There is a new Copac interface available for testing. You can access this by selecting the Copac v3 link below the 'Enter Copac' button on the Home Page:
http://copac.ac.uk/
Note that the interface is still under development and not all the usual features are available. The colour of the interface will change before the live version is released.
Please send comments on the new interface to the Copac Helpdesk: copac@mimas.ac.uk
- tell us what you like and don't like about it. If you have any difficulties using the interface can you email us details of the problem, plus the name of the web browser you are using (and the version number if possible).
The new interface is accessing the new XML database. This database is still growing so may be slow at times as it is very active. You may find more record duplication than normal, this will disappear as the database is completed. Not all the usual library catalogues are available, the 'Libraries' list on the search screens shows the catalogues that are currently included on the new database. Libraries are being added to the list as their data is loaded.
All feedback appreciated.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
JIBS meeting with Intute
At the JIBS USer Group Committee meeting on 16th November we met with Intute (http://www.intute.ac.uk)
Caroline Williams, Executive Director of Intute and Jackie Wickham, Intute: Health & Life Sciences Manager gave an overview of past and present Intute activity and future plans. Specifically they described current services including the Intute harvester and embedding tools. Work on the Leeds University embedding case study was articulated by Jackie. In addition, Caroline highlighted the results of the Intute Survey of Academic Use of the Internet: a published account to the survey will be made available in due course.
JIBS expressed significant interest in: embedding Intute in library websites and portals, in the potential for cross-searching/federated search, in lessons that could be learnt from functionality available in Google Scholar e.g. openURL resolver, and including different materials and associated search functionality e.g. images. The Group raised a number of issues associated with the existing service: duplication of records, currency of records, ability to distinguish between free and subscription resources easily, potential to extend e-journal listings, repeated entries in the harvester, resources appearing in subject areas that might be unexpected, gaps in the subject coverage and uneven spread of resources across subject areas.
Intute welcomed this feedback and intends to use it to inform service development. JIBS and Intute are currently in discussion about setting up an Enhancement Group.
Caroline Williams, Executive Director of Intute and Jackie Wickham, Intute: Health & Life Sciences Manager gave an overview of past and present Intute activity and future plans. Specifically they described current services including the Intute harvester and embedding tools. Work on the Leeds University embedding case study was articulated by Jackie. In addition, Caroline highlighted the results of the Intute Survey of Academic Use of the Internet: a published account to the survey will be made available in due course.
JIBS expressed significant interest in: embedding Intute in library websites and portals, in the potential for cross-searching/federated search, in lessons that could be learnt from functionality available in Google Scholar e.g. openURL resolver, and including different materials and associated search functionality e.g. images. The Group raised a number of issues associated with the existing service: duplication of records, currency of records, ability to distinguish between free and subscription resources easily, potential to extend e-journal listings, repeated entries in the harvester, resources appearing in subject areas that might be unexpected, gaps in the subject coverage and uneven spread of resources across subject areas.
Intute welcomed this feedback and intends to use it to inform service development. JIBS and Intute are currently in discussion about setting up an Enhancement Group.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
JIBS Scopus enhancement group
The first meeting was 10 November 2006 in Manchester.
Scopus coverage
Will be extended considerably during 2007, with "5 million records from multiple publishers at no extra charge" and will include more social science material. JIBS pointed out the need to for better coverage of sociology, social psychology, nursing and allied health material and extended retrospective coverage of chemistry, earth sciences and oceanography.
Elsevier are working on improving currency. JIBS noted that Scopus often lags behind PubMed at present.
Searching
JIBS queried the value of the advanced search option and whether citation searching could be made more obvious. Agreed to discuss in more detail at a future meeting.
Reference management software
JIBS asked for improvements to the screens covering this. The inclusion of RefWorks direct export was welcomed. JIBS asked for other products eg Endnote web to be added in due course.
Support
A UK phone number to contact the Scopus helpdesk is now available, Elsevier will confirm details shortly.
Scopus Live Chat an online technical support service available 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday via the live chat button (towards the top right of the screen). This can be customised for local use.
Inside Scopus magazine for librarians is available from http://info.scopus.com/is/
Minutes of the meeting and a presentation from Elsevierwill be posted on the JIBS web site when available.
Next meeting scheduled for April 2007. There is a vacancy for an additional JIBS member.
Scopus coverage
Will be extended considerably during 2007, with "5 million records from multiple publishers at no extra charge" and will include more social science material. JIBS pointed out the need to for better coverage of sociology, social psychology, nursing and allied health material and extended retrospective coverage of chemistry, earth sciences and oceanography.
Elsevier are working on improving currency. JIBS noted that Scopus often lags behind PubMed at present.
Searching
JIBS queried the value of the advanced search option and whether citation searching could be made more obvious. Agreed to discuss in more detail at a future meeting.
Reference management software
JIBS asked for improvements to the screens covering this. The inclusion of RefWorks direct export was welcomed. JIBS asked for other products eg Endnote web to be added in due course.
Support
A UK phone number to contact the Scopus helpdesk is now available, Elsevier will confirm details shortly.
Scopus Live Chat an online technical support service available 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday via the live chat button (towards the top right of the screen). This can be customised for local use.
Inside Scopus magazine for librarians is available from http://info.scopus.com/is/
Minutes of the meeting and a presentation from Elsevierwill be posted on the JIBS web site when available.
Next meeting scheduled for April 2007. There is a vacancy for an additional JIBS member.
JIBS BSOL Enhancement Group
BSI have just informed us that the delivery of a test version of the new British Standards Online software is now scheduled for mid-February 2007 and they expect to be doing testing throughout March. The main corporate website will be going live before that (hopefully December/Jan) which will give us a chance to see the Endeca search engine in action.
The enhancement group will be meeting with BSI at the end of February when I expect that we will get sight of the test version and make some immediate comments and also discuss how the academic community can get involved in the test process.
Roger Hines
The enhancement group will be meeting with BSI at the end of February when I expect that we will get sight of the test version and make some immediate comments and also discuss how the academic community can get involved in the test process.
Roger Hines
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
British Library Sound Archive
The British Library, in association with JISC, is in the process of launching its Archival Sound Recordings service, which is free to members of the UK HE and FE community. Access will be via ATHENS ID, once the home institution has completed a licence agreement. For further information, please see: http://www.bl.uk/nsa and http://sounds.bl.uk/
Details may also be obtained from:
The British LibrarySound Archive
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7676
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7441
Email: sound-archive@bl.uk
Details may also be obtained from:
The British LibrarySound Archive
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7676
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7441
Email: sound-archive@bl.uk
Monday, November 20, 2006
Researchers' use of discovery services
The RIN study on Researchers' use of discovery services has been published:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/researchers-discovery-services
A workshop is being held in London on the 18th December to present and explain the conclusions of the study; to consider the implications of its findings, from the point of view of librarians as well as researchers; and to discuss ideas about what steps might be taken next:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/discovery-services-workshop
http://www.rin.ac.uk/researchers-discovery-services
A workshop is being held in London on the 18th December to present and explain the conclusions of the study; to consider the implications of its findings, from the point of view of librarians as well as researchers; and to discuss ideas about what steps might be taken next:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/discovery-services-workshop
Web of Science Enhancement Committee (WoSEC)
WoSEC met on 30th October.
There is a new Key Account Manager for the UK, Jon Stroll. Email: jon.stroll@thomson.com
JIBS requested an improvement in backup capacity for when hardware problems occur, as was the case in October. Capacity is "being worked on".
We welcomed the improvements to author searching which have already been made and noted the introduction of full author names in the Q3 upgrade. These will not be searchable until a sufficient body of data has accumulated.
JIBS tabled an updated version of the WoS wishlist. Outstanding requests include:
- Reducing the list of ‘stopwords’ that cannot be searched
- Standardizing journal abbreviations used in citation searching
- Introducing a facility for export into RefWorks
There was also a discussion on the accuracy of the 'average' usage statistics, which are influenced by federated search engines.
Minutes of the meeting will be posted on the JIBS and MIMAS web sites when available.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
OvidSP enhancement meeting
OvidSP enhancement meeting at Waterloo Road, 3rd November
Gary Horrocks, Adrian, Mike King and Rowland Somers met with Ovid. A number of concerns had been raised by email and will be addressed by Ovid e.g. JISC had asked us to raise Shibboleth/Access Management Federation ...
Several issues can be resolved by local customization and Ovid will contact the customers concerned.
Ovid are working with Development Partners on the new common platform (engine to interface) for OvidSP for release in 2007. We have concerns about the time available to prepare training material for September 2007 but individuals, rather than institutions, may be able to choose when to migrate to the new platform (which means institutions may have to aggregate usage statistics for people using different interfaces?). Development Partners are bound by a No Disclosure clause; the databases already loaded are Medline, BIOSIS, INSPEC, PsycINFO and EMBase.
Databases are at present compressed - as they had to be when delivered on CD-ROM and this is no longer necessary (in fact constant decompression accounts for a significant load on processors) and the reload of databases for OvidSP will allow Ovid to remove this compression.
ClinicalResources@Ovid is available, ask for a quote or trial; this provides a federated search of Ovid's relevant resources within a "walled garden" - not yet customized for England (e.g. NICE Guidelines should be included?) but could be tailored for Wales, Ireland, Scotland etc.
Fulltext developments include pre-patent disclosure information on INSPEC.
BIOSIS (Biological abstracts from 1926) and Zoological Record (from 1864) archives should be loaded for December 2006 and are offered in modules, or complete. Ask for pricing information.
Ovid loaded PsycCritiques in September and have developed deep portal linking for APA resources. This could be implemented locally at no cost.
Midwifery and Infant Care database is already on SilverPlatter (WebSPIRS 5.1) and will be loaded for Ovid Gateway users "from December".
GeoScience World (GSW) collection now has 39 journals (peer reviewed) from 22 societies.
CAB Abstracts Plus is a fulltext upgrade, available for Ovid and WebSPIRS.
EBMR enhancements for 2007: will include Cochrane CDSR PDFs (full text), Cochrane database of methodology reviews, Cochrane methodology register, HTA (Health Technology Assessment) database load & NHS EED (Economic Evaluation Database) load.
LWW journal archive available November 2006 - this is a one-time purchase on a site license basis. Only available complete, no pick and mix.
Drugline is one of this months free trial resources: http://www.ovid.com/site/products/resource_of_the_month.jsp?top=2&mid=5
look out for fulltext formulary and handbook information from AHFS http://www.ashp.org/ahfs/ with Drugline.
Gary Horrocks, Adrian, Mike King and Rowland Somers met with Ovid. A number of concerns had been raised by email and will be addressed by Ovid e.g. JISC had asked us to raise Shibboleth/Access Management Federation ...
Several issues can be resolved by local customization and Ovid will contact the customers concerned.
Ovid are working with Development Partners on the new common platform (engine to interface) for OvidSP for release in 2007. We have concerns about the time available to prepare training material for September 2007 but individuals, rather than institutions, may be able to choose when to migrate to the new platform (which means institutions may have to aggregate usage statistics for people using different interfaces?). Development Partners are bound by a No Disclosure clause; the databases already loaded are Medline, BIOSIS, INSPEC, PsycINFO and EMBase.
Databases are at present compressed - as they had to be when delivered on CD-ROM and this is no longer necessary (in fact constant decompression accounts for a significant load on processors) and the reload of databases for OvidSP will allow Ovid to remove this compression.
ClinicalResources@Ovid is available, ask for a quote or trial; this provides a federated search of Ovid's relevant resources within a "walled garden" - not yet customized for England (e.g. NICE Guidelines should be included?) but could be tailored for Wales, Ireland, Scotland etc.
Fulltext developments include pre-patent disclosure information on INSPEC.
BIOSIS (Biological abstracts from 1926) and Zoological Record (from 1864) archives should be loaded for December 2006 and are offered in modules, or complete. Ask for pricing information.
Ovid loaded PsycCritiques in September and have developed deep portal linking for APA resources. This could be implemented locally at no cost.
Midwifery and Infant Care database is already on SilverPlatter (WebSPIRS 5.1) and will be loaded for Ovid Gateway users "from December".
GeoScience World (GSW) collection now has 39 journals (peer reviewed) from 22 societies.
CAB Abstracts Plus is a fulltext upgrade, available for Ovid and WebSPIRS.
EBMR enhancements for 2007: will include Cochrane CDSR PDFs (full text), Cochrane database of methodology reviews, Cochrane methodology register, HTA (Health Technology Assessment) database load & NHS EED (Economic Evaluation Database) load.
LWW journal archive available November 2006 - this is a one-time purchase on a site license basis. Only available complete, no pick and mix.
Drugline is one of this months free trial resources: http://www.ovid.com/site/products/resource_of_the_month.jsp?top=2&mid=5
look out for fulltext formulary and handbook information from AHFS http://www.ashp.org/ahfs/ with Drugline.
Monday, November 06, 2006
OVID and ICONDA building database
The ICONDA international construction database was loaded on Ovid in June with coverage from 1976. I understand the database now has input from RIBA so the architectural and aesthetics coverage is enhanced. ICONDA was already available on the SilverPlatter platform.
http://www.ovid.com/site/products/fieldguide/icon/About_ICONDA.jsp
http://www.ovid.com/site/products/fieldguide/icon/index.jsp?top=28&mid=30&bottom=56
Source publications are journals, theses, reports and conference proceedings.
http://www.ovid.com/site/products/fieldguide/icon/About_ICONDA.jsp
http://www.ovid.com/site/products/fieldguide/icon/index.jsp?top=28&mid=30&bottom=56
Source publications are journals, theses, reports and conference proceedings.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
JIBS Scopus enhancement group meeting 10/11/06
The first meeting of the new JIBS Scopus enhancement group will be held Friday 10 November 2006. Scopus will be represented by Cameron Ross Sales Manager and Niels Weertman Head of Scopus Product Development. Please let me know if there are any issues that you would like JIBS to raise, or if you have any suggestions for enhancing the service.
m.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk
m.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk
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