Tag Archives: library collections

LibrarySearch!

LibrarySearch is here!

The library has switched its discovery platform from Summon to one from EBSCO, which we are calling “LibrarySearch.”  LibrarySearch will work very much like Summon: it will still retrieve results from the library catalog (MIDCAT), and it will still find article-level results from our subscribed journals and databases (as well as beyond, if desired).

We made this switch for a number of reasons.  LibrarySearch:

  • offers better discovery of non-full-text indexes such as MLA Bibliography and RILM (in fact, these databases are not indexed by Summon, due to their dissatisfaction with how Summon handles non-full-text databases)
  • has features not available in Summon, such as a view into which databases search results are coming from, and the option to save search results directly into online storage providers such as Dropbox
  • is more tightly integrated with the library’s catalog than Summon
  • is (like Summon) a very stable and widely-used system
  • is highly customizable
  • is also now available to students and colleagues at the William Tell Coleman library at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies

Of course, since LibrarySearch is provided to us by a different vendor, you will see changes in how search results are ranked and displayed, and the interface will look somewhat different. 

Please see go/librarysearch to try out the new system.  As with any new system, there are bound to be some bugs, broken links, unexpected results or behavior, etc.  Please submit problems, or suggestions for improvements, to Terry Simpkins in the Library (x5045).

Royal Society of Chemistry – journal archive

The library has recently purchased access to all issues of journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1841 through 2007. Journal titles include:

You can browse by journal title or article content from the RSC’s homepage. The journal titles can also be found in Midcat and in our A-Z list of journals, and articles with content matching your Summon search will turn up in Summon results. All this now accessible from on- or off-campus!

New to the libraries – Fall 2017

The library has acquired some new resources over the last few months:

  • Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics  a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day and features advanced search options
  • Japan Times Archive Full text of every issue of this English language newspaper based in Japan that was published from 1897 through 2015
  • Digital Loeb Classical Library  Important works of ancient Greek and Latin literature, presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each left-hand page, and a fairly literal translation on the facing page.
  • American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism, 1968—1979 – This collection of FBI files from 1968 to 1979 provides detailed information on the evolution of AIM as an organization of social protest and the development of Native American radicalism.
  • Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s Another collection from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library, this collection sheds light on internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent American radical groups and their movements to change American government and society. Included are files on Cesar Chavez, the Black Panther Party, and Malcolm X, among many others.
  • FIAF international index to film periodicals This database contains the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)’s “Treasures from Film Archives”; a detailed index of the silent-era film holdings of archives from around the world, a selection of Reference volumes and the linked full-text of over 60 journals.
  • JSTOR books  Middlebury has purchased access to nearly 800 e-books on the JSTOR platform. Subjects include books published in 2015-2017 in the broad areas of languages and literatures, sociology, political science, and climate change. (You will find relevant content from any of these books by searching the JSTOR platform. In the near future, they will also be in the library’s catalog.)

Japan Times at Middlebury

Over time, the Japan Times changed its official title a few times, so it can be hard to find a particular article from a particular date. Now that we have access to The Japan Times Archives, here’s a guide:

Current issues:

Today’s Japan Times and content from recent weeks can be found by anyone anywhere at the Japan Times website. (An individual without a subscription is limited to a few articles per month.) Text-only is also available for 1998 to present by searching LexisNexis.

Older issues:

For older content, Middlebury users now have access to the Japan Times Archives

The archive include articles published since its inception in 1897, including all of these variations:

  • Japan Times (1897-1940)
  • Japan Advertiser (1905-1940)
  • Japan Times and Advertiser (1940-1942)
  • Nippon Times (1943-1956)
  • Japan Times (1956-present)

As of this writing, the Archives include content through December 31, 2015; 2016 content is expected in the near future.

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (trial through March 22, 2017)

TRIAL EXTENDED THROUGH APRIL 10, 2017!

Middlebury students, faculty, and staff have free access to the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online.

EHLLO offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. It features advanced search options, as well as extensive cross-references and full-text search functionality using the Hebrew character set.

Let us know what you think – email eaccess-admin@middlebury.edu or contact your library liaison.

Has an ebook disappeared on you?

Looking for an ebook you used recently but that seems to have vanished? Let us know right away; we can probably get it back. Our major ebook program is undergoing some changes due to soaring costs and increasing publisher restrictions on usage. A large number of titles will disappear from our catalog this week. The process is designed to leave available anything that’s been used recently, but because of behind-the-scenes technical work, there’s a lag between the vendor’s most recent usage reports and the actual catalog-record deletion. As a result, you may have used a title in the last two weeks and now can’t find it again. Just ask us to recover it, and if our supplier still has it available, we will!

We also added a new collection recently, with more than 140,000 ebooks from EBSCO. Check it out!

Al-Manhal Arabic e-books and journals (trial ends August 16, 2016)

Through mid-August, our Middlebury and Monterey campuses have trial access to this database from Al-Manhal, the only provider of full-text searchable databases of scholarly and scientific publications from the Arab and Islamic world. AlManhalAl-Manhal’s over 13,000 e-books and 300 peer-reviewed journals can be searched through the user-friendly platform linked above. The full-text content is also fully indexed in Summon. (Allow a few days after this post for all Al-Manhal content to be find-able in Summon by Middlebury and MIIS users.)

Let us know what you think – email eaccess-admin@middlebury.edu or your liaison.

What’s an Approval Profile, and Why Does the Library Want to Change Ours?

A brown-bag lunch will be held on May 3 at 12:30 pm, in the Crest Room of the McCullough Student Center, to explore the subject of the library’s approval profile. Douglas Black, the library’s Head of Collections Management, will be presenting, with some sweets and coffee to augment your own lunch. He’ll give some history of the approval program in library acquisitions over the years and lead discussion on its role in the academic library collection of the 21st century.

For context, the library selects, acquires, and provides access to materials in many different ways:

  • upon request by students, faculty, and staff
  • automatic purchase of e-books and streaming media based on usage
  • subscriptions
  • package deals on journal subscriptions and purchased journal archives (“backfiles”)
  • one-time purchases of electronic databases, which often require annual maintenance fees
  • gifts/donations
  • and through automatic purchase via an “approval profile.”

Under the approval model, the library utilizes a library vendor (in our case, YBP Library Services) to purchase automatically books that meet certain criteria (e.g., subject, hardbound only, no workbooks, scholarly publishers only, within a certain price range, etc.).  Middlebury typically purchases about 3,000 volumes/year this way, at an average annual cost of $97,000 in the last few years. We recently conducted a thorough analysis of the program’s effectiveness, finding that print books purchased through the approval profile are used much less than those specifically requested. The library believes some of that money could be spent more effectively and would like to gather input from members of the campus community on reshaping the profile.

Please feel welcome to contact your liaison or Douglas Black (dblack@middlebury.edu or x3635) with any questions (whether or not you can attend the meeting), or comment here in the blog.