Possible disruption of Cambridge Journals Online service, Sunday and Monday, December 21-22

Message from Cambridge Journals Online:

Please note that there may be intermittent interruptions in service to our Cambridge Journals Online customers on Sunday, December 21st, and Monday, December 22nd, from 8 pm until 9 pm BST (3 pm until 4 pm EST) each day, as maintenance must be performed on the server.

Thanks,

James

Scopus working from off-campus again

Hi Everyone,

Further to my post of 27/11/08 I've just received an email from Elsevier to say that Scopus searches using Shibboleth should be working again. I've tested this and it does seem to be ok now.

Thanks,

James.

SFX Available From Wireless Network Again

Good News!!

ITS have now done the work to make SFX available on the wireless network, so hopefully this will mean we don't have any more problems with this.

James.

Informs downtime update

Hi
I posted a blog recently about downtime with Informs for Tuesday 2nd December. We've received news that this is not going ahead due to complaints that it will interrupt teaching sessions.

The upgrade will now take place weekend 6/7th December

Gill

Update on Scopus off-campus access

Hi Everyone,

Further to my post last week Elsevier have now contacted us (see below) to say that they will fix this problem on December 9th. I don't know why they can't do it before then, but it seems we have to wait. Until then users will have to use the Remote Desktop, or do a CrossSearch from within the eLibrary to access Scopus from off-campus.

I'm sorry this access is going to be unavailable for so long,

James.

Message from Elsevier:
Currently, users logged in to Scopus through Shibboleth or Athens are likely to experience issues with Scopus' search functionality - most notably search results not being displayed correctly, or not at all. These problems are caused by a software bug that was inadvertently released on last November 15th, when the latest software release of Scopus took place. It is not related to earlier issues Shibboleth users may have experienced on Scopus.
Our technical staff have identified the root cause for the software bug and have developed a patch to solve it. This patch will be released on Tuesday December 9th, after which the problems should disappear.
We deeply regret the inconvenience caused.

Scopus Search Problems From Off-Campus

Hi All,

We are currently experiencing problems with searching Scopus when logged in via Shibboleth from off-campus. We can search and are told how many results have been found, but we are unable to view the results, which isn't much use!

I've contacted Elsevier about this and they say that we aren't the only institution with this problem and they are working on this as a priority, so I hope it will be fixed soon.

In the meantime if you get anyone who needs to search Scopus from off-campus they are still able to do this via the Remote Desktop/Thin Client connection (see ITS instructions about how to do this on their Location Independent Working page that is linked to from their CU Portal page).

Another option is just to login to the eLibrary and do a CrossSearch of Scopus as you will be able to see the results from within the eLibrary.

Thanks,

James.

OPAC Reservations

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure you've all noticed or been asked about the way the OPAC says an item is on an open shelf when someone makes a reservation even though all copies are actually on loan. This is quite confusing for the students so I asked Paul to investigate this.

A quick fix suggested by Ex Libris was to hide this text completely, so it should no longer be showing. Of course, this could be confusing when a student tries to reserve an item that is On Shelf. However, although there is nothing that first displays when a student tries to reserve an On Shelf item, as soon as they click Go to make the request the following message displays in red at the top of the screen:
Item or like copy is on shelf. Cannot place hold request.

I hope you'll agree that this makes things much clearer and more intuitive for the users, so thanks to Paul for sorting this out.

James.

Changes to EBSCOhost Interface

Hi Everyone,

We've received the following message from EBSCO about changes they have made to the new EBSCOhost interface, in response to feedback. I know there were a number of things that some of you didn't like and you were going to give some feedback, so I hope some of these changes might be in response to your comments. Details of the changes are given in the message below.

Thanks,

James.

Dear EBSCO Customer,

In response to feedback from our customers, we have added several enhancements to the recently redesigned EBSCOhost interface. Below is a summary of the new features now available:

A new Image Quick View limiter replaces the Articles With Images limiter
The Image Quick View limiter includes multiple sort options by image type. Can I limit my EBSCOhost search results to articles that have Image Quick View available? (http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=4207) Can I set the Image Quick View limiter to display under Limit your results on the EBSCOhost Result List screen? (http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=4206)
Direct link to the Basic Search Screen from both the Basic and Advanced Search Screens
Keyword renamed New Search
Result List mouse over text changed from Refine Search to Search Modes and Limiters
Entire phrase for cited references on Result List replaces the number of references in parentheses
Search mode specified on Result List green bar
Search History View Results anchor positioning improved
Date Slider Bar with original search date ranges How do I use the Date Slider feature in EBSCOhost? (http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=3873)
Additional Help link added to Choose Databases Screen
Publication name and date added to NewsBank results

EBSCOadmin has been updated to provide library administrators with automatic advance notification when the login used to access EBSCOadmin is about to expire. Visit EBSCO's Support Site (http://support.ebscohost.com) to learn about new features, search among thousands of FAQs, download Flash tutorials, Help Sheets or User Guides, or communicate with Technical Support at any time, using the EBSCO Support Form (http://support.ebscohost.com/contact/askus.php).

Science Direct & Scopus Downtime - Sat 15/11/08

Hi All,

We've received this notification from Elsevier about Scopus and Science Direct downtime this weekend.

Thanks,

James.

On Saturday, 15 November, Scopus, ScienceDirect and the Admin Tool will be unavailable for scheduled upgrades during the following periods:

Scopus: For eight hours - 1:00 p.m. UTC/GMT (8:00 a.m. EST) until 9:00 p.m. UTC/GMT (4:00 p.m. EST).

ScienceDirect and Admin Tool: For nine hours - 1:00 p.m. UTC/GMT (8:00 a.m. EST) until 10:00 p.m. UTC/GMT (5:00 p.m. EST).

We apologize for the inconvenience,

Regards,
The Elsevier Team.

Mintel Access Problems

Hi Everyone,

We are experiencing intermittent problems when trying to login to Mintel from off-campus using Shibboleth. This has been reported to Mintel and ITS, so I hope they will be able to work out what is causing this problem.

In the meantime, it appears that if users see this error the first time they try to login they will normally be able to access Mintel if they keep repeating the login process, so please tell them to keep trying.

I've attached the error message to this post (below).

Thanks,

James.

Top-up printing page now online

Hi
Dave Reeve on the IT Services Helpdesk has created a page in their section of the CU Portal to inform students how to top-up their printing credits. It's a bit hidden away. Students need to click on 'IT Services' then 'Printing in Open Access Rooms' then 'Purchasing Printing Credits'.

Alternatively go to
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/cu/its/userinfo/studentprinting/a/4011

Gill

A-n online resource (art)

A-N Online Resource is currently undergoing an upgrade and will be disrupted from 3pm Monday 27th October. Should be running normally Tuesday 28th.

Gill

Scopus & ScienceDirect Downtime

Hi Everyone,

We've received the following message from Elsevier about maintenance to Scopus & ScienceDirect, which will make them unavailable.

Thanks,

James.

Dear Librarian,

To support scheduled maintenance, Scopus, ScienceDirect and the Admin Tool will be unavailable from 1 a.m. UTC/GMT on Sunday, 2 November (9 p.m. EDT on Saturday, 1 November) until 1 p.m. UTC/GMT on Sunday, 2 November (8 a.m. EST on Sunday, 2 November). We apologize for the inconvenience.

In addition, on 15 November, these applications will be unavailable due to scheduled system enhancements including the addition of new functionality. Exact timing will be communicated soon.

Regards,

The Elsevier Team.

victoria park racing

Hi some students may have problems finding this Australian case. I've put screen shots on the enquiry desk on the 2nd floor. If the screen shots get lost they are on the L drive at the bottom Academic Services.

Thanks
Sue

No law surgery 28th October

Hi all,

There will be no law surgery on 28th October because I am on annual leave all that week. I will be back at work on Monday 3rd November - if you can't help with the enquiry (mostly the enquiries are quick straight forward) then please ask the students to come and see me in my surgery on Tues 4th Nov or email me and I'll get back to them on the Monday I return.

Thanks
Sue W

Searching Emerald

Hi Everyone,

We have discovered an anomaly when searching Emerald, since they added their backfile content (which we don't subscribe to). The default search setting appears to be to search "All content" and Include in results "Emerald Backfiles". Although you have the option to select "My subscribed content" instead of "All content" your search will still include the (unsubscribed) backfiles unless you uncheck the "Emerald Backfiles" box. This can result in large numbers of unavailable results being returned even though you have selected "My subscribed content".

I have emailed the Emerald helpdesk about this and they say that there is nothing that can be done to change this for now. I've told them that this setup is very unintuitive and asked them to consider my comments when doing any development work in the future, so hopefully they will take this on board. Until then, we will need to tell users to remove the tick from the "Emerald Backfiles" box as well as selecting "My subscribed content" if they want to do a search that just returns articles that we subscribe to.

Thanks,

James

Law surgery

Hi,

I will be starting my law surgery in the department in GE237 every Tuesday during term time at 11.30-12.30pm. If I'm not about and you think the student's enquiry can wait until Tuesday morning. Please refer them there.

Thanks
Sue W

Westlaw problems

We have been having problems over the last few weeks accessing international material on Westlaw. We do have a subscription covering all international material. If anyone reports to you that they have a ‘not covered by your subscription’ error message can you take their details please – I want to find out what’s going wrong.

Westlaw have been working on this and suppressing errors messages all over the place but I need to make sure they have covered everything although it appears to me to be ok on and off campus now.

We seem to be the only university who has this problem.

Sue W

Enhanced Business Searching Interface

Hi All
Business Source Complete now has an additional interface that can be accessed from the BSC entry on the EBSCO list. This is the enhanced business searching interface which can be used to provide easy access to company profiles, country reports, industry profiles and market research reports. These can still be accessed using the main interface, but are a little more hidden.

These reports and profiles contain information that is likely to be very useful to many other subject areas. For example the country reports contain quite detailed information, (economic, investment, social and environmental) about a wide range of countries. The industry profiles have many reports about specific industries in different countries. These could be good for answering the type of queries about automotive industry in nigeria etc etc.

Sue

Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

I have recently taken on a subscription for the Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. It is a reference work, so is listed in the electronic books sub-section of Business & Economics as well as being with the databases.

It contains many articles about all aspects of economics, so may have wider appeal than just economics students. Although it is called a dictionary, the articles are really quite detailed, so give much more than just a basic outline of the topic. It is also really easy to use and has search and browse facilities.

Sue

ScienceDirect and Scopus schedule outage August 2-3

Hi Everyone,

Please see the following message from Elsevier about access to ScienceDirect & Scopus.

Thanks,

James.

From 05:30 EDT on Saturday August 2, to 01:30 EDT on Sunday August 3 (09:30 UTC to August 3, 05:30 UTC), ScienceDirect and Scopus will be unavailable due to an upgrade of the administrative system that will improve the access and entitlements process to both platforms.
As a consequence, Email alerts and RSS feeds for ScienceDirect and Scopus will not be sent from 11:30 EDT on August 1 (15:30 UTC) until the downtime has finished. Email alerts and RSS feeds can still be created until 05:30 EDT on August 2 (09:30 UTC), but they will not be sent until after the upgrade is completed.

One of our largest back-end upgrades, the new system will cater to your needs in what is now a more complex scientific community due to increasing internationalization and cross-border collaboration.

The main tangible benefit for you and your users will be simplified access to Scopus and ScienceDirect. For instance, individuals will have single login details for access to all of their entitled content regardless of access point.

We apologize for any inconvenience this downtime may cause you and look forward to offering you this superior service in the future.

Business Source Premier becomes Business Source Complete

Hi
We have upgraded Business Source Premier. It is now called Business Source Complete and we have this for a year's trial - ending September 2009.
The new database has greater coverage with some titles extending back as far as 1886, but this is for abstracts only. It has other full-text content, as well as journal articles and includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.

Gill

informaworld downtime: 04.00 - 06.00 GMT July 15th

Hi All,

Please see the following information about informaworld downtime next week...

James

Dear account administrator,

A short period of downtime is scheduled on informaworld on Tuesday 15th July 2008, 04.00-06.00 GMT (05.00-07.00 BST) to allow us to complete some essential maintenance. This replaces the downtime on 12th July.

Some users may experience impaired performance for a short time after the downtime has been completed. The informaworld team would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this might cause.

Yours faithfully,

informaworld support
support@informaworld.com

Grove Dictionaries of Art and Music Relaunched

The Grove Dictionaries of Art and Music have recently been relaunched.
They are now part of larger gateways called Oxford Art Online and Oxford Music Online.
Both gateways are being marketed as the most substantial electronic reference resources available in these two subject areas.

The dictionaries are still there along with other electronic reference tools as follows:

Oxford Art Online includes:
Grove Dictionary of Art, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. You can also search over 5000 images.

Oxford Music Online includes:
Grove Dictionary of Music, The Oxford Companion to Music and The Oxford Dictionary of Music. We also appear to have access at the moment to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, but according to JISC and the Oxford website, this is supposedly a separate subscription.

Both will use Athens off campus. The gateways have been made live in the appropriate areas, but Athens access off campus can only go ahead on James's return as he has admin access.

You can click here for more info on the art or music gateways.

Gill

Blackwell Synergy journals merging into Wiley InterScience June 30, 2008

Hi Everyone,

Please see the message below about Blackwell Synergy titles moving to Wiley Interscience at the end of this month...

Thanks,

James.



PLEASE NOTE: All journal content on Blackwell Synergy is merging into Wiley InterScience
As of Monday, June 30th 2008, all Blackwell journal content - including all full-text HTML and PDF versions of articles from current issues, backfiles, and issues published online before print - will be incorporated into Wiley InterScience.

We plan to close Blackwell Synergy at the end of business (Pacific Standard Time) on Friday June 27th and we anticipate that the migration will be completed by Monday June 30th. Over the weekend of June 28th and 29th, there will be a period when both Blackwell Synergy and Wiley InterScience will be unavailable while we transition and re-index data.

After June 30th, Blackwell Synergy will no longer be available.

Please forward this message to any library colleagues in your institution who need to know and help us to inform your patrons. We have written to all registered users on Blackwell Synergy and you will also see banners informing about the change on both sites.

Details about the actual downtime period will be posted on each site prior to June 27th, and you can find other essential information and FAQs about the change in service here:
* http://www.interscience.wiley.com/transition - for Librarians and Institutional Customers
* http://www.interscience.wiley.com/transition-users - for Individual End Users
* http://www.interscience.wiley.com/support - Customer Support contact information
* http://www.interscience.wiley.com/training - to sign up to a free webinar about using Wiley InterScience

=================================================================
Some important things to remember:
* No new Wiley-Blackwell content will be published online from June 21st until July 7th. After July 7th, publication schedules will resume as usual.
* Links to journals on Blackwell Synergy will automatically redirect to Wiley InterScience. There is no need for you to change your links.
* Subscriptions for Blackwell journals on Synergy will migrate to Wiley InterScience, with the terms of all existing licenses honored.
* These access options will continue to function seamlessly:
- IP authentication
- Athens authentication
- Username and password access
* If you have activated TPS access for your institution, see http://www.interscience.wiley.com/transition for details on updating your TPS script.
* For the Library/Customer Administration area, we have matched Synergy and Wiley InterScience accounts so you will be able to manage all your Wiley and Blackwell journals using your existing Wiley InterScience Administrator login. If you do not already have a Wiley InterScience administrator ID, you will receive further instructions after the transition.
* From September 2008 onwards, usage data for Blackwell journals will be available on Wiley InterScience, presented in a separate report but in the same format as that offered for Wiley journals. Usage data for Blackwell journals for the period prior to December 2005 will not be transferred to Wiley InterScience and is no longer be available.

=================================================================
New Online Service Launching in 2009
This transition to Wiley InterScience is in preparation for the launch of our next-generation online service for all Wiley-Blackwell journals, books, reference works, databases, laboratory protocols, and other Wiley resources in 2009. This will include many of the best features of the current platforms and more, enabling us to deliver even greater publishing capabilities and customer value for the future. More information about the new service, will be provided well in advance of the launch date in 2009.
If you have any queries, please contact our Customer Support service (Regional contact details are posted here: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/support) or your usual Wiley-Blackwell Account Manager.

We will do our very best to ensure a smooth change and thank you for your patience and support during this transition time.

Best wishes,
Emily Gillingham
Director, Library and Institutional Marketing Wiley-Blackwell John Wiley & Sons
Tel: +44 1865 476425
Fax: +44 1865 471425
emily.gillingham@wiley.com

Digimap Login

Dear All

From the 1st of August, authentication for the Digimap databases will change from Athens to Shibboleth. Anyone with any saved settings or searches might lose them when the system changes. To prevent any such losses, you should go to the Digimap database before the 31st of July and login via Athens. When you have clicked on the database you want to search, eg, Digimap Ordnance Survey Collection, and agreed to the conditions you will be asked to complete a security question. Completing the security question will allow Digimap to link your old account with your new account when you start to use it, thus ensuring that any of your saved settings/searches won't be lost when the system changes.

Judy

Europa World Plus Athens Access

Hi Everyone,

We are currently having problems accessing the Europa World Plus resource via Athens.

I've sent an email to the suppliers, so I hope they will resolve this for us.

Until this is resolved users will either have to access the resource on-campus or using the webcache or thin client if they are off-campus.

Thanks,

James.

Datamonitor Company Profiles

Many people already know this, but for those who don't normally work with company info - I've just had a student ask for Datamonitor reports and didn't think we had these, but they are available on Business Source Premier.

Gill

Old exam papers

Hi Everyone,

Links for 'Old exam papers' have been added to the CUOnline page of CU Portal. The links should take you through to the CURVE login screen.

If you get asked about how to find the exam papers, just direct students to these links and tell them to login using their standard university username & password. They can then select their department from the list and select 'Old exam papers' from the list on the next screen. Alternatively they can do a search for 'exam papers' but this does find a large number of results, from a whole range of subjects.

Thanks,

James.

SFX/Find e-Journal via Wireless Network

Hi Everyone,

There is currently a problem for users trying to access SFX or Find e-Journal within MetaLib from the wireless network. It appears that this is to do with ITS tightening up the security of the wireless network, resulting in access to the SFX port being denied.

A request has been made for ITS to open this port and we hope that this will be done shortly. Until this has been done users will be unable to access SFX or Find e-Journal on the wireless network.

James.

Law Dept Surgery

I won't be running my Tuesday surgery in the law dept during the summer term.

Sue White

Athens Scheduled Maintenance - Sunday 13th April 2008

Hi Everyone,

We have received the following message from Athens about work being carried out this Sunday morning.

I don't believe this will cause us any problems, but it might be worth me publicising the direct link to MyAthens (https://auth.athensams.net/?ath_returl=%2Fmy%2F&ath_dspid=ATHENS.MY_BETA) in case some of you have just got www.athens.ac.uk bookmarked, and it appears this will be unavailable.

Thanks,

James.

Message from Eduserv:

Please be aware that our third party network supplier ntl:Telewest will be carrying out Scheduled Maintenance on Sunday 13th April 2008. This work will be carried out between 00.01am and 12.00pm. During this time the following services will be unavailable: • Self Registration
· Athens proxied resources
· Athens DSP area
· The following websites www.athens.ac.uk, www.athensams.net, and www.athens.nhs.uk
MyAthens, the Athens administration website and authentication services will not be affected.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the Eduserv Athens Service Desk.

IBSS is moving to EBSCO

Hi Everyone,

We've received this email about IBSS moving from Ovid to EBSCO over the summer. Gill or I will make the necessary changes to IBSS in the eLibrary after the term has finished.

James.


We are writing to tell you about a change to the IBSS online service during 2008. In accordance with public funding regulations, a competitive tender for IBSS service provision is carried out every three years to ensure value for money. As a result of this process, IBSS will be appointing EBSCO as its service provider for the UK user community from 1 August 2008. IBSS would like to thank Ovid for providing an excellent service during the 2005 - 2008 contract period.
Continued funding by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) means that the UK user community - UK HE/FE institutions, ESRC recognised research institutes and central government departments - will continue to benefit from access to IBSS free of charge.
The timetable for the transfer will be as follows:
* 1 June to 31 July 2008 - Dual access to IBSS will be available
via both Ovid and EBSCO, so that individual institutions can decide when they wish to transfer.
* 31 July 2008 - Final switch-off date of the IBSS via Ovid
service for institutions using IBSS free of charge.
As your institution already subscribes to other services via EBSCO, their customer service team will automatically switch on access to IBSS using the current access details (IP/Athens etc) they have for you.
EBSCO will get in touch with your main IBSS Library contact to confirm when this has been done, and to advise about the new IBSS login links so that these can be updated on your website.

CrossSearching Emerald via eLibrary

Hi Everyone,

An email has been sent to the MetaLib discussion list to say that the new Emerald interface has some interoperability problems with MetaLib . This means that we have had to switch off crosssearching of Emerald. We will switch it back on as soon as Ex Libris have resolved the problem.

Thanks,

James.

MyiLibrary Browse Warning

Hi Everyone,

Please be aware of the following in case you get any enquiries from MyiLibrary users about this.

Sharon had a recent query from a student who recieved the following warning when she was skimming through a book in MyiLibrary:

Sharon was able to replicate this warning by skimming through the same title herself and confirms that she didn't copy or print anything.

I queried this with our MyiLibrary contact and they informed me that there is a 'flow regulator' which exists as part of the Digital Rights Management System. Apparently this is set at 10 pages per minute and will trigger this warning if a user flicks through a publication quite quickly.

I pointed out that the warning was triggered when nothing untoward was happening (no printing or copying). Although they took this point on board MyiLibrary tell me that the system is set up like this to prevent 'print spiders' from going through a title and printing large amounts of it. Also, it is possible that a user could skim through a title and save each page to a memory stick to print later, and MyiLibrary wouldn't be able to detect this.

So, the response is that the warning will have to stay, but they will review the wording. They did point out that although it would be normal for a user to flick through a print book, they don't necessarily need to do this with an e-book, as they have the option to keyword search, so if we get users reporting these warnings, we probably need to advise them of this.

Hopefully this shouldn't happen too often and users do get 3 warnings before they are locked out of MyiLibrary.

Thanks,

James.

Law Encyclopedias

The loose-leaf encyclopedias that have been kept in the 2nd floor office will go out onto the shelves next week with the exception of:

Encyclopedia of Consumer Law

We will be monitoring usage of this one title over next year. It will be in the 2nd floor office on my desk.

I’ve cancelled lots of loose-leaf encyclopedias and I’ve put stickers on them all to say when they have been last updated. Bibs will make the necessary adjustments on Aleph.

Sue

Sue White's hours

Hi,

My new hours are:

Mon 8.30am to 1pm
Tues 8.30am to 12.30pm (because the law dept insist my surgery is from 11.30 to 12.30)
Wed 8.30am to 5pm (1 hour lunch)
Thurs 8.30am to 4pm (1 hour lunch) = 22.5hours

Let me know if you experience problems because of this change…

New hours start 31st March

Sue White

Saunders, Research Methods for Business Students

Hi All
I've no doubt you will have been asked for this book many times. It is in huge demand and is the essential reading for a number of modules. I have checked with a couple of module leaders about getting chapters digitised and some will be doing this. However, some of the 3rd year business students are expected to buy this book. I just thought it was worth bearing this in mind if anyone has any problems at the desk.

Thanks
Sue

ASC journal embargo info corrected

Hi
Following Paul's running of a patch on SFX, all the embargo information is now displaying correctly on ASC. Also, when trying to link to an embargoed journal, the relevant Document Supply prompt is given. This updates James' earlier blog of 7.1.08.
Gill

CrossSearching Science Direct & Scopus from eLibrary

Hi Everyone,

Paul has been in touch with Ex Libris and they have helped him resolve the problem of CrossSearching within these 2 databases via the eLibrary. They both seem to be working again, so we've reactivated them.

Thanks,

James.

Changes to Ovid Interface 4/2/08

Hi Everyone,

We have received the following information about changes to the Ovid interface which will take place on Monday 4/2/08.

Thanks,

James.

Over the last few months you will have heard from Ovid and read in our IBSS newsletter about the new OvidSP interface which was launched on 25 October 2007. Since then users have had dual access to IBSS via both Ovid Web Gateway and OvidSP (access to OvidSP is currently via the “Try OvidSP” link at the top of the Gateway screen).

On Monday 4 February 2008 Ovid Web Gateway will be switched off and all links will automatically re-direct to OvidSP – librarians will therefore not have to make any changes. All users’ alerts, jumpstarts and saved searches will be available in the new interface. SilverPlatter users can continue using the SilverPlatter WebSPIRS interface until 2009 if they wish.

The OvidSP interface includes an IBSS thesaurus which is an important development for IBSS and which can be accessed via the Search Tools tab. The thesaurus will benefit users by enabling them:
· to discover more about the relationship between keywords (subject headings) used to index IBSS records
· to find alternative search terms for their subject area
· to search more effectively and find all material related to their subject.

Thomson Scientific have informed us that they are putting the finishing touches to a new EndNote filter for IBSS via OvidSP and this will be available to download soon at http://www.endnote.com/support/enfilters.asp

Ovid support materials - Information and support materials are available on the Ovid website resource centre, including an OvidSP quick reference guide at: http://resourcecenter.ovidsp.com/docs/qrc_merged_HQ.pdf

IBSS support materials
· A new PDF version of our leaflet “IBSS quick tips for OvidSP” is available online at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/pdf/IBSS_QuickTips_Ovid_v2.pdf and an HTML version at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/support/OvidSP_quicktips.htm
· An updated version of “Using IBSS for dissertations” – a guide for final year undergraduate and taught postgraduate students – will be available online as a PDF by mid February.
· Please note that the two Ovid Gateway online tutorials are now out of date, so you will need to delete any links to these from your website. We will let you know when we produce new tutorials in the future.

My eLibrary Guide

A gatefold has been produced explaining how to use the personal area of the eLibrary called 'My eLibrary'. This can be used to make lists of favourite journals and databases. It can also be used to store retrieved records from searches.

Approx 50 guides have been placed on each subject floor at the enquiry desks.

Gill

Problem with Scopus Records

Hi Everyone,

We have received this email from Elsevier about a problem with Scopus records. They expect it to be resolved by the end of the week.

James.

Dear Librarian,
In the past two weeks, as a part of our initiative of loading pre-1996 articles to enrich Scopus content, a large number of articles from Elsevier journals were loaded erroneously into Scopus with incorrect publication year and incomplete source title information.As a result of this, an incorrect publishing year of 2007 and 2008 has been assigned to these records and only limited source information is available, namely journal title and page numbers. Because of the incomplete information, the mechanism that is used to remove duplicate articles hasn't worked properly either. As a consequence, the records are incorrectly appearing in your search alerts as well.A solution to resolve this issue is already in place and we expect the records with the incorrect information to be removed from Scopus by the end of next week. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
Regards,
The Scopus Team

Athens Maintenance 29/1/08 07:00-09:00

Hi Everyone,

We've just had this email about Athens maintenance which is due to be carried out on Tuesday 29/1/08. For the users this should only affect MyAthens. It shouldn't be a problem for those who are linking to a database from the eLibrary and using their Athens details to login.

Hope this is clear,

James.


Dear Customers,

Please be aware that Eduserv will be carrying out Scheduled Maintenance to the Athens service on Tuesday 29th January 2008 between 07:00 - 09:00 GMT. During this time there will be a break of up to an hour for the following services: • Athens administration interface.• Bulk upload service.• MyAthens.User authentications, the DSP administration interface, Athens self-registration schemes and access to all other Eduserv Athens web services will not be affected.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the Eduserv Athens Service Desk.

Kind regards,


Rachel Cooper
Service Desk Analyst
Eduserv Athens

Science Direct & Scopus

Science Direct and Scopus are currently not cross-searching, probably due to a fault at Elsevier's end. I have switched off the cross-searching ability on both databases, so students will have to use the native interface only for searching.

Will keep looking daily into this problem but not sure when it will be resolved.

Gill

Law databases - enquiries from the public

Just a reminder about law enquiries – if you get an enquiry from a member of the public or a student from another university please do not use any law databases to look up information for them, even if you are just checking their references.

If you’re not sure how to find the info in print – take their details and I’ll contact them.

Thanks
Sue

eLibrary Find e-Journal

Hi Everyone,

Paul is currently doing some work on the Find e-Journal area of the eLibrary. This will stop the 'Request Failed' message from appearing when you click on the 'i' button and should speed up the searching a bit. While he's doing the work you may notice the appearance of Find e-Journal changes, as he has to change the look of the out-of-the-box version to match our purple branding. The functionality shouldn't be affected though.

Another change that has been introduced by Ex Libris is the autocomplete option to display potential matches for your search as you type words into the search box. This might be of some help to those users who laboriously type in the whole of a long-winded journal title, as if they see what they are looking for appear they can stop typing and click on it to select it.

Thanks,

James.

E-Resources in Standalone OPACs

Hi Everyone,

Now that the ebrary records have been added to the OPAC users are naturally clicking on the links to 'View' them. When they do this on the standalone OPACs they just get a 'Page cannot be displayed' message, as these machines are restricted to OPAC use only.

I've asked Paul to try to find a way to display a more informative message on these machines, telling users that they need login to an open access PC to view e-resources. However, this might take some time.

In the meantime Mircea is adding a notice to the top of all the OPAC monitors telling the users that they need to move to a networked PC if they want to view any e-resource that they find.

Thanks,

James.

Academic Search Complete & SFX

Hi All,

There is currently a problem with Academic Search Complete e-journals within SFX. It appears that the SFX update before Christmas removed all the embargo information from these journals. This means that you no longer get the document supply SFX screen when trying to link to articles that should be embargoed. The only way to check the embargo information for now is by looking on the journal publication screen within ASC.

Sandy has asked Paul to contact Ex Libris about this, so we hope they will be able to resolve this problem for us.

Thanks,

James.

Photocopier on 2nd Floor

The flexicard reader on the 2nd floor photocopier isn't working. I've reported the problem to TLSU and they say they will come and have a look at it asap. I've put a sign on the copier for now.

Olivia