Action for Libraries
In Reference
Edited by Brandie Baumann
Dialog Print Publications Replaced by E-newsletters
Dialog has replaced its print newsletters, including Chronolog, with electronic newsletters designed to focus on specific communities of interest. For information on general developments with Dialog and DataStar, previous subscribers to Chronolog should sign up for What's New and What's New on Datastar, which will include Dialog and DataStar product and content news, search tips and items of general interest to researchers in topical areas. Additional benefits in the
new e-newsletters are:
- Timely delivery of critical information direct to your e-mail box.
- Succinct articles with focused coverage on important topics, including aerospace and defense, biomed/life sciences, chemistry, competitive intelligence, energy and environment, engineering and high tech, intellectual property and pharma/biotech news.
- Online archives making it simple to locate previously published stories.
Sign up at www.dialog.com/enewsletters/ to receive the new Dialog e-newsletters. In addition, Dialog is offering a free copy of the 2006 Dialog Database Catalog Supplement. To order, go to www.dialog.com/2006dbcsupplement/.
Grove Art Online Update
The British Museum and Oxford University Press (OUP) have partnered to provide users with nearly 400 images of important artwork in the British Museum collection. Grove Art Online users can now display thumbnail images of British Museum objects in the text of articles and can link directly to information on the British Museum's collections online Web site, COMPASS (www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/), featuring a wealth of links, a glossary and background information and more than 50 tours on a variety of themes. For update details, go to www.groveart.com/grove-owned/art/whats_new.html.
Grove Art Online also has completed the first part of the women artists project, and users can now access bibliographies to 370 biographies on women. Later this year, Grove expects to publish the second part of the project, slated to include dozens of new articles, essays and images. In addition, a number of articles have been updated with death dates and textual revisions. For a complete list of articles that are part of this update, visit www.groveart.com/grove-owned/art/women-artists.html.
For pricing and subscription information, contact BCR's Laura Chittivej (lchittiv@bcr.org).
COinS in OCLC WorldCat Web Pages
Libraries now have a way to standardize how citation metadata is embedded into a Web page. COinS (Context Objects in Spans) allows other processors — such as a Web browser — to find the citation metadata and generate links to other resources that are accessible via OpenURLS. Links to resources are then automatically generated in a user's own library.
For example, a user viewing article metadata in Open WorldCat who has installed the free OCLC Openly Informatics Firefox browser extension will be presented with a button that links directly to the article through the user's library's OpenURL resolver. Different users may be linked to different versions of the article, depending on how they authenticate through the Resolver Registry. A nonaffiliated Web surfer may see only the table of contents, while an authenticated student coming in through the school's OPAC may get the whole article — all of which happens automatically and transparently to the users because of COinS.
COinS has already been implemented in various online resources including Wikipedia's Book Sources Page, Citebase, HubMed and the British Library's ZETOC service. The Web site provides additional information on what COinS is, how to use it and how to get it. Read more about COinS at www.oclc.org/productworks/coins.htm.
Oxford Reference Online Database Enhancements
Subscribers to the new Oxford Reference Online (ORO): Literature Collection now have access to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature as well as The Oxford Dictionary of Plays. If you do not already subscribe, take advantage of ORO's free 30-day trial and try it out. Send an e-mail message to oxfordonline@oup.com and ask to start a free trial of the ORO: Literature
Collection. For a small subscription fee, the Literature Collection can be added to the ORO: Premium Collection.
The latest update to Oxford Reference Online (ORO): Premium Collection includes several new titles from the Oxford Companies Series, as well as other valuable features.
- Oxford Companion to World Mythology
- The Oxford Companion to the Photograph
- The Oxford Companion to English Literature
- The Oxford Dictionary of Space Exploration
- The Concise Dictionary of World Place Names
- Science, Technology and Society
- More than 775 maps for each country of the world
- 100-plus city maps, including Los Angeles, London and Beijing
If you are a subscriber to the ORO: Premium Collection, you can access the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf titles you purchase from within the Oxford Reference Online interface as well as accessing them independently. Learn more about the Digital Reference Shelf at www.oxford-digitalreference.com/.
For information on pricing and subscribing to any of the Oxford collection of database products, contact BCR's Laura Chittivej (lchittiv@bcr.org).
OCLC FirstSearch Limits Access to Pierian Press Databases
OCLC has announced that access to the Pierian Press databases is now offered on a per-search basis only. This includes the Consumers Index, FactSearch and Media Review Digest databases. Although no new subscriptions may be started, all current subscriptions will continue to be honored. If you have any questions, please contact BCR's Karen Graham (kgraham@bcr.org).
ProQuest Update
The ProQuest Nursing Journals database has been improved significantly, resulting in a new name and access to more information, with no increase in cost. By adding 100 full-text allied health titles, the new ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Source provides even more value for users. Designed to meet the needs of researchers at healthcare facilities as well as nursing and allied health programs at academic institutions, the database contains more than 450 full-text titles and 10,000-plus nursing dissertations (a feature offered only by ProQuest).
Proquest is also releasing ProQuest Obituaries, a new database providing obituaries and death notices in full image format from ProQuest's extensive collection of historical newspapers, dating back to 1851. Users have access to family histories through a database of more than 10 million names as well as details such as proper full name, maiden name, spouse information, names of parents, siblings and children, occupation, religious beliefs, cause of death and more.
For pricing and subscription information, contact BCR's Lisa Holmberg (lholmber@bcr.org). To learn more about the ProQuest family of databases, visit www.proquest.com/.