Interface Changes

There are many databases that we have renewed with different vendors for this upcoming fiscal year. These vendor changes will cause a noticeable change in the interface that you see for each of these databases.

Three of our existing databases will now be available on the EBSCOhost platform rather than through OCLC’s FirstSearch. This change also means that these databases will available for multi-database searching as discussed in a previous post.

EconLit (Economics)
RILM (Abstracts of Music Literature)
MLA (Literature & Language)

Another set of databases will be available on the WilsonWeb platform rather than through OCLC’s FirstSearch. WilsonWeb also has multi-database search capabilities for this set of databases; look for the Open Database Selection Area link on the WilsonWeb search page to see the list of databases available for cross-searching.

Education Full Text (formerly Education Abstracts)
General Science Full Text (formerly General Science Abstracts)
Humanities Full Text (formerly Humanities Abstracts)
Reader's Guide Full Text (formerly Reader's Guide Abstracts)
Social Sciences Full Text(formerly Social Sciences Abstracts)
Omnifile Full Text Mega (Multi-disciplinary)
Business Full Text (Business)

New SUNYConnect database package

Allows multi-database searching via EBSCOhost interface

SUNYConnect is cooperative initiative that allows the SUNY campuses to share collections and services. One shared set of resources we receive through SUNYConnect is a package of online databases on the EBSCOhost platform.

The EBSCOhost interface is easy to use and is common across the range of databases included in the SUNYConnect package. This common platform has the added benefit of allowing you to search more than one database simultaneously.

To search multiple databases at the same time, simply connect to one of them (for example, Academic Search Premier) and click the Choose Databases tab near the top of the screen. A list of available databases will appear. Just check the boxes next to the databases you want to search simultaneously and click the Continue button. The next screen that appears will be a search screen.

The databases available to us in this SUNYConnect / EBSCOhost package are:

Academic Search Premier (Multidisciplinary)
Business Source Premier (Business)
CINAHL Plus with Full Text (Nursing and Allied Health)
CINAHL Select (Nursing and Allied Health)
ERIC (Education)
MEDLINE (Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Health-Care System, etc.)
Professional Development Collection (Information and resources for Professional Educators)
Military & Government Collection (Current news for all branches of the military and government)
Regional Business News (Small collection covering all metropolitan and rural areas in the USA)
MasterFILE Premier (Multidisciplinary)
Education Resource Complete (Education) - available by July 31^st, 2006

Database Changes - effective July 1st

InfoTrac Onefile replaced by Academic Search Premier

In an effort to improve subject coverage and provide easier access to a variety of resources, we are switching from the InfoTrac Onefile product to Academic Search Premier as our major multi-disciplinary full-text database. Academic Search Premier is already available, and access to InfoTrac Onfile will end on June 30, 2006.

Academic Search Premier, is a scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database with the full text for nearly 4,650 serials, including more than 3,600 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 8,200 journals in the collection. Subjects covered by this database include computer science, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies, as well as general interest and popular, current-event topics.

Academic Search Premier includes PDF backfiles to 1975 or further for over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. The majority of full text titles are available in native (searchable) PDF, or scanned-in-color.

Create Change

The Create Change website is a resource which addresses issues in scholarly communication. The site is geared toward helping faculty and other researchers learn about sharing and using their research more effectively in a world where the scholarly communication model is rapidly changing.

The site poses the question "“Shouldn't the way we share research be as advanced as the Internet?"” and then provides information and practical methods for faculty to use in advancing the way we share research. Policies, technologies, best-practices and actions you can take to promote change are all available at the Create Change site.

Create Change was developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and is supported by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

LibriVox - an audiobook project

acoustical liberation of books in the public domain

LibriVox is a free, open web site (i.e., not a library-subscribed resource) that provides access to audio-books in the public domain. LibriVox relies on vounteers to read and record the books. Their mission is to make all public domain books available in audio format for free on the internet.

Most of the books that the LibriVox volunteers record come from Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg itself contains the text of over 18,000 books in the public domain. The Internet Archive and ibiblio.org host LibriVox's audio files.

LibriVox does not limit their coverage to English-language materials. There are over 20 titles already available in other languages, including German, Hebrew, Russian and Old English. In fact, although it is still a work in progress, you can listen to many of Grimm's Fairy Tales in both English and German.

If you would like to read (or in some cases, listen to) news about LibriVox, check out the in-the-press list of stories compiled at the LibriVox site.