CDLINFO

The Online Archive of California (OAC) has enhanced “Especially forArchivists,” an information resource available at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/about/forarchivists.html

This site provides information and “building blocks” for OAC Contributing Members to assist with creating EAD encoded finding aids and digital content for publication in the OAC.  The resource also provides information about OAC polices including collection development, members benefits, and copyright.

New enhancements include:

1) OAC Best Practice Guidelines for Digital Objects (OAC BPGDO) Version 1.0 http://www.oac.cdlib.org/oac-bpgdo/OAC-BPGDO-md1a.html . Developed by the OAC Working Group, the OAC BPGDO states functional requirements and standards to be used by organizations and individuals planning to contribute digital objects to the OAC.

2) Guidelines for applying to become a new contributing member of the OAC http://www.oac.cdlib.org/join/

3) Selected Online Resources for Digital Objects http://www.oac.cdlib.org/dig/ This section includes information on managing digital projects, selecting materials for digitization, copyright issues, a range of available metadata and encoding standards, digital object management tools, and courses and training available to develop and implement digital projects.

Occasionally critical CDL applications, such as UC-eLinks, Request, or theMelvyl catalog, go down on the weekends.  If this happens while you are working at a public service point, it is very important that you call to report the problem.  No one is monitoring email for this kind of occurrence on the weekends.

You can either call the UCOP Data Center directly at 510-987-0363, or call the CDL Helpline at 510-987-0555, where a voicemail message will refer you to the UCOP Data Center phone number after hours.  The UCOP Data Center has a list of CDL contacts who can troubleshoot these applications on the weekend, and they will call them.  When speaking to the Data Center, please include your name, campus, phone number and the name of the application that is down.  If you are calling from a reference desk that you’ll soon be leaving and another colleague will be replacing you, please leave a note for your colleague.  A CDL staff member may call you back in order to obtain additional information for troubleshooting purposes.

(For similar emergencies Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm, call the CDL Helpline directly.  Telephone, rather than email, is the most efficient way to report emergencies to CDL staff.)

a. New UC-eLinks Services

Two new services will be added to the UC-eLinks pop-up window as of March 3, 2003:
1. Need Help? Ask a Librarian
2. Report problems with UC-eLinks

From campus IP addresses, users are taken directly to that campus’ “Ask a Librarian” email reference, online chat or similar services web page when clicking on “Need Help? Ask a Librarian.” This service enables users to contact a librarian for more reference help while in the act of doing their research.  For example, users might have a question about how to find more information on their topic than they are currently finding.  The “Ask a Librarian” link provides them with the opportunity to ask their question.

Users having problems specifically with the linking technology, UC-eLinks, will now be more easily able to report specific problems, and the CDL will be able to better track them.  By clicking on “Report problems with UC-eLinks,” users are taken to a pop-up window where they are asked to describe their UC-eLinks problem, and for their name and email address.  The citation information for the item from which users initiate the feedback will be automatically included with the comment, which will come to the CDL.

These two new services will be added to the three existing linking services: linking to full electronic texts, linking to catalog holdings, and linking to Request (interlibrary loan).

The Tools and Services Working Group had previously identified Ask-a-Librarian as a potential new service and the Transition Steering Committee recommended that it be added when some of the transitioning database vendors were unable to provide it from their interfaces.  (See the article below in which Gale has implemented an Ask a Librarian feature in InfoTrac.)  A UC-eLinks project team has been set up to oversee the implementation details of future UC-eLinks enhancements and campus instances, and the Tools and Services Working Group will continue to solicit comments on future enhancements in order to develop guiding principles.

a. New “Ask-A-Librarian” Links in Gale’s InfoTrac Databases (Frank Gravier, UCSC)

Starting Monday, March 10, 2003, UC users of Gale’s Expanded Academic ASAP, National Newspaper Index, and the Computer Database will have an easy link to their campus library’s reference librarians.  Gale is the first vendor to provide this service from their interface in the way that meets UC libraries’ needs for flexibility.

The InfoTrac interface will now provide an “Ask-A-Librarian” link at the top of the InfoTrac Web pages.  The link will be campus specific since each campus has its own account for Gale databases. So, for example, patrons using UC Santa Cruz’s InfoTrac databases will be able to contact reference librarians at UCSC, just as UC Riverside patrons will be able to contact UCR librarians.

Services available through “Ask-A-Librarian” links vary at each campus.  Some provide an opportunity to use the campus’s virtual reference service, while others allow patrons to ask questions by email.

Questions about this service or other aspects of Expanded Academic ASAP, National Newspaper Index and the Computer Database can be directed to the CDL Resource Liaison for these databases, Frank Gravier, at gravier@ucsc.edu.

a.Transition Steering Committee (TSC) Decommissioned

The Transition Steering Committee (TSC), which served in an advisory role for the A & I journal article database transition, completed at the end of 2002, had its last conference call on February 25, 2003, and has now been decommissioned.  he committee has completed its charge: [http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/a-i-trans/aicharge20501.html]

Many thanks go to the following members of the committee who served for either a full or partial two-year period:

Peter Brueggeman (UCSD)
Jayne Dickson (CDL) )
Andrea Duda (UCSB)
Mary Engle (CDL)
Min-Lin Fang (UCSF)
Laine Farley (CDL A&I Transition Project Manager)
Cheryl Gomez (UCSC)
Gabriela Gray (UCLA)
Mary Heath (CDL)
Robert Heyer-Grey (UCD)
Patricia Iannuzzi (UCB)
Ellen Meltzer (CDL)
John Ober (CDL)
Cathy Palmer (UCI)
Margaret Phillips (UCB)
John Tanno (UCR)
Margery Tibbetts (CDL)
Beth Weil (UCB)
Sherry Willhite (CDL)
Stefanie Wittenbach (UCR)

Issues related to the transitioning databases will now be handled initially by the Resource Liaisons (http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/liaisons/liaisons.html) for each database. Depending on the nature of the issue, CDL staff may also be involved.

A list of recently added content is always available at: http://www.cdlib.org/news/whatsnew.html

a. Readers’ Guide Retrospective: 1890 - 1982

Readers’ Guide Retrospective [http://uclibs.org/PID/21386] was previously announced in CDLINFO last spring
<http://www.cdlib.org/news/cdlinfo/cdlinfo050902.html#2>.  At that time, the database included files from 1963 to 1982.  The database is now complete and includes files from 1890 to 1982.

Readers’ Guide Retrospective provides searchable access to more than 100 years of citations from 512 leading U.S. magazines — valuable reference for students, journalists, educators, historians, social scientists, writers, business researchers and others.

From the wreck of the Titanic to Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon; from the Charleston craze to the Sharon Tate murders; from Pearl Harbor to the Bay of Pigs — Readers’ Guide Retrospective provides a record of an entire century of popular magazine coverage, and a reflection of America’s evolving attitudes and culture.

Features Offered:

–Search the equivalent of 44 printed Readers’ Guide cumulations (including 19th Century Readers’ Guide 1890 -1899).

–Search by author, title, subject, keyword, journal, or year.

–Updated, uniform subject headings allow searching by familiar, contemporary terms.  Original subject headings are also featured, for historians, sociologists, linguists, writers, and others interested in the way issues of the day were framed.

–Entries link to page images from original Readers’ Guide volumes, allowing users access to “see” and “see also” references and the complete hierarchy of subject headings and subheadings.

–Seamlessly combines with contemporary research databases.  Search Readers’ Guide Retrospective simultaneously with other Readers’ Guide databases on WilsonWeb, or with any other WilsonWeb database.

–Order actual articles through links to the Infotrieve online document delivery service or through your interlibrary loan service.  Even finding articles on your shelves is easy — with periodicals holdings messages linked to your OPAC.

b. Synthesis and Synlett Journal Archives from Thieme Publishers Now Available (Christina Keil, UCSD)

The UC Chemistry Librarians, under the leadership of Christina Keil (UC San Diego), have negotiated an agreement with Thieme publishers that will allow all UC campuses to have online access to the journal archives of two important chemistry titles: Synthesis and Synlett.

Funded by the CDL, the Synthesis and Synlett archives provide access to over 15,000 articles.  These journals consistently rank amongst the top 20 organic chemistry journals, covering many aspects of chemistry including medicinal, biological, organometallic and related disciplines.

Synthesis (1969-2002: ) http://uclibs.org/PID/11377

Synlett (1989-2002): http://uclibs.org/PID/11378

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. International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP) and International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA)

International Index to Music Periodicals full text (IIMP-FT) ( http://iimpft.chadwyck.com) and International Index to the Performing Arts full text (IIPA-FT) (http://iipaft.chadwyck.com) are now available for all campuses.

UC bibliographers have recommended access to these two Chadwyck-Healey products every year that the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) has surveyed their priorities.  The Joint Steering Committee recommended that the CDL pursue licenses for these products as part of the larger ProQuest newspaper package.  The CDL licensed perpetual access to the IIMP and IIPA indexing/abstracting databases through 2003.  The CDL has funded a subscription to the next five years of access to the indexes.  In 2008, all campuses will co-invest in annual license fees for the indexing/abstracting content.

ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey does not own the perpetual rights for the full text, but, at the recommendation of the JSC, the CDL has paid the access fees for five-year subscriptions for both full-text files.

b. Springer LINK Books/Book Series
Three additional Books/Book Series are now available in full text at the Springer LINK site.  New for 2003 are:

Lecture Notes in Mathematics
Lecture Notes in Physics. Monographs
Topics in Current Genetics

These three series join the list of Springer series and books currently licensed by the CDL. The full list of titles, available at http://link.springer-ny.com/ol/index.htm (click on Books/Book Series), includes:

Advances in Biochemical Engineering/ Biotechnology
Advances in Polymer Science
Advances in Solid State Physics
Handbook of Environmental Chemistry
Landolt Boernstein New Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences
Lecture Notes in Physics
Molecular Sieves
Optical & Fiber Communications Reports
Progress in Colloid and Polymer Science
Prokaryotes, The
Springer Tracts in Modern Physics
Structure and Bonding
Topics in Applied Physics
Topics in Applied Chemistry
Topics in Organometallic Chemistry

a. Melvyl-T Update

As many readers are aware the CDL announced earlier that there would be a rollout of Melvyl-T to library staff in January 2003.  On February 5th CDL University Librarian Greenstein sent a message to campus ULs acknowledging the missed timeline and providing an update that included the following information.

Because of the size of the Melvyl catalog and the large number of catalog record sources, many challenges have been undertaken by Ex Libris, the supplier of Melvyl-T software, for the first time.  A definite “switch to production” date agreed upon by all parties has, on at least four occasions, been moved by a month or more owing to challenges Ex Libris’ has faced in record merging programs, indexing programs, and application performance under simulated user load.

Ex Libris has responded to CDL requests to devote additional resources to the Melvyl-T project.  There is evidence that the few remaining challenges will be addressed and Melvyl-T made available in mid-Spring.  While clearly not ideal, particularly from the point of view of preparing campus staff and education/outreach efforts, this outcome will yield an overlap period of 3 to 4 months with both legacy Melvyl and Melvyl-T in operation.  We understand that a longer overlap period would allow more preparatory time for library staff and a gentler migration for users.  However, as the recent transition to vendor-supplied journal article citation databases has demonstrated, we also know that users are resilient and able to move forward once their main concerns are addressed.

Meanwhile the CDL is directing efforts to investigate the costs and feasibility of extending legacy Melvyl beyond the planned retirement date of July 1, 2003, should it prove necessary.  This could provide a contingency for maintaining service if Ex Libris is unable to complete Melvyl-T in a timely fashion. However, an extension to Melvyl requires extensions to mainframe software and hardware maintenance contracts, renegotiating for data center services, loading record updates into two systems, and maintaining or finding backup expertise for decades-old programs.  The considerable expense of extending legacy Melvyl is difficult to contemplate in these times of budgetary constraints.

Regular updates will be provided to UC library administrations, advisory groups, and others.  In any case, the CDL’s goal remains the same as it has always been - through partnership with the UC libraries to deliver a union catalog of the highest quality that serves the needs of UC and beyond.

a. Heather Christenson Joins the CDL as Resource Liaison Coordinator/Information Services Analyst

Heather Christenson has joined the CDL as the new Resource Liaison Coordinator/Information Services Analyst in the Digital Library Services group.

Heather was formerly a librarian at the San Francisco Examiner and also worked on the SF Gate web site as a taxonomist.  More recently, she was Director of Content for EoEXCHANGE Corp.  in San Francisco where she worked with customers such as Forbes, the NBC Olympics, and NASDAQ to develop customized Internet and intranet search services.  She also has experience as a cataloger at various special libraries and as research manager for a consulting firm.

Heather’s UC connections include a stint as a library assistant in the Government Documents department at UCSD where she earned a BA in Communications.  She was a student assistant at UCB’s Giannini Foundation Library while earning her MLIS.

The latest statistical profile of the CDL is now available from the “About the CDL” publications web page [ http://www.cdlib.org/about/publications/ ] and the Evaluation Activities page [http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/education/evaluation/ ], entitled The California Digital Library: Key Indicators of Collections and Use (July 1, 2001 - June 20, 2002).

In addition, reports summarizing usage by database and ejournal publisher and by campus (where provided) are also available on the CDL Libstaff Evaluation Activities page:

• Database Usage (July 1, 2001 - June 20, 2002) (password required)
• Ejournal Usage (July 1, 2001 - June 20, 2002) (password required)

Please contact Rosalie Lack if you have any questions: Rosalie.Lack@ucop.edu

CDL is redesigning the CDL Libstaff website ( http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff ) Your input is essential for helping us to improve the site.

An essential first step in the redesign process is understanding how library staff currently use the site.  To that end, we’ve created a brief ten question survey, available at: http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/2734/libstaff.htm.  We encourage all library staff to take this short survey, even those who rarely or never use the CDL Libstaff site.

Please take the survey, and encourage as many of your colleagues as possible to take it, too.  The survey will be up through Friday, February 28, 2003.  Now is the time to let us know your suggestions and ideas about the site so that it best serves your needs!