CONTENTS
- RLIN Database Available for Testing through the Web Interface
- Additional RLG Databases Accessible via Telnet Linemode
- Charlene Baldwin Joins CDL's STIC Task Force
- Staff in Print: Karen E. Coyle. Coyle's Information Highway Handbook
- PIR Materials and Listserv Available
- CDL Pre-release Website Available for Review
- Call for EIP Evaluation Assistance
- For More Information
- CDL Milestones
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- Information about the CDLINFO-L Listserv
1. RLIN Database Available for Testing through the Web Interface
The Research Library Group's RLIN Bibliographic Database is now available for testing on the Melvyl Web test site at http://merlin.ucop.edu/meltst. RLIN Bibliographic File (@RLG) is one of the database choices.Comments on the test version of the RLIN database should be sent to Lucia Snowhill (snowhill@llibrary.ucsb.edu) by MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD. We hope to move it into the public Web by late November.
Please note that changes may be made while the database remains in the test version. Search options and the database description and general help screens have been carried over, as much as possible, to be consistent with information in the Telnet version.
The RLIN Bibliographic database (known as RCAT in the Telnet Melvyl system and BIB in the EUREKA system) retrieves citations for books, serials, archives, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, photographs, posters, and computer files, in over 365 languages. This union database contains over 30 million records, from incunabula to the present, in over 365 languages, and in all disciplines from a variety of libraries: research, academic, archives, museums, law, medical, music, art, theological, area studies collections, public, corporate, and historical societies.
To locate items in your search results at UC or other California libraries, search for periodical titles in the Melvyl PE database or for books in the Melvyl CAT database. CDL is exploring the possibility of adding library location information (the equivalent of D LOCATION in the Telnet version).
The rest of the Z39.50 databases -- WorldCat, Abstracts of Music Literature, the PAIS International Database, the ERIC database, ArticleFirst, the History of Science and Technology Database, and the English Short Title Catalog -- will be added to the Web interface by March 1999.
2. Additional RLG Databases Accessible via Telnet Linemode
A new licensing agreement with the Research Libraries Group provides UC users with seven additional databases to search. Users can enter the Eureka system, which provides access to the RLG databases, in two ways.From the Telnet Melvyl system, type USE EUREKA at the prompt and then select from the list of databases. You can also search most of these databases using Melvyl commands. Type EXPLAIN EUREKA for information on the RLG databases. Type EXPLAIN [database name] for information on a particular database. The Eureka system is licensed for use by UC faculty, staff, and students. Dialup or network users of the Melvyl system may need a password to reach Eureka. Eleven Melvyl system users at a time may use Eureka.
>From the Melvyl Web interface, click on Resources in the sidebar, choose Selected Internet Resources, and click on Eureka. The new total of fourteen available RLG databases cover the humanities and social sciences:
- RLIN® Database (called BIB; contains over 22 million monographs, nonbooks, and serials titles)
- Anthropological Literature
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
- Bibliography of the History of Art (produced by the Getty Information Institute and the Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique)
- Blackwell's Table of Contents (English-language titles published by Blackwell's)
- English Short Title Catalogue
- FRANCIS Database (multilingual resources in the humanities, social sciences, and economics)
- Hand Press Books (produced by the Consortium of European Research Libraries; covers European printing from about 1455 to 1830)
- History of Science and Technology
- Index to 19thC American Art Periodicals
- Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
- Inside Information *Plus* (covers the most-requested journals held by the British Library Document Supply Centre)
- Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies (sociology and the humanities published in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern European countries)
- SCIPIO: Art and Rare Book Sales Catalogs
3. Charlene Baldwin Joins CDL's STIC Task Force
The CDL has appointed Charlene Baldwin, Assistant University Librarian for the Sciences at UC Riverside, to replace Locke Morrisey on the Science, Technology, and Industry Collection (STIC) Task Force. She will begin December 1 and joins continuing members Alison Bunting (LA), Katie Frohmberg (B), and Susan Starr (SD).4. Staff in Print: Karen E. Coyle. Coyle's Information Highway Handbook
CDL staff member Karen Coyle's book provides background information on the social impact of our travels along the information highway, from the Information Society to the Information Economy; on the policy questions surrounding intellectual property, censorship, and privacy; and on the question of universal access. Based on a series of her essays, Karen's book exposes the major tensions and issues that are arising as we move from analog to digital in our communications and business transactions.Included for each topic area are excerpts from key documents that have shaped the debate: the 1993 "Agenda for Action," which defined the National Information Infrastructure; the Department of Commerce "White Paper" on copyright; the Benton Foundation's position on universal service; and the Voter's Telecommunications Watch on the Communications Decency Act.
Written for the American Library Association, the book also addresses the role of libraries in relation to the "new information order." Coyle's Information Highway Handbook was listed in Library Journal's list of "The Year's Best Professional Reading" in the June 15, 1998 issue. It was one of six books listed in the "Information Technology" category.
5. PIR Materials and Listserv Available
At the October updates for the PIR project there was unanimous support for a web site that would be a single source for materials related to the background and implementation of PIR. This new web site is http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/pir/.The site will be used by UC Library staff who are involved with or interested in the PIR project. The site contains background information, descriptive summaries of the status and history of PIR, technical information about the project (such as the decision flow programmed into receiving and forwarding a request), and links to vendor information (including OCLC Direct).
Most of the documents on the site are available in Rich Text Format (RTF), which nearly any word processing program can read. Some files are also available in HTML or PDF/Acrobat format.
The PIROPS-L Listserv is a forum in which UC library employees involved with the Patron Initiated Request Project can share and discuss operational issues as PIR is implemented. UC Library staff may subscribe to the Listserv by sending the following message to listserv@ucop.edu: SUBSCRIBE PIROPS-L [Your Name]
6. CDL Pre-release Web Site Available for Review
UC Library staff and others are reminded to use the pre-release of the CDL Web site and to send us comments and suggestions. The pre-release brings the California Digital Library a step closer to its January 1999 opening and is available at http://www2.cdlib.org/.The current web site at http://www.cdlib.org, which opened in July 1998, contains background and descriptive information about the CDL and its recent activities. The pre-release reorganizes and updates that information. More importantly it provides a preview version of the browsable and searchable Directory of Collections and Services. The Directory was developed based on broad-ranging discussions with Library staff. It provides unified access to electronic journals, databases, and finding aids in the Online Archive of California, as well as descriptions of services. It complements the Melvyl Catalog and the many abstracting and indexing databases by directing people to those resources and to electronic journals and other resources as well. The Directory is designed to be collaboratively maintained and to allow a "campus view" of available digital resources at the user's choice. (See the Directory's User Guide at the pre-release site for more information.) Specific views, including subject-based views, can also be created for a particular library's "entrance" to the CDL.
From November through December you are encouraged to review this web site and to send comments and questions to the CDL via the online feedback form available from every page on the site. Comments will help the CDL improve the site for the January public release and prepare for upgrades and changes in future releases.
7. Call for EIP Evaluation Assistance
The CDL has received a second year of LSTA funding for its CDL/Library of California Access to Environmental Information Project. The grant supports two goals. The first is to evaluate the costs and benefits that have accrued from the cooperative venture's first year (see CDLINFO vol1.no14) of providing information services to multi-type libraries. The second goal is to identify desirable elements of a longer-term cooperative model. During the first year of the project, a database was licensed for the thirty-three participants, a website of selected public domain material was developed (http://www.eip.cdlib.org/), and several UC collections of material were digitized.Locke Morrisey, a librarian at the University of San Francisco (one of the Project participants), has agreed to serve as the Environmental Librarian in this second year. Mike Berger of the CDL will continue as Design Coordinator.
An Evaluation Consultant is needed to work for the project at .3 FTE. Project Manager Beverlee French is seeking someone with expertise in evaluation and cost analysis to undertake this very important aspect of the Project. Please contact Beverlee French, Associate Director for Shared Collections and Services (beverlee.french@ucop.edu; (510) 987-425) for more information, to express interest, or to recommend someone with this expertise.
8. For More Information
a. CDL Milestones
CDL Milestones 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 Melvyl 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 melvyl@www.melvyl.ucop.edu
- Click on "News" on the Melvyl Web system 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 for UC library employees as a first step in CDL efforts to build an active communications program to inform the UC community about progress in creation 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. As a next step in developing a communications program to reach UC faculty, staff, and students, as well as others outside of UC who may be interested in our activities, we have launched a web site (http://www.cdlib.org) with descriptive information about the CDL.In addition, interested parties can access the now-frozen Library Planning and Action Initiative (LPAI) Web site http://www.lpai.ucop.edu, which holds historical documents about the LPAI process.
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, generally on the 1st and 15th of each month, 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.