CDLINFO

A new web page, “Information Literacy: What the UC Libraries are Doing” is now available at http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/infolit/.

The purpose of the site is to link to information literacy resources, to provide an overview of information literacy activities on UC campuses, and to link to national, state, disciplinary, and accreditation sites that provide additional context for initiatives on the UC campuses.

The site will be maintained by the UC Heads of Public Services Information Literacy Common Interest Group (HOPS IL CIG).

Please share this announcement with others on your campus who are interested in information literacy.

As a result of collaboration with Berkeley’s UC data staff, Ilona Einowski and Fred Gey, Counting California now has two new datasets:

• Census of Population and Housing, 1980 [California] Summary Tape File 3
• Census 1980 Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

The Census of Population and Housing dataset contains 100 percent counts and unweighted sample counts of persons and housing units.  Population items tabulated for each person include demographic data and information on schooling, ethnicity, labor force status, and children, as well as details on occupation and income.  Housing items include the size and condition of the housing unit as well as information on value, age, water, sewage, heating, vehicles, and monthly owner costs.

The Census 1980 Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) dataset provides data on the workforce by detailed occupational category, cross-classified by race/ethnic origin, occupation by industry, earnings, educational attainment, and by age.  It contains two tables. Table 1 (Tab1) is detailed occupation (514 categories) by sex.  Table 2 (Tab2) is years of school completed by age and sex.  Both of these tables appear for 12 race/ethnic groups.

Search tip: From the advanced search page you can limit your search to particular dataset(s) or choose from the topics pull-down menu to search by assigned subject topic(s).

Coming soon: The 1970 2nd Count contains demographic items tabulated for each person including data on age, race, ethnicity, sex, marital status, family composition, and information on schooling, labor force status, and children, as well as details on occupation and income.

After months of innovative and collaborative work, we are pleased to announce the pilot release of the UC Libraries Digital Preservation Repository (DPR).  The DPR is a set of services that support the long-term retention of digital objects for the benefit of the UC libraries, their affiliates (e.g., campus museums), and their users.

Four pilot campuses (UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco) began testing the digital preservation repository in January.  Conversations about the digital preservation repository with UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz are also underway.  When the pilot phase concludes, the DPR will be formally launched for all campuses.

The DPR provides for the controlled, orderly deposit and dissemination of objects between authorized users and reliable, long-term storage.  The digital preservation repository is designed to interact with a variety of campus services.  More information on the digital preservation repository is available at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/preservation/dpr/.

By Susan Moon (Resource Liaison), UC Santa Barbara

The H. W. Wilson Company has released an improved interface with upgrades to a number of features. The first change is in the section where the user chooses the database or databases to be searched. The database selected by the user is shown, but user has the option of clicking on the “Open Database Selection Area” link and selecting additional databases to be searched during the current session.

Another new feature is hit term highlighting.  The search term is highlighted wherever it appears, whether it is in the article title, the abstract, or the subject field.  This feature will make it easier for users to see where the term is being used in order to better determine if the article is pertinent.

Wilson’s presentation of UC-eLinks has changed.  Instead of being embedded in the frame, UC-eLinks now opens in a new window. Once the preferred option is selected, the screen has to be closed to get back to the result/search screens.  This is similar to how UC-eLinks works in most of our databases.

Collected citations can now be formatted for citation management software (EndNote, ProCite, etc.).  Once citations have been selected for addition to such a package, the user selects the “Print Email Export” box, then selects “email” and fills in the address and subject, if desired.  Once the types of fields are chosen or the default is picked, then the user clicks “Format for exporting to Bibliographic Software” and any other options.  The email is then sent to the user in a field-delimited format.

Lastly, access to the journal directory is now a single click link rather than a two-step process.  The user selects a database and can then choose to modify the type of journal sought or simply look at the entire list.

If you have additional suggestions, please email them to me (Susan Moon) at moon@library.ucsb.edu.

CDL note: Susan is the Resource Liaison for Art Fulltext and Art Retrospective.  The other RLs with databases on the Wilson platform are Diane Childs for Education Full Text and Library Literature and Ken Firestein for Reader’s Guide Retrospective.

Many vendors of CDL-licensed resources have changed or will be changing their interfaces in the near future. (Note that these are not changes in vendors, but simply changes in the interfaces of our current vendors.)

A list of the interface changes from December 2004 through June 2005 can now be found on Inside CDL at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/resources/licensed/interface.html.

The chart indicates the name of the vendor, the type of change, if the change requires campus action, and the target date for the change.  When possible, the vendor name links to a vendor-hosted information web page where further details can be found.

Thanks to the Resource Liaisons who informed the CDL of upcoming changes to their resources.

a. ASM Handbooks Online

By Camille Wanat (UC Berkeley), Resource Liaison

The ASM Handbooks Online is a new Tier 2 acquisition negotiated on behalf of six participating campuses: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, and UC San Diego.  Access is via IP authentication for the six participating campuses at http://products.asminternational.org/hbk/index.jsp.

The online product contains all the data in the 21 volumes of the ASM Handbook, as well as the two ASM desk editions, the Engineered Materials Handbook and the Metals Handbook.  The set is a well-known source of information on metals and materials technology.

Until 1992, the series title was Metals Handbook.  Under the new title, ASM Handbook, the coverage has been broadened to include coverage of nonmetallic structural materials including plastics, ceramics, and composites.

The data includes articles, tables, and graphs on materials properties, processes, performance, and selection. Together, these volumes provide an enormous amount of practical information and data about the selection, processing, performance, and analysis of structural materials.

Both browsing and searching are available.  Users can browse through the table of contents and drill down to the section level.  Searching is always available via a search box in the top right of the screen; an advanced search mode enables users to limit searches for finer retrieval.  Search tips are also available at http://products.asminternational.org/hbk/tips.jsp.

Help for the ASM Handbooks Online is available at http://products.asminternational.org/matinfo/help.html#ghbo3.  The help button at the top right of every screen will provide help on all the ASM International Online products, not just the ASM Handbooks online.

The system requires the use of either Netscape 6.0 or higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or higher.

The eScholarship Repository has reached one million full-text downloads, a remarkable achievement given the repository’s short life.

On Wednesday, the eScholarship program announced the launch of its new eScholarship Repository postprints service, which provides scholars with another option for regaining control of their scholarship and maximizing its availability and influence.  See the press release at http://www.cdlib.org/news/press_releases/postprints_final_20050223.doc.

The postprints feature allows UC faculty who have retained the appropriate copyrights or who obtain permission from their publishers to easily deposit previously published articles into a publicly accessible online repository.

The postprints are fully searchable, available free of charge, and are persistently maintained in a centrally managed database.  UC faculty interested in joining the eScholarship Repository and depositing papers via the new postprints service can find more information on the eScholarship Repository web site at http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/about.html.

a. Roy Tennant Receives Literati Club Award for Excellence; Named User Services Architect

Roy Tennant’s article, “A bibliographic metadata infrastructure for the twenty-first century,” has been named the 2005 Literati Club Awards for Excellence outstanding paper for the journal Library Hi Tech.

A copy of the article can be found on the E-LIS repository at http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00002310/ .

More information about the award is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/literaticlub/whatsnew/awards.htm.

In addition, the CDL is pleased to officially announce Roy Tennant’s new job title: User Services Architect.  Roy has been acting in this capacity for some months now, especially in his work with the Metasearch project.

Previously, Roy performed the same role for eScholarship, along with being a jack of all trades.  Now he will bring his skills in identifying promising technologies, formulating a plan for how we might best use them, and leading or working on efforts to test, develop, and move technologies to production status to a broader range of the CDL’s projects.

b. Robin Chandler Awarded the California Heritage Preservation Archivist Award of Excellence

The California Heritage Preservation Commission has selected Robin Chandler to receive the 2004 Archivist Award of Excellence.  To quote in parts from the letter announcing the award: “The Archivist Award of Excellence was established by the Cal Heritage Preservation Commission to honor individuals who have done superior work in archives and records management within California…”

Robin was nominated for her work in developing the Online Archive of California (OAC), and in selecting her, the commissioners focused on the tremendous impact that the OAC has had statewide and beyond, as well as on Robin’s vision and leadership.

c. Adrian Turner Named CDL Data Consultant

On January 31, 2005, Adrian Turner began working in his new position as the CDL Data Consultant.

Adrian has served two years as the OAC Operations Coordinator, working closely with the CDL Digital Ingest Group and coordinating the OAC Operations Group and the OAC Working Group and subcommittees.  In this role, he has been actively involved in coordinating OAC operational activities, in addition to several important OAC and CDL projects including the Local History Digital Resources Project and the CDL Guidelines for Digital Objects.

On these projects, Adrian has worked to translate technical information for lay users seeking to contribute content.  In his new role, Adrian will be working with a broad range of CDL staff to explore ways to apply his data consultant skills to emerging CDL projects, initiatives, and priorities.

Please join us in congratulating Adrian on his new position!

VDX (Virtual Document eXchange) is UC’s consortial borrowing system for use in interlibrary loan (ILL), based on Fretwell-Downing’s product.  The VDX implementation is a large and complex project that has far-reaching implications for all UC library patrons.  As such, it requires the allocation of resources to ensure success.

The VDX Implementation Task Force was created to provide collaborative advice to the staff of the CDL and the campuses for the ongoing implementation of the VDX ILL request tracking system.  The task force will provide a process for setting priorities and reaching agreement on technical issues.  Gary Johnson (UC Santa Barbara) and Jennifer Lee (UCLA) co-chair this group.  Information on task force membership and activities, as well as other information about the VDX implementation may be found at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/request/vdx/.

Five campuses currently manage their interlibrary borrowing transactions through VDX.  Four more campuses are planning to begin using VDX for their borrowing.  All campuses are using VDX to lend to the five UC borrowers.

Jennifer Lee’s appointment to the CDL to assist campus ILL units with their implementation of VDX ended in October 2004.  Jennifer participated in the implementation through the training of ILL staff, the development and distribution of documentation, and advice on workflow considerations and location configuration.  Jennifer’s assistance was a primary factor in moving the VDX implementation project forward, and we are all very grateful to her and to the UCLA library administration for allowing her to assume that responsibility.

The UC ILL community felt that it was imperative that Jennifer’s role be continued, and so, in November 2004, Gary Johnson assumed a one-year, half-time appointment at the CDL to provide ongoing assistance.  Gary has been involved in the VDX implementation since its beginning.  His position as head of UCSB’s ILL operations for the last seven years, his participation in the Patron Initiated Request (PIR) team over the last two years, and his ongoing role as the UCSB representative to the UC Resource Sharing Group-Interlibrary Loan Advisory Group (RSC-IAG) made him an obvious candidate for this role.

Gary’s responsibilities over the next year in his CDL role will be very similar to Jennifer’s responsibilities. Gary will coordinate and provide training and documentation, and will assist the CDL with troubleshooting VDX issues and testing VDX program fixes and new versions.

One of Gary’s goals has been the creation of a UC VDX operations manual.  He and his UCSB staff have already completed a significant number of pages for this manual, which can be found on the VDX project page at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/request/vdx/.

Another milestone in this project has been recently accomplished with UCSB’s implementation of lending to non-UC partners through the VDX-to-OCLC ISO ILL communication mechanism.  UCSB is now able to perform 98 percent of their ILL work flow through this single system.

a. America’s Newspapers Features a New Interface and New Search

By Kay Collins (Resource Liaison), UC Irvine

America’s Newspapers from Newsbank recently launched a new interface.  With the new interface, selecting which papers to search is the first decision.  You can select papers from the new menu in the left tool bar, by clicking on the map, or by selecting by region of the country.

The new left-hand window allows you to choose local papers, California papers, national papers, United States papers, or create a custom list.  The local papers will vary from campus to campus.  If you would like to change the set of papers displayed for your campus, contact me (Kay Collins) at kcollins@lib.uci.edu and I will work with Newsbank to change them.

At the top of the main page is a link to a list of all papers represented.  Newsbank has been adding titles, mostly to smaller local papers.  They will accept suggestions for new titles but we will need to make certain this does not change our negotiated price if they are added to our current list.

Other changes include improvements to the search boxes.  With advanced search, more search fields are supplied than in the past.  A new browse feature has been added to search a specific newspaper title.  It appears once a single newspaper is selected. Once an article is displayed, then links to related topics appear. Toward the bottom, index terms are provided to help with other searches if the links are not useful.

An article bookmark (open URL compliant) is also supplied on the displayed article.  This feature allows you to link directly to the article if cited within a paper.  These citations will probably also start showing up with Google and Yahoo searches.

Newsbank has also added links to some of their other resources to which you subscribe as a library, e.g., the U.S. Congressional Serial Digital Edition.  Like LexisNexis products, it helps transition from one database to the other within the company family of titles to which a library subscribes.

If you have suggestions for changes to the new interface, email me at kcollins@lib.uci.edu.  Newsbank seems open to useful ideas, and they already have plans for more improvements.