July 2009 Archives

There will be no price increase for Credo Reference from August 2009 through June 30th, 2010.

Credo Reference is a full-text online reference collection of more than 390 titles from 60+ of the best reference publishers. Credo's collection is integrated with millions of cross-references and contains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy, science to Shakespeare, and law to literature.

Three subscription options allow users to customize the number of titles in their subscription:

• Credo 100 allows you to manage a collection of any 100 titles by selecting those that are most preferable for your institution. Subscribers can then add and drop titles during the course of a year. Credo updates books as new editions become available from the publisher.


• Credo 250 allows you to manage a collection of any 250 titles with the same flexibility and free updates as the Credo 100.


• Credo Unlimited consists of all titles currently available (390+) and all new titles released during the course of the subscription term.

Contact Minitex for pricing, trials, or more information.

from OVID:

Dear Ovid Customer:
In addition to changes to the Browse Journals area of OvidSP described in an email last week, the August release of OvidSP also includes navigational and interface enhancements to the Journal Full-Text display page. These enhancements, all based on direct customer feedback, are designed to further enhance readability and usability:

• All journal full-text pages will be standardized to a 990-pixel resolution, allowing for enhanced readability
• "Breadcrumb trail" will allow for easier navigation
• Text will include collapsible sections, so users can better manage screen real estate
• Images will appear as thumbnails and, when clicked, will automatically enlarge in a pop-up window
• Images will also be organized in a convenient new Image Gallery located at the bottom of the page
• Back-to-top links will be available for quick and easy navigation
• Options to display the article as a PDF, open the Complete Reference, email a Jumpstart, and more will appear in a new Article Tools section in the upper right-hand section of the screen
• The new Outline section, located below Article Tools, will include links to all sections of the article, such as the Introduction, the References, and the Image Gallery (if available)

Alexander Street will be doing scheduled maintenance across all collections on AUGUST 13, 9:00 PM TO 3:00 AM EDT / GMT-5. Please be aware that you may see sporadic interruptions of up to one hour across all Alexander Street online collections on this date. In the event that downtime is prolonged for any reason, we will post alerts to each affected collection, and we will send an email to your technical services contact.

Future Scheduled Maintenance Dates
Our maintenance window is always 9:00 PM TO 3:00 AM EDT / GMT-5.

• September 10
• October 8
• November 12
• December 10

from Alexander Street Press:

As a result of a new license agreement with PBS and WGBH we're adding more than 200 hours of PBS programming, including important titles from the popular American Experience series; the Ken Burns documentaries Civil War and Jazz; and dozens of other titles. Access the complete bibliography here.

In July, we added the following PBS titles, and many more will be added over the next few months:

• Summer of Love (American Experience series, 2007)
• Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (American Experience series, 1993)
• The March of the Bonus Army (2006)
• Roberto Clemente (American Experience series, 2008)
• Terry Sanford and the New South (2007)

Other new content in American History in Video includes more issues of Universal Newsreel and 21 new documentaries from The History Channel®, such as John Paul Jones: Captain of the High Sea and Thomas Jefferson: A View from the Mountain. To see the complete listing of titles added, visit the What's New page. The collection now contains a total of 1,471 videos totaling about 460 hours. Additional documentaries from California Newsreel, Bullfrog Films, and Pennebaker Hegedus Films are coming soon together with archival footage from WPA and other sources.

MINITEX Cooperative Purchasing & Electronic Resources Services is pleased to announce the following upcoming webinar series.

To get more information and to register go to http://www.minitex.umn.edu/events/training/

Dark Archives: Preserving Electronic Resources

• Current Sessions: Monday, August 03, 2009


• Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (Central Time)


• Fee: No Charge (All)


• Presenter: Anne Hatinen


• Register: REGISTER (All)

Guest presenters: Theresa Borchert, Concordia College Electronic Resources Librarian and Katy Gabrio, Macalester College, Electronic Resources & Serials Librarian

Please note: Class sizes are limited. If you are unable to attend a webinar you are registered for please contact us ASAP so we can offer the seat to another person.

How are you preserving your library's electronic resources? When a vendor or publisher decides to stop providing access or a subscription is cancelled, how will you maintain access to the electronic content? There are multiple options available, and it can be challenging to know what is out there and what may be a good fit for your library. This three-session webinar series is designed to give librarians an overview of several of the different archiving options available; the first session is a brief introduction to the topic with brief talks by two librarians from the Minitex region about their library's electronic archiving (registration information is above).

The second session will be a presentation on Portico by Ken DiFiore, Portico's Associate Director for Outreach, on Monday, August 10 at 1:30. (Registration information to be announced.)

The third session will be a presentation on LOCKSS by Victoria Reich, Director of the LOCKSS program. (Date and registration information to be announced.)

Please watch your email and this blog for details on the coming sessions. You can attend all sessions or choose what fits into your schedule.

from Gale:

Gale launches groundbreaking reference -- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive

Gale introduced a new electronic resource offering the most comprehensive archive available chronicling slavery from the 16th Century through the early 20th Century. Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, represents the first-ever, large-scale database to make available historical books, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, court records, and other sources in one cross-searchable location.
The first of the four-part series, Debates over Slavery and Abolition, explores the varying viewpoints and debates that surrounded the practice, experience and eventual abolition of slavery in the U.S., as well as in Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Read more

Minitex is conducting some preliminary usability testing on prototypes for the new Minitex website. Two webinar sessions are now open for registration:

Tuesday, August 4, 2009
10:30 am - 11:30 am (Central Time)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009
2:30 - 3:30 pm (Central Time)

Registration and more info:
http://www.minitex.umn.edu/events/training/webinars.asp#238

Webinar attendees will receive a series of poll-oriented questions that will give us valuable input concerning terminology and organization for the new site.

There will also be an opportunity to provide feedback on the current design mock-ups.

Library staff who use the Minitex website or those interested in website usability in general are encouraged to participate.

from EBSCO:

The EBSCO A-to-Z Administrator site will be unavailable beginning at 9:00 p.m. CDT on Friday, 17 July 2009 (02:00 GMT on 18 July 2009) for approximately 24 hours as necessary maintenance is being performed.

The A-to-Z Reader site will remain available during this period, as this maintenance only affects the A-to-Z Administrator site. In addition, any resource usage occurring on the A-to-Z Reader Site will continue to be logged, and will display once the A-to-Z Administrator site is restored.

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. CDT (12:00 - 22:00 GMT). Email: customercare@ebsco.com.

from H.W. Wilson:

H.W. Wilson continues to build on the versatility, accessibility, and practicality of its lauded WilsonWeb reference database service, with a new round of enhancements for the interface and several of its most popular databases. The latest platform improvements make content available to a wider range of users, provide new customization options, and add tools to the "My WilsonWeb" personal user accounts within WilsonWeb. Improvements to specific WilsonWeb databases include the acclaimed Cinema Image Gallery, Biography Reference Bank, and Current Issues databases.