LIBRARY UPDATE
Published by the WSU Libraries for the WSU Faculty
No. 22 -- November 2000
CONTENTS
From the Director
Cascade Has Arrived!
New and Improved Griffin Search Menu
Updated Electronic Journal List
Revamped FirstSearch Debuts
New Electronic Resources
Going Electronic in a Big Way
netLibrary via Griffin
New Location for Maps at Owen Library
When the Interim Provost asked me to serve as Interim Director of WSU Libraries several months ago, my interim reaction was: You’ve got to be kidding! (I’m sure that was also the reaction of many faculty and staff inside and outside the Libraries as well.) What I have discovered in this role is that the library faculty and staff are an incredibly talented, dedicated, hard working group of professionals. They have welcomed me into their environment and made me feel even more a part of a very dynamic time in the life of the Washington State University.
Changes are underway at WSU. President Rawlins is embarking with all of us on the road to new directions and goals for the university. He is leading us in a reaffirmation and discovery effort that will emphasize excellence, that will build on open and healthy communication and teamwork, and that will determine the direction this university will follow over the next several years. The president has initiated a strategic planning process that is now underway. This process will result in clearly defined plans and priorities for every unit within the university. The Libraries, as other areas, will be confirming our strategic priorities and our goals, and outlining the means to achieving those goals.
One of my priorities in this planning process will be to see that the Libraries receive the attention and the resources that will be needed to carry out the university’s goals and objectives. The Libraries are, after all, a key part of the infrastructure of every academic and research program and initiative at this university. This role must not only be recognized, but strengthened in order to achieve the excellence expected of us. We will work collaboratively with others in the university to assure that expectations of the Libraries are clearly articulated
Mary Doyle
Interim Director of Libraries
509-335-4558; mdoyle@wsu.edu
Cascade
Has Arrived!On July 24, 2000, a new service made its debut on the Griffin catalog. The service is called Cascade and provides patrons with access to the library holdings of Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Evergreen State College, University of Washington (& its Law School), Washington State University and Western Washington University. For the first time, students, staff and faculty are able to directly request books from these institutions without having to fill out a bunch of paper forms!
Here’s how Cascade works: You’ve gotten into the Griffin catalog, plugged in the title you want, but neither WSU nor EWU own it, so you click the little green button that says "Search Cascade" and voila, you see that one of the other institutions owns the item. What to do next? You will see "Request this item" and all you need to do is click on it. The next screen will ask which institution you are affiliated with and you will make a selection from the menu provided, and then submit the information. The last screen will ask for your name, your library identification number and a pin. You will also be asked where you want to pick the item up and
you can make a selection from the list of libraries provided. Click on the "Submit above information" button and you are done. The library will contact you when your book has arrived and is ready for pick up. See how easy this is!New and Improved Griffin Search Menu
The WSU Libraries conducted usability testing on the Griffin catalog which identified some major problems with locating journals and with call number searches. This Fall a newly designed search menu was made public. This new menu features a Journals, Magazines, Newspapers button which leads to a screen allowing searching for articles on a topic as well as a variety of different searches (title, keyword, subject, corporate author, corporate author/title) for locating this type of material in Griffin in a journals only part of the database. A brown background color is being used for the journals, magazines, newspapers search and display screens. Any time you are on a screen with a brown background you know you are searching journals only. To get back to the full catalog just click on Start Over. Another new button is the one for Call Numbers, ISSN/ISBN, etc. This replaces the previous six buttons which testing revealed meant nothing to users. This new button leads to a screen with multiple examples of different types of numbers indexed in the catalog. These examples help users choose the correct type of number search to perform. With the addition of the ability to renew books online, the old "Your Circulation Record" button has been re-labeled as "Your Library Record/Renewals" and made more prominent. It has been placed at the top of the screen to make it more noticeable. We hope these changes improve your ability to find what you need in the Griffin catalog. For more information, contact Janet Chisman, 509-335-4941.
Updated Electronic Journal List
An updated Electronic Journal List is available. This updated list contains over 4,000 entries and has some new features. Links for over half of the titles now go directly to the journal title online. Currently, links to ProQuest Direct full-text journal titles cannot be made directly, so instructions on how to locate a title in the ProQuest system is included in a Notes area. Additional information on who can access the full text is now provided. For example, if a title is licensed for use on a particular campus only, that information is available. We are also including some titles that are free to anyone and these are noted as being unrestricted. Dates of coverage are included for many titles and will be available for all titles shortly. A keyword search feature has been added which allows for a search for journal title keywords across the entire list. For example, it is now possible to find all titles with the word "soil" in the title using this feature. While this list is much more extensive than the previous one, it is not totally complete. As problems get resolved, we hope to get everything into the list. Contact information for those who are having problems using the list is readily available online. If you have questions about omissions from the list, contact Janet Chisman (509-335-4941) or the librarian who is the liaison with your department. Please let us know what you think and what other types of information you might like to see on such a list. There is also an intensive cataloging project to update Griffin catalog records with direct links to electronic resources.
Revamped FirstSearch Debuts
A new version of the OCLC FirstSearch service is now available at the WSU Libraries, promising even more powerful online searching to ensure that library users will have access to the information they need. Library users can access 38 databases of scholarly materials, including WorldCat, the world’s largest and most comprehensive computerized card catalog through FirstSearch (FS). Each record in FS displays information indicating if your library owns the particular material, as well as which other libraries own it. Library users then know if they can find it in their library system or whether they need to request it through interlibrary loan. The WSU Libraries have provided access to FirstSearch since 1995.
Designed to make searching simple yet sophisticated enough for all library users, FS offers options for receiving the full text of journal articles. FirstSearch continues to be the fastest growing reference service in the library community. The service enables library users to search multiple databases under a single, easy-to-use interface, without any online searching experience or computer training. Users can execute simple to in-depth searches, compile comprehensive bibliographies, and locate hard-to-find materials. For some databases, full-text documents are available and can be viewed online, printed, downloaded or e-mailed.
These databases are listed on the "A to Z" menu under FirstSearch and FirstSearch More via the Griffin gateway (griffin.wsu.edu). For in-depth information regarding FirstSearch databases go to OCLC’s website at:
http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/.FirstSearch Databases Available
Agricola
App Sci & Tech Abs
Article 1st
Arts/Humanities More
AcxiomBiz (business teletphone directory
AcxionHome (home telephone directory
Art Abstracts
Biography Index
Biology/Agriculture Index
Biology Digest
Books in Print
Contents 1st
CWI
Electronic Collections Online
ERIC
Econlit
Education Abstracts
Environment
General Sci Abstracts
GeoBase
GeoRef
GPO
InternetPC Abstracts
Library Lit
Medline
MLA
Music Lit
NetFirst
PAIS
PapersFirst
Proceedings
PsycInfo_1887
SIRS researcher
Sociology Abstracts
Union Lists
Wilson Select Plus
World Almanac
WorldCat
New Electronic Resources
Over the summer the WSU Libraries increased the electronic resources available to the WSU community. Important new electronic tools include:
American National Biography - The online equivalent of the 24-volume print set published in 1999 by Oxford University Press. Access to more than 17,400 detailed biographical sketches of American men and women from all walks of life from the beginning of American history until the 1990s is provided. The advantage of web access is that, in addition to the biographical articles, the online ANB is regularly updated, has thousands of illustrations and more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references and related web sites. People interested in finding biographical material on Abraham Lincoln, for example, will also find links to related web sites with documentary material on his life.
Anthropological Literature - Describes articles and essays on archaeology, biological and physical anthropology, cultural and social anthropology, and linguistics. Indexes articles two or more pages long in works published in English and other European languages from the late 19th century to the present.
Archives USA - A searchable directory, produced by Chadwyck-Healey, of over 5,000 archival repositories throughout the United States. It allows researchers access to descriptions of nearly 120,000 collections of primary source material. It also provides access to the entire collection of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections from 1959 to the present and to the collections in Chadwyck-Healey’s microfiche series, National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States. By searching these collections online, researchers can determine whether a collection has material they need or whether they need to contact an archive directly for more information.
Oxford English Dictionary - The authoritative source on word origins provides definition, pronunciation, word origins, quotes using the word, and date chart showing when the word came into use.
Science Direct - Access to full text of over 800 journals published by Elsevier. Most journal coverage dates from 1995. Additional information about Science Direct appears in Going Electronic in a Big Way article below.
Going Electronic in a Big Way
This summer the Owen Science & Engineering Library spearheaded three major steps toward becoming an electronic library. Science Direct
, Web of Science, and Annual Reviews Online were purchased. These products are available to all WSU faculty and students from their homes and offices anywhere in Washington. With the addition of these titles, the Owen Science & Engineering Library provides electronic access to almost 1,500 journals.Science Direct: Science Direct gives access to the full text of 840 Elsevier Science Journals online through the Griffin website. The full text articles from 1995 to present are available by clicking on "Science Direct" on the Article Indexes, Full Text and More" page of Griffin. The many journals in Science Direct cover a wide range of topics in the hard sciences, engineering, medicine, and the social sciences. Science Direct has a personal alert system that each user can set up. There are many ways to personalize the service to the individual user. For this reason one-hour seminars were offered in August, September and October to teach faculty and students how to get the most out of the service. Science Direct is a joint purchase of the Owen Science & Engineering Library, Veterinary Medical/Pharmacy Library, Holland/New Library, Cooperative Academic Library Services-Spokane, and WSU Vancouver Library.
Web of Science: The Science Citation Index that has been available only in print or on CD-ROM in the Owen Library, is now available on the "Article Indexes, Full Text and More" page of Griffin. It is available to all faculty and students throughout the state. In addition to its use as a citation index, it is also a very good way to locate journal articles in the sciences, engineering, and medicine. The best feature of this index is that it links to the full text of articles in any journal that the WSU Libraries have in electronic form. You can go from the citation to the full text of the article with the click of a mouse. Web of Science also functions as a current contents source, and will replace our contract for the Current Contents service. This product is a joint purchase of the Owen Science & Engineering Library, WSU TriCities Library, Cooperative Academic Library Services-Spokane, and the WSU Vancouver Library. Training sessions in how to use the many features of Web of Science are being offered during Fall semester.
Annual Reviews Online: WSU Libraries will soon have access to all the Annual Reviews journals. The paper subscriptions will be housed in the libraries on the Pullman campus, and electronic access to issues back to 1996 will be available throughout the state. These journals will be linked directly in Griffin. This product is a joint purchase of the Owen Science & Engineering Library, Veterinary Medical/Pharmacy Library, Holland/New Library, Cooperative Academic Library Services-Spokane, and WSU Vancouver Library. For more information, contact Betty Galbraith, 509-335-7930.
netLibrary via Griffin
The WSU community has access to approximately 6,000 books in electronic form through netLibrary. This Fall, titles from the WSU Press will be included in netLibrary. NetLibrary can be found in Griffin by clicking on Article Indexes and Full Text and looking under "N" in the alphabetical list or in the database list. Approximately 2,500 bibliographic records for titles included in netLibrary have been added to Griffin. The records are searchable by all Griffin search methods and include hot links that will take users directly to the netLibrary full text for the title. Additional bibliographic records will be added to Griffin as they become available. If you want to see an example of a catalog record for a netLibrary title, search Database Programming with JDBC and Java by George Reese.
New Location for Maps at Owen Library
Owen Science & Engineering Library has established a Map Room on the third floor. This newly renovated area greatly improves and expands access by bringing scattered collections together and reorganizing them, making all maps accessible all hours the Library is open, and providing large work tables. The map collection includes atlases; topographic maps issued by the U.S. Geological Survey for the 12 western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; geological and hydrological maps issued by the U.S. Geological Survey; maps of national forests and parks; State of Washington dam site maps; Mt. Palomar Sky Atlas, and other science-related maps. A large black & white photocopier is available for reproduction. The Map Coordinator for Owen Library is Rosemary Streatfeild (509-335-7800).
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Library Update is edited by Kathy Schwanz, Cooperative Academic Library Services-Spokane, 509-358-7925, and Sharon Walbridge, AD for Technical Services, Holland/New Library, 509-335-9623, with the assistance of Nancy A. Spitzer, Library Administrative Office, Holland/New Library, 509-335-4558.
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