New JISC Collections website

As you may be aware the JISC has recently launched its new web site. To coincide with this, JISC Collections has also launched new web site which can be found at www.jisc-collections.ac.uk. The new web site has a new structure that will hopefully make it easier to find everything you need to know about resources in the JISC Collections portfolio, licences and other relevant information.
Over the coming days and weeks we will be making further improvements to the web site and making sure that it is fully up to date.
In the mean time should you have any problems finding information please let me know and I will send you the relevant information.
Best wishes and kind regards,
Liam
Collections Manager
Joint Information Systems Committee
138-142 Strand
London WC2R 1HH
Tel: 020 7848 1716
Mobile: 07739 402774
Web: www.jisc.ac.uk/collections

EPSRC to stop funding the Chemical Database Service

EPSRC has today announced that the Chemical Database Service (CDS) is to close on 31 March 2007. The full announcement is on the EPSRC website:
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchFunding/Programmes/Chemistry/NCS.htm

What does this mean for you, the user?
Until 31st March 2007 - all existing services will continue.
From 1st April 2007 -
If you use the
* Cambridge Structural Database
* Inorganic Chemistry Structural Database
* DETHERM, the thermo physical properties database
the EPSRC will continue to provide access until at least 2010. A procurement process is underway to provide such a service. Access to any other components of the CDS will not be available through a national service. CDS will be exploring the continuation of provision of other components, in particular the synthetic organic reaction databases, the Available Chemicals Directory and spectroscopy data. This may well involve a subscription only service after 1st April 2007. However it would require buy-in from a significant proportion of the community to be viable. We will be examining this option in detail in the very near future.

Questions or comments about the EPSRC decision should be addressed to: Carmine.Ruggiero@epsrc.ac.uk
Queries about specific data or components of the Service should be sent to CDS: cdsbb@dl.ac.uk

JIBS Scopus Enhancement Group

Have you been involved in promoting Scopus to end-users in your institution? Do you have feedback you would like to see discussed with Scopus product developers? if you have answered yes to one of these questions, how about
putting your name forward to join the new JIBS Scopus enhancement group which will meet for the first time on Friday 10 November 2006 in Manchester.

I have accepted an invitation to chair the group, and Lorraine Beard who is Faculty Librarian (Life Sciences) at John Rylands University Library Manchester has volunteered to be Secretary. We would like to recruit 1 or 2 more people to
join us to meet with Niels Weertman, Head of Scopus Product Development and Cameron Ross the Product Sales Manager for Scopus.
As usual with JIBS enhancement groups there will be 2 or 3 meetings a year, and travel expenses are reimbursed. Please get in touch with me if you are interested in joining the group and do not already belong to any other JIBS enhancement group:

Marion Tattersall
eCollections Librarian
Academic Services Group
Room 1.23, Arts Tower Floor 1
The University of Sheffield Library
Sheffield S10 2TN
phone: 0114 2227281
email: M.Tattersall@SHEFFIELD.AC.UK

BSOL developments

BSI intends to improve BSOL search/browser functions in the next 6 months by implementing a new search engine. These improvements, which will involve migration of the site, will be phased with plenty of warning for users and Athens access will not be effected. The new search engine will be provided by Endeca http://endeca.com/ - a guided search - so subject and key-word searches should be vastly improved. The BSOL shop will be separated from the standards collection which should allow clearer display of search results for subscribers when in the database. The search engine change will happen in the early part of 2007.
There will be no major development to the present interface and search engine but work is carrying forward to fix bugs.
Endeca software is used by a range of information providers including the Guardian and NCSU library
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/libraries.php?p=1998&more=1

Roger Hines
Adsetts Centre
Sheffield Hallam
0114 2254703

JIBS BSOL Enhancement Group

We had a very positive first meeting of the JIBS BSOL [British Standards Online] enhancement group.
Our impression was that BSI is very keen to work with the academic community and can see a value in our input to help them improve their services.

The highlights of the meeting were:-

- BSI has recognised the weaknesses in the current search engine and interface and has a programme in hand to address the issues that were of concern to JISC, both in the short term to fix bugs and in the long term at a more fundamental level. More news on this will follow very shortly.
- BSI will engage the academic community in user acceptance testing of any changes to interface and search engine software
- BSI are investigating extending electronic availability of withdrawn and superseded standards
- BSI are investigating extending electronic access to Drafts for Comment (DC) standards beyond the DC EN standards

We hope the minutes of this meeting will be available very shortly and they will give a fuller picture of developments at BSI. Our next meeting will be in late November, early December when we hope to review in more detail the BSI development plan.

Roger Hines chairs the group on behalf of JIBS and is happy to receive feedback and comments: R.Hines@shu.ac.uk

JISC Collections Academic Database Assessment Tool

A major new resource giving librarians access to a wealth of information on key academic resources is launched today. The free resource, developed by JISC Collections in association with Nick Andrews Consultancy, provides quick and easy comparisons of the major bibliographic and citation databases currently in use by the academic community, including Web of Science, Scopus, ABI Inform, British Humanities Index and many more.

With feedback from the library community regularly suggesting that the high cost, profusion and complexity of these databases make the task of evaluating them difficult and time-consuming, JISC Collections commissioned and funded the new resource, bringing together a national user panel of librarians and information professionals to guide its development.

The Academic Database Assessment Tool provides details of the journal titles in each database, their date coverage, currency, as well as their functionality, editorial policy, indexing and a great deal more, and allows direct comparisons to be made between the resources and the different platforms on which they are available. Information can be exported into spreadsheets, allowing up to date lists of titles to be created.

Initial testing of the resource – which will continue to be developed in response to feedback – has been extremely positive, with librarians and publishers already welcoming it as an important resource which for the first time allows comparisons of the most popular databases.

To access the new resource, please go to:
http://www.andrews-consultancy.com/jisc_database_assessment

For further information, please contact: Liam Earney on 020 7848 1716 or l.earney@jisc.ac.uk

Posted on behalf of Liam Earney

JIBS Federated Searching Conference

JIBS is pleased to announce a one day conference entitled:

“Federated Searching, what?, why? and how? : an introduction to federated searching technology and developments"

To be held at the John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester, Wednesday 22nd November, 2006.

JIBS will host this one day conference aimed at library and information practitioners, within the higher and further education sectors. As electronic content and sources of information, provided by academic libraries, become greater and vaster, the need for federated searching technologies has increased. This conference will introduce delegates to the concepts of federated searching (also known as meta-searching) of library content, and will illustrate some of the current developments and initiatives within this field. Presentations will include experiences of implementing a federated search engine, and also the development of bespoke federated searching for specific institutions and for a specific sector. For those currently involved in federated searching, or even interested parties who are new to the concept, this conference will provide plenty of thought provoking examples of the current federated searching climate.

For programme details and a booking form please see the JIBS web page:
http://www.jibs.ac.uk/meetings/federated.htm

JISC Collections Licensing Workshops

Institutions are changing and evolving to meet the diverse needs of their users; overseas campuses are being opened, new commercial activities and spin out companies are being developed and franchised courses are being offered in partner institutions.

JISC Collections would like to invite you to attend the licensing workshops in November. The workshops will provide the opportunity to learn more about the new and updated Model Licence, to share experiences and to help JISC Collections create new models for non-standard licensing. Further details on these workshops can be found at:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_events.html

Posted on behalf of Brian Mitchell,
JISC Collections Promotion Manager

JISC Collections #8

Weekly update from JISC

<http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISC%20Collections%20weekly%20update%20issue%208.pdf>

British Geol. Survey and Digimap, Crossfire and other news from JISC

MIMAS Newsletter

The September edition of the MIMAS newsletter "Focus on MIMAS" is now available at: http://www.mimas.ac.uk/focus/

Contents:
* A report on the MIMAS Open Forum
* UK Online Biomedical Research Archive to be Hosted by MIMAS
* Introducing Intute
* WoK News
* Zetoc News for NHS England
* New Contributions to Jorum: REHASH Medical Resources and Hairdressing Training Worksheets
* Satellite Image of the Month Feature
* Nobel Prize Winner Praises ESDS International
* Archives, Archivists and Users
* Conferences
* MIMAS Courses