Month: April 2007

Verdict: on-campus access problems resolved

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

To provide a robust ongoing solution to the access problems that have been experienced with the Verdict service, the providers have enabled direct IP-authenticated access for on-campus visitors. On-campus access is therefore available once again. Off-campus access is temporarily suspended while the arrangements to provide EZproxy access are put in place.

New trial: Xreferplus

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Trial access to the Xreferplus reference database has been set up in eSearch > eResource trials > Active trials. The resource is being trialed as part of the Gen Ref/Quick Ref review project. Access is direct on-campus; off-campus access via specific username and password will be available shortly. The trial lasts until 24 May. Please send all feedback on the trial to Sharon Potter. The resource is described as follows:

Xreferplus is an integrated searchable cross-disciplinary reference collection. It provides cross-referenced full text articles, images, animation and video (Flash), sound files (in mp3), statistics (exportable to Excel) and other data, supported by a range of dynamic search and retrieval functionality including ‘concept mapping’.

Xreferplus can be searched remotely via eSearch on a search-and-link basis – please see the Search Hints field for more information.

Sage ejournals – now an SFX source

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

The Sage ejournals platform is now operating as an SFX ‘source’ as well as ‘target’ (meaning that it’s possible to send metadata to SFX to try to find a match; as well as to be sent from SFX to Sage when SFX has found a match on the Sage site).

From any individual article listing, click on the References link (see illustration below) to bring up a list of article references:

Sage outbound OpenURL linking - 01

From that list of references, a Find it @ NTU SFX button will appear next to any individual reference when certain criteria are reached (see illustration below):

Sage outbound OpenURL linking - 02

At present, such links are only offered where a reference includes a Digital Object Identier (DOI) – which is a significant functional limitation.

Barbour: migration to the v4.0 platform – changes in listings

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

The platform for the Barbour interface has been upgraded and moved to a new domain address, necessitating changes in the resource discovery listings for Barbour online titles.

As the default for the new interface is cross-searchability across all titles in the Barbour collection, a single new listing for Barbour has replaced the following individual listings:

  • Barbour – Architectural Construction Expert
  • Barbour – Building Product Expert
  • Barbour Building Services Construction Expert
  • Barbour – Civil and Structural Construction Expert
  • Barbour – Facilities Management Expert
  • Barbour OPUS Building Services Design File
  • Barbour – Property and Facilities Manager Construction Expert

‘Barbour’ appears under the Building Construction; Civil Enginering and Real Estate sub-categories of the Built Environment eSearch category.

As it covers a different subject area, the listing for Barbour Food Safety Professional has been retained and renamed as Barbour Professional Series – Food Safety. Although it points to the same interface, listings for this resource include instructions on how to restrict searches to the Food Safety database.

New resource trial: Art Museum Image Gallery

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Trial access to the Art Museum Image Gallery has been set up in eSearch > eResource trials > Active trials. Access is direct on-campus; with Athens username and password authentication for off-campus access. The trial lasts until 19 May, and all feedback should be sent to Rachel Campbell. The resource is described as follows:

The Art Museum Image Gallery is a digital resource of art images and related multimedia gathered from the collections of distinguished museums around the world.

Full bibliographic records accompany every image, and all images are offered in three sizes including a high resolution based on the traditional 1024 x 760 pixel sizing. The images are all rights cleared for educational use, as are all other images in the Art Museum Image Gallery.

In addition to searching in the native interface, Art Museum Image Gallery can also be remotely searched via eSearch. The SFX button will not appear in the search results screen of Art Museum Image Gallery records in eSearch. Direct access to individual objects in the AMIG database is via the ‘External link’ in the ‘Full View’ of the search result in eSearch.

As LLR already subscribes to two art packages on the HW Wilson platform, the AMIG will also appear as a selectable resource in the native interface when following existing links to ‘Art Retrospective’ and ‘Art Full Text’.