Electronic Information Services Bulletin 2005

! This page has been archived and is not actively maintained. Some links may not work and some information may no longer be current.

This edition of EIS Bulletin restarts what was a monthly series. I apologise for the lack of material recently and hope to return to regular publication from now on.

E-books

Trial access to the Ebrary e-book service, which was available last term, has now ceased. However, we have negotiated an extension of the Taylor and Francis trial until the middle of March, and the NetLibrary service will run until the end of this session. Links to both of these are available on the Library home page, where you will also find links to staff and student questionnaires about the student reading use of e-books. We would urge academic colleagues to complete the staff questionnaire and to encourage your students to complete the student one.
www.port.ac.uk/library/ebooks.

Urbadoc

The urban affairs database Urbadisc, formerly available on CD-Rom, has been replaced by an online version, Urbadoc. This should improve access and ease of search. At the moment access is on campus only but we are enquiring about off campus access. We have asked for IP access but for now you will need a username and password, as follows. For details contact your Subject Librarian or one of the Library enquiry desks.

BOPCAS trial

We have arranged trial access to the British Official Publications Current Awareness service (BOPCAS). In this you can search 30,000 official publications as well as, for full subscribers, set up an alert service to match your needs. To access the trial service, ask for details from the Library Information Desk (or your Subject Librarian)

Feedback on the service should please be sent to Ian Mayfield (ian.mayfield@port.ac.uk)

Student Library portals

The Library has set up subject pages which provide a tailored Library link to the student portal. When students click on the ‘my library’ link they are taken to a page which is a sub-set of the Subject Directory, presenting a set of resources relevant to their department. This is the first stage in a process which we hope will become more interactive, so that students can add their own resources, and perhaps save searches and search results etc. We will also be looking at extending this service to the staff portal once it is fully established.
To view the full set of subject portals, go to
http://www.libr.port.ac.uk/student_portal/

Feedback on anything in this bulletin, or comments on any aspect of the Library service should please be sent to Ian Mayfield

Free JISC resources

JISC have created a separate web page on which all of their free resources are listed. See
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_subject_f.html

SUNCAT: National Union catalogue of serials

A pilot has been launched of a new resource designed to enable academics and others to identify, locate and access the contents of serials held by institutions across the UK.
To access the pilot SUNCAT service and for further information, please go to: www.edina.ac.uk/suncat

Oxford Journals now Athens authenticated

Electronic journals in the Oxford University Press collection now have Athens authentication, allowing off campus access with a personal Athens Account.

Institute of Physics e-journal archive now available

A special agreement, announced today by the JISC and the Institute of Physics (IoP), will make the contents of the IoP’s digital journal archive between 1874 and 1998 permanently accessible to higher and further education institutions in the UK. The archive includes over 110,000 articles and over 1.5 million pages of physics research including papers by Sir John Fleming, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Lord Rayleigh and Sir Edward Appleton.
To access this collection go to http://www.iop.org/EJ/main/-list=all/

Mintel – leisure reports now available

The University’s subscription to market intelligence information published by MINTEL has recently been extended by purchasing their Leisure series. To see the full range of available Mintel reports login with your Athens account at http://reports.mintel.comand click ‘my info’.

Bibliographic software at discount prices

Academic staff and students may now purchase software from the supplier Adept Scientific at discount prices. For example, personal copies of Endnote may be purchased for as little as £55. To see available deals, go to the Athens website (www.athens.ac.uk) and login to My Athens, then click on Adept Scientific in the list of resources.

E-books collection purchased

Following the two-month trial held in the autumn, the Library has purchased a subscription to the Ebrary e-book collection to run until June 2006. This gives access to around 18,000 e-books and unlike in the trial these will be available off campus via Athens. Technical aspects are currently being sorted out and a further announcement will follow shortly.

Electronic Information Services Bulletin September 2005

Comments and questions please to Ian Mayfield, NOT to Sian Kennedy.

Ebrary now up to 23,000 titles 

The Ebrary e-books collection now contains some 23,000 titles, compared to 18,000 when we first subscribed. New titles are added monthly. Ebrary titles are now included in the Library catalogue, with links through to the books. The Library has produced a publicity brochure for Ebrary – copies will be sent to departments and will be widely distributed at induction and library workshops. Anyone wanting copies should contact Ian Mayfield.

University of California public books collection

Part of the University of California's e-book collection is freely available to the general public. You may browse this material by subject, author or title.
http://texts.cdlib.org/escholarship/

Xreferplus subscription renewed with 100 titles

Over the summer the Library's subscription to Xreferplus, the online reference collection has been renewed. The coverage has been reviewed, based on study of usage data and newly available titles. Our subscription now offers access to 100 titles. Access the collection via the Library catalogue or the Subject Directory; to view the title list, click on 'all books' on the Xreferplus home page.

New deal for Web of Knowledge

The Library has signed a new agreement which will give access to the influential Web of Knowledge resource for a further 5 years. This includes the Web of Science databases, which offer citation searching. WoK has also moved its databases to a new server based in the Republic of Ireland rather than their former 'home' at MIMAS in Manchester.

SCOPUS available till the end 0f 2006

A major new rival to WoK has recently been launched by Elsevier. Like WoK, SCOPUS aims to be multi-disciplinary. Its coverage is more European than that of WoK. Elsevier have made the database available to UK HE institutions free of charge until the end of 2006. After that time it may not be possible to retain the subscription as well as the 5-year deal for WoK, since both are expensive. We would very much like to hear feedback from users on SCOPUS.

New market research database

Online marketing data is now available from publishers Euromonitor, who formerly produced the printed publications Market Research UK and Market Research Europe. The database includes:

You can access the database by searching for 'Market Research Monitor' in the Library catalogue or the Subject Directory. A password is needed for off-campus access: email your subject librarian or ring the Library Information Desk on 3228 for details.

Grove music dictionary

An online version of Grove is now available – go to the Library catalogue and do a title search for 'Grove music', then follow the link.

Eurolaw now available via Athens

The EU legal database Eurolaw, which formerly had its own username and password for off campus access, is now available using your Athens password. Eurolaw has the full text of all EU legislative acts.

New media database

Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC) covers television, journalism, film etc. Full-text is available for quite a lot of records. Access from the Library catalogue or Subject Directory in the usual way. Off campus access is via Athens.

Changes of platform

MLA moves to Ebsco
Formerly available via the Webspirs platform, the MLA database covering languages and literature has now moved Ebsco Host. Access is as before, i.e. from the catalogue or Subject Directory.

IBSS moves to Webspirs
The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, formerly available via BIDS, is now accessed from the Webspirs platform. Off-campus access is via Athens authentication as before.

British Standards now web-based
The British Standards database is now available via the Web, rather than networked CDs as previously. This means that the database will be updated more frequently than previously. The new version, British Standards Online, can be access from the Library catalogue or website; an Athens account is needed whether on or off campus.

Electronic Information Services Bulletin October 2005

Comments and questions please to Ian Mayfield, NOT to Sian Kennedy.

Free Online Access for SAGE Titles

To celebrate their 40th anniversary, Sage publications are offering institutional subscribers free access to their journal collections until 30th October. Access is by IP address so will only work on campus. Go to
http://online.sagepub.com/cgi/search

Music collections on trial

The Library currently has trial access to two music collections. The Classical Music Collection is exactly what it says, offering online access to music from a vast range of composers. The other collection is called Smithsonian Global Sound and is described as ‘a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides educators, students, and interested listeners with an unprecedented variety of online resources that support the creation, continuity, and preservation of diverse musical forms’.

Oxford Journals Digital Archive: any interest?

JISC is considering a licensing agreement with Oxford University Press for the Oxford Journals Digital Archive. JISC is proposing to BUY the CONTENT of the archive on behalf of the JISC community forever.

This means that if an agreement were to go ahead, there would NO CHARGE to institution for the content, and for the first 5 years, NO CHARGE for accessing the content. If individual institutions were to purchase the archive directly from Oxford University Press, the cost would be around £80,000 per institution.

A licence for the content would require a substantial JISC investment.

Before such an investment could be made, we require your feedback on how the JISC community would use the Oxford Journals Digital Archive and its applications in education and research. We also want to know if you think that JISC funding this on your behalf would be a good use of public money. Your responses will determine if an agreement will go ahead, and influence the amount of funding JISC will pass to Oxford University Press for the
content of the Archive. Please submit your feedback by completing the online response form: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=form&formid=2604517218

About the Archive:

Oxford University Press has scanned older back issues of its journals so that they can be made available electronically. The issues are being compiled into subject-based archives (electronic backfiles). The Humanities Archive has been available from the 1st of July 2005. Archives for Law, Medicine, Science, and Social Sciences, plus a complete archive for all subject areas, will be available from January 2006. The titles appearing in each archive can be found on the list of titles page at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_ojda_cons_titles.html
Further details on this consultation can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_ojda_cons.html

IM 18/10/05

Electronic Information Services Bulletin November 2005

Comments and questions to your subject librarian, please, NOT to Sian Kennedy.

Unless otherwise stated, resources listed here are available via the Library catalogue and the website’s Subject Directory.

SCOPUS now available off-campus

The cross-disciplinary database SCOPUS, an Elsevier product, is now authenticated via ATHENS for off-campus access. SCOPUS is available to UK HE institutions free of charge until the end of 2006. If you have any views on the usefulness of this source and whether we should try to retain it following the free period, please contact your subject librarian.

COMPENDEX now available via Engineering Village

The engineering database Compendex is now available via the Elsevier platform Enigineering Village. Unlike previous versions, this version of the database gives access in one sequence back to 1969. Off-campus access is via ATHENS.

Music reference work online

Grove Music Online, described by its suppliers as ‘the world’s premier authority on all aspects of music’, is now available to members of the University. It functions as an encyclopaedic dictionary and includes articles, biographies and links to research sources. There is a full text search facility and there are also links to the score writing application Sibelius. Off campus access is available via ATHENS.

Taylor & Francis e-journals

The Library has taken out a subscription to social sciences and humanities e-journals from Taylor & Francis. This gives access to some 544 titles. At present the titles have yet to be catalogued individually – though work is in progress – but access to the full collection can be gained by searching for ‘Taylor and Francis’ (n.b. NOT Taylor & Francis) in the Subject Directory or the Library catalogue.

Royal Society of Chemistry Archive

The Science Faculty has bought a subscription to the Royal Society of Chemistry journals archive. This allows access to 55 RSC journals (195,000 articles) from 1841-1996. The journals have yet to be catalogued individually. However, access to the full collection can be gained by searching for ‘RSC journals archive’ in the Subject Directory or Library Catalogue. Off-campus access is via Athens.

New resource for business information systems

The Business School has bought a subscription to the Butler Group Information Service. This gives staff and students access to the Butler Group website and its document archive, including a large body of research papers on subjects related to business information systems. This service is not available via the Library; individual registration is required to use the service. For access details or more information, contact Judith Stamenkovic, the Business Librarian.

Open access articles via Blackwell’s Synergy

The first articles using Blackwell Publishing’s Online Open service are now available for access on Blackwell Synergy. Online Open is a new service from Blackwell which enables authors to choose to make their articles freely available to readers through a pay-to-publish fee. Although only a very few articles are available so far, 79 journals from Blackwell Publishing – mostly in the STM area - now offer the Online Open service to their authors (listed below). For more information about this service including a list of journals willing to accept articles on this basis, go to
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/static/onlineopen.asp

Due to leave of absence, this will be the last issue of this bulletin for the current session. It is hoped to resume the Bulletin in September.