CDLINFO

a. Rae McCallum (MSO for the CDL) retires
After 31 years at UC, Rae McCallum, MSO at the CDL, will be retiring at the end of June to prepare for a move to Kauai.   We’ll not only miss her expertise and good-humor, but also her unstinting efforts to keep us out of trouble or pry a complicated requisition from the jaws of bureaucracy.  At the same time, it’s exciting to think of one of our own starting a new life and career in such a lovely setting.

Please join us in congratulating Rae for her long service to UC and wishing her well in her new adventures.

a. BIOSIS Previews in Ovid (Beth Weil, Resource Liaison for BIOSIS Previews)

UC access to BIOSIS Previews will be available on Monday, July 1, 2002 from http://gateway.ovid.com.  Then click on the “Start Ovid” button; no login or password is necessary. Access to BIOSIS Previews via CDL (1985-present) is expected to continue until 12/31/02.  Ovid provides BIOSIS Previews data from 1969 to the present.  Links to holdings, electronic full text are available through the UC-eLinks service.  The Ovid version of BIOSIS Previews greatly enhances our access by providing 15 years of additional data and new searching capabilities.  A short guide to searching BIOSIS on Ovid will be available at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/comm/outreach/OvidBIOSIS.doc.

What’s new for UC Users?

1. Data back to 1969
2. Data is in one file, instead of two
3. Adjacency operators allows greater precision in searching
4. Volume and/or issue number are searchable, which can assist in verifying citations
5. Truncation options have expanded
6. Direct importing into EndNote 4 and 5

What has changed for UC Users?

1. BIOSIS significantly changed their subject and organism indexing in 1998.  They reissued the data back to 1993 following their new indexing scheme.  CDL masked these changes in the data so UC patrons would not need to modify they way they searched.  We now must learn the new field structure.  This particularly affects the way searching for organisms works.
2. BIOSIS also modified the format of author names.  They used to just include the authors’ last name and initials.  Now they are including the first name and   middle initial if available.  This means that there are frequently many variants (including typos) of an author’s name (e.g., d wake, d.a. wake, David Wake, David A. Wake, etc.) which need to be marked. Generally putting the last name and first initial only is the best starting point to see all variants of a name.
3. Phrase searching is the default for keyword searching.  Because Ovid defaults to adjacency, if you want to do a word search you must enter Boolean operators (i.e., AND, OR, NOT) between the keywords.
4. Alerts (Updates) are in beta test and will be available soon.
5. Command line access devotees will need to learn Ovid command line syntax.  (These are generally very similar to old BRS commands.)  A summary of commands is listed in Ovid’s help under advanced searching.  See http://gateway1.ovid.com:80/ovidweb.cgi?S=IDNJHKLGKFADLK00D&HC=syntax& .
6. The pound sign (#) truncation symbol stands for only 1 character truncation.  The dollar sign ($) is equivalent to the # in the CDL system.
7. Call numbers and full text URLs can no longer be printed, emailed or imported into personal bibliographic software (such as EndNote).

Below is a more detailed view of the BIOSIS Previews database on Ovid and the upcoming changes.

BIOSIS Previews is the world’s most comprehensive reference database for life science research.  It covers original research reports and reviews in biological and biomedical areas.  Coverage includes traditional areas of biology, such as botany, zoology and microbiology, as well as related fields such as biomedicine, agriculture, pharmacology and ecology. Biochemistry, biophysics, bioengineering and biotechnology are also included.  Nearly 5,500 serials are monitored for inclusion.  In addition, the database covers content summaries, books and meeting abstracts, papers and posters, U.S. patents from 1986 to 1989 and from 1999 on, and meeting reports from 1980 to present.

Searching Options

Ovid offers two searching options, Basic and Advanced. Basic mode supports Author and Subject searching with a few limits.  Advanced mode allows the user to specify fields, and Boolean or adjacency operators either by using the main search tool bar or by specifying commands in the search box.  The search history is displayed in the Advanced mode.  Although the search history is not displayed in Basic mode, Ovid does maintain it and you can easily see previous searches done in Basic mode by clicking on the Advanced mode button on the main search page.  A list of commonly used fields in BIOSIS Previews is available in the BIOSIS Previews on the Web (Ovid) Quick Reference Guide at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/comm/outreach/OvidBIOSIS.doc.

Truncation

Truncation is greatly enhanced in the Ovid interface.  There are 3 truncation symbols.
$ or : retrieves unlimited suffix variations (e.g. bacteria$.ti.)
# replaces a single character within or at the end of a (word wom#n.ti)

Note: You must have at least two characters in a word before any wild card or truncation.

Author Searching

BIOSIS has changed the way they enter author names. Recent years include the author’s first names and middle initial if available.  Earlier years only contain the initials. It’s important to check all of the variant forms of the name in the author index for a complete search.

Journal Searching

Enter a few words of the journal title, just enough so that Ovid can take you to the correct part of the journal index display. Do not use abbreviations.

Subject Searching

Enter your Subject Keyword or Keywords (linked with a Boolean operator or as a phrase), in the main search box and click on the “Perform Search” button.  All subject headings are included in this index with the exception of Taxa Notes, the new name for Supertaxa, the very broad systematic classifications.  Without a Boolean operator, terms will be searched as a phrase.  To retrieve all relevant records, include every possible way an author might have described your concepts (e.g., phage or phages or bacteriophage or bacteriophages or lambda, etc.).  You will need to use truncation ($), synonyms and to consider spelling variations.

BIOSIS added a large number of specialized subject indexes in 1998 and remastered the data back to 1993 for some of them.  It is important to remember that only 3 indexes, Concept Codes, Supertaxa (formerly called Biosystematic Names) and Taxa Notes (formerly Supertaxa) span all years.

The Tools Menu contains lists of Major Concepts, Super Taxa, Organism, Taxa Notes, Geopolitical Locations and other fields containing controlled vocabulary.  However, to browse a list of these tools you have to type in something that exists in one of the lists.

Pluses (+) by a term indicate that there are narrower terms underneath it.  Click on the plus to see more terms. Frequently you have to navigate down a couple of layers to actually see data.

Under the “Search Fields” button, it is possible to display the indexes which will show everything BIOSIS has put in a field. Because many fields combine both controlled and uncontrolled vocabulary, the Display Fields feature is of limited use for most fields.  This is, however, the only way to see the complete list of Concept Codes.

In general it is best to do subject searching using the keyword index without mapping turned on.

Organismal Searching

There are now 3 fields: Super Taxa (Content changed!), Taxa Notes and Organism.  Super Taxa and Organism Fields are included in the keyword (mp) index.  Taxa Notes, unfortunately, are not included at this time.

Taxa Notes: Taxa Notes are basically equivalent to the pre-1993 Super Taxa; 65 terms reside under the Tools menu.  In the Tools menu, type a valid entry (i.e., Bats) and use the Tree option.  You will see the entire list of Taxa Notes.  Taxa Notes are usually not scientific names (use “birds” instead of “aves”; “chordates” instead of “chordata”).

Super Taxa: Super Taxa are now basically equivalent to the pre-1993 Biosystematic Code taxon terms.   The numerical codes no longer exist.  The Super Taxa field contains over 950 higher level taxonomic terms which can be found by using the Tree search under the Tools Menu.

Organism Field: This taxonomic field contains the particular genus, species, or common name of an organism.  Because this field only goes back to 1993 and is included in the keyword field, comprehensive searches on genus/species and common names should be done in the keyword (mp) index.

Major Concept: 168 broad subject categories comprise the Major Concepts in BIOSIS Previews.  These are equivalent to the very broadest of the pre-1993 Concept Codes.  Major Concepts can be found through the Tools Menu.  Use the Tree command in the Tools menu to see a list of the 78 broadest Major Concept Terms; then type in a valid entry (try “ecology”).  This will take you to a list that includes terms such as Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Evolution and Adaptation, Genetics, Parasitology, Systematics and Taxonomy, Toxicology, etc. Some Major Concepts have narrower terms beneath them (e.g., Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) and may be exploded to pick up these narrower terms.  Generally these terms are best used to limit a search where keyword searching is too imprecise.

Geographic Searching

Geopolitical Location: Broad geographical areas are listed in the Tools menu many are explodable. Browse through the Tree search in the Tools menu to see the possibilities; for non-thesaurus locations search by location (Sacramento.ge) Data exists in this field from 1993-.  For earlier records use all possible geographic variants in the keyword index.

Publication Type

To limit your search to journal articles amend the phrase “article.pt” or “journal article.pt” to your search. Both need to be included to get all journal articles.  Checking off “review” on the Main Search pages searches for citations with literature review in the publication type or review in the title. “Literature review.pt” can be used to limit your search to review articles.  The retrieval is a bit different than using the check box on the Main Search screen.

Managing your Results

Citations can be emailed, printed or downloaded using the Citation Manager found at the bottom of each screen display of records.  The Citation Manager in Advanced mode provides a great amount of flexibility regarding which fields are included, which citations are included and the method of delivery.  Primary and secondary Sort functions are also available.  The Print function from the web browser must be used to print.

Personal Bibliographic Software (i.e., EndNote)

Patrons who wish to import data in EndNote have several options; however, you must be in Advanced Mode to utilize them. Users of EndNote 4 and 5 can use Ovid’s Direct Export option if they are searching Ovid from a machine which has EndNote.  It is also possible to email or save files for importing into EndNote at a later time.  The reprint/Medlars format in the Citation Manager should be used for either of these options.

Telnet Searching

A telnet searching option is available in Ovid.  It can be reached by telneting to Ovid.com and pressing Return in response to the next two prompts.  The telnet access is not user-friendly. For those of you looking for a fast command language system we do not recommend telnet access.  Using the Ovid command language will be considerably more satisfying.

a. Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period (Rob Melton, Literature/Humanities Bibliographer, UCSD)

Access is now available to all ten UC campuses for the full-text resource “Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period,” published by Alexander Street Press.  This collection contains more than sixty volumes of lyric poetry written between 1789 and 1832 by fifty-one Scottish women.  The majority of the texts were not previously owned in either printed or microform format by any UC library.

The texts are fully indexed and searchable.  In addition, the database contains biographical, critical, and contextual information for each poet.

The archive was co-edited by UC’s own Nancy Kushigian, English Literature Librarian at Davis, and Stephen Behrendt, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Nebraska.  Many of the printed copies used in the digitization project are in UCD’s Kohler Collection of British Poetry (see http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/English/BWRP/Kohler.htm).

Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period is accessible at the following URL: http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/SWRPLive/.  Rob Melton, Literature/Humanities Bibliographer at UCSD, represented the UC Literature Bibliographers Group in negotiating the acquisition.

a. Susan Starr Completes JSC Service

Susan Starr’s completion on June 30, 2002, of a three-year term on the CDL Joint Steering Committee on Shared Collections (JSC) marks the end of an era. Susan, currently AUL for Sciences at UCSD, has nurtured the CDL shared digital collections since before there was a CDL.  She participated in early negotiations with publishers and campus consultations as staff to the Library Planning and Action Initiative in 1996-97 and was a key architect of the Science, Technology, and Industry Collection (STIC).  She led the STIC Committee in an extensive, systematic faculty consultation program and chaired the STIC committee until 1999, when its work was subsumed by the JSC.  She has never tired–of investigating, communicating, encouraging–in her dedication to provide the University’s faculty and students with the resources they need to do their work.

The CDL Joint Steering Committee on Shared Collections advises the CDL on shared content from a systemwide perspective and identifies and manages appropriate consultative mechanisms for building the shared digital collection (see [http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/jsc/]. Continuing members are: Cindy Shelton (UCLA), Lucia Snowhill (SB), Lorelei Tanji (I), Camille Wanat (B), and Beverlee French (CDL); staff: Mary Engle (CDL) and Terry Vrable (CDL).

b. Lena Shelton Joins the CDL

Lena Shelton joined the CDL as a Bibliographic Analyst in the Digital Library Services group.  Lena will be working primarily on updating the CDL Directory and the SFX database for UC-eLinks along with some other analysis and database maintenance tasks.

Lena holds an MLIS from San Jose State University and a BA in Art History from UCB.  She worked with Howard Besser at SIMS on a Mellon project related to visual arts, and was a Kress Fellow in the Arts Library at Yale.  Her other experience includes a stint as an information architect at 2Bridge Software.  Prior to attending library school, she was the executive assistant for the San Francisco Symphony where she created databases to keep track of auditions and musicians’ availability for performances.

c. Phyllis Baker Joins the CDL

The CDL is pleased to announce that Phyllis Baker will be joining the CDL on June 24 as Executive Secretary to Dan Greenstein. Phyllis brings to the CDL extensive experience providing high-level executive support within the Office of the President and in the private sector.  Phyllis has served as executive secretary to the Executive Director of Laboratory Operations in Laboratory Administration since 1998.  In that role, she coordinated Lab Administration’s annual review/reporting process and served as liaison to the Secretary of Energy’s office.  Prior to joining the Office of the President, Phyllis served as Executive Secretary and Administrative Supervisor in the Walnut Creek Office of Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate for eight years.

The Online Archive of California (OAC) Web site has been redesigned. On July 15, 2002, its new interface will be released to the public.  During the next month, the UC community will have the opportunity to explore the new web site, gain familiarity with its functionality, and to begin to incorporate it into reference services and training.

The CDL would also like to get your feedback on the new interface before its public release.  We are interested in ANY and ALL feedback (big picture issues and details).

Please visit the OAC Release Page [http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/oac/release2002.html] to access the new version of the OAC.

Timeline

Open for Review to Library Staff: June 13, 2002
Feedback Due: June 30, 2002
General Public Release: July 15, 2002

Background

The Online Archive of California (OAC) is undergoing major improvements.  First, a new home page is currently being designed to provide the OAC with its own unique identify. Second, Dynaweb, the software package that first launched OAC when it was known as the UC-EAD project is being retired as the finding aid delivery system and replaced with DLXS (Digital Library eXtension Service) software.  In order to provide a smooth transition for users and reference staff, Dynaweb OAC is scheduled to remain online until December 31st, 2002.

Thanks very much for taking the time to visit the new web site and provide us with feedback.

a. Index of Christian Art (Judith Herschman, UCLA)
Sharon Farb, Digital Licensing Librarian (UCLA) and Judith Herschman, Art Librarian (UCLA) representing the UC Art Librarians Group have completed a Tier 2 license for Index of Christian Art [http://uclibs.org/PID/9563]

Six campuses are participating: UCB, UCSB, UCSC, UCLA, UCI, UCSD

Index of Christian Art is a database of medieval art with records for over 23,000 works of art dating from early apostolic times to A.D. 1400. It contains images, iconographic and bibliographic information.

b. HarpWeek Reconstruction and Gilded Age Segments
Building on the contract originally negotiated by the CDL with HarpWeek, the campuses purchased sufficient subscriptions to HarpWeek’s Reconstruction for that portion of the HarpWeek database to become a system-wide resource.

Once again, a number of UC campuses purchased all segments of the Gilded Age (Segments I-VI), providing the opportunity for the CDL to purchase the final subscription that opens the Gilded Age to all UC campuses. On the recommendation of the Joint Steering Committee, the CDL has licensed all Gilded Age segments [http://uclibs.org/PID/1554].

UC campuses now all have access to all segments of the HarpWeek Database, including:
The Civil War Era: 1857 - 1865
Reconstruction I: 1866 -1871
Reconstruction II: 1872 - 1877
Gilded Age I: 1878 - 1883
Gilded Age II: 1884 - 1889
Gilded Age III: 1890 - 1895
Gilded Age IV: 1896 - 1901
Gilded Age V: 1902 - 1907
Gilded Age VI: 1908 - 1912

The last three segments are currently accessed through the use of Searchable Full-text (coupled with full page images). The Thesaurus-based indexing is being completed at the rate of about one volume (year) per month, scheduled for completion in 2003.

Access to all segments is available via full-text searching. Full-text searching also allows you to restrict your search to words in particular categories, such as editorials, cartoons, advertising, or illustrations - or to carry out a compound proximity search. Once you have chosen the text in ASCII, it also provides the user an option to see the article in context of the whole page, either in ASCII or as a page image (complete with illustrations, of course).

The Thesaurus-based index search option will provide access to the first six segments of the database, and will continually by updated as the years are completed.

a. RLG’s Eureka Interface has Changed; UC-eLinks to be Activated on RLG Databases

As of June 3, the interface to the RLG Eureka databases has changed.  According to RLG’s publicity, “The new Eureka offers a cleaner, more compatible, more straightforward interface, without changing the underlying searches, displays, or database. Eureka will work in almost any size browser window.  “Changes have been made to the Home page, searching, browse lists, headings results, record displays, special displays and features.  From the Eureka page, click on, “Welcome to the new Eureka! See what’s changed…” for detailed information on the changes.

Another upcoming change to Eureka will be the activation of UC-eLinks on the RLG databases beginning in early July.   This will enable users to link to the full electronic text of articles when they’re available in the RLG databases; to link to library catalog holdings; and to link to Request for interlibrary borrowing, including from RLIN, RCAT.  As a reminder, these changes will have an impact on Anthropological Literature (ANTH), Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (ARCH), Bibliography of the History of Art, Chicano Database, English Short Title Catalog, Francis, History of Science & Technology (HSCI), Index to 19th Century American Art Periodicals, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (FLEG), RLIN Bibliographic File (RCAT), and SCIPIO.

b. UC-eLinks to be Activated on PubMed

After discussion with the campus PubMed liaisons, it has been decided that UC-eLinks will be activated on PubMed beginning June 12.

The liaisons recommended that the CDL:
a. Remove CDL titles from LinkOut
b. Add UC-eLinks to Outside Tool to provide links to all CDL ejournals, holdings in Melvyl/PE, and Request.
c. Campuses will use LinkOut only for the ejournals to which they subscribe.

The CDL and campuses are working on a plan for campuses to add their subscriptions to UC-eLinks.  The CDL will provide two more updates of CDL titles to LinkOut, and will turn on UC-eLinks in PubMed’s Outside Tool on June 12.

Campus libraries can choose to configure LinkOut:
Option 1: to include CDL plus their own titles
OR
Option 2: to include just their own titles and use Outside Tool to turn on UC-eLinks

UCSF and UCSD have chosen Option 1, which they will stay with until the campuses can add their subscriptions to UC-eLinks.

c. SearchLight Upcoming Changes

As of early July, SearchLight will search the new vendor versions of the formerly CDL-hosted databases.  For a list of the databases involved, check the Detailed Status of the Journal Article Databases Transition Chart, http://www.cdlib.org/news/databasestatus.html.
For some databases for which there is now “instant gratification”, that is, where the search links users directly to the list of references, users may now have to conduct the search again once they are led to a particular database.  An example of a database that does not currently have instant gratification is WorldCat.

d. Ovid BIOSIS

Ovid has completed its reload of BIOSIS, and the BIOSIS Resource Liaison, Beth Weil (UCB) is reviewing the reloaded database.  BIOSIS on Ovid should be released to the public within the month.  This, then, will be the final database of the transitioning journal article databases to be released in its new vendor interface.

e. Ei Compendex via Ei Village retiring as of June 27, 2002

The free access Ei Village version of Ei Compendex*Plus is retiring on June 27.  The Ovid version of Ei Compendex*Plus will now be the sole version of this database available to the UC Community. For the time being, some of the older citations will be missing.  Ei Page One records (an older set of somewhat less relevant records) are available only via the Ei Village version of Compendex, so these will no longer be accessible.  CDL and the Resource Liaison for Ei Compendex*Plus, Michele Potter, will be investigating solutions to this issue.

The Ei Village was part of the A&I transition evaluation, the subject specialists strongly recommended the OVID interface despite the additional content in the Ei Village version.

Later this summer, UC-eLinks will be activated in the Ovid version of Ei Compendex*Plus.  At that time, users will be able to:

1. Follow links to full-text electronic holdings or our library collections
2. Request materials that are not available electronically or on a campus
3. Search Inspec, Compendex, and Current Contents at the same time
4. Create AutoAlerts of new articles that are saved permanently in a particular Ovid database and are executed whenever the specified database is updated.

f. MLA Continues on SilverPlatter

It was announced in the March 28, 2002 issue of CDLINFO that the Ovid version of the MLA International Bibliography would have an overlap period with the SilverPlatter version of MLA through June 18, 2002, at which time the MLA Directory of Periodicals via Ovid was expected to be available.

Ovid’s timeline for incorporating the Directory has slipped again, so we have asked Ovid to continue running the SilverPlatter version of MLA through the end of summer 2002.  The Z39.50 CDL-hosted version of MLA will also be running through summary 2002.  After that date, the Ovid (native) version will be the sole interface of the MLA International Bibliography.