CDLINFO LISTSERV, March 27, 2003 Vol.6 No. 6
CONTENTS
- It is Time to Update your Browsers
- And while We're on the Subject of Browsers
- Change to PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping (Janice Contini, UCLA; PubMed Resource Liaison)
- For More Information
- CDL News
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- Information about CDLINFO
1. It is Time to Update your Browsers
Vendors are removing support for older browser versions, e.g., Netscape 4.x. The removal of support for older browser versions may cause problems for UC library users in locales that have not yet moved to the most recent browser versions in their public areas and training rooms. These changes will have a negative impact on the work of library staff and researchers alike.Here are some examples of recent changes in browser requirements:
Ovid:
Ovid has just announced a change in their browser support:
Effective June 30, 2003, Ovid's minimum browser requirements will be upgraded
to Internet Explorer 5.x and above, and Netscape 6.x and above. Some of Ovid's
new features also require JavaScript and cookies to be enabled.
CSA:
For the Internet Database Service Version 6.0 (IDS 6.0), released last fall,
CSA recommends using Netscape 5.0 or newer, or Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer.
CSA's IDS 6.0 contains advanced features that are not compatible with the old
browsers, and users may get random errors depending on which browser is used.
Melvyl-T
Melvyl-T requires recent versions of browsers to view special characters:
To view special characters, e.g., accented Western characters and Chinese, Japanese,
and Korean, in Melvyl-T we recommend the most recent versions of Internet Explorer
or Netscape be installed on your computer (IE 5.0 and above and Netscape 6.0
and above). In addition, you must have a font that can display the characters.
A free font that displays most of the characters in Melvyl-T records is Ariel
Unicode MS, which is supplied with Office 2000, or can be obtained from the
Microsoft site. This font can be used on Windows or Macintosh computers. Some
older browsers and older computers can make use of the character displays described
here but it may be necessary to download fonts for individual languages one
at a time.
Not sure what browser version to choose for upgrading?
The following browsers support most of the web standards created by the World
Wide Web Consortium including CSS, XHTML, and the DOM (a means of controlling
the behavior of web pages):
Mozilla
http://www.mozilla.org/
IE6 or higher for Windows
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
IE5 or higher for Macintosh
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/ie/ie_default.asp?navindex=s7a
Netscape 6 or higher for all platforms
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp
2. And while We're on the Subject of Browsers
In some browsers (e.g., Netscape 4.x versions, Opera, and Mozilla) when the font size is much larger than the default settings, the entire Web page is not visible on the screen. In the case of Melvyl-T, this means that horizontal scrolling is required to view the right hand portion of the Melvyl-T Advanced search screen, where the Results box is found. This is problematic, since catalog users, not seeing the Results box, may believe their searches retrieved zero results. Please be sure your default font size settings allow for viewing of the entire screen for the Melvyl-T catalog, as well as for many of the new databases.
3. Change to PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping (Janice Contini, UCLA; PubMed Resource Liaison)
Change to PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping will affect phrase searching. NLM plans to improve the ability of PubMed to find appropriate Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) by removing the phrase list table from the Automatic Term Mapping.What is MeSH and why does this matter?
Indexers use the MeSH terms to describe the subject content of articles as they
are added to MEDLINE in PubMed. We can then retrieve citations relevant to our
topic no matter what terminology the author used to describe the subject. So,
usually when PubMed interprets our query into MeSH, our results are more complete.
How will removing the phrase list help?
Currently PubMed searches the words input against a MeSH translation table,
then against the journals translation table, then against the phrase list table,
and finally against the author index. If the complete phrase as entered in the
query is not found in the MeSH table, but is found in the phrase list, the system
stops the Automatic Term Mapping process. An example of a search query that
currently retrieves a phrase but not a MeSH is chronic urinary tract infections.
Currently the query retrieves 141 citations covering all years (1965 to present)
containing the exact phrase. When the Automatic Term Mapping no longer includes
the phrase list, the query will retrieve 2475 citations covering all years containing
the word chronic, the MeSH urinary tract infections, and the phrase urinary
tract infections.
What are the adverse effects of this change?
You may find that PubMed interprets terms in your query inappropriately to MeSH.
For example, if you are interested in mongolian spots, currently PubMed interprets
your query as a phrase and retrieves 44 citations covering all years. When the
Automatic Term Mapping no longer includes the phrase list, the query will retrieve
92 citations covering all years containing the MeSH down syndrome or the word
mongolian as well as the MeSH exanthema or the word spots. To retrieve ONLY
the concept mongolian spots (the 44 citations containing that exact phrase,)
you will need to use quotation marks: "mongolian spots".
What action should you take?
If you use either the PubMed Cubby or BioMail to regularly update your results
on a topic, you may wish to check your strategies now and once again following
the change to Automatic Term Mapping.
For the PubMed Cubby, to find out if your stored strategies include phrases
or terms that will be affected by this change,
1. Log into the Cubby
2. On the list of your stored searches, click on the name of a search. This
takes you to the Stored Search Information screen for that search.
3. Click on the Search button to retrieve citations for that query (without
updating it)
4. On the screen with the search results, click on Details; look for multi-word
terms in the PubMed Query box that are tagged with [All Fields].
After the change is implemented, you should check again to make sure that terms have not retrieved inappropriate MeSH for your topic.
For BioMail,
1. Log into BioMail
2. Highlight your strategy and copy it
3. Go to PubMed and paste it into the search box
4. Click on Go; follow the instructions above for checking Details
We recommend checking to see how PubMed interpreted your query by clicking
Details anytime you are searching PubMed. For further information and assistance
in searching PubMed, contact your campus reference librarians; campus contact
info and guides available here: http://www.cdlib.org/guides/pubmed/
4. 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 "What's New" 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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