuweather.com, or 800-249-5389.

from Oxford University Press:

Oxford is delighted to announce the addition of an extraordinary resource to the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf:

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, 4TH EDITION
Edited by Colin Larkin
www.encpopmusic4.com
This encyclopedia’s 30,000 entries cover all genres and periods of popular music from 1900 to the present day, including jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music. The expanded Fourth Edition includes thousands of new entries on trends, styles, record labels, venues, and music festivals. Key dates, biographies, and further reading are provided for artists covered, along with complete discographies that include record labels, release dates, and a 5-star album rating system. Included in this Oxford Digital Reference Shelf edition are online-exclusive entries that originally appeared on Oxford Music Online, now offered in a perpetual access format for the first time.

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 or a FREE 30-day trial!

COMING SOON!

• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present


• Encyclopedia of Human Rights

from the American Mathematical Society:

In response to the economic recession and its impact on the academic community, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) is freezing the prices of its subscription-based products--journals, MathSciNet and the Mathematical Reviews (MR) Database fee--at 2009 levels. This price freeze applies to all 2010 subscriptions, in both print and electronic formats, including MathSciNet consortia subscriptions.

The publishers of journals distributed by the AMS, also concerned about the impact of the global recession on the academic community, have joined the AMS in freezing their journal prices for 2010 as well. The complete list of AMS journals and AMS-distributed journals is at www.ams.org/journals.

In addition, the AMS will not increase the 2009 dues rate for AMS Institutional Members in 2010.

Contact for questions::
AMS Customer Services Department 201 Charles Street Providence, RI 02904 USA cust-serv@ams.org 800-321-4267 (US and Canada).

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Note: for those Minitex particpants who already subscribe to MathSciNet, Minitex will send renewal pricing in late summer.

from EBSCO:

Dear EBSCO Customer,

We are very pleased to extend the opportunity to try a brand new database: Research Starters - Sociology, designed to assist students researching top areas of academic study.

Because you already subscribe to a qualifying EBSCO product (please refer to the FAQ below for the exact list), Research Starters - Sociology will be available to you for the 2009/2010 school year (through June 30, 2010) at no charge, on an opt-in basis.

Key Features of Research Starters - Sociology:

• Convenient 3,000-word topic overviews with concise, yet comprehensive content
• Overview information on 500 topics parallel to course offerings of major schools, colleges and universities in the United States and Canada (offering a sociology concentration), with links to key articles in associated EBSCO databases
• Content designed to be appropriate for advanced high school and two/four-year college students, public libraries and selected schools
• Quality study guides written by subject matter experts holding advanced degrees in sociology, consulted to ensure that the articles encompass current trends and hot topics

Please see the following FAQs for more information, as well as the list of databases that qualify subscribers for this extended free trial offer:

from EBSCO:

RIPM Online Archive of Music Periodicals (FullTEXT) is now available from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO). The RIPM Online Archive is a unique collection of primary source material for the study of music and musical life from approximately 1800 to 1950. It is also the only extensive collection available online of music periodicals dating from the Early Romantic to the Modern period, from Beethoven to Bartók and from Schubert to Stravinsky.

RIPM Online Archive is a full-text version of journals indexed in RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals. The RIPM Online Archive’s first installment contains 50 rarely available music periodicals selected by specialists, with new titles every six months. It can be access directly or through RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals.

from EBSCO:

EBSCO Publishing has released a new resource for corporate sustainability professionals. Sustainability Reference Center™ is a comprehensive full-text database covering all aspects of sustainability—forming the largest dedicated resource available covering this emerging topic. Sustainability Reference Center is an expert collection providing unmatched full-text coverage of information relevant to many areas integral to sustainability including:

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Environmental Stewardship
• Federal, State & Local Regulations
• "Green" Issues & Initiatives
• ISO 14000
• LEED
• Recycling
• Renewable Energy
• Resource Conservation
• Sustainable Business Practices
• Waste Reduction

from Alexander Street Press

You're invited to the Alexander Street Online Jazz Music Festival! Come as you are—without leaving your desk!

http://alexanderstreet.com/JAZZfest.htm

From Tuesday, May 12 through Thursday, May 14, you can listen to more than 18,000 jazz recordings online in streaming audio.

AND there are free music downloads, jazz videos, teaching tools, quizzes that test your jazz knowledge, contests, and prizes you can win!

It's all part of the celebration marking the launch of our new online collection, Jazz Music Library. Access it for free for the duration of the festival.

from OCLC:

OCLC recently announced WorldCat Local “quick start,” a service that delivers the resources of your library and libraries around the world in a single search. This first step toward Web-scale, cooperative library management services connects your users’ search experience with library systems—today, that means WorldCat, your catalog, local availability and resource sharing. Soon, OCLC will take the next steps and pilot Web-scale delivery and circulation, license management, print and electronic acquisitions, and more. WorldCat Local “quick start” is now included in subscriptions to the WorldCat database on the FirstSearch service at no additional charge.

Learn more about WorldCat Local “quick start” at weekly Web information sessions. Registration is open, and additional sessions will be added regularly.

Built on the popular WorldCat.org interface, WorldCat Local “quick start” includes:

• Your library’s brand in the URL, search box and user interface


• Your library’s resources displayed first in search results


• Interoperability with a single integrated library system


• Smart integration with your library’s existing delivery services


• Access to the same social networking tools available on WorldCat.org


• Article-level records from well-known databases with links to full text where available

Visit our website to learn more about WorldCat Local “quick start,” and how your library can take advantage of this new service. In addition to introductory webinars, you may also register for webinars that provide an introduction to the service, instruction on configuration options and guidance on use of OCLC’s batch processing services to update your library’s holdings in WorldCat.

from Gale:

A new electronic resource offering authoritative reference content in the area of the environment, energy and natural resources, GREENR (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources), is an important part of a new generation of products from Gale, part of Cengage Learning. A reflection of Gale’s “power to the user” philosophy, this product was designed with the end-user in mind.

from EBSCO:

Last week, EBSCO released several enhancements to the A-to-Z® interface:

* A Training link has been added to the upper-right corner of the A-to-Z Administrator Site. This link enables customers to instantly request additional training from EBSCO’s Training Resources team.

* A-to-Z can now sort titles containing Greek, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian characters. In addition, the alphabetic submenus for these languages are now available for display on the A-to-Z Reader Site.

* The label Your Access, which precedes custom coverage information on the A-to-Z Reader Site, will now be hidden for titles with custom coverage if the option Hide Managed Coverage when Custom Coverage is Available is selected on the Display Options page of the A-to-Z Administrator Site.

Updated help is available on the A-to-Z Administrator Site to assist you. If you have any questions about these enhancements, please contact Customer Care.

Questions? Contact 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). E-mail: customercare@ebsco.com. Context-sensitive help pages are also available to assist you. For more in-depth training, classes are available via http://training.ebsco.com.