CDLINFO Newsletter, January 22, 2004, Vol. 7, No. 2
CONTENTS
- Scholarly Communication Planning: Faculty Seminars Report
(Courtesy Announcement for Systemwide Library Planning) - New Resource Available
- Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker (Digital Library of German Classics)
- Earthquake Engineering Abstracts (EEA) Database Changes Platforms
- Library Staff News
- Shifra Raffel Joins the Digital Ingest Group
- For More Information
- News and Publications
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- About CDLINFO
1. Scholarly Communication Planning: Faculty Seminars Report
(Courtesy Announcement for Systemwide Library Planning)The Office of Systemwide Library Planning sponsored two regional seminars in late fall 2003 to discuss scholarly communication issues and strategies for change. More than 60 participants hailing from all UC campuses and a wide-ranging set of disciplines (including the sciences and health sciences, humanities, and social sciences) attended. More than 20 key thematic issues were identified, and are posed as questions for UC action in the attendant report (available at http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/scholarly/fall_03_facultyforums.html).
In related news, a letter outlining efforts initiated in the Academic Senate and among the UC's libraries to address scholarly communication was recently sent to all UC faculty from Academic Senate Chair Lawrence Pitts and the University Librarians. The letter, while announcing the successful completion of negotiations with publisher Reed Elsevier, cautions that, "However great our success in securing an acceptable contract with a single publisher, we have only just begun to address the deeper structural problems in scholarly communication that fundamentally threaten the academy." Full text of the letter is available at http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/facmemoscholcomm_010704.pdf.
2. New Resource Available
a. Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker (Digital Library of German Classics)
By Jim Spohrer, UC BerkeleyThe Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker (Digital Library of German Classics) contains all of the works in the Deutscher Klassiker Verlag printed editions except works by Schiller, Goethe, and Wieland. The web edition is currently being issued in eight complete full-text releases. Published in cooperation with the Deutscher Klassiker Verlag Frankfurt am Main, the database provides electronic access to 133 volumes of the print edition, SGML-coded and manually keyed.
The database is highly regarded in Germany and throughout the world as the premier collection of literary and non-literary German writing. All of the texts in the Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker have been newly edited by leading international scholars and are accompanied by extensive commentaries that reflect the most recent research. The database holds 31 single-author editions (Werkausgaben), including writers such as Wolfram von Eschenbach, Kleist, and Kant, and all 16 collections (Sammelwerke) of historical, philosophical, theological, political, and art history texts.
The Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker gives users the ability to cross-search an outstanding corpus of classic texts and opens up significant new possibilities for research in German literature, language, and thought.
Endorsed by the Joint Steering Committee on Shared Collections (JSC), and approved by the Collection Development Committee (CDC), the database is an important contribution to our digital collection of international scholarly resources.
As part of its collaborative mission, the CDL partially funded this one-time purchase, supported by co-investment over five years with zero percent financing from six participating campuses (UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UCLA, and UC Merced) to allow access throughout the UC system. The license contains perpetual access to guarantee ongoing UC research for future generations.
The database is available at http://klassiker.chadwyck.com.
Note: The CDL would like to thank Jim Spohrer for leading the negotiations for this license.
3. Earthquake Engineering Abstracts (EEA) Database Changes Platforms
The Earthquake Engineering Abstracts (EEA) database is now available to the UC community as part of the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) databases in civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering.
Charles James, UC Berkeley's Earthquake Engineering Research Center's (EERC) Librarian and Information Services Manager, secured special arrangements for UC access to continue upon EEA's transition to a commercial database via CSA. The database, which was previously made publicly available by the EERC, is produced by the National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering at UC Berkeley. Bob Heyer-Gray (UC Davis) will continue to be our Resource Liaison.
Information about earthquake engineering and earthquake studies from journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, maps, videos, slides, and computer files is included in the database. Topics include structural dynamics, seismology, geology, architecture, political science, economics, planning, public policy, and hazards mitigation as they relate to earthquake studies.
Records in the Directory of CDL-Licensed Content and the Melvyl Catalog are currently being updated and will be available shortly. In the meantime, you can access this resource via the following URL: http://www.cdlib.org/hlp/directory/eea.html.
Note: Access to this database via UC Berkeley will end on January 31, 2004. After this time, the database will no longer be available to the general public.
4. Library Staff News
a. Shifra Raffel Joins the Digital Ingest Group
On January 12, Shifra Raffel joined the CDL's Digital Ingest group as a Programmer Analyst II on a two-year staff contract. Mostly recently, Shifra worked for UC Berkeley as a Web Applications Programmer with the Institute of Transportation Studies' Technology Transfer Program. Her broad range of programming skills (including Perl, Java, XML, and XSLT) will make her an invaluable addition to the Digital Ingest group and to the organization as a whole. Shifra is interested in metadata and databases, and will most likely work on Text Ingest systems and on the Preservation Repository.
5. For More Information
a. News and Publications
News and events, press releases, reports and guidelines, and articles published by CDL staff are posted on the CDL web site. Please share news of this resource with your colleagues!
In addition, status information about CDL resources, reports, and working documents of particular interest to library staff are available on the Inside CDL web site.
b. Contacts for Questions or Problems
If you have problems accessing CDL resources or have questions, including questions about the status of electronic journal collections and Internet resources, contact the CDL:- For immediate assistance, call the CDL Helpline at 510-987-0555. Callers with TDD equipment, please call 1-800-735-2929 in California for the telephone relay operator.
- Or, send an email to cdl@www.cdlib.org.
For information about whether your UC campus has access to a particular electronic journal or Internet resource, contact your local collection development officer.
c. About CDLINFO
CDLINFO informs UC librarians and the UC community about the progress of the CDL, policy issues under discussion, and newly available electronic resources. Please share selected information from this newsletter with faculty, staff, and students on the campuses.
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