Another keeper from Gary F:
After much work over the past several months we now have category access to our Electronic Journals. This access appears as a 'Category ' tab at http://tc.liblink.umn.edu/sfx_local/azlist/default . If you want to make 'deep links' to a specific list you can just select the list you want at this site and copy the URL for use on your web page. For example, we have long maintained lists on our SciEng site, Sciweb. Now we can link directly to the new SFX lists on Civil Engineering, Physics, etc. I encourage others to do the same. I am a bit concerned that on some browsers the actual list of titles is off the screen. If you like, when you make a deep link you can add '#deep' to the URL and it will direct the browser further down the page and show the start of the list.
This has been a long and complex project. If you see problems or mistakes, let me know. There will me some ongoing maintenance involved in this project and a group of individuals from across the system will soon be trained to access the SFX server and make changes, additions, etc. I will send a list of names and a procedure soon.
Thanks again to all the selectors who made this product possible.
------------------------------- note 2
Thanks to much hard work across the Library system I think we now have sufficient content to go public with the subject lists of electronic journals you have been working on for these past weeks. We will still be able to accept additional spreadsheets through October 15. At that time we will load the data we have received and delete any categories that have no content. After some testing of the new SFX software, we will go public, hopefully by November 1. For any of you that need some assistance in finishing any outstanding lists, I would recommend the work that Indiana University has done on a similar project: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1047&mode=fulltext
Once we go live there will be a need for some ongoing maintenance of our database, and I will provide the details as soon as we have identified staff to do the ongoing data entry.
Thanks again for all your hard work..
Gary
Lexis/Nexis Academic and related databases are back up, with their new search interface which to me looks a lot nastier than the old one. The business databases also are apparently now "folded in" to the Academic side. Most pressing problem (which I just reported to AskUs) is that the STAR TRIBUNE via LEXIS NEXIS link on the "Indexes and Databases A to Z" page no longer points to a STRIB-specific search page. / Denny
Reffers,
The CD version of the Encyclopaedia has bitten the dust. The MNCAT record will be changed/removed and the CD will be removed (no rush to that; it just plain doesn't work though). This comes months before the online version will be launched (December 30, 2006).
Forty students in Alex Jasson's class (and likely other students) will be wanting to use this resource. Please refer them to the print version (which is listed on their CourseLib page
The Print version is in Wils Ref folio, and there is a second circulating set.
Encyclopaedia Judaica
Print edition: 1972. 16 volumes
TC Wilson Library Folio DS102.8 .E496
TC Wilson Library Reference Folio DS102.8 .E496 Non-Circulating
Consult the Wilson Library floor plan for the location of Folio books on 1st floor (for Reference) and 2nd floor (for the circulating set).
The new online second edition will be available to U of M users sometime in the near future, I think. Information about this Thomson Gale product is available at
http://www.gale.com/press_room/2006_06_22_EncyclopaediaJudaica.htm
Dear RedLightGreen users: on November 5th the RedLightGreen service will end.
ubject: RedLightGreen service ending
Dear RedLightGreen user,
I am contacting you to let you know that on November 5th the
RedLightGreen service will end. RLG, RedLightGreen's parent
not-for-profit company has combined forces with another organization
that supports a similar service, WorldCat.org. We have decided to
invest all of our efforts into developing and supporting a single
product rather than continuing to support two. =20
We'd like to encourage you to update your RedLightGreen bookmarks to
point to WorldCat.org, and to try out this new service that will help
you find books and other research resources provided by nearly 12,000
libraries worldwide. Like RedLightGreen, WorldCat.org will help you
get access to research materials at your local library. WorldCat.org
is easy to use, and supports many of the same features as
RedLightGreen; the one service that WorldCat.org does not currently
support is citation formatting, but we are working on implementing
this feature in WorldCat.org in the near future.
If you saved citations in RedLightGreen, you can retrieve your
citation list from RedLightGreen until November 4th by following these
steps:
- Connect to RedLightGreen Use the Sign In link (if you aren't
automatically signed in)=20
- Click the Your List link in the upper right=20
- You can then select the E-Mail link to send your citations to your
e-mail account, or get a printer-friendly view to print or download
If you have questions or comments, use the Feedback link on any page
in RedLightGreen to let us know.
We want to take this opportunity to thank you for using RedLightGreen.
We wish you the best of luck in locating useful books and other
research resources.
The RedLightGreen Team
Ethnic Newswatch is not connecting. It changes to a different url and brings up a blank screen. I notified Jim S.
--sg
ARBAonline [electronic resource] : American reference books annual is requiring a password. I reported this to Vicki.
SG
Patron could find no way to log off amazon.com, and when he just logged out of the library's web site, he was still connected to his account. He finally determined that if he went to "log off" in bottom left-hand corner, used the window that opened up (the drop-down box) and clicked on "restart," then indeed he was logged off of amazon.com. He noted to me that when he went into amazon.com initially, someone's else's account was open to him. This may not be a major problem, as the accounts are password-protected.
From Choice: This site provides one-stop shopping for copyright information complete with forms and processing instructions for obtaining copyright protection.
This database keeps track of the resources that are no longer searchable by Google. Choice calls it an "amazing resource," though it is not complete due to the sheer size of the web.
Over the next few weeks, as OCLC continues our cataloging and resource sharing migration projects, regularly scheduled system downtimes will be altered. OCLC services that rely on WorldCat* will be unavailable at the following times. Here are the plans for system downtime with respect to WorldCat Services*:
Sunday, May 29, 2:00 am-6:00 am EST - all systems will be unavailable for normal system maintenance
Saturday and Sunday, June 4-5 - all systems will be available throughout the weekend, no maintenance is scheduled
Friday, June 10, 11:00 pm EST - Monday, June 13, 12:00 am (midnight) EST WorldCat Resource Sharing and OCLC ILLiad will be unavailable to accommodate database migration
Saturday, June 11, 1:00 am - 2:00 am EST - all systems will be unavailable for shortened system maintenance
* WorldCat Services include the following:
OCLC FirstSearch
WorldCat Resource Sharing
OCLC ILLiad
OCLC Union List
WorldCat Collection Analysis
WorldCat Partner Program
We are experiencing a problem accessing Litfinder both on and off campus. The link in Indexes or MNCAT goes to their page but then it is asking for a username and password.
We have reported to Jim S. and he is looking into it and also has asked Cecilia to change the MNCAT record note that says access is limited to Wilson workstations, which used to be true of Poemfinder, but is not true now. -Susan
Some of you may have encountered a problem with printing from the Palmer's Index CD-ROM. At this time, patrons are unable to print from the database due to some software issues which may be directly related to the disk's old DOS format. I had Jaime from Autosys take a look at the problem yesterday. She tested out a few possibilities to resolve the problem, but no luck.
The original disk has been missing for awhile. Jaime said that there may be documentation on the disk to set up printing. I spoke with our Proquest rep this morning, and he is working on getting a replacement disk for us.
In the meantime, patrons can download their search results to a floppy in the a:drive. I tested it out this afternoon and it worked fine. They can then print out the results in the Info Commons or at home. Or there is the good old fashioned pencil and paper alternative. --Lisa
See below for long note from Janet.
Greetings all,
Most of the changes for Version 16 affect library staff users in the GUI, but there are a few significant changes to the public catalogs. These are:
1) When doing a keyword search in version 16, if one hits a limit (currently set at 5000), one no longer gets a "Too Many Hits" error message and no results. The most recent (by system number) 5000 records are returned sorted by the default sort for the type of search. When one refines that search using Refine Search or combines that search with another set in the Search History it will do the requested action with the full results, not just those 5000 that could be displayed directly. An example of a search with over 5000 results is a General Keyword search using the term "nursing." We will monitor the 5000 record limit, raising the limit is a trade off of getting more results or waiting the time to sort the results.
2) There is a new Jump to date or text feature. For example if one did an Author begins... search for "Shakespeare William" and chose the large set with 50+ records for Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 the results are returned sorted by title. One can then enter the first few letters of a title into the Jump to Text box, e.g., king. The user is then moved alphabetically down the list to the titles that begin with king, e.g., King Edward III, King Henry IV, etc. If the results had been sorted by year, one could enter a date, e.g. 1948. The utility of this functionality is not made clear by the current web page, but we have ideas for improving this, namely, using University of Michigan's approach. Hopefully that will be coming soon.
3) Version 16 limits the number of items that can display on the Holdings Detail page, the page one gets when selecting a library name from the Availability column in the brief display. For example, search for Title begins... "Congressional Serial Set", choose the entry with 5 records. On record 5, click on one of the Law Library's print copies in the Availability column (e.g. TC Law Library Carrel). The message at the top of the resulting page indicates that only 1000 items were displayed and provides options for focusing the item display. Note that for many serials the year limit does not include the years for all the items for the title, fixing this is a major clean-up project. We will monitor the item limit setting to prevent the occurrence of the page cannot be displayed messages that we get for certain high item titles in version 14.
4) To best implement subject headings and cross references there is no longer a merged Subject Heading begins... index. You now search LC Subject Heading begins... and get only LC cross reference information, or search Medical Subject Heading begins... giving you all the MeSH cross references. Merged subject heading searching is still available as keyword searches.
You can test these out in the big test instance at:
http://umnlib-test.oit.umn.edu:8991/F
Here you will get results similar to what you will see when we switch over to the production version 16 on Tuesday.
Happy searching, Janet
Hello. Access to ABSEES (American Bibliography for Slavic & East European Studies) is now available through Ebsco and is no longer available through the
University of Illinois site. In the next few weeks, Ebsco will make the necessary changes to our links so as to continue access through our established records and URLs. Access is not available through the Ebsco interface, but rather as a separate log-in, even though the search interface is almost same as, e.g., for Academic Search Premier.
Currently, you still get placed into the old web interface, but if you try to search it, you will get a message: "** Access for your site has expired **". Therefore, at the main screen, click on the "Search ABSEES through EBSCO interface." The login and password are given: absees and absees. I think that one can set these to display persistently, using the password-remember feature on the browser.
I have submitted a request for the new subscription, and I hope that within the next few days we will get a trial from Ebsco, which will turn into normal access very soon after that. I guess we will have to wait for the trial to be set up before access will be available generally. Let me know if you have any questions or need any further clarification.
--Gordon
The interface for Digital Dissertations is changing substantially and Proquest will be down (this will impact access to ProQuest newspapers) from 10 p.m. EST this Sat. Dec. 18 to 10 a.m. EST this Sun. Dec. 19. The changes will also impact the newspapers. --Gwen
The public interface of the software will be available Monday, November 8th.
Please take a look at the attached document to familiarize yourself with the new software as it requires users to set up a separate account for interlibrary loan requests. Thanks,
Lisa
Hi All,
It has become necessary to set back the implementation of the new ILLiad software for both Wilson and Bio-Med interlibrary loan offices for one week.
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 19:28:56 -0500
I'm attaching a document that previews the ILL software system that Wilson ILL will begin using on November 1st. Bio-Med will also begin using this software but will have a separate account.
This software requires the patron to complete a one-time registration for ILL services. By registering the patron will create their own ILL account similar to their MNCAT account.
Please forward this message to all of your public service staff so they will have an opportunity to preview the account before we go live on Monday. Staff will be able to look at the web pages through Friday, the 29th. Between the 29th and the 1st, the vendor will be clearing out all test registrations so that we have an empty database on Monday.
I apologize for the short notice. We've been trying to get all the forms ready as well as get our work done. With ILL requests topping a thousand a week, it is a scramble.
We expect that there will be some confusion on Monday. Please direct patrons with questions to Wilson ILL.
Phone: 4- 1806
Email: wilsill@umn.edu
For those of you use and work with ERIC and E*Subscibe.. Here is the news as I understand it at the present:
There are a number of upcoming changes in the ERIC database system as directed by the US Department of Education. These are detailed in the EDRS News section of the E*Subscribe web site ( www.edrs.com ) and this pdf: http://www.edrs.com/products/director_letter.pdf
Here are the key points--
A redesigned ERIC will be in place Sept 1 2004, with new features. We don't really know what it will look like yet. (We will still have our usual vendor interface in place).
E*Subscribe will shut down/discontinue operations Sept 30, 2004. It will be gone...we have microfiche in the Government Publications Library. Some of the past ERIC documents may be available in the new ERIC and others will not be. We do have the full microfiche collection as we didn't cancel it when we added E*Subscribe.
No new fiche will be produced. We've received our last shipment!
In place of the ED/ERIC documents of the past, for the future "ERIC will introduce, for the first time, free-of-charge full text non-journal ERIC resources".
As a separate matter, as soon as the link is set up, we will offer access to ERIC with both ERIC FirstSearch and ERIC CSA on the public pages. (Same database...different vendor interface...different features).
This move to the new redesigned ERIC has been a long, difficult, and political process. Librarians and others have been active advocates on various issues related to this during the past few years. Laurel
Message that comes up when you go to World Biographical Index indicates that as of September 1st it will no longer be free.
This is the Saur product that indexes all of their biographical microfiche serieses, such as American Biographical Archive etc. (some of which we have, some of which we don't). It was also very useful just as a quick reference source for birth and death dates, variant spellings etc.
No idea what the subscription price will be, but given it's Saur I assume it will be high and we probably can't justify subscribing. A pity. / Denny
Important Notice for Users of the World Biographical Index
The internet edition World Biographical Index has been available free-of-charge and has been used intensively by users worldwide for biographical research.
The index data is continuously enlarged and extended, and represents both a unique index to the Biographical Archives on microfiche as well as a biographical research tool in its own right. In September 2004, the database will receive a new and even more user-friendly interface.
We regret to inform you that, due to the technical and editorial expenses, the database will be offered on the internet only as a paid annual subscription as of 1st September 2004.
Naturally, you are interested in maintaining your access to the index, which should remain available for your research. Please contact your librarian about arranging a subscription for your library or institution. If you are interested in a subscription for yourself, please contact us.
By the way: The World Biographical Index is free-of-charge for subscribers to the World Biographical Information System Online (WBIS Online) and for those who purchased one or more Biographical Archives on microfiche over the last 12 months.
The World Biographical Information System Online started in June 2004. It represents the most comprehensive biographical database available, already offering 2.28 million digitized biographical articles on 1.3 million people. In addition, it contains biographical profiles from the index, on more than 3.8 million individuals. Further, 2 million biographical articles will be added every year. For more information, please go to www.saur.de/wbis-online.
K. G. Saur Verlag
July 2004
They're all below filed by date. SG
JULY 13, 2004
Just discovered a possibly serious glitch in the electronic version READER'S GUIDE RETROSPECTIVE.
John Wright was in looking for early mainstream media coverage of the Bilderberg Group. He'd done a manual search of READER'S GUIDE volumes and found one early article in mid-1950s in AMERICAN MERCURY magazine. I pointed out to him that he could have saved time by using the electronic RGR and tried to duplicate his search success -- and couldn't.
He got the print volume out and we discovered the problem. "Bilderberg Group" appears as a
cross-reference in the print READER'S GUIDE (it's a "see" to the banal "Economic conferences") and there was nothing in the title of the AMERICAN MERCURY article ("Money Made Mysterious") to lead anyone to suspect relevance. So, does the electronic RGR not index "SEE" reference points?
I found another obscure "see" reference in the same volume and tried that in RGR. This was "Baccharis pilularis" -- the scientific name for "coyote brush." This time it worked and
brought up the article that the print volume "see" had pointed to.
Title:Coyote brush for erosion control
Journal Name:Sunset (Central West edition)
Source:Sunset (Central West edition) v. 120 (May 1958) p. 226-7
Publication Year:1958
Physical Description:Illustration
ISSN:0039-5404
Subject(s):Coyote brush
Historical Subject(s):Coyote brush
Document Type:Feature
Database:Readers' Guide Retrospective
Accession Number:195812100488045
Link to Index Pages
However, it did so *only* after I chanced the default "Keyword" search to the
"All-Smart Search" option. (With "All-Smart" I get five hits; with "Keyword"
only one -- the one that happens to mention the Latin name in its title.)
And however even more again: even when I changed "Keyword" to "All-Smart" and
re-entered Bilderberg I *still* could not bring up the article John had found
in the printed volume. (RG v.21; 'see' reference from "Bilderberg group" on
page 226; actual entry under "economic conferences" on page 610.)
So--it looks as though to get broadest possible retrieval in RGR on keywords
and phrases we'll need to ignore the "keyword" default and go to "all-smart
search," and even then we may or may not be searching the "see" references,
depending on how accurate a job WilsonWeb may have done in converting.
Of course, if I were a conspiracy theorist I'd say the Bilderberg Group had
*gotten to* WilsonWeb and hacked their site to remove all referenes to
themselves. But that seems a bit extreme...
Another triumph for printed indexes over electronic versions.
Denny Lien
JULY 22, 2004
Followup to my post last week about some problems with the electronic RGR
(that one involving erratic access points usage of "see" reference terms).
Today I noticed that if you search in READER'S GUIDE RETROSPECTIVE for
author
Eliot, T S
you get 19 hits
and if you search for
author
Eliot, Thomas Stearns
you get 16 hits
and none are in both sets, all are unique....
Mostly the older ones are in the initials set and the later ones in the
full name set, but there's overlap in dates -- seven of the initial set
through 1950, and one is from 1974; three of the full name set are from
1942 through 1950, and four are later than 1950.
There's also overlap in magazines: initials set includes six records
from THE DIAL and full name set two, for instance, and both sets include
(at different periods) records from BOOKMAN; POETRY; and THEATRE ARTS.
On the other hand, an author search for
Wodehouse, P G
brings up 80 hits, but if you know his full name and try to search by it, e.g.
Wodehouse, Pelham
you get nothing.
On the third hand, an author search for
Wren, P C
brings up nothing, but if you know his full name and search for
Wren, Percival
you get two hits.
Now, if you do a keyword search for
wren percival
(thus looking for articles about as well as by him)
you get eleven hits, but the tenth of those eleven appears to be an error
as it concerns Christopher Wren the architect (1632-1723) rather than
P.C. Wren the "Beau Geste" writer (1885-1941). (To be fair, this last
error, if error it is, appears in the print volume of the relevant RG
as well.)
And an author search for
e e cummings
brings up 48 mostly relevant hits, but the second one is for a travel writer
named c e cummings, so apparently one e was "enough" to qualify and the
system didn't know how to insist on two in the author field.
What fun...
Denny Lien
Fri, 23 Jul 2004
Latest in a series of electronic weirdness reports: collect them all...
I had a patron doing a year-by-year content analysis of headlines in the
NEW YORK TIMES. He'd been using the 1851-2001 version via ProQuest
Historical Newspapers--
finished with that, and moved to the 1999-present version from ProQuest
Newstand
and entered his terms, limiting to 2002 articles, and got nothing.
After some confusion, we figured out that:
If you go into the 1851-2001 version first, then leave that to go to
the 1999-present version, ProQuest thinks you're still in the previous
"Historical" version, and it's thus listed in small type in the
"Databases selected" line at the top thusly--
Databases Selected: ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times
even though the "header" (?) line right below it, in much larger type,
kids you into thinking you are in the "current" file.
New York Times; Late Edition (East Coast)
Full text coverage: Jan 1, 1997 - current
If you then do a search in the alleged current file, the system reads it
weirdly and gives you zero hits, even on common words--entering bush
gets you this:
Searching for (bush) AND PMID(7818) did not find any articles.
(I don't know what the PMID(7818) that the system added means, but
whatever it is, it's a killer.)
*********
Now, presumably all this is happening because the ProQuest Historical
version says you're still logged in to it, since you haven't logged out.
However--there seems to be no option on the screen for logging out
(no "Exit," no "Log out," no "Leave," etc.) On a staff terminal, even
opening the current file in a new window doesn't seem to help, unless
the window running the historical file is closed altogether. And this
isn't practical on the public terminals anyway.
Only workaround I've found, short of rebooting the system (or, I suppose,
going away for an hour or whatever until ProQuest HN logs you off
automatically for no activity) is to click on the "Databases Selected"
link, then uncheck the "ProQuest Historical Newspapers" box and check
instead the "ProQuest Newspapers" box and hit "continue," then click
on "Publication Search" and select from the menu that comes up the
"New York Times, Late Edition, 1997-date" choice, then from the next
screen that comes up click on "Search within publication."
************
Also, the curse doesn't work in reverse. If you first search the
current file, *then* go into the historical file, the change works
as its supposed to. (But of course if you then try to go back into
the current file, you get the above problem again.)
Strange TIMES we live in....
Denny
PART 2 - MON, 26 Jul 2004
To: Lisa etc.
Here's another glitch in the electronic READER'S GUIDE RETROSPECTIVE. The
print volume 37 (March 1977 - Feb. 1978) lists three stories by Woody Allen
in the NEW YORKER during that period. The electronic version turns up only
one of the three ("UFO Menace"). The other two ("Condemned" in 21 Nov. 77
issue and "Kugelmass Episode" in 2 May 1977 issue) can't be found searching
Allen as author.
If you search just on title word Kugelmass the record comes up, listing
Allen as the *subject* and listing no author at all. (This is perhaps
Woody Allen's single best-known short story.) It's listed as a "feature"
rather than a story. The same thing happens with "Condemned," which again
(a) is a story by Allen and (b) is listed in the printed volume as a work
by Allen but which (c) appears in the electronic version as a "feature"
*about* Allen.
So, in addition to the cross-reference problems and variant forms of
authorial names and the problems with authors who use two intials which
are the same, which I discovered and wrote about last week, I guess we'll
also have to routinely check authors-as-subjects and authors-as-authors
on all searches, since we can't rely on RGR to consistently know the
difference.
Denny Lien, getting increasingly disgusted
The default link to LexisNexis Statistical has been changed to put users directly into the Search Abstracts screen. This provides the most complete search of this very extensive index to statistical information in all subjects. The former default went to the Power Tables, which is a small subset of the full database, with links to full text of tables on many subjects. That feature, good for some users, can still be chosen from the menu in the left of the page. But the new link will mean users no longer miss the full contents of this useful index.
In case you refer to this database in training or handouts, this change may be of interest to you.
Here's the link: http://www.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/stat.cgi
Julie
New Trials for Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
As one of the databases most frequently used in architectural literature, the current Avery Index has been accessed through RLG. We now have two new trials: one through EBSCO until June 30 and the other through CSA until July 6. Those who are interested in participating in these new trials, go to CDM web page as indicated below. Please send feedback to Joon Mornes (mailto:j-morn@umn.edu). Thank you for your participation.
To access the trials:
http://staff.lib.umn.edu/cdm/ersc/trials.phtml
http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/elm-changes.phtml
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: Changes to ELM -- Electronic Library for Minnesota from MTX
MINITEX announced today that it has completed negotiations for a new set of statewide databases, available July 1.
What's going away? etc....
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: Changes to ELM -- Electronic Library for Minnesota from MTX
MINITEX announced today that it has completed negotiations for a new set of statewide databases, available July 1.
What's going away?
* Expanded Academic Index and some other Electronic Library of Minnesota titles will go away. WorldCat and ProQuest Newsstand will remain. A full list of affected titles, as well as titles that will remain, is available here:
http://staff.lib.umn.edu/cdm/ersc/elm.html
What's new?
* 4 new databases from EBSCO will be available; descriptions are appended to the end of this message:
Academic Search Premier
Business Source Premier
MasterFILE Premier
Regional Business News
Trial access to these titles is available for the rest of June:
http://trial.epnet.com
User ID: minitex
Password: ebsco
What links will be changed centrally?
* As was done with the cancelled FirstSearch titles last year (Humanities Abstracts / Social Sciences Abstracts / General Science Abstracts), links from these access points will be updated centrally:
MNCAT
Indexes
Reference Sources
Research QuickStart
CourseLib
PageScribe
We will leave the old database names on LUMINA until the end of Fall Semester, with redirects to the new EBSCO titles as appropriate. Tentative redirects are listed here:
http://staff.lib.umn.edu/cdm/ersc/elm-redirect.html
What will I need to do?
* We will be relying on Subject Librarians and Departmental Liaisons to edit / clean up their CourseLib / PageScribe pages after the central link changes take place; watch for an email from Kate with instructions on this. This won't need to be a big rush but the goal is to have pages updated by the start of Fall Semester.
A summary of who is in charge of what link-change task, along with a tentative timeline, is on the CDM site at the first URL above.
* Please consider ways that you can contact your user groups to inform them of the change. A memo will be linked from the LUMINA Spotlight soon, which can then be adapted.
Don't hesitate to contact us with questions!
Jim S
Kate M
Shane
*****
Academic Search Premier
The world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,600 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1975. This database is updated on a daily basis via EBSCOhost.
Business Source Premier
As the world’s largest full text business database, Business Source Premier provides full text for nearly 3,800 scholarly business journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. This database provides full text (PDF) for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922. This database is updated on a daily basis via EBSCOhost.
MasterFILE Premier
Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 2,000 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also includes more than 350 full text reference books, 84,074 biographies, 86,132 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost.
Regional Business News
This database provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. This database is updated on a daily basis.
[entered by SG]
This message has been cross posted. Please excuse the duplication.
On behalf of Minnesota's State Library Services & School Technology (the
state library agency), Online Dakota Information Network (ODIN), the North
Dakota State Library, South Dakota Library Network (SDLN), the South Dakota
State Library, and itself, MINITEX is pleased to announce our joint,
3-state participation in licensing the database packages recommended by the
MINITEX Electronic Information Resources (MEIR) Task Force as a result of
the Request for Proposal (RFP) that was issued in 2003-04. These partners
realize the importance of statewide access to a common suite of databases
to the libraries and school media centers within and among the 3 states.
The following resources will be available beginning July 1, 2004 - June 30,
2007.
The final EBSCO package consists of the following databases:
Academic Search Premier
Business Source Premier
MasterFILE Premier
Regional Business News
During negotiations with EBSCO, the preassembled databases (i.e., Computer
Source, Health Source, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, and
Religion & Philosophy Collection) from the package EBSCO proposed and the
MEIR Task Force recommended were eliminated in order to stay with the
available dollars. In doing so, there was no loss of indexing or full-text
content. All of the content is available in the remaining databases. The
only loss of content between what was proposed and recommended is MEDLINE
and EBSCO's Spanish-language databases. This was also a financial decision.
The Gale (Infotrac ) suite of databases includes:
Kids InfoBits
Junior Edition
Student Edition
Professional Collection
Junior Reference Collection
Discovering Collection
Access to other Gale databases (e.g., Expanded Academic Index, Health and
Wellness Resource Center, etc.) to which libraries have had access through
statewide programs and systems (i.e., Electronic Library for Minnesota
(ELM), ODIN, and SDLN) is scheduled to be discontinued on June 30, 2004.
From OCLC, all 3 states will license and provide statewide access to
WorldCat. After June 30, Minnesota libraries will no longer have statewide
access to the other databases in The OCLC Collection (i.e., ArticleFirst,
OCLC Union List of Periodicals, and Electronic Collections Online A & I
database) through ELM.
The MINITEX CPERS staff, Karen Docherty and Tim Peters, will be working
with Gale and OCLC to offer pricing for the content we will no longer be
licensing on a statewide basis. We recognize that libraries in the MINITEX
region value this content. We will work with libraries to ensure a smooth
transition.
In Minnesota and North Dakota, libraries will also continue to have
statewide access to ProQuest Newsstand Complete through June 30, 2005. In
Minnesota, access to Gale's Spanish-language databases, Consulta and
Informe!, will also continue through June 30, 2005.
Additional information will follow over the next few days as we work with
the vendors to set up links and so on. We understand the work and time
these changes will take to implement in your libraries and will provide
needed information as quickly as possible.
Mary P
We discovered a number of texts that should be in "Evans" online (= Early American Imprints) are not. Spotchecking shows about 150 each missing from publication year 1787 and from 1788, for instance.
Kate called the company--they said many titles had been "taken down" temporarily for quality control problems; they hoped to have them back up when reloading around the end of June. But there is no indication in the database that something is temporarily unavailable -- you just get a blunt "not found" message.
In theory, everything up through number 49,197 and/or through publication year 1800 *should* be currently available, these quality control removals being exceptions.
Hello All,
Beginning at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 12, the library catalogs will be unavailable so that a number of records can be loaded. We will be loading over 36,000 DigitalEvans (Early American Imprint resources) records. We expect this process to take under three hours.
This does affect all campuses. Downtime information will be posted on the various catalogs main pages shortly.
All for now, Janet
AMERICAN FACTFINDER (AFF)
The dates and times shown below impact the American FactFinder public web
site, the Fast Facts for Congress web site, and the American Indian and
Alaska Native (AIAN) Data and Links page.
June 12, 8am through June 13, 8pm
July 17, 8am through July 18, 8pm
Please note - the end dates and times shown above are estimates.
Also remember, http://factfinder.census.gov is a different server than
http://www.census.gov
and the outages listed above refer only to
factfinder.census.gov, fastfacts.census.gov
and
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/aian/index.html
Sender: Discussion of Government Document Issues
From: Andrea Sevetson
Subject: AFF planned outages for June and July
To: GOVDOC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU
from a recent e-mail ---
Planned Outages
AMERICAN FACTFINDER (AFF)
The dates and times shown below impact the American FactFinder public web
site, the Fast Facts for Congress web site, and the American Indian and
Alaska Native (AIAN) Data and Links page.
June 12, 8am through June 13, 8pm
July 17, 8am through July 18, 8pm
Please note - the end dates and times shown above are estimates. Also
remember, http://factfinder.census.gov is a different server than
http://www.census.gov and the outages listed above refer only to
factfinder.census.gov, fastfacts.census.gov and
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/aian/index.html.
*****All www.census.gov resources are still available to you.*****
See below for a list of alternative sites when AFF is down.
-Andrea
Andrea Sevetson
U.S. Census Bureau
Marketing Services Office
301-763-5207
andrea.sevetson@census.gov
-------------------------
When AmericanFactFinder is Down -Alternative Data Sources on the Census
Site. The below information was made available to us from the staff who
manage the AFF. During the down time, these reference resources could be
of use to you.
You may be able to find some of the information you need in printed (pdf)
"Special Reports" or "Census Briefs" prepared by Census demographers.
They have analytical material and many tables. If you need data only at
the state level, you may find what you need in these briefs. There are
some on race, families, income, education and many other topics:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/briefs.html
You also have access to the 4 Demographic Profiles thru the Census 2000
Gateway, looking under the heading "Data Highlights". The direct link to
the profiles which can be accessed by state for all 50 states, counties,
places (cities and towns) and some other geographic types. The
DP1-General Demographic Characteristics has age, sex and race data; the
DP2 -Social Characteristics has education, ancestry, marital status data;
the
DP3 - Economic Characteristics has data on income, employment, and
poverty; and the DP4 Housing Characteristics has data on the number of
rooms in a housing unit, the costs of housing, etc. The direct url for
these tables is: http://censtats.census.gov/pub/Profiles.shtml
There are many tables from the Census that were prepared and published in
Excel or pdf format, they are available for many different type of data,
from the page: http://www.census.gov/census2000/states/us.html. Look for
the Demographic Profiles or Redistricting data set or table links with the
"pdf or excel" format, (NOT American FactFinder). The Rankings and
Comparisons Tables (from Census 2000) have many tables in pdf or
spreadsheet format. They are found at:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/tablist.html
Another source that may be useful, and is available separately from the
American FactFinder site, is the American Community Survey data. It has
basically the same data as the Census 2000, for the years 2000, 2001, and
2002. The data is not available for small areas, but the 2002 data covers
the larger cities and counties. The url is:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
Data from the Census 2000 and other sources is available for high-level
geographies in the Statistical Abstract, which is available on-line on the
Census Bureau site at: http://www.census.gov/statab/www/
For 1990 Census data you can still find it on the 1990 Census page:
http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen1990.html
and this url for tables:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/90_shortformsubjects.html
There are also many local and regional sources for the census data who
have downloaded and reformatted the data into their own systems. The link
to these sites is: http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/groupcnr.htm
******************************************************************
Julia F. Wallace
Date: 3Jun04 11:52am
All,
Upon recommendation from all of you and the Unravel designers, I have made
the following changes to the Expanded Academic Index's interface this morning.
Basic:
Changed "Preferred Search" from Subject to Keyword. Now, when you enter
the database, you will first be presented with "Keyword" search.
Advanced:
The advanced search screen changed from: IAC's CCL to Fielded Boolean.
Changed the brief help text from:
Select Index (author, title, subject, keyword, etc.). Note: Use "su="
instead of "su" to browse the subject list. Connect terms using
exspressions such as AND, OR, and NOT. Truncate words with an asterisk.
EXAMPLE: au jones and (ke peru* or ke bolivia*)
To:
Select the appropriate Index (Key Word, Author, Title, Subject, etc.) from
the drop down box then enter your search terms. Select either AND, OR or
NOT to connect the search fields. Truncate words with an
asterisk. Example: "art*" will find: arts, artist, artistic, etc.
Added "Journal Name" and "Subject" as searchable indexes in Advanced. They
were not previously listed.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Kate McCready (entered by SG)
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 16:21:53 -0500
****************************** * The All-Staff Mailing List * ****************************** Hello All Staff,
FindIt, the University Libraries Linking Service, will be unavailable tomorrow morning beginning at around 6:00 a.m. so the operating system on the supporting server can be upgraded. We expect this to take about an hour.
Janet
Effective JULY 1:
>Hi, HSS Collection Group--
>
>A list of the EBSCO database possibilities appears at:
>
>http://www.minitex.umn.edu/exclude/rfp/
>
>Judy
LOGON INFO:
EBSCO Publishing
Trial URL: http://trial.epnet.com
User ID: minitex
Password: ebsco
Hi, HSS Collection Group--
>
>Late breaking news....
>
>MINITEX has chosen the following databases for 2004/05. The switch is
>effective ********July 1, 2004.********
>
>1. EBSCO publishing for a suite of general and scholarly databases aimed
>primarily at academic, public and government users.
>
>This means that Expanded Academic Index from Gale will be a thing of the
>past (at the end of June). I am not sure which other Gale Infotrac
>databases we will lose with the switch to EBSCO products (Business and
>Company Resource Center, ArticleFirst, InfoTrac OneFile, General Reference
>Center Gold, Health Reference Center, General BusinessFile ?). It is at
>this time unclear exactly what EBSCO databases are included in the MINITEX
>package.
>
>2. Gale Group K-12 electronic resources. Here again, it is unclear
>exactly what is included in the MINITEX package.
>
>3. OCLC for Worldcat.
>
>4. Proquest Newsstand will be continued.
>
>That is all we know at this time. Look for more information on this from
>Jim S and Mary P--coming up soon
>
>Judy
>
>
>
>
>...........................................................................
............
>Judy
EBSCO Publishing
Trial URL: http://trial.epnet.com
User ID: minitex
Password: ebsco
EBSCO Publishing Databases Available for Trial:
Academic Search Elite
Academic Search Premier
BookSource: Nonfiction
Business Source Elite
Business Source Premier
Computer Source
Encyclopedia of Animals
ERIC
Fuente Academica
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
Health Source: Consumer Edition
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
MasterFILE Premier
MAS Ultra: School Edition
MedicLatina
MEDLINE
Middle Search Plus
Newspaper Source
Primary Search
Professional Development Collection
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection
Regional Business News
Religion & Philosophy Collection
Salud para Todos
TOPICsearch
For product details, visit http://www.epnet.com/default.asp
^ back to vendor
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 09:49:46 -0500
******************************
The server causing the problem has been fixed. Library public terminals are now working properly. If a terminal still has connectivity issues you may reboot the machine or call the ITS Help Desk to report it, 4-9094 or mailto:autosys@umn.edu .
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 09:21:50 -0500
******************************
* The All-Staff Mailing List *
******************************
Currently the library public terminals are experiencing issues. ITS is working on the problem and it should be resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. - Jaime (entered by SG)
A couple of weeks ago a user complained that he was unable to replicate a PSYC INFO search he'd done a few hours before. After many blind alleys, I realized that the system was bringing up the 2000-date segment as the default (rather than the 1985-date one it should be bringing up); even worse, the screen didn't show that (it just said "psyc" with no dates at all. I called BioMed reference to report and they said they'd fix it.
But it happened again last Friday, again yesterday, and again today. I've called each time but if it does get fixed, it promptly goes back to the problem default again. (Someone said it may have to do with work on FindIt causing the database to revert to an old connection default that's still "floating around" somehow.)
*If* user realizes the problem (but since no dates are listed on main menu page, this is very unlikely to be the case), one can do a "change database" command and get to the proper 1985- date segment that way (or the full one going back to the 19th century). In fact, if you do a change database command *ask* for the 2000-date segment the main menu that comes up shows the dates involved.
Don't know when or if this will get fixed, but in meantime everyone should be sure to check when using PSYC INFO that dates of segment desired are displaying on the main menu screen (and, of course, that they *are* the dates of the segment desired). / Denny Lien
Humanities & Social Sciences Retrospective
available at Database Trials site:
http://staff.lib.umn.edu/cdm/ersc/trials.phtml
No new items are expected to be added to the ERIC database prior to September 2004 at the earliest, because the US Dept. of Education is in the process of changing the vendor.
Users will need to search other databases for 2004 items, for example, Education Full Text, ArticleFirst, Current Contents, EAI, etc.
PsycINFO is defaulting to the 2000-date instead of 1985-date. Denny has reported the problem to Bio-Med Lib staff.
SG
17 Feb
Database of Classical Bibliography cdrom (room 180E) was giving an
error message yesterday--one could get into it as far as reading the help
screens and such by ignoring the message, but could not search (and
clicking on OK on the error message box booted us out). Jaime from
AutoSys tried several things and could not get it work, says it seems to
not be compatable with network. Both 180E and 180F should be getting
new computers in a month or so which may solve this; she's still trying to
find a stopgap fix for DCB before then. In meanwhile, remember that
we still have the print index, L' ANNEE PHILOLOGIQUE. / Denny