Fall 2000 In This Issue ...
Changes ... Changes ... Changes
Hints for Searching the New LOUIS Catalog Ann Frenkel
Off-Campus Access to Electronic Resources Ann Frenkel
Update on Access Services Sue Swanson
About To Be Shelved Anthony Vaver and Mark Alpert
JSTOR at Brandeis University Libraries Robert Evenson
|
CHANGES ... CHANGES ... CHANGES Throughout the summer the Library staff have been busy installing a
new integrated library system from Ex Libris (USA) Inc. This new software
system, the ALEPH500, provides the backbone for all of the activities of
the Libraries – from purchasing materials to circulating materials,
from searching our LOUIS catalog to providing research assistance with
print and electronic materials. But that wasn’t all we did this
summer! We improved the organization of our microform collections,
installed new PC’s throughout the Libraries, and continued to add
to our information resources. Read on for details! |
|
HINTS FOR SEARCHING THE NEW LOUIS
CATALOG Ann Frenkel In September Goldfarb reference librarians are offering noontime Drop-In Workshops for faculty on searching the new LOUIS Catalog. Schedule: Thursday, September 7, Noon-1pm, Location: Goldfarb Electronic
Research Center For more information, call the Information Desk at (781) 736-4670 or
contact Ann Frenkel via email (frenkel@brandeis.edu). |
|
OFF-CAMPUS ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC
RESOURCES Ann Frenkel We are happy to continue providing off-campus access to many of Brandeis University Libraries' electronic resources and the online Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. However the off-campus procedure for authenticating yourself to the Brandeis webpage has changed; you no longer use your barcode and PIN. If you have previously configured your web browser for off-campus access, click any red Off-Campus Access link and enter your UNet username and password in the UNet login form. You will receive an alphanumeric Temporary Login Password. Write this down and close the password window. Click on the resource you want. Enter your UNet username and the Temporary Login Password in the pop-up dialog box and click OK. Complete instructions are available in print form at the Information
Desk in the Goldfarb Library. If you are planning to connect from off
campus for the first time, please refer to the printed instructions or to
our informational web page: http://www.library.brandeis.edu/getstarted/offcampus/
|
|
UPDATE ON ACCESS SERVICES Sue Swanson As you are well aware, the Libraries have a new computer system! Other people will introduce you to the changes in the Libraries' catalog, LOUIS, so I want to take this opportunity to tell you about some changes affecting access to your circulation records. You can access your account by clicking on the "My Account" option from the LOUIS menu. Although the sign-on page asks for a "User ID/Barcode," please use your Social Security Number and not the library barcode on the back of your old Brandeis ID. The PIN should be the same one you used in the old system. If you cannot log on using this combination, please call the Circulation Desk at either the Main or Science Libraries for assistance. Your library account page will show how many books you currently have out, how many requests you have placed, and what fines, if any, you have accrued. It will also show how many books are "delinquent" or overdue. By clicking on "Loans" you will get a list of all the books you have out, with due dates and call numbers! You can renew items by clicking on the individual item numbers in the far left-hand column. Faculty may renew items two times, for a total loan period of one year. If you find that you are still actively using a book after its renewal limit has been reached, you may return the book to the library to be discharged and then checked out to you again. While you cannot edit your address information from this page, you can review it and let us know if anything has changed (e.g. phone number, email address, etc.). It is particularly important that we have your current and most active email address, since all notices will be sent electronically once the system is fully operational. At this time the SDI Profile feature has not been activated. Additional services will added in the coming months. Several changes have been made to the ILL Service at the Brandeis University Libraries. A very noticeable change is the delivery mechanism: all articles are now being mailed directly to the requestor's mailstop, so borrowers do not need to come into the library to pick up photocopies. For the time being, we are also asking all patrons to pick up book requests at the Main Library, including requests for Science materials. While this change may present some inconvenience to Science Library users, we ask for your cooperation during this transition period. Another change is the elimination of paper forms to request materials. We ask that all requests be made on the electronic forms included on the Libraries' ILL webpage (http://www.library.brandeis.edu/services/ill/) or within the various FirstSearch databases. Processing paper forms creates substantial delays and can often lead to mistakes in transcribing the information. Paper forms are available for use in extenuating circumstances; please contact a Reference Librarian or the ILL Staff. If you are requesting materials found in WorldCat, you will expedite your request by using the ILL form included within the WorldCat database. These requests now bypass the local ILL office and are distributed directly to potential lending libraries, eliminating up to two days in the turn-around time! Eventually we hope to check out ILL books through your LOUIS account. This will enable both you and the ILL office to keep track of borrowed items more effectively. Other services are also being developed and will be reported in future Liaison issues. Our transition to the new library system is still very much a work in progress. The Reserves Catalog is not yet as stable as we would like, and unfortunately we cannot guarantee that all Reserves information will be accessible online at the beginning of the Fall semester. The Reserves staff is working closely with Systems people both here and at the Ex Libris headquarters to fix software bugs and stabilize the database. We ask for your cooperation and understanding during this process. The upgrade to our Electronic Reserves software, on the other hand, is working smoothly. Check it out at: http://ereserves.publib.brandeis.edu/Those of you who have used the Microforms Collection on Farber Level 2 will be glad to learn that the entire collection has been shifted and integrated into two consecutive call number sequences, one for microfiche and one for microfilm. We no longer have one set of film in title order and another in call number order. Newer titles have all been integrated into the main collection and are no longer shelved against the ILL Office wall. The microfiche has all been moved to the front of the microform area, and the microfilm occupies the two back alcoves. Science titles have been integrated into the general collection, in call number order. Signage is being developed which will further assist in locating microforms. The Brandeis University Libraries microform collection also includes microform resources located in the Judaica Department (Goldfarb Mezzanine) and in the Creative Arts Department (Farber Level 3). For more information on Access Services call Sue Swanson
(781)-736-4620 or contact Sue via email: swanson@brandeis.edu. |
|
ABOUT TO BE SHELVED Anthony Vaver, Humanities Librarian n Eric Jager. The Book of the Heart. University of Chicago Press, 2000. Eric Jager traces the history and psychology of the self-as-text concept from antiquity to the modern day, focusing especially on the Middle Ages when the book was often used as a metaphor for the heart. He locates a change in the medieval connection of books and the heart to a modern association of books and the mind during the advent of print, Protestantism, and the New Science. His conclusion considers what the forecasted "death of the book" might portend for a future conception of a post-textual self. n David Card and Rebecca M. Blank, eds. Finding Jobs: Work and Welfare Reform. Russell Sage Foundation, 2000. The authors offer both good and bad news about work and welfare reform. Although the research presented in this book demonstrates that it is possible to find jobs for people who have traditionally relied on public assistance, it also offers cautionary evidence that today’s strong economy may mask enduring underlying problems. n Marcus Wood. Blind Memory: Visual Representations of Slavery in England and America, 1780-1865. Routledge, 2000. Blind Memory illustrates the problematic nature of the visual representation of slavery in Europe and North America. Wood selects a variety of images—from oil paintings to broadside woodcuts to early photography—to examine the paradoxes and contradictions embodied in these necessarily mythologized representations. He argues that these images cannot, as is often assumed, "speak for themselves" and must be subjected to close readings and theoretical analysis. n Michael Symons. A History of Cooks and Cooking. University of Illinois Press, 2000. A History of Cooks and Cooking sets out to explore the civilizing role of cooks in history. Symons’ wanderings take us to the clay ovens of the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean and the bronze cauldrons of ancient China, to fabulous banquets in the temples and courts of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia, to medieval English cookshops and southeast Asian street markets, to palace kitchens, diners, and modern fast-food eateries. n Andrew Herman and Thomas Swiss, eds. The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory. Routledge, 2000. The authors bring together scholars from the humanities and social sciences to explore the Web as a complex nexus of economic, political, social, and aesthetic forces. In doing so, the contributors engage the Web as a space where magic, metaphor, and power converge. n Peter M. Garber. Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias. The MIT Press, 2000. Rather than seeing the most famous economic bubbles—the Dutch
Tulipmania (1634-1637), the Mississippi Bubble (1719-1720), and the South
Sea Bubble (1720)—as products of crowd-driven manias, Garber argues
that the three were rooted in market fundamentals. The pattern of
extremely high prices followed by a rapid decline, he contends, reflected
normal pricing behavior. |
|
JSTOR AT BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Robert Evensen Since 1997 Brandeis has been a member of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to building a reliable and comprehensive digital archive of important scholarly journal literature. It seeks to improve access, address preservation issues of deteriorating paper and reduce long-term costs associated with storage and care of print collections. At present over 380,000 articles from 124 journal titles are available in full text on JSTOR. As part of its mission, JSTOR is also concerned how scholarly materials in electronic formats are being used. Are older articles being used less often? Does use of older literature vary by academic discipline? Recently JSTOR has been analyzing data supplied by over 730 institutions including Brandeis to understand usage patterns, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Several preliminary findings are already evident. The availability of older journal articles in electronic format seems to increase the use of older articles. Researchers and students value the interdisciplinary nature of JSTOR. For example, searches show that scholars are broadening their research by using cross-title and interdisciplinary capabilities to find information in journals that they would generally not read. Older literature remains valuable in many fields. Another interesting finding shows that citation data alone does not reliably predict electronic usage. One example given shows an article published in 1973 has been cited only 14 times, but this article has been viewed 1,895 times making it the 4th most used article in economics in JSTOR. Economics titles are the most heavily viewed or printed. The fact that top used articles in JSTOR may be infrequently cited, or that top-cited articles may be infrequently used, does not prove that one or the other is more important. Both components must be considered. Will older articles be viewed more now that they are available in electronic format? How does Brandeis use compare with other libraries? Since 1997 the average large U.S. institution has used JSTOR over 101,000 times. During this period Brandeis used JSTOR 92,900 times. But so far this year, Brandeis users have viewed or printed over 34,000 articles on JSTOR. The average number for large U.S. institutional members is only 32,000. (The Carnegie Classification of Higher Education considers Brandeis a large research institution because it gives a high priority to research and grants over 50 doctoral degrees each year. Other examples of universities in this category are Rice, Auburn, George Washington University, and the University of Oregon.) Brandeis students and faculty are finding much needed information in JSTOR. The Libraries expect that there will be increased use of JSTOR since purchasing the latest offering of titles in general science collections. Some of the full-text titles include: Science, Scientific Monthly, PNAS, and titles from the Royal Society of London. Current issues will be of value to science researchers as well as backfile that are needed by historians of science and technology. The future of projects such as JSTOR continues to be promising.
Libraries are looking to find ways to increase access to the wealth of
research published in journals. Issues of journals are never
“out”; they are always available, and in good condition with
no underlining or pages torn out. In sum, the addition of powerful search
and printing capabilities makes JSTOR more that just a way for libraries
to save capital costs. It has become a scholarly tool of enormous
potential value. |
