June 2010 Archives

Dear ProQuest Customer,

ProQuest® will be performing infrastructure maintenance on July 10, 2010. An eight (8) hour maintenance window will be required for this maintenance. The window will take place from Saturday, July 10, 2010, at 22:00 GMT to Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 06:00 GMT. 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


• Genealogy and local history products including African American Heritage, Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuest Online, Historic Map Works Library Edition, ProQuest Obituaries and Digital Sanborn Maps


• K-12 products, including eLibrary and SIRS


• UMI products including online dissertation products

ABC-CLIO has some hot summer savings for you--take advantage of our special bundle pricing and receive free eBooks!

• Purchase 4 databases and receive a FREE eBook package valued at more than $1,500!
• Purchase 6 databases and receive a FREE eBook package valued at more than $2,200!
• Purchase 8 databases and receive a FREE eBook package valued at more than $2,800!

View eBook list here.

*This special offer expires September 30, 2010. Offer valid for new and upgrading database customers only. Praeger Security International Online, The Reader's Advisor Online, ARBAonline, and Authors4Teens are excluded from this offer. eBook package is free as part of a bundle database subscription.

The EBSCO A-to-Z® servers will undergo maintenance from Saturday, 10 July 2010 at 10:00 p.m. to Sunday, 11 July 2010 at 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time (02:00 - 05:00 GMT). During this period, A-to-Z may be unavailable for approximately thirty (30) minutes.

Questions? Contact EBSCO Customer Satisfaction. Phone: (800) 758-5995 (U.S.A. and Canada), +800-3272-6000 (International Toll-Free), +1-978-356-6500, option 6 (International Toll). Support is available 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Email: support@ebsco.com.

Alexander Street Press has made some improvements to the Music Online search interface (and also to the native interfaces of each individual music collection).

Highlights of the improvements include:

• PLAY, DOWNLOAD, and ADD TO PLAYLIST icons are now filled-in blue by default. This change came from customer feedback that the gray icons were confusing and difficult to see.
• SEND TO MOBILE FEATURE- Right next to the above-mentioned blue icons you will also now see a little cell phone icon which allows your users to send the track to their device via email or SMS by entering their cell phone number or copying a URL into their mobile device or even by scanning a QR code if they have a QR code scanner (iPhones have this available with a simple QR code reader app).
• SEARCH RESULT RELEVANCY has been re-worked and improved, and relevancy is now back as the default search sort.
• SEARCH RESULTS return at the parent (album) level, with relevant child (track) results underneath.
• SEARCH TERMS ARE HIGHLIGHTED and relevant metadata is returned with search results to help understand your result.
• REFINE YOUR SEARCH USING FACETS on the right hand side of the page (as opposed to the top of the page).
• SEARCH STRING is displayed at the top of the search results page with the option to remove any field (trashcan icon) to broaden your original search.

from ProQuest

View our new Flash Preview here

The all-new ProQuest platform. It started with you.

You paved the way for the rollout of the all-new ProQuest platform. We worked with information professionals and end users to build the new platform from the ground up--incorporating the best of what you love with new, exciting features and functionality found in many of our unparalleled resources, plus more.

Click here to see how the new platform will offer a better way to search, find, and use information.

Databases in the initial release of the new platform will include:

• All of the exceptional resources currently on the ProQuest and Illumina platforms


• Select Chadwyck-Healey resources such as:


• British Periodicals


• International Index to Music Periodicals


• International Index to the Performing Arts


• (PRISMA) Publicaciones y Revistas Sociles y Humanisticas

Later platform releases will include additional databases from ProQuest. To get the latest updates on the new platform, click here.

Over the coming months, current ProQuest customers will receive individual notification regarding accessing the new platform.

from EBSCO:

We are pleased to announce that in keeping with our responsiveness to customer feedback, we will soon release user interface improvements to your EBSCOhost subscription, at no additional charge. While the release is still a few weeks from being implemented, we wanted to provide you with some ideas for your training and support materials in the fall. Also, EBSCO's support site will have ample materials to draw from. We will communicate in more detail as the release date nears.

The following information summarizes the most significant changes you will see later this summer in EBSCOhost:

• Limiters and the date slider will move from the right to the left column beside the Result List, which is a more intuitive position for these popular features, consolidating all the ways users can refine and work with their results in one area. For a look at the updated Result List, click here.
• Detailed record pages will be more streamlined, and links to full text, your link resolvers, ILL, etc. will be more prominently displayed on the right.
• Users will be able to select multiple clusters and source types when managing results.
• There will be an enhanced PDF Viewer, Content Viewer, HTML Full Text, etc.
• A "breadbox" will show users which limiters, expanders and source types have already been selected.
• Simpler overall interface elements will increase the intuitiveness of the user experience.

While none of these enhancements requires that you make adjustments to accommodate them, we hope that this advance notification is helpful to you.

For more information on these and other features, please visit http://support.ebsco.com.

from Gale:

Since we launched Gale PowerSearch a year ago, we've continually gathered feedback from valuable customers like you. After hearing from more than 3,000 users, Gale is now adding powerful new enhancements -- including faster, improved search functionality.

Later this summer, enhancements will be made to Gale PowerSearch allowing for a faster, easier way to search millions of entries and multiple online resources with just one query. Including:

• Search Assist: InfoTrac products will have a learning, intuitive autocomplete feature allowing users to find the exact subject, keyword, or publication for which they're looking from a single search box, saving time and providing search functionality similar to what they experience with other web products
• Related Subjects: Results lists will display, by default, all relevant, related subjects and articles to help users find the information they seek faster and more efficiently
• Enhanced Publication and Subject Search: Additional features and limiters will be added to our publication and subject search pages along with Search Assist
• Language Customizability: The user interface will now support three additional languages; Chinese, Japanese and Korean
• New Titles: Gale is committed to growing our periodical products at no cost to you. Last year alone, more than 1,500 new titles were added -- including more than 1.6 million articles.

Gale PowerSearch will continue to support existing features such as Read-Speaker audio technology, eBook cross-search, sharing tools language translation and more.

Explore the enhanced new Gale PowerSearch features now.

Early this spring, the National Library of Medicine announced that it will discontinue the MedlinePlus Go Local initiative beginning in spring and continuing throughout 2010. More details about this decision are available in an NLM Technical Bulletin article from April 2010.

My Health Minnesota → Go Local will come to an end on July 1, 2010, when the site is decommissioned. The University of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries and other Go Local partners, including Minitex, will continue to provide quality consumer health resources and outreach even after Go Local ends. Minnesota's Go Local page will be redirected to the Health Sciences Libraries' "Resources for Personal Health" page for reliable health resources and tools to locate health services in Minnesota. Users may also find MedlinePlus and its directories page useful alternatives to Go Local. In addition, Minnesota residents have a number of electronic health resources available to them on the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM).

For more information or assistance with health information needs, please contact the Health Sciences Libraries at medref@umn.edu or 612-626-3260 or use the instant messaging reference service.

from OCLC:

In March, OCLC announced that it is transitioning from reselling eContent provided by publishers and other content providers as we increase our focus and investment on enhancing WorldCat and delivering new WorldCat platform services and Web-scale library services.

As part of this transition, per-search access to the following databases on the FirstSearch service will end on June 30, 2010:

• AGRICOLA
• Alternative Press Index
• Alternative Press Index Archive
• EconLit
• PsycFIRST (available only via per-search)

You may continue to use your per-search searches to access the other databases offered through FirstSearch on a per-search basis.

Additional information about changes to OCLC's content services is available in the Frequently Asked Questions about FirstSearch Database Transitions.

The maintenance period for the EBSCO A-to-Z® Administrator site scheduled for Friday, 18 June 2010 through Sunday, 20 June 2010 has been postponed.

from EBSCO:

EBSCO A-to-Z®is experiencing an intermittent outage this morning. Our technical team is working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The EBSCO A-to-Z® Administrator site will be unavailable beginning on Friday, 18 June 2010 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time until Sunday, 20 June 2010 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (19 June 2010 at 12:00 GMT - 20 June 2010 at 17:00 GMT) to allow for necessary maintenance. During this period, the A-to-Z Reader Site will remain available to end users.

from EBSCO:

We are pleased to annouce the recent release of several new features to CINAHL. These are described below:

• New Limiters
  • There are two "Written by a Nurse" limiters:
    • First Author is a Nurse
    • Any Author is a Nurse
    • More details on them can be found here: http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=&id=4896&page=1
  • Pre-CINAHL limiter searches just pre-CINAHL. More details can be found here: http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=&id=4404&page=1
  • Human limiter applies to all records which represent research studies on humans. More details can be found here: http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?topic=&id=4895&page=1
• Data Elements Added
  • Digital Object Identifier (DOI): We have added the DOI from 2009 forward.
  • Pubmed Central ID (PMCID): We have added the PMCID from 2009 forward.

Please visit EBSCO's CINAHL Support Center for a wide variety of training and support options offered to CINAHL subscribers at no extra charge.

from Gale:

As part of our ongoing platform development, a software maintenance release will take place on Saturday, June 12, 2010. The work will begin at 12:00 a.m. ET and last until approximately 8:00 a.m. ET.

Customers who are accessing Archives Unbound, Books and Authors, British Literary Manuscripts Online, State Papers Online, Literature Resource Center, Literature Resource Center with the Twayne or Scribner modules, Modern Language Association International Bibliography, LitFinder or LitFinder for Schools, or Gale Virtual Reference Library online products during the 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. ET maintenance period may experience a brief interruption in service.

If you have any questions, please contact Gale Technical Support at 1-800-877-4253, option 4.

Auralog

TELL ME MORE - Online Language Learning
This is a comprehensive, all-in-one, self-study language learning resource that seamlessly integrates the latest in advanced speech recognition technology for language mastery. To keep learners engaged, TELL ME MORE® contains over 37 interactive activities, 100's of exercises, and content for complete beginners through advanced. Available languages include the following: English (ESL in 18 languages), Spanish (Latin American & European), French, German, Italian, and Dutch.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic, Public, K12
Website: http://www.tellmemore.com
Trial URL: http://66.226.236.122:81/libraries/
Username/password: You will be asked to create your own username and password to use for the trial.

OptimalResume.com

OptimalResume.com
With state-of-the-art, private-label or co-branded platforms, job seekers at all levels can now use Optimal Resume's online services to create and manage all components of a successful job search campaign, including high-quality resumes, business letters, e portfolios, video introductions, skills assessments, and interview practice. The system is Career Development 2.0 and highly intuitive for all levels and types of patrons.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic, Public, K12
Website: https://www.optimalresume.com/libraries.html
Trial URL: https://minitex-umn.optimalresume.com (This trial site has default introductions and examples for a public library. Defaults are available for high schools and college/universities as well.)
Validation code: optimal1 You will be asked to create your own account; use "optimal1" for your validation code.

Readex

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
This collection contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period. In publications ranging from almanacs to novels to travelogues, topics covered include agriculture, astronomy, capital punishment, child rearing, political history, religious thought, slavery, suffrage, witchcraft, and thousands more.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic
Website: http://www.readex.com/readex/product.cfm?product=247
Trial URL: http://infoweb.newsbank.com
Username/password: ncdminitex/ncdminitex

Early American Newspapers, Series 1 to 7, 1690-1922
This is the most comprehensive online collection of American newspapers published in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring more than 1,500 titles from all 50 states, this fully searchable resource offers every page of every issue, including eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, matrimony and death notices, and more.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic, Public
Website: http://www.readex.com/readex/index.cfm?content=96
Trial URL: http://infoweb.newsbank.com
Username/password: ncdminitex/ncdminitex

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998
This collection provides access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This fully searchable collection features papers from more than 35 states--including many rare 19th century titles. Coverage spans life in the Antebellum South; growth of the Black church; the Jim Crow Era; the Great Migration to northern cities, the West and Midwest in search of greater opportunity; the Harlem Renaissance; the Civil Rights movement; and more.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic, Public
Website: http://www.readex.com/readex/product.cfm?product=308
Trial URL: http://infoweb.newsbank.com
Username/password: ncdminitex/ncdminitex

Soundzabound

Soundzabound Royalty Free Music for Schools
Downloadable MP# files for any Apple, PC/Windows-based software. Soundzabound Royalty Free Music supersedes Fair Use in that they fully license the music/audio/sound effects with unlimited right for education and sign off that you are protected. Provides the solutions for: education approved content in a searchable database; copyright safe audio for podcasts, presentations, web design, videos, broadcasts, etc.; a wide variety of music/audio from hip-hop to classical, rock to cultural music with loops, sound effects, and animation music; artist branding rights not covered under Fair Use; a web-based interface; IP authentication; and user statistic reports.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic, K12
Website: http://www.soundzabound.com
Trial URL: http://www.soundzabound.com
Username/password minitex/trial

Taylor & Francis

CRCnetBASE
CRCnetBASE is made up of over 6000 online books that span over 40 disciplines. In addition to e-books published under the imprint CRC Press, CRCnetBASE also includes online references from Auerbach and Chapman & Hall. The powerful research platform has been adopted throughout the world at academic and corporate institutions. Subscriptions and perpetual purchases are available by subject collection or BuidYourOwn collection.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic
Subject Collection List: http://www.crcnetbase.com/page/subject_collections
Trial URL: http://www.crcnetbase.com/
Username/password: minitex_spring10/minitex_trial

CHEMnetBASE
Featuring Chapman & Hall/CRC's premier chemistry references, this database can be tailored to your specific needs. Subscribe to any or all of CHEMnetBASE's dictionaries and databases, including The Combined Chemical Dictionary, which now details over 533,000 compounds, and the online version of the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, which adds interactive tables and powerful search capabilities to the world's best known scientific reference.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic
Website: http://www.chemnetbase.com/
Trial URL: http://www.chemnetbase.com
Username/password: minitex_spring10/minitex_trial

Europa World Year Book Online and Europa World Plus
First published in 1926 and now available online, the Europa World Year Book is renowned as one of the world's leading reference works, covering political and economic information in more than 250 countries and territories. Europa World Plus adds to the Yearbook the content of the nine Regional Surveys of the World. Both versions offer access to a treasury of data and analytical content via an easy-to-use, intuitive interface, with throughout-the-year updates and search capabilities ranging from simple full-text to powerful advanced search tools. Also includes maps and flags for each country covered.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic, Public
Website: http://www.europaworld.com
Trial URL: http://www.europaworld.com
Username/password: minitex_spring10/minitex_trial

Routledge Reference Online: Politics and Religion
This cross-searchable online subject library includes reference essentials that have won critical accolades and places on best reference lists, with new works and updates added every year.

Audience: Two and Four-year Academic
Website: http://www.routledgeonline.com/
Trial URL: http://reference.routledge.com
Username/password: minitex_spring10/minitex_trial