CDLINFO LISTSERV, July 11, 2002, Vol.5, No.12
CONTENTS
- CDL Database Transitions
- Melvyl-T Prototype Catalog Now Available!
- A&I Update
- New Resources Available
- 10 Proquest Databases
- MLA Directory of Periodicals on OVID (Rob Melton, UCSD)
- ASM International Journals
- New Online Archive of California (OAC) Interface Release
- OCLC Combining NetFirst with WorldCat
- UC Digital Library Developers Forum
- Library Staff News
- Melvyl Transition Team
- For More Information
- CDL News
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- Information about CDLINFO
1. CDL Database Transitions
a. Melvyl-T Prototype Catalog Now Available!
The Melvyl-T prototype catalog, a small prototype catalog database of ~630,000 records, or about 3% of the current Melvyl catalog, is now available for review and testing by library staff and selected public. (An earlier version of the same database has been available and used for usability testing since March.).
The URL for the prototype catalog is http://mel-t.cdlib.org
A telnet version of the catalog, based on the same small database is available at telnet://lotje.ucop.edu
Links to feedback forms are available from both the telnet and web versions of the prototype. Please use the feedback instruments. We want to hear from you!
Note: Because it is running on a small server, users may occasionally get a "system is busy" message from the prototype.
For information about how the new catalog came to be, take a look at El Mel (Ex Libris Melvyl) Tells: http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/melvyl/elmeltells/emtv1n1.html
We want to acknowledge the help of the campus representatives to the Melvyl Transition Teams, the campus Evaluation Liaisons, and others beyond the CDL, on the campuses, who have either advised us in the creation of the catalog, or contributed in some other way.
The new, full (production) catalog will be released to faculty and students in fall 2002. The old version of the Melvyl Catalog will continue to be available for the entire academic year, 2002-03. The overlap period is meant to assure the reliability and functionality of the new catalog, and to allow librarians and faculty a period in which they can learn to use the new catalog efficiently and create necessary training materials and guides. A third round of usability testing on Melvyl-T will be conducted in late fall, 2002, after library staff and selected users have had some experience in using the catalog, and after some feedback has been gathered.
(The A & I journal database transitions-in which the CDL-hosted versions of 25-plus databases are being replaced by vendor-supplied versions-will proceed on their existing timetables, with the CDL-hosted versions retiring at the end of December 2002.)
Initially, the Melvyl-T database will consist of UC monograph (CAT) and serials (PE) records only, including those from affiliated libraries. Therefore, users will have access to UC holdings as early as possible. The CDL and the campus libraries will continue evaluating technical and policy issues regarding the inclusion of several sources for non-UC book and periodical records.
Several enhancements are being implemented especially for the Melvyl database above and beyond what is provided in the current "Aleph" software from the catalog software vendor, Ex Libris. Some of these developments are a result of staff input to the Melvyl Library Staff Survey ("hidden uses" of Melvyl) conducted in summer, 2001. Examples include the ability to maneuver among different display formats (including a review format), and the ability to view campus specific cataloging for each item in a set of equivalent records.
The new system will also allow users to do the following, which CDL is unable to provide with current (legacy) Melvyl's technology:
- General keyword search: Currently, users can search keyword(s) within an index (e.g., keyword(s) in title). Keyword searching in the new database will be primarily subject-oriented, including titles, subject headings, notes, and genre fields. Other examples of searchable indexes include notes, publisher, conference and others, some listed below.
- Limit search to electronic resources only: This would return only bibliographic records that have a link (URL) to electronic format.
- Phrase and proximity searching: The ability to search for words adjacent or near to each other (e.g., searching for the phrase "online catalog").
- Sorting results: Ex Libris allows users to select and change the order
in which their search results are sorted and displayed, for example, sorting
by title or by date.
- Call number searching: A call number search will return an ordered display of call numbers and titles · Combine UC books and periodicals (CAT & PE) in one database: Currently, users must search for books in the CAT databases separately from periodical titles in the PE databases. For example, over the years, many long-standing conference series have been catalogued by some campuses as monographs, and by others as serials, resulting in holdings being divided between CAT and PE. Merging these files together will better integrate the holdings of these important campus resources and address this frequent complaint.
- Multilingual character set support: The ability to sort and display using characters from languages (e.g., Chinese) used in UC catalogs. Later enhancements will add a search capability on the vernacular fields.
- Music searching and display: It will be possible to provide better access to music materials by creating special indexes and displays that account for uniform titles, music publisher numbers, and other aspects of retrieving music scores and recordings.
- Browsing (heading searches): A heading search (e.g., author, series, subject) will return a list of headings. The user can then move forward or backward through this list, and scan and select the most appropriate heading, which will then return a list of bibliographic records that used that particular heading.
- Name and subject cross references: We will load cross references so these will be displayed in browse displays to aid in the selection of the most appropriate name or subject term.
b. A&I Update
Beginning July 1--BIOSIS Previews was released in its Ovid interface
--The MLA Directory of Periodicals was released in the Ovid version. We will now begin investigating with the Resource Liaison for MLA, Rob Melton, when to bring down the SilverPlatter and CDL-hosted versions.
--UC-eLinks on the RLG/Eureka databases was released with all three services activated. RLG/Eureka databases are: RLG Union Catalog, RLG Serials File, Anthropological Index, Royal Anthropological Institute, Anthropological Literature, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, Bibliography of the History of Art, Chicano Database, CURL Union Catalogue, Deutsche Bibliothek Database, English Short Title Catalogue, FRANCIS (Humanities & Social Sciences), Hand Press Book, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals, Inside Information PLUS, National Library of Australia Catalogue, Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies, SCIPIO: Art and Rare Book Sales Catalogs
On July 10
-- SearchLight was moved over to searching the vendor versions of the transitioning
databases.
--All three services of UC-eLinks were activated on all of the Ovid databases:
BIOSIS, Current Contents, Ei Compendex*Plus, Inspec, and MLA. Sometime in July
we expect Ovid to start using the UC-eLinks icon.
--The UC-eLinks icon was released in the Gale databases: Computer Database,
Expanded Academic ASAP, National Newspaper Index.
2. New Resources Available
NOTE: New resources listed below are not yet in the CDL Directory of Collections and Services; they will be added within the next 2 weeks. You can access them directly from the URL provided.
A list of recently added content is always available at: http://www.cdlib.org/news/whatsnew.html
a. 10 Proquest Databases
The databases included in this package from ProQuest have long been high priorities for UC campus subject selectors. EEBO, in particular, was repeatedly requested by English literature, Women's Studies, and Performing Arts librarians. The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) has recommended this rich, full-image collection as a systemwide resource for several years, but the cost to make it available system-wide was prohibitive. After considerable negotiation, the CDL was able to arrive at acceptable license fees and improved terms. The CDL purchased the EEBO images and the campuses will co-invest in the annual web access fees beginning in 2005. UC campuses will also co-invest in one complete archival copy of the microfilm.
The JSC received many requests for the other resources in this package, which were equally desired. Some, like the Gerritsen Women's Collection, the APS, and PCI full text, were previously negotiated by campus selectors or the CDL, but when price negotiations reached an impasse, the UC Collection Development Committee and the JSC recommended negotiating them all as a package to achieve the best value for the University. The CDL is pleased to announce that it has purchased all the content and that they are all now accessible via the web.
EEBO (John Novak, UCI)
Early English Books Online (EEBO) [http://uclibs.org/PID/9282]
is a database that provides access to over 125,000 volumes of early works printed
in England or in English between 1473 and 1700. These works constitute a significant
portion of items included in the English Short Title Catalogue. More specifically,
EEBO contains most of the works indexed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title
Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and the Thomason
Tracts (1640-1661) collection. Each work in EEBO is the full-text page facsimile
of the original. No longer will patrons be required to read these historical
documents on microfiche; instead, they will be able to read, print, or download
high quality page images from their computers.
Researchers of English history (particularly the English Civil War), literature, philosophy, linguistics, the fine arts, theater and drama from 1473-1600 will find EEBO an invaluable research tool. Patrons will also use EEBO to obtain primary source material from this period. As a special feature, EEBO offers an illustration search that enables users to find printed portraits, maps, printer's marks, coat of arms, and much more. This database also allows one to search under author, title, subject, and current physical location of the original work.
American Periodicals Series Online
American Periodicals Series Online, 1740-1900 [http://uclibs.org/PID/16610
] includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals
published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Published between
1741 and 1900, the more than 1,000 titles include Benjamin Franklin's General
Magazine, the first American professional journals, and several popular magazines
still in publication, such as Vanity Fair, Harper's, and Ladies' Home Journal.
Users can trace America's transition from colony to world power, or conduct
in-depth research. Topics include: Revolution and independence; Slavery, emancipation,
Reconstruction, and Jim Crow; Opening and settling the frontier; The changing
role of women; The short story as an emerging genre; Advances in medicine and
technology; Trends in politics, science, and religion.
Gerritsen Collection, Women's History Online
Gerritsen Collection, Women's History Online, 1543-1945 [ http://uclibs.org/PID/9286
] contains women's history in the world from 1543 to 1945. 4,700 publications
from Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, tracing
the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of
one country's movement on those of the others.
Acta Sanctorum
Acta Sanctorum [ http://acta.chadwyck.com
] is a collection of documents examining the lives of saints, organized according
to each saint's feast day, and runs from the two January volumes published in
1643 to the Propylaeum to December published in 1940.
Patrologia Latina Database
Patrologia Latina Database [http://pld.chadwyck.com
] is an electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia
Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published
between 1862 and 1865. The Patrologia Latina comprises the works of the Church
Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216.
The Patrologia Latina Database contains the complete Patrologia Latina, including
all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's
column numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included.
PCI Full Text
PCI Full Text [http://pcift.chadwyck.com
] contains full images of articles for 200 complete journal runs in the humanities
and social sciences from 1770 to 1995.
20th Century English Poetry
20th Century English Poetry [ http://collections.chadwyck.com/20enpo/htxview?template=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx
] is a collection of 598 volumes of poetry by 283 poets from 1900 to the present
day, including W. B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Graves, A. E. Housman, John
Betjeman, Fleur Adcock, Tony Harrison, Benjamin Zephaniah and Carol Ann Duffy,
and incorporating the poets in The Faber Poetry Library.
African-American Poetry, 1750-1900
African-American Poetry, 1750-1900 [http://collections.chadwyck.com/daap/htxview?template=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx
] contains approximately 3,000 poems written by African-American poets in the
late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
American Poetry, 1600-1900
American Poetry, 1600-1900 [http://collections.chadwyck.com/ampo/htxview?template=basic.htx&content=frameset.htx
] contains over 40,000 poems by more than 200 American poets from the Colonial
Period to the early twentieth century
b. MLA Directory of Periodicals on OVID (Rob Melton, UCSD)
The MLA Directory of Periodicals [http://uclibs.org/PID/9818 ] is available to all UC campuses. The companion to the MLA International Bibliography, the Directory contains detailed bibliographical data on over 3,700 serials—journals and monographic series—in the fields of literature, language, linguistics, folklore, composition and rhetoric, with more selective listings in the fields of theater and film and the rather amorphous field of cultural studies.
Detailed Description of Functionality
For each serial title in the directory, the following pieces of information are available (if applicable): title, acronym, publication type, accession number, ISSN, publisher, country of publication, editor(s), editorial address/phone/fax/e-mail, year first published, frequency, media type, electronic comment, subscription address, price, scope, descriptors, language(s), circulation, types of articles included (i.e., short notes, book reviews, etc.), whether advertising is accepted and rates, sponsoring organization, submission restrictions, submission fee, page charges, suggested article length, style manual preferred, microform distributor, copyright ownership, number of manuscript readers, number of articles submitted/published per year, processing time, disposition of rejected manuscripts, and the date the information was last verified. Each piece of information has a two-letter code that can be used in search statements.
As users of the print version of the Directory know, the vast majority of searches for this database are made in order to obtain information about particular serials—researchers to learn submission policies and editorial contacts, librarians to ascertain subscription prices and addresses. Online searching capability, however, will more easily allow users to make new queries, i.e. to compile lists of titles that meet certain criteria. Scholars with a very succinct research discovery, for example, may get a list of journals that focus on the Renaissance, that do publish short notes, and that don’t have a submission fee. Librarians who are weak in the medieval period can determine which English-language journals in that field publish book reviews. (When limiting by subject, I recommend searching both the Descriptor [.de] and Scope [.sc] fields.) Making a potential serial cancellation list targeting a particular expensive or unfriendly publisher is also possible.
Some other potentially useful searches are problematic due to inconsistent terminology used within the data fields. For example, it is not easy to limit to journals that allow authors to maintain their copyrights because other words besides “author” and “publisher” are sometimes used; for example, the use of the phrase “author assigns to publisher” means the title will show up whether you search the copyright field by either author or publisher. It is also not possible to get lists of journals that cost more than, or less than, a particular amount; you can get a list of titles that cost 100 (although it may be dollars, pounds, marks, yen, and francs), but not one of titles that cost $100 or more. Trying to limit a search to journals published in California, for example, won’t be precise because “CA,” “Calif.,” and California are all used in the publisher address field and because CA is also used for Canada. As with the MLAIB itself, a more rigorous thesaurus and consistent usage by the publisher could improve search results considerably.
The default search—i.e., typing in words without following them with a specific two-letter field code— in either the Basic or Advanced mode—searches for terms in only the descriptor field. This is logical in most A&I databases, in which users are likely to be searching by subject, but it is perhaps counterintuitive in a ready-reference source such as a directory, in which one is usually seeking data on a specific, known item. For example, in either the Basic or Advanced mode, you can’t type in just “PMLA” in the search box to get the bibliographic and subscription information for that journal. Instead, you must either specify the two-letter code for the title field or (if it has one) title acronym (e.g., Shakespeare Quarterly.tp or PMLA.ta) or use the “Search Fields” icon on the Advanced search screen. The default search is best used to identify periodicals that publish on a particular topic, e.g. “modern language” or “Shakespeare,” although (as noted above) such a search should also include the Scope (.sc) field for best results.
Finally, in the initial results page, periodical titles are always preceded by the editors’ names. Since this piece of information is one of the most likely to be out of date and is not usually one of the key pieces of information desired, a different display format would be more useful.
Despite these caveats, it is exciting to have this resource in an electronic
format, particularly for the benefit of researchers and librarians who need
to identify humanities serials that match certain criteria.
c. ASM International Journals
Five journals published by ASM International, the society for materials engineers and scientists, have been activated for access on the ScienceDirect platform. The ASM journals provide the latest research in metals and materials and offer practical solutions for engineering problems. ASM International is one of the "third-party publishers" who use the ScienceDirect platform and supplemental licensing is required.
The ASM journals are available to all campuses:
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10599495
Journal of Phase Equilibria
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10549714
Journal of Thermal Spray Technology
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10599630
Metallurgical and Materials Transactions. A, Physical metallurgy and materials
science
(Co-published with TMS, "The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society")
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10735623
Metallurgical and Materials Transactions. B, Process metallurgy and materials
processing science
(Co-published with TMS, "The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society")
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10735615
3. New Online Archive of California (OAC) Interface Release
On July 15, 2002 the Online Archive of California (OAC) web site [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/] will have a new interface. We would like to thank all of you who sent us your feedback. While we were not able to incorporate all suggestions into this release, we will continue to improve and enhance the interface through the summer and in future releases.
The old interface, accessed via Dynaweb technology, is scheduled to run in parallel through December 31,2002.
4. OCLC Merging NetFirst Records into WorldCat
OCLC will be integrating the OCLC NetFirst database into WorldCat on the OCLC FirstSearch service and NetFirst will no longer be available as a separate database. On July 23, OCLC will begin turning off access to NetFirst and access will be removed from all FirstSearch authorizations by July 31, 2002.
Please note that most of NetFirst records have been part of WorldCat since August 2000. WorldCat also includes records for Internet resources that have been added by member libraries and netLibrary records.
By July 23, Z39.50 Administrators must remove their configurations for: database name - netfirst database short name - netf
How to Limit to Internet Only Records in WorldCat
1) AND limit term "http" to a search using:
Access Method (am) index
This retrieves any type of records with a URL in the 856 field.
2) AND limit term "internet" to a search using:
Internet Resource (ir) restrictor
This can include Internet resources or records that can also be found on the
Internet.
3) AND limit term "url" to a search using:
Document Type (dt) restrictor
This results in only items that are a cataloged Internet resource, including
both the NetFirst records and membership-supplied records.
5. UC Digital Library Developers Forum
What: A forum for UC Library staff developing digital library collections and services, co-sponsored by SOPAG's UC Digital Library Forum Program Committee (formerly the "Metadata Workshop planning group) and the CDL.
When: August 5, 2002 9:30am - 4:00 pm
Where: LAX Hilton Hotel
Who: A total of ~90 library staff from around the system nominated by SOPAG members to represent their campus.
The CDL's education program is pleased to co-sponsor the first UC-wide discussion on digital library development. The purpose of this day-long forum is to discuss, on a systemwide basis, the latest developments and activities in UC-based digital library projects. The program is being co-sponsored by the UL's through SOPAG's staff development workshop process, extending some of the themes brought up in last year's metadata workshops. The committee who worked on the metadata workshops has reconstituted itself to develop this first DL Developer's Forum, loosely modelled on the Digital Library Federation's successful bi-annual Forums.
There will be presentations and discussions of currently used standards and architectures. We will explore various current UC-based projects from a technical perspective to examine future collaboration scenarios for digital library projects. UC library staff, who are responsible for and interested in UC digital library development and who could contribute to collaborative activities statewide, are being nominated to attend by their campus SOPAG member.
UC Digital Library Project presentations will concentrate on standards and technical architectures and will be followed by a round robin where the participants will be given an opportunity to share developments and future plans on their campus. The closing segment will use a panel discussion format to identify and discuss the common challenges and approaches and possible future directions.
For additional information, including a complete agenda, see the web site:
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~cmriggs/Digital/index.html
UC DL Forum Program Committee members include: Karen Coyle (CDL), Nancy Douglas
(UCR), Lynn Gibbs (UCSB), John Kunze (UCSF), John Ober (CDL), Colby Riggs (UCI
chair), Heidi Schmidt (UCSF), Stephen Schwartz (UCLA).
6 Library Staff News
a. Melvyl Transition Team
Ann Jensen and Debra Bartling will be leaving the Melvyl Transition Team and returning full time to their positions at UC Berkeley; Felicia Poe will be taking on new responsibilities.
Ann joined the Melvyl-T project in April 2001 and was the leader of the Melvyl Transition Services Team until May 1, when she began a part-time schedule, sharing time at CDL with her duties as head of the Astronomy/Math/Stat Library at Berkeley. Now, her time at CDL will come to an end on July 31. We are enormously grateful for Ann's leadership in this challenging process of creating the interface for Melvyl-T, taking into consideration the diversity of experience and behavior of Melvyl's many users. Ann's deep understanding of researchers' needs and behaviors have been invaluable.
On May 1, Felicia Poe of the CDL became the leader of the Services Team after working closely with Ann and other members of the Team since her arrival at CDL, and will continue in a key role watching out for user services in the Melvyl-T environment as the future unfolds.
We were extremely lucky to be able to borrow Debra from the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at Berkeley half-time for a year, and that year also ends July 31. We have been the beneficiaries of her superior technical skills and adventurous spirit. Among her many contributions, she has been the technical lead in setting CDL up with job scheduler software which will be used for loading input files from our contributors, as well as the FTP Virtual Host arrangement for receiving all of our contributor's files. She has also played a major role in documenting our understanding of the Aleph software and her passionate commitment to quality control has been invaluable in tracking the many changes to this version of the software.
7. 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
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.