CONTENTS
- PAIS and RILM Available in Test Mode
- TEN Database Removal
- New Name for CDL's MEDLINE Database
- ICOLC Meeting March 4-6, 1999
- Shared Collections: New Documents Available
- Bibliographers Listserv
- Remember CDLALERT
- Pat Flowers Remembered (Alan Ritch, UC Santa Cruz)
- For More Information
- CDL News
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- Information about the CDLINFO-L Listserv
1. RILM and PAIS Available in Test Mode
a. RILM (@OCLC) Abstracts of Music Literature Database
The RILM (@OCLC) database, produced by Repertoire International de Literature Musicale, will be available on the CDL web site with a web interface in early April, and is currently available for testing at (http://merlin.ucop.edu/meltst). Comments on the test version may be sent to Lucia Snowhill (snowhill@library.ucsb.edu) by APRIL 2nd.The RILM (@OCLC) database indexes all types of materials in the field of music, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, instruments, voice, performance practice and notation, theory and analysis, pedagogy, liturgy, criticism, dance, and music therapy. Items are included in the database from other fields as they relate to music, such as literature, dramatic arts, visual arts, acoustics, aesthetics, linguistics, mathematics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and physics. RILM (@OCLC) has international coverage, with records in over 200 languages. Entries include original language titles, English translation titles, and full bibliographic information with abstracts. The database includes all types of scholarly works: articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, Festschriften, films and videos, iconographies, critical commentaries, ethnographic recordings, conference proceedings, reviews, etc.
RILM (@OCLC) includes over 200,000 records from 1969 to the present, and is updated monthly. Search options and database descriptions have been carried over as much as possible to be consistent with the information in the Telnet version of RILM.
To locate items in your search results at UC or other California libraries, search for periodical titles in the California Periodicals (PE) database or for books in the Melvyl Catalog (CAT).
b. PAIS International (@OCLC) Database
The PAIS International (@OCLC) database, produced by Public Affairs Information Services, Inc., will be available on the CDL web site in with a web interface in early April, and is currently available for testing at (http://merlin.ucop.edu/meltst). Comments on the test version may be sent to Lucia Snowhill (snowhill@library.ucsb.edu) by APRIL 2nd.The PAIS International @OCLC database indexes all types of materials in the field of public affairs, including topics such as agriculture, banking, demographics, education, environment, finance, government, law, legislation, political science, social sciences, and statistics. PAIS International (@OCLC) has international coverage that includes periodicals, books and government information in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
PAIS International (@OCLC) includes records from 1972 to the present, and is updated monthly. Search options and database descriptions have been carried over as much as possible to be consistent with the information in the Telnet version of PAIS.
To locate items in your search results at UC or other California libraries, search for periodical titles in the California Periodicals (PE) database or for books in the Melvyl Catalog (CAT).
2. TEN Database Removal
As has been discussed with various groups including SOPAG and the User Services Group, the TEN-year Catalog will be removed from both the telnet and web versions of the system. The TEN-year Catalog resides in the same physical database as the older MEDLINE backfiles. MED66, MED75, and MED80 backfiles will be replaced with the regenerated versions on April 7 and so TEN is scheduled for removal on that date.In the web version, this change will be relatively transparent to the users. The equivalent date limit will still be offered as an option. Saved search histories in the web will be mapped to the Melvyl Catalog and will indicate to the user that there has been a change. Remember, users will need to modify their searches if they want to apply the date limit.
Users who attempt to use TEN in linemode will see a message that it is no longer available and to use the Melvyl Catalog. The message will also remind them that the limit "AND DATE RECENT" will show the items from the last ten years as well as the current year. Last fall, peak load restrictions were removed for the Melvyl Catalog. The rules for long search have been adjusted so that fewer searches will generate this message. Catalog performance since these changes show no significant effects.
All Updates currently being run against TEN will be mapped to the Melvyl Catalog. However, we will not be able to add the date limit to these Updates. As a result, users will get recently cataloged items that were published more than ten years ago as part of the Update result. We will send out an email to all users with Updates in TEN explaining the change and describing how to re-submit the Update to add the date limit (if using linemode) or edit the Update (if using the web).
3. New Name for CDL's MEDLINE PLUS Database
The CDL-hosted database MEDLINE PLUS has been renamed MEDLINE/HealthSTAR. The National Library of Medicine now offers their consumer-based system with the name MEDLINE PLUS. Any direct links to MEDLINE PLUS should be changed to reflect the new name. MEDLINE/HealthSTAR contains records from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) MEDLINE and HealthSTAR (HEALTH) databases.4. ICOLC Meeting March 4-6, 1999
Beverlee French, associate director for shared collections and services, represented the CDL at the recent meeting of the International Coalition of Library Consortia. Not only does this group provide a forum twice yearly in which to query invited vendors about their consortial business and licensing issues, but it provides useful contacts with whom to compare strategies for licensing and collaborative decision-making. Although the number of consortia is growing, attendance is limited to two individuals per consortium to preserve the group's spontaneity. ICOLC's official web page is at Yale (http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/); its unofficial web page is at OhioLink (http://gold.ohiolink.edu/consortia/). Detailed reports by Ann Okerson, Yale associate university librarian, on the March 4-6 sessions are available on the CDL Shared Collections web page (www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/).ICOLC has promulgated three sets of guidelines, which should be useful to all of us in shaping the marketplace. The most recent two, "Guidelines for Statistical Measures of Usage of Web-based Indexed, Abstracted, and Full Text Resources, November 1998" and "Guidelines for Technical Issues in Request for Proposal (RFP) Requirements and Contract Negotiations, January 1999" (on the Yale site and linked from the CDL Shared Collections site), were addressed by a panel of vendors. ISI, Cambridge Scientific, and CIS representatives responded favorably to these guidelines and spoke to their own progress in meeting them. ISI has concentrated its resources on links to full-text. ISI has plans for a consortium in order to share ports without identical backfiles, but still no plans to provide use data by IP address (and therefore by school) in its shared port arrangements. The desirability of Z39.50 capability for abstract/index producers engendered lively discussion.
Vendors invited to present included Softline (Ethnic Newswatch, etc.), Responsive Data Systems (Contemporary Women's Issues), Dun & Bradstreet, Gale Group, and Cambridge Scientific, ABC-CLIO, Oxford University Press (for OED and other reference projects). Small discussion groups addressed RFP/Contracting issues, multi-type consortial issues, electronic journal licensing, and funding and funding formulae. Plenary sessions also addressed multi-consortial licensing prospects and advertising in scholarly resources.
A few highlights may be of interest to CDLInfo readers: The Gale Group will probably create new information products by marrying Gale reference products with IAC periodicals and Primary Source Media full-text resources. Linking to library holdings and amongst resources seems to be prominent in many vendors' developments. For example, Gale Group will link its products to LION (e.g., Scribner Writer Series, Literature Resource Center). Another emerging feature is the integration of web resources into reference and abstracting/indexing tools. An interesting measure of the quality of these selections was the number of sites disappearing in the regular link checks.
SOLINET negotiated a national license for Academic Universe. SOLINET Director Angee Baker advised that such mega-licensing works best for new, emergent products that do not have extensive market penetration. Some possibilities on the horizon are Poole's Plus, an index of 19th Century periodical literature and full-text (about 80%), and McGraw-Hill's Access Science. Oxford Analytica (Ox Research and Ox Week) has announced pricing that is based on the total amount of North American business. SOLINET has indicated interest in additional national negotiations. SOLINET's Academic Universe arrangement consumed 4,069 person hours or 543 workdays, including 697 senior manager hours and 1,150 accounting staff hours.
Advertising in information products launched a lively discussion. Although the ICOLC has a committee to advise CIS on advertising guidelines for Academic Universe (apparently advertising hasn't panned out, resulting in considerably raised prices), there was no conclusion that it is wise for the ICOLC to involve itself in this arena.
5. Shared Collections: New Documents Available
There are new additions to CDL web shared collections materials (www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/). A new chart called "Summary of Survey Results for Commercial Files with Multiple Mention" has been added. It is the last item listed under materials from the Joint Steering Committee on Shared Collections. Within it are highlighted the recommended priorities for investigation and negotiation in the humanities and social sciences. The CDL will work on these resources in 1999, in addition to ongoing journal publisher negotiations. If some of these resources appear unlikely to come to fruition because of intractable business and licensing issues or co-investment funding problems, others may be substituted.The JSCSC selects resources for their systemwide importance and for the balance across subjects and material types they represent. Guidelines in the "CDL Collection Framework" now include the "Collection Development Matrix", and the JSCSC's recent "Criteria for Priority Selection" (also newly available on the shared collections web site), which help guide the selections for near horizon negotiations.
Readers are reminded that the "CDL Collections Update" in the Documents section can be consulted for the status of investigations/negotiations with particular vendors or publishers. A summary version of this document is now linked from the "About Collections" section of the public CDL web page. Both of these are updated weekly with new developments.
6. Bibliographers Listserv
The CDL has created the libchair-l@ucop.edu listserv for the Chairs of Bibliographer and Library Subject Groups. This will be an "open" list, so non-members may send information to it, but its membership is closed to all but the Chairs. This listserv makes it more convenient for the CDL and the bibliographer groups to consult with each other.7. Remember CDLALERT
To receive current, detailed information that may be of immediate interest to UC library staff on new content and revisions to the CDL web sites, including the Directory of Collections and Services, subscribe to the CDLALERT-L listserv. Send the line SUBSCRIBE CDLALERT-L8. Pat Flowers Remembered (Alan Ritch, UC Santa Cruz)
On Tuesday, March 23, 1999, the University of California lost one of its finest librarians, when Pat Flowers, UC Riverside, passed away, having suffered a heart attack at her library the previous day. Several of the attendees at the CDL Forum on March 24 had worked with Pat on the MELVYL System User Services Group (USG) or on MELVYL related projects. She was one of the most active members of USG for more than a decade, representing her campus with energy and distinction. She was remembered at the Forum with affection and respect as one of UC's "quintessential co-librarians," working collaboratively with colleagues from the other campuses to help develop a unified tool in which we could all take enormous pride. Recently, Pat agreed to serve on a task force helping to plan the momentous transition from the MELVYL system to its successor. Now, sadly, someone else will have to take her place. But, in a very real sense, Pat Flowers will be utterly irreplaceable.9. For More Information
a. CDL News
Several items of interest, including "Milestones," "Highlights 1997-1998," and "What's New" are now posted on the CDL informational web site (http://www.cdlib.org/) under News and Developments. Please share news of this resource with your colleagues!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 the CDLINFO-L Listserv
The CDLINFO-L Listserv 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 Listserv 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
To subscribe: Please send the following line to listserv@listserv.ucop.edu: SUBSCRIBE CDLINFO-L (your name)
Frequency of publication: Biweekly, or as new information warrants.
Communicating with the Listserv: While the CDL Listserv does not accept submissions, subscribers are encouraged to send suggestions, thoughts, and comments on material in the Listserv or on related issues to the CDL at cdl@ucop.edu.