UC Libraries Discontinue Taylor & Francis Systemwide Journals License

This is a pretty big deal. For a while now we have had amazingly complete access to all Taylor and Francis Journals.  This has ended.  We get to keep access to the 2010-2012 issues that we have purchased, but each campus will have to pick up local subscriptions or rely on interlibrary loan for articles from 2013-.

Why is this a big deal?  These are some pretty big journals, and they are some really expensive journals.  We will not be able to subscibe at UCR to all of the journals that our researchers will want to use.  We will have to rely substantially on Interlibrary Loans.

What can be done?
1. Register for Taylor and Francis Online
2. Make a "shortlist" of your favorite T&F journals
3. Set up a TOC alert for your shortlisted journals
4. When you see articles you like, click on "Open URL" (a little blue button in the article information).
5. Click on Request this from another library. Your library ID is the 2121... number under the barcode on your ID.

If you come upon the article in the course of your normal research, look for the UC-eLinks button and click on Request this from another library.  Your barcode is

It can be annoying to fill out the form all the time,  if you find it so, consider looking for a form-filling add-on for your browser and save your login information. 

I am working on a system where we can get emergency access to articles that we need immediately, but these articles will come within 48-72 hours. 

Keep in touch with me and we will make sure you get what you need.

Information about the decision to cancel

ASTM Standards Online

In partnership with UCR Architects and Engineers, The UCR Libraries now provide online access to the ASTM Standards Online.  ASTM is the American Society for Testing and Materials, and governs materials quality and product testing standards.

The ASTM Digital Library covers a broad range of engineering disciplines, including aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental, geological, health and safety, industrial, materials science, mechanical, nuclear, petroleum, soil science, and solar engineering.  There are over 12,000 standards in more than 130 industry areas.

If you have never worked with standards, you might find it interesting to know that standards govern everything from file-types (MP3 is a standard, though not an ASTM one), surface quality of grass tennis courts (ASTM F2208), and forensic sciences (think C.S.I.). 

You will also find the full text of ASTM manuals such as:

• MONO7 Physics and Chemistry of Micro-Nanotribology
• DS67C Handbook of Comparative World Steel Standards

Enjoy!

What's new with SPIE

Today is the day scheduled for the launch of the new SPIE platform.  "What is changed?" you ask:

Well,

•  More Content: At no additional cost, subscribers now have access to 40,000 additional articles (published between 1962 and 1989) from the Proceedings of SPIE and Optical Engineering journal— extending SPIE Digital Library coverage for both publications back to Volume 1.
•  New Taxonomy: SPIE and Silverchair have worked together to create a comprehensive taxonomy and tagging system for optics and photonics. This means users are automatically exposed to content most relevant to their search or related to the content being viewed.
•  New Topical Collections: By cross-cutting all proceeding, journal and book content, the SPIE Digital Library now offers 135 specific subject collections where users can easily find the latest information related to their topical interests and sub-specialties.
•  Mobile-Optimized for All Web-Enabled Phones and Tablets: Subscribers can use the SPIE Digital Library on any mobile devices via their web browser. Institutional users are entitled to full mobile access, extending the value of the site license.
•  Improved usability, information discovery, and ease of reading: Search, browse and discover related information, using an intuitive user interface employing the best practices in web interface design.
•  New Linking to SPIE.org Author Profiles: Gain a quick overview of the publication record, society activities and accomplishments of authors.
•  New Linking to Conference Videos: Access selected conference presentations directly within the proceedings article page to gain an enhanced understanding of the content directly from the author.
•  Personalization: Individual users can customize page display, save figures and tables of interest, manage email alerts, view a summary of subscriptions and article access, and activate mobile access by creating a personal login.

I answer.

Try it out at http://library.ucr.edu/go/spiedl

Momentum Press eBooks

We have just negotiated for a new set of ebooks that may be of interest to many of you.   As of this week we have access to 45 new Momentum Press books online


The books range across all areas of engineering, but are particularly strong in chemical engineering and bioengineering. There are no limitations on concurrent usage; nor any restrictions on printing, downloading PDFs to personal devices, or uploading them to learning management systems.

Sample Titles:
Biomedical Sensors
Automotive sensors
Chemical sensors: fundamentals of sensing materials, Volume 1: general approaches
Chemical sensors: fundamentals of sensing materials, Volume 2: nanostructured materials
Professional expression: to organize, write and mange technical communication
Process control case histories: an insightful and humorous perspective from the control room
Advanced regulatory control: applications and techniques

ASCE Proceedings

The ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) is now offering us access to their entire collection of conference proceedings as well as journals as part of our ASCE Library subscription. In all there are over 30,000 papers. I have found that these are not easily findable in either Compendex or in Google Scolar, to the best way to find them is by going to http://ascelibrary.org/ or http://ascelibrary.org/proceedings.


Whats New:


World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2011: Bearing Knowledge for Sustainability

IEEE Ebooks

We have acquired through the California Digital Library the collection of IEEE Ebooks. There are ~400 books in this collection!

This is one of those moments when I am truly thankful to be part of a large system.

For those of you who are already familiar with IEEE Xplore, you will be glad to know that this means you now have access to all of the ebook content in the system.

Some sample titles:

Adaptive Antennas for Wireless Communications
Fiber Optic Essentials
Intelligent Image Processing
Sensor Network Operations

The books will all show up in Scotty soon, but feel free to browse them at IEEE Xplore!

http://library.ucr.edu/go/ieee

Happy Reading!

SPIE eBooks

Due to the continuing generosity of the other UC libraries we have acquired access to the SPIE ebooks!


http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ebooks/

Welcome to SPIE eBooks, the new online source for three valuable series of SPIE Press titles in optics and photonics:

• SPIE Press Monographs are authoritative reference books, textbooks, and handbooks.
• Tutorial Texts cover fundamental and emerging topics at introductory and intermediate levels.
• Field Guides present key information that students and practicing engineers and scientists need in a concise format.

SPIE eBooks launched with 120 books in January 2010; 15 to 20 new titles and editions will be added during the year. As new books are published, they will be available in SPIE eBooks first.

Knovel eBooks

Wonderful news!

Due to the generous help of the other UC campuses, and in part to the work we have been doing on canceling low use journal titles, we are now able to access the fabulous world of Knovel! Knovel includes ~1900 electronic books and "enhanced books" which have interactive tables. There are so many wonderful books in this package that I am not even sure yet of all of the wonderfulness. Every search brings up a great set of books.

The set includes the 11 volume Encyclopedia of Materials - Science and Technology, The 3 volume Environmental Contaminant Reference Book and the very exciting Biomedical Signal Analysis - A Case-Study Approach.

Check it out for yourself at library.ucr.edu/go/knovel. The records for each book will be added to the Scotty catalog as soon as we receive them from central cataloging.

Or, feel free to browse by subject. We have access to all of the books except for the ones in Nanotechnology and Transportation. We couldn't afford these sections. If you see books in these sections that look interesting, check Scotty to see if we have them in another way.

• Adhesives, Coatings, Sealants & Inks
  
• Aerospace & Radar Technology
  
• Biochemistry, Biology & Biotechnology
  
• Ceramics & Ceramic Engineering
  
• Chemistry & Chemical Engineering
  
• Environment & Environmental Engineering
  
• Food Science
  
• General Engineering & Engineering Management
  
• Industrial Engineering & Operations Management
  
• Mechanics & Mechanical Engineering
  
• Metals & Metallurgy
  
• Nanotechnology - We do not subscribe to this section. It is more expensive than we can afford.
  
• Oil & Gas Engineering
  
• Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics & Toiletries
  
• Plastics & Rubber
  
• Sustainable Energy & Development
  
• Alternative & Renewable Energy Sources & Technologies
  
• Energy Efficiency
  
• Sustainable Agriculture
  
• Sustainable Industrial Development
  
• Sustainable Urban Development
  
• Water Resources & Conservation
  
• Transportation Engineering - We don't subscribe to this section, it is too expensive for us right now.
  

This is a subscription service, so if you think it is a valuable addition to our collections, please drop me a line and let me know how you are using it. We have to watch every penny these days, and items we thought would never be in danger of cancelation are coming up for review regularly.

Encyclop(a)edias

I was just going through my email and noticed that UCR has canceled our subscription to the Encyclopaedia Britannic online. It this tragic? Probably not.

There is a lot of discussion in the academic world about Wikipedia and why it is such a pervasive source of information for students even though there is no guarantee that any of the information in it is really true. The answer is pretty easy actually...it is very easy to get to, it is free and in general the entries contain a lot of seemingly useful and valid information.

A lot of the information is valid. However it is not valid simply by virtue of being in Wikipedia, it is valid only if it is validated. Whenever you read a Wikipedia entry, take note of the sources of the information. All facts should have little numbers next to them and at the end of the entry, a list will show what source that information came from. A Wikipedia entry is only as good as its sources.

Does that mean that if it has good sources listed, the article is all true? No, because no one is actually responsible for checking that the information is actually in those sources. That is your job.

On the other hand... what options are there when you need a lot of information and you don't want to take the time to track down each fact that wikipedia offers you?

As a university student, you would probably not be able to get away with using the Encyclopaedia Britannica as a source in a research paper in any case...hence it not being a tragedy that we don't get it anymore. However, we do have a large collection of more specifically subject-related encyclopedias that might be fair game. Be careful with this however, some instructors are fairly anti-encyclopedia.

If that is the case, your best option for finding general information about a topic is to look for a book in Scotty. If books are also prohibited...well, that is for another entry...

MRS Proceedings Online

We have just completed negotiations for access to the complete library of MRS (Materials Research Society) Proceedings!

The MRS Online Proceedings Library features over 30,000 peer-reviewed papers presented at MRS Meetings. The proceedings papers can be viewed sorted by meeting by selecting a meeting from the list on the left side of this page. Proceedings can also be viewed sorted by topic.

These proceedings are available directly at: http://library.ucr.edu/go/mrs

Unfortunately, the way the site is arranged makes linking impossible from Google Scholar, UC-eLinks and Compendex, but Compendex does index the papers pretty well and a Google search works well for pulling up papers by title. Access is available from campus or from Web or client VPN.

I hope you are as excited about this as I am, let me know what you think! This is a fairly expensive package so we will want to have plenty of justification for continuing it in the future.

Michele

Tough times call for tough measures - Journal Cancelations

Due to economic factors of which we are all aware, we in the library are working hard to use our budget as efficiently as possible. With that goal we have been systematically reviewing our journal subscriptions and making some adjustments. For subscriptions which we get in both print and electronic format, we have been canceling the print. We have also canceled a few titles with very low usage. For some of these, the cost/benefit ratio amounted to $400-800 for each time an article was used.

Articles from canceled titles will be available for you via interlibrary loans and will come to you electronically in your email.

If you do run into a journal that has been canceled that you would like to have reinstated in better budgetary times, please feel free to let me know and I will keep a file.

Access Engineering Ebooks

Great News! We have another 256 electronic books! Due to the generosity of UC Davis and UC San Diego who paid our portion to participate, we have permanent access to 256 new engineering ebooks from Access Engineering (McGraw Hill). Books are included from all of the following areas.

Biomedical Chemical Civil Communications Construction

Electrical Energy Environmental Green/Sustainable Industrial

Material Science Mechanical Nanotechnology Optical

These books will eventually be included in Scotty. Visit Access Engineering!

Update: I removed the links above because we have a new access method for Access Engineering.

As usual, the easiest way to find online engineering books is to look in Scotty, and limit to Online. 

24 Hours at the Library for Finals Week

Don't forget that the Science and Rivera Libraries are open for business around the clock until the end of finals! The Libraries are great places to study and we hope to see you here!

A Lifetime of Library Fun!

Even though you are leaving the University, your learning will not stop and libraries will always be there for you when you need information. Here are ten pieces of information that will help you make the most of the libraries in your life...

1. As an Alumni Association Member, you will be able to check out books, not only at UCR but also at any UC.
2. If you are local to a research library, you can use their databases while you are in their library.
3. Most public libraries have interlibrary loans, just like you had here. Sometimes it is free, sometimes it has a minimal charge. The Riverside Public Library is part of the same Link+ network that we are.
4. Any U.S. Citizen can get a library card for the Los Angeles Public Library, and they have many (many) useful online resources. You just have to go there and get a card. (Road Trip)
   
5. A resident of any city in California can become a member of almost any public library in California.
6. Google Scholar is a pretty useful way of searching for authoritative information.
7. If you plan to go to grad school, get to know your library and librarian(s)
8. Many journals now provide open access to their backfiles.
9. The Riverside Public Library also has access to the O'Reilly computer Books.
10. You can always ask the UCR Librarians for help.
    

Scopus is Among Us

UC Campuses to Evaluate Scopus

Update: The UC Libraries have concluded their trial of Scopus and found that it does not add sufficient value to replace or augment the databases currently owned by the libraries.  Thank you for your assistance.
 



The University of California community will be trialing Scopus, a large, multidisciplinary research database, through February 28, 2010. Scopus was developed by the scholarly publisher Elsevier, and contains research literature and selected websites.

Overview:Scopus indexes, selectively abstracts, and provides citation analysis (since 1996) for nearly 18,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 4000 publishers (including ~1200 Open Access journals). Unlike Web of Science, Scopus also includes conference proceedings, trade publications, patents and over 431 million web pages. Although most comprehensive in the sciences, Scopus is currently expanding its coverage of the social sciences and humanities literature.

Features:

Alerts

Citation information (i.e. number of times cited)

UC eLinks support for access to full-text, call numbers, or Request

Evaluation:

During the Scopus evaluation period, members of the UC community are invited to consider its coverage and functionalities in comparison with similar databases. (e.g. Web of Science and Google Scholar). Given the current fiscal restraints throughout the UC system, it is unlikely that CDL or any of the UC Libraries will be able to provide access to multiple resources with duplicative or similar content after 2009. The UC Libraries will be actively soliciting feedback on Scopus from end users during the course of the access period.

Contact:

The librarian at UCR who is coordinating the systemwide evaluation of Scopus is Michele Potter who may be contacted at michelep@ucr.edu for additional information and feedback.

Inspec on ISI

On April 20th, Inspec is moving to the ISI (Web of Science) interface. We decided to move Inspec from the Ovid interface because it was the only database left on Ovid, and moving it to ISI makes it cross-searchable with all of the other ISI databases as well as giving it all of the great ISI features such as citation tracking.

For information about how to use this new Inspec visit the online help system.


If you have been using Ovid Inspec through your EndNote program let me know.

Thanks and enjoy.

Online Help is now 24/7

Don't panic. A librarian is now available to help you with your research emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sample uses:

• It is 4 am and you are trying to finish a paper that is due in 5 hours and you need to know the exact way to add a "see also" note to your in text citations.
• It is midnight during finals week and you need to know which libraries are open and how late.
• It is 6 am and you need to know how to get into an article from home

We have you covered. Simply click on the Ask a librarian button (similar to the one in this blog entry) and type in your emergency (er... question). You will be helped by the first librarian available. (If your emergency happens during more normal hours, you can use our librarian chat box on the left side of the libraries' Web site.

Phew.

Springer eBooks 2005-2009 Online

Remember that wonderful trial we had in the fall for all of the Springer ebooks. Due to the cooperation of all of the UC campuses, we were able to get permanent access. Since we are unable to purchase any books at his time, due to budget cuts, this couldn't have come at a better time.

20,000 Springer electronic books now available!

The University of California Libraries have purchased nearly every Springer ebook published in English and German from 2005 to 2009, including Landolt-Bornstein. The collection includes approximately 20,000 ebooks in the sciences and social sciences. This purchase builds on our existing access to Springer book series - such as Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Lecture Notes in Physics, and Topics in Current Chemistry - to greatly expand our ebook collections.


Each book chapter is available as a PDF file without digital rights management (DRM). These files can be downloaded, printed, and even transferred to a PDA or Kindle. Currently the ebooks can be found in Melvyl, Google Scholar and via UC-eLinks. Eventually they will be available in Scotty. You can also search or browse them directly at http://www.springerlink.com .

Books are available in the following categories:

* Architecture and Design
* Behavioral Science
* Biomedical and Life Sciences
* Business and Economics
* Chemistry and Materials Science
* Computer Science
* Earth and Environmental Science
* Engineering
* Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
* Mathematics and Statistics
* Medicine
* Physics and Astronomy
* Professional and Applied Computing


A few Springer ebooks are excluded from this purchase because they have been jointly published with another publisher. The Springer Protocols are not included in this collection.

This purchase will help the libraries to study the viability of ebooks, including such factors as preferences, behaviors, and usage. We will be soliciting feedback from our users regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the electronic format for their specific disciplines and formats.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact your librarian (me).

Ten Things You Need to Know about Google Books

10. Google books can be found by going to Google and selecting books from the "more" pull-down menu or by typing books.google.com

9. The people at Google are scanning an amazing number of books from academic libraries throughout the country and making them available completely searchable.

8. Some books have a limited "preview" available for viewing.

7. The Limited preview isn't very limited, and is often a fairly large portion of the book. Sometimes, you might get lucky and the entire chapter you need to read will be there.

6. Printing is disabled for the limited preview.

5. Books out of copyright are available to download and print. To find books that are downloadable, choose "Full view only" from the "Showing" option at the top of the page.

4. They now include magazines, such as Popular Mechanics

3. To find out if we own the book in the Library, click on the "Find this book in a library"

2. The advanced Search allows you to specify author, language, publisher, title, issn, isbn, subject and publication date.

1. Google books might be the very best place to look if you are searching for very specific and yet fairly authoritative information.

National Game @ Your Library Day

Okay, I have no idea who invented this (or why) but in honor of National Game @ Your Library Day, I have decided to put the fun in library (that doesn't really make sense, does it?)

Anyway. Who knew that we have a ton of video games in the library? We have some in the Multimedia library and some in the music library (Did you know we have a professor here who writes music for video games?).

I hereby pledge that when I finish playing Morrowind, I will donate it to the library. Of course it could take many months. ;)

Also, in honor of this day, I would like to share with you this very fun (remember that I am a librarian) game about the Library of Congress classification system. I scored 4400. If you can prove to me that you beat me, maybe I will give you a prize. :)