CDLINFO LISTSERV, February 28, 2002, Vol.5, No.4
CONTENTS
- CDL Database Transitions
- UC-eLinks: Permeating the Databases
- PsycINFO on CSA
- Ovid Database Releases
- SciFinder® Scholar Update: New Client and Historic Content Back to 1907 (Marion Peters, UCLA)
- GPO Gate Ceasing Production
- Library Staff News
- David Sidlo Joins the Melvyl-T Team
- For More Information
- CDL News
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- Information about CDLINFO
1. CDL Database Transitions
a. UC-eLinks: Permeating the Databases
UC users of CDL databases will begin to see UC-eLinks increasingly as it appears on the transitioning databases. UC-eLinks, based on the "OpenURL" linking technology being widely adopted in the library community, will eventually be available from the majority of the CDL's journal article databases. You may have already tried it out on Ovid's MLA. In early March it will be available in the CSA databases. Later in March, it will appear on the Ovid databases Current Contents, Ei Compendex*Plus, and INSPEC, and in BIOSIS Previews when it is regenerated.UC-eLinks provides a way to easily move from an article or book citation to
the full online content of the item, or, for print materials, to automatically
look for a UC library location of the item, or even to request that it be loaned
or sent to the user. It has the potential to link users to other services, such
as author citations, web resources, and biographical information about an author.
It replaces similar, but more limited functions that have been available in
the CDL-Hosted versions of journal article citation databases, all of which
are being replaced by more technologically up-to-date vendor-supplied versions.
UC-eLinks is an example of the kind of global solution (rather than vendor or database-specific solutions) that the CDL is pursuing to provide better integration across resources.
A UC-eLinks user guide is available at http://www.cdlib.org/guides/ucelinks/ . Background information on UC-eLinks for library staff and access to the UC-eLinks test site for other vendors is available at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/uc-elinks.
b. PsycINFO on CSA
PsycINFO [ http://www.cdlib.org/hlp/directory/psyc.html ] is now officially available via Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) along with the transitioning databases ERIC and PAIS, bringing together three important social sciences databases on the CSA database platform. As of March 6, UC-eLinks will be enabled on these and all other CSA-licensed databases (campus subscriptions included--up to twenty-four databases depending on the campus). The Transition Steering Committee endorsed turning on UC-eLinks for all CSA databases.
A UC CSA user will see a UC-eLinks pop-up window with links to electronic full
text, campus holdings, and Request by clicking on the hyperlinked "UC-eLinks"
after retrieving records.
c. Ovid Database Releases
It was announced in the October 25, 2001 issue of CDLINFO that five databases would be available via Ovid in January 2002. That schedule as been amended as follows:
| Database Name | New Access Begins | UC-eLinks | CDL Access Ends |
| BIOSIS Previews | Deferred until reload | Pend. reload | December 2002* |
| Current Contents | March 2002 | March 2002 | December 2002* |
| EiCompendex*Plus | January 2002 | March 2002 | Ends via EiVillage 6/30/02 |
| INSPEC | March 2002 | March 2002 | December 2002* |
| MLA | January 2002 | Now | March 28, 2002 (Ends via SilverPlatter) |
*CDL is committed to maintaining access through December 2002 unless there are unforeseen circumstances, such as vendors making significant changes to their data structure, or recommendations to remove parallel access earlier.
All Ovid databases continue to be available via the UC-eLinks test site at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/a-i-trans/sfxtest.html.
UC-eLinks will be activated in these databases as soon as Ovid completes the changes needed. CDL will notify the Transition Steering Committee, Users Council and Resource Liaisons as soon as specific dates can be determined.
Please refer to the Database Status document for detailed information about which services (e.g., Request, Update, etc.) will be available and when in the new versions of all A&I transition databases. Available at: http://www.cdlib.org/news/databasestatus.html .
Directions for access to these resources will be announced closer to their
implementation date, after the CDL has verified access.
2. SciFinder® Scholar Update: New Client and Historic Content Back to 1907 (Marion Peters, UCLA)
SciFinder® Scholar 2001, released this Fall by CAS, is available for downloading from UCLA's Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Web site <http://dirac.chem.ucla.edu/scifind >. UC students, faculty, and staff need to install the SciFinder Scholar 2001 client (MS Windows or Apple Macintosh) or upgrade existing SciFinder Scholar 3.0 or 2000 clients. CAS will discontinue supporting SciFinder Scholar 3.0 on March 31, 2002.
Due to the release of SciFinder Scholar 2001, CAS will discontinue supporting SciFinder Scholar 3.0 on March 31, 2002.
The entire content of Chemical Abstracts (CA) back to 1907 is now available for searching with SciFinder Scholar. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) began in 1999 adding material from pre-1967 CA issues to its online databases. The massive undertaking required converting to electronic form a huge volume of information that was previously available only in print. With the completion of this project, researchers can search this earlier literature using words in the abstract text and title, the publication title, author names, publication year, and more.
Among the pre-1967 scientific literature for which records are now accessible are many studies in fields other than chemistry, e.g., more than 100 papers by Enrico Fermi, winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics; more than 50 articles by Albert Einstein; and definitive studies by E. B. Chain, H. W. Florey and Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for the discovery of penicillin.
With the addition of 3.8 million records from pre-1967 CA issues, the number of online records totals 20.5 million records, spanning 1907 to the present. About 789,000 of the earlier records are for patents, while 2,855,000 are for journal articles. The balance of records are for books, technical reports, conference proceedings, and dissertations.
CAS has also added to the chemical substance database content. Reaction information for organic substances now extends back to 1974 with more than 5 million single- and multi-step reactions. Some 5 million calculated properties have also been added to substances.
Please remember to logout after completing searches; ports are still limited
and are shared among the UC campuses. SciFinder Scholar is available daily except
3 - 11 pm PST Saturday. Questions regarding SciFinder Scholar should be directed
to campus contacts at: <http://dirac.chem.ucla.edu/scifind/uccontacts.html>
3. GPO Gate Ceasing Production
This is to inform users of GPO Gate that the University of California's California Digital Library and the University of California, San Diego will cease production of GPO Gate on March 15th.
GPO Gate, a web interface to the suite of GPO Access databases, was originally created to overcome the early restrictions on availability of GPO Access and to provide a graphical user interface and simplified searching for our users. Throughout GPO Gate's existence we have continually strived to create and maintain a quality system that meets the needs of a broad range of users. GPO Gate became the second graphical web gateway to GPO Access on August 1, 1995 and was later adopted by the California Digital Library as the official gateway for the University of California System.
For all of those who have been involved with GPO Gate over the years, it has been a terrific project and we thank you. In particular the GPO Gate team appreciates the ideas, suggestions, and support we have received from our users. This input helped to create a first-rate interface to the GPO Access suite of databases.
We are ceasing production of GPO Gate for a variety of reasons. First, we have
found that we must spend an increasing amount of time and resources to keep
GPO Gate functioning and available. In addition, we believe the best use of
our resources will be in the area of providing persistent access to collections
of digital government information rather than gateways to information stored
on government agency websites. We believe that this focus will better meet the
current and long term needs of our users. The California Digital Library is
committed to providing superior access to digital government information. Examples
of CDL's digital government information projects include:
--Counting California (countingcalifornia.cdlib.org) provides user-friendly and integrated access to federal and State of California numeric data.
--Shared Cataloging Project, a collaborative project to systematically catalog California digital government information resources for access in University of California library catalogs.
After GPO Gate Ceases Production Please Select From the Following Methods:
1. To link to a suite of GPO Access databases:
GPO Access via Sailor: http://gpo.sailor.lib.md.us/bin/GPOAccess.cgi Sailor is a project of the Maryland Public Libraries.
GPO Access: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/index.html GPO Access is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office
2. To link to individual databases:
See the GPO Access main page ( http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/index.html ) and select from the Quick Links or the "broad topics" (e.g. Legislative, Executive, etc.) to search individual databases such as the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, etc.
For more information on the GPO Access databases or on government information
please contact a government information librarian.
4. Library Staff News
a. David Sidlo Joins the Melvyl-T Team
The Melvyl-T team has a new member. David Sidlo is a computer consultant with extensive experience in systems development and programming. He joins us to design and implement a test environment for the Ex Libris loaders and converters, and for the utility programs we are developing in-house for our new environment.
5. For More Information
a. CDL News
Several items of interest, including "Milestones," "Progress Reports," "What's New," and previous issues of CDLINFO are posted on the CDL web site (http://www.cdlib.org/) under News and Developments. Please share news of this resource with your colleagues!Remember also that reports, working documents, and status information of particular interest to library staff, are all available at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/.
b. Contacts for Questions or Problems
If you have problems accessing or using the system or have questions, including questions about the status of electronic journal collections and Internet resources, you can contact CDL staff in one of the following ways:- 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.
- Send an e-mail message to cdl@www.cdlib.org.
- Click on "News" at http://www.dbs.cdlib.org/ (also known as http://www.melvyl.ucop.edu) for information about system outages, problems with particular databases, the status of a resource, etc.
For information about whether your UC campus has access to a particular electronic journal or Internet resource, contact your local collection development officer.
c. Information about CDLINFO
CDLINFO is designed to inform UC Librarians, and the UC community, about the progress of the CDL, policy issues under discussion, and newly available electronic resources. We hope that subscribers from the UC libraries will pass on selected information from the newsletter to faculty, staff, and students on their campuses, as appropriate. More complete information about the CDL, as well as the Directory of Collections and Services which leads to digital resources, is available at the CDL website at http://www.cdlib.org.
Eligible subscribers: UC library employees
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