CDLINFO

The CDL is undertaking work to redesign the “CaliforniaDigitalLibrary.org” web site.  The new site will be called Calisphere and is scheduled for release in June.  Redesign decisions have been based on a variety of user assessment findings, including user studies and teacher interviews.  In addition, we conducted a study with the Interactive University at Berkeley to learn how teachers are currently using digital objects in the classroom.

The primary audience for the site will continue to be the K-12 teaching community and it will continue to provide access to digital collections produced or managed by UC, including all digital images and texts available through the Online Archive of California (OAC) and, University of California-created web sites showcasing compilations of digital materials and exhibits.

The web site will include two new features:

• Themed Collections: Themed Collections consist of 10-30 hand-selected images and a brief summary describing the unifying themes behind the chosen images.  Some examples include Women Workers at the Richmond Shipyards, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and Dust Bowl Migration.  The collections were especially designed for teachers and the subject areas are aligned with the California State Board of Education Content Standards. CDL staff partnered with the Interactive University at UC Berkeley and worked closely with Calisphere’s advisory board of teachers and librarians to create these collections.
• California Cultures: California Cultures will be a sub-site of Calisphere.  It will provide access to more than 15,000 selected images from UC collections documenting ethnic communities in California and the West.  The site also offers five teacher-created lesson plans and essays documenting six historical eras of California history.

Calisphere’s Relationship to the OAC

The content in Calisphere is drawn primarily from the digital content from the OAC web site.  The OAC web site will continue to be maintained after Calisphere goes live.  It will remain as an archival finding aid site that serves the needs of archivists, historians, and researchers.

For further information, see http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/calisphere/ or contact Rosalie Lack: Rosalie.Lack@ucop.edu

Global Books-In-Print now comes with a readers’ advisory tool called Fiction Connection.  You can use Fiction Connection to find book reviews, authors, or topics of interest. Fiction Connection draws its reviews from Library Journal, Choice, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The Horn Book, Criticas, and School Library Journal.  The user-friendly interface permits searching by title, author, or ISBN. Browsing by topic, genre, setting, character, location and time frame is also available.  Fiction Connection also provides a suggested reading list of books that have similar characteristics, as well as links to mention of books in leading newspapers and best seller lists. Suggested reading lists can be printed or e-mailed for later review. Another unique feature is the use of AquaBrowser technology to display a burst of narrower, broader and related terms for further searching.

Fiction Connection points primarily to English language adult fiction, biography, autobiography, memoirs and some children’s literature. It covers fiction published from 1997 to the present.  About 50,000 titles have been included to date, and more titles are being added daily.  To access Fiction Connection through Global Books-In-Print, click the “Fiction Room” link, then “Fiction Connection.”

Global Books-in-Print also links to title reviews from Library Journal, Choice, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The Horn Book, Criticas, and School Library Journal.  In addition, many GBIP records contain Synopses and Annotations, as well as new links to excerpts of first chapters when permission has been granted.

a. American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Journals

AACR is the oldest and largest scientific organization in the world focused on every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research.

AACR publishes five peer-reviewed scientific journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research (formerly Cell Growth & Differentiation); and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.  Complete archives are available for the titles, including issues back to 1949 for Cancer Research available in 2006.

The AACR systemwide license began as a Tier 2 with the health sciences bibliographers.  When it became apparent that the collection was considered a core resource in basic sciences, it was endorsed by JSC as a Tier 1 and approved by CDC for participation by all campuses except Riverside.  The AACR journals are available on HighWire.

b. New Premium Collection in Project MUSE

Project MUSE has launched a Premium Collection with 40 new titles in the social sciences and humanities, including publications from the Edinburgh University Press, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and University of Toronto Press.  Nine UC campuses approved an upgrade to the CDL license (excluding UCSF) and now have access to the new content as well as 285 other titles.  The systemwide license was formerly through AMIGOS and CSU, but is now managed by the CDL directly with Project MUSE.

The CDL Common Framework is an open, services-oriented technical architecture that provides an integrating framework for services related to digital libraries.  As a layered architecture, it aims to separate front-end tools from back-end services and from underlying data storage so that different components can be reused in multiple applications, reducing the time and money it takes to develop and maintain code.

To learn more about the Common Framework, see the web site on Inside CDL: http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/common_framework/index.html