CDLINFO LISTSERV, May 17, 2001, Vol.4, No.8
CONTENTS
- Melvyl® Union Catalog and Database Transitions
- Melvyl® Catalog Name
- Melvyl® Catalog Transition Teams Begin Their Work
- CDL-Hosted Databases Test Accounts Extended
- A & I Staff FAQ
- SciFinder Scholar Adds More New Content (Marion Peters, UCLA)
- New Publications Page
- Library Staff News
- John Kunze Joins the CDL
- For More Information
- CDL News
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- Information about CDLINFO
1. Melvyl® Catalog and Database Transitions
a. Melvyl® Catalog Name
On April 27, the University Librarians and SOPAG discussed the first of many policy issues related to the Melvyl®Union Catalog. As a result, they endorsed a proposal that now takes effect, that the full title of the new catalog will be: Melvyl®: the Catalog of the University of California Libraries.During the transition process, the Aleph catalog will be referred to as Melvyl-T, shorthand for Melvyl Transition catalog. This will enable
-Clear distinction between the two versions of the catalog
-Creation of a URL that parallels existing URLs for other CDL services and which will remain the URL after the transition: melvyl.cdlib.org
-Legacy Melvyl to have a banner that points users to the transition catalog, with information to induce them to try it.
An overview list of the policy issues that will be addressed during the Melvyl transition is available, along with other related material, at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/catalog/.
b. Melvyl® Catalog Transition Teams Begin Their Work
Two of the three Melvyl® Catalog Transition teams have meetings scheduled. The Database and Technology Team, led by Karen Coyle of CDL, met in a two-day session May 14 and 15 at CDL in Oakland. This was their first opportunity to dig into the technical system requirements needed to adapt and bring up MELVYL on the ALEPH System.
The Melvyl® Catalog Transition Services Team, led by Ann Jensen, will meet on Friday, May 18, to consider and discuss various issues related to the functionality, presentation, and interface of Melvyl-T (as the transitional Melvyl will be called).
Notes from these meetings will be posted to the Melvyl Catalog Transition Information Page soon: http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/catalog/.
c. CDL-Hosted Databases Test Accounts Extended
A&I Test Accounts Extended And Expanded [http://www.cdlib.org/about/test-accounts.html]- Test accounts for potential vendor replacements for the CDL-hosted Databases have been extended through May 31.
- TELNET access via Ovid has been added to the test.
Please Encourage Faculty, Staff, and Students To Complete Surveys When Testing (online survey is linked from the test accounts page)
- Comments received by May 27 will be reviewed by theA&I Transition Steering Committee (TSC) members at their meeting on June 4.
- The tests will be available through May 31 for general comments.
Completing the Survey Does Make a Difference
For example, Ovid has now re-formatted their opening screen to show a single entry for each database, and they have changed the search defaults so that search terms will no longer be automatically mapped to controlled vocabulary terms.
d. A & I Staff FAQ
In the months of March and April, Laine Farley and Ellen Meltzer visited seven UC campuses to discuss the A & I transition with library staff and some faculty. In the course of those visits, staff raised many issues more relevant to library staff than to others interested in the CDL and its transitions in general. An A & I Staff FAQ, drawn from campus visits, is now available from the libstaff CDL-Hosted Abstracting and Indexing Databases Transition Page [http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/a-i-trans/aistaff_faq.rtf]
2. SciFinder Scholar Adds More New Content (Marion Peters, UCLA)
SciFinder Scholar 2000 now provides access to literature and patents from 1947 to the present. On April 22, 2001, bibliographic information and abstracts were added for over 2.2 million references published in Chemical Abstracts from 1947 to 1966.
Users May:
Please note that links to journal articles are not available from these earlier records. For example, Science and PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) are available from JSTOR back to volume 1.
Regular updates to MEDLINE are now in place on SciFinder Scholar. In addition, the annual reload of MEDLINE data was installed on April 22, 2001. Explore tasks in MEDLINE are now picking up new data.
3. New Publications Page
A Publications page has been added to our "About the CDL" section [http://www.cdlib.org/about/publications/]. This page contains publications guiding or explaining activities of the California Digital Library and written by its working groups and staff. It contains links to reports, such as the eBook Task Force Final Report, "Digital Image Collection Standards," articles, and press releases.
4. Library Staff News
a. John Kunze Joins the CDL
John Kunze has joined the CDL as a development programmer for 40% time from May 2001 to May 2002. John has worked at Berkeley, UCSF, and the National Library of Medicine, in which roles he has made well-received contributions to information standards such as Z39.50 and Dublin Core. He has also served ex officio on the CDL's Technology Architecture and Standards Working Group (http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/technology/).
For the past three years, John has been working with the National Library of Medicine on persistent identifiers and metadata. He recently returned to work at the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management as Director of Technical Planning for the Legacy National Tobacco Documents Library. His assignment there will focus on collection architecture, interfaces, persistent identifiers, and incorporation of new material.
At the CDL John will assist in the continuing development of an infrastructure for digital content management and in eScholarship efforts, especially those associated with the support of tobacco control research and dissemination. Please join us in welcoming John to the CDL and thanking UCSF for supporting another "co-librarian."
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
To subscribe for email distribution: Please send the following line to listserv@listserv.ucop.edu: SUBSCRIBE CDLINFO-L (your name)
CDLINFO is also published on the web at http://www.cdlib.org/news/cdlinfo/
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@www.cdlib.org.