Melvyl Transitions

Thursday, June 26th, 2003 | Category: General

a. Melvyl-T: User Action Required

The CDL sent out the information below via Users Council and CDLINFO.  This topic appears to be one of interest to our users, since we continue to hear questions about these services from end-users.  Please help us get the word out by sharing this information with public service staff and others who have contact with Melvyl catalog users. Thank you.

CDL Profile: You will not be able to automatically transfer your existing Profile from the legacy Melvyl Catalog/Periodicals Titles databases to Melvyl-T.  You will need to set up a new Profile in Melvyl-T by clicking the ‘Sign In (optional)’ link at the top of the web page and following the instructions.  The “Sign In” link changes to a “My Workspace” link after you register and sign in; this is where you can make changes to your information, etc.

Note - Not all of the Profile information (such as your PIN number for Request, timeout settings, etc.) that was retained in the legacy system is retained in Melvyl-T because of privacy concerns and system architecture.

Saved Lists & Search History: Records saved into Lists in the legacy Melvyl Catalog/Periodicals Titles databases cannot be automatically transferred to Melvyl-T. If you wish to save this information you will need to do the following in order to retain it:

Print, Email, or Download this information (Saved Lists)
Print or “cut-and-paste” this information into a text editor (Search History

b. UC-eLinks Changes

Beginning June 17, 2003, the CDL has moved to Version 2 of UC-eLinks and has also begun pointing to Melvyl-T, rather than to legacy Melvyl, from UC-eLinks.  (Version 2 has changes to the administrative back-end module, is Unicode compliant, and has some other behind the scenes changes that users will not see.)  The decision to link to Melvyl-T at this time was made in consultation with the UC campus Heads of Public Service (HOPS), who wished to wait, in most cases, until the end of the semester or quarter before beginning to link to Melvyl-T.

From a journal article database, when users click on the UC-eLinks icon they will be directed to a message that says: “See if your campus has this. Select the Full Record on Melvyl-T”.

Melvyl-T is now a combined catalog for serial and non-serial (books, videos, etc.) records.  In order to make a match with the desired record from a database, Melvyl-T executes a Command search, going through the following search sequence: ISSN number (022), ISBN number (020), Journal title (wpe), and Book title (wmt).  This is the same process that was used to search in legacy Melvyl except that two separate databases were being searched, and there was no Command search.

If there are zero results in Melvyl-T, users will be thrown into a Command search box that shows, for example, the code for ISSN, 022=[number] and the message: “Your search retrieved zero items.  Try entering new terms or running your search in the keyword index.”

If you encounter problems or have questions, please use the “Report problems with UC-eLinks” link on the UC-eLinks pop-up window to report them.

UC-eLinks and Campus e-Journal Holdings

Thursday, June 26th, 2003 | Category: Bibliographic Services

The CDL and the UC-eLinks liaisons have begun the process of adding campus e-journal holdings to UC-eLinks.  The liaisons were appointed in late March and received training for SFX version 2 in May.  [A roster of the UC-eLinks liaisons can be found at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/uc-elinks/liaisons/index-liaisons.html.]

Each campus has its own instance (localized version of the UC-eLinks KnowledgeBase), which was created by ExLibris and tailored by the CDL in June.  The UC-eLinks liaisons are currently working on the most important piece, identifying its own licensed campus e-journal holdings and activating the titles in the campus instances of UC-eLinks. Each campus will decide when it has enough titles activated in the campus instance and wishes to move to production.  All campuses should be in production by the beginning of the fall term.

Once a campus instance is in production users will see links to full text in the UC-eLinks menu window for e-journals licensed by their campus in addition to the e-journals licensed by the CDL.

New Resources Available

Thursday, June 26th, 2003 | Category: Collection Development

NOTE: New resources listed below may not yet be 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. e-EROS and Current Protocols in Bioinformatics

Two additional reference works have been added to the CDL’s agreement with Wiley InterScience as Tier 2 resources: e-EROS, the online version of the Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis, and Current Protocols in Bioinformatics.  These were negotiated by the CDL on behalf of the interested campuses with the assistance of Jeff Williams, the Wiley Resource Liaison, and Camille Wanat, member of the CDL’s Joint Steering Committee.

1. e-EROS has been licensed for Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  A reference source for reagents used in organic synthesis, it offers a systematic and exhaustive coverage of reagents used in organic chemistry, including both classical reagents and new “designer” reagents.

e-EROS is a database of approximately 50,000 reactions and 3800 of the most frequently consulted reagents.  It is fully searchable by structure and substructure, reagent, reaction type, experimental conditions and allows sophisticated full text searches.  Each entry highlights the various uses and characteristics of each reagent, with illustrative examples of its use and is preceded by information concerning physical data, solubility, form supplied in, purification, and where relevant, preparative methods.

e-EROS is available at: http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/eros/index.html

2. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics has been licensed for Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Cruz.  CP in Bioinformatics is a compilation of techniques in bioinformatics with explanatory information of the procedures.  It provides the experimentalist with insight into the types of data and protocols required to perform basic tasks in the area of bioinformatics and insight into understanding and properly interpreting the data produced by these methods.

Chapters begin with overview units that provide biological context for the procedures that follow in that chapter. Each unit contains an introduction that describes how the protocols that follow connect to one another, and annotations within the protocol itself describe the particulars of each step in the methods.

Current Protocols in Bioinformatics is available at:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/browse/?type=CURRENT_PROTOCOL

b. Digital National Security Archive (DNSA)

Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) <http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com> is now available to all campuses.

DNSA was a top priority for the Government and Calafia bibliographer groups.  CDL would like to thank Linda Kennedy at UC Davis for her helpful review and comparison of the DDRS (Declassified Documents Reference System) on Gale and DNSA, which turn out to both offer unique content.  CDL negotiated a systemwide license with perpetual rights, no annual fees, and access to all future content at no additional cost.
DNSA contains nearly 40,000 declassified documents, totaling more than 250,000 pages; many are published now for the first time.

DNSA is comprised of fifteen collections, each focused on a single topic:

Afghanistan: The Making of US Policy, 1973-1990
The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
El Salvador: The Making of US Policy, 1977-1984
Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977-1980
The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal
Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980-1994
Nicaragua: The Making of US Policy, 1978-1990
The Philippines: US Policy during the Marcos Years, 1965-1986
Presidential Directives on National Security from Truman to Clinton
South Africa: The Making of US Policy, 1962-1989
The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991
The US Intelligence Community, 1947-1989
US Military Uses of Space, 1945-1991
US Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policy, 1945-1991

Each collection contains a diverse range of policy documents including presidential directives, memos, diplomatic dispatches, meeting notes, independent reports, briefing papers, White House communications, email, confidential letters and other secret material.  Additionally, contextual and reference supplements are provided for each collection, including general introductory material, a chronology, glossary and bibliography.  Documents have been selected and identified by leading scholars in each of the topic areas covered and have been indexed to permit item and page-level searching across more than 20 combinable fields.

Digital National Security Archive partnered with the National Security Archive and ProQuest Information and Learning Company (formerly Chadwyck-Healey) to produce this collection of significant primary documents central to US foreign and military policy since 1945.  The National Security Archive is a non-profit research institute and library in Washington, D.C., which provides unprecedented public access to declassified government documents obtained through extensive use of the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

c. Additional PCI Index and PCI Full Text Content

The CDL has purchased three additional segments (23, 24, and 25) of PCI (Periodicals Content Index) content (http://pci.chadwyck.com) and an additional 100 new titles from PCI Full Text http://pcift.chadwyck.com) for all campuses (PCI segments the index to provide new data as it becomes available in digital format.)

PCI is widely regarded as an excellent interdisciplinary reference for undergraduate research, particularly for non-English titles.  Licensing the new PCI content was a top priority for many bibliographer groups.  CDL wishes to thank Myrtis Cochran at UC Berkeley for her input and management of bibliographer reviews for PCI.  PCI Full Text is still under development, and UC librarians in the humanities and social sciences are invited to recommend titles for the collection.  Contact Myrtis (mcochran@library.berkeley.edu) if you have specific titles that you would like to see included in PCI Full Text.

PCI contains more than 200 years of fully indexed articles from national and international journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences for 4,000 journals published from their inception, eighteenth or nineteenth century, and continuing through the twentieth century.  Articles are written in over 40 languages including English, German, Italian, French, Spanish and other Western languages.

PCI Full Text provides online access to titles published in over 200 leading journals in the humanities and social sciences that are indexed in PCI.

CDL Technical Requirements for Vendors

Thursday, June 12th, 2003 | Category: General

The CDL has made available two documents: “California Digital Library Technical Requirements for Database Vendors” and “California Digital Library Technical Requirements for E-Journal Vendors” on our Information for Content Providers web page.

These documents explain our technical requirements for the delivery of licensed materials, including our standards for access and services, the major technical issues of our decision-making process, and offer vendors insight into our preferred solutions, why they’re important to UC, and what the implications are for prospective vendors.

The databases document was originally created as part of the A&I Transition project.  We have recently created a document for e-journal vendors.  These documents are now available on the CDL Content Provider Information Resource Page in the technical requirements section ( http://www.cdlib.org/about/publisher_info_pub/ ).

Over 1000 UC Press eScholarship Editions Now Available

Thursday, June 12th, 2003 | Category: Digital Publishing Services

The collection of UC Press eScholarship Editions ( http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/ ) available to the UC community continues to grow.  Over 1000 titles are now available; an additional 500 titles will be published by the end of the calendar year.  About 400 of the books are available to the public.  Titles just released include Athenian Democracy in Transition, Early Daoist Scriptures, and Workin’ Man Blues: Country Music in California.

The titles, which are served in XML, are fully searchable.  All titles are listed in Melvyl within two weeks of release.  A group of approximately 100 books is made available every 6 weeks.  A complete schedule of releases can be found at http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/schedule.html; lists of forthcoming UC Press eScholarship Editions books are at http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/upcoming.html.  Linking assistance (http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/linking.html) includes a MARC download of all available public titles for inclusion in the OPACs of non-UC institutions.

The UC Press eScholarship Editions are the result of a partnership between University of California Press and the California Digital Library’s eScholarship program ( http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ ).

New Services Available: New “Ask-A-Librarian” Links in Ovid and OCLC Databases

Thursday, June 12th, 2003 | Category: Collection Development

The Ask a Librarian feature will be activated on June 17 in the Ovid databases (BIOSIS Previews, Ei Compendex*Plus, Current Contents, INSPEC, MLA International Bibliography) for all campuses except UC Berkeley.

This feature will also be implemented in OCLC FirstSearch some time after the FirstSearch user interface redesign, scheduled for July 13, again, for all campuses except UC Berkeley.

Melvyl-T Information

Thursday, June 12th, 2003 | Category: General

CDL has created several documents to aid libraries in preparing for the transition to the new version of Melvyl.

a. Melvyl-T Access Changes

A document on Melvyl Transition Information on Access to Melvyl-T has been sent to the campuses via Users Council.  It details access methods that will change when legacy Melvyl retires, causing libraries to update the URLs on web sites that link to Melvyl.  For example, subject-related pages, course pages, etc. may need to be updated.

As you plan to revise links into Melvyl, consider this an opportunity to re-think how the campus refers to and links to the CDL.  Some campus sites, for example, refer to “CDL/Melvyl”; others include a prominent link into the CDL web site.  The CDL encourages you to refer explicitly and link directly into the particular CDL services (e.g., “Melvyl Catalog”, “eScholarship Repositories”, “Searchlight”), from your campus library site, rather than mention “CDL” or link into the CDL web site.  In the coming weeks, the CDL will issue linking guidelines that will address this topic in greater detail.

b. Melvyl-T Service Details

Information on Melvyl-T services such as linking, Request, Updates, etc. can be found at http://www.cdlib.org/news/servicedetails.html#melvyl .

c. Legacy Melvyl and Melvyl-T Content Compared

A chart ( http://www.cdlib.org/news/content.html ) comparing the content of the Legacy Melvyl/Periodicals Titles databases and Melvyl-T, which also links to Background Information: Content Contributors to Melvyl-T ( http://www.cdlib.org/news/contentbg.html ) is available.

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