LexisNexis Business and News

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

LexisNexis have now resolved the issue which was preventing Athens authenticated access by NTU staff and students to the new LexisNexis Business and News platform (which absorbs the LexisNexis Executive service). Access to LexisNexis Business and News (which requires Athens authentication both on-campus and off-campus) has now been set up in eSearch. The resource is described as follows:

A news and business-intelligence service which includes full-text newspapers, journals, market research and country reports, corporate profiles and government documents. Also includes legislation and case law for the United Kingdom and Europe.

As a result, LexisNexis Executive has now been withdrawn from eSearch – but database title searches in eSearch for ‘LexisNexis Executive’ or ‘Lexis Nexis Executive’ will retrieve LexisNexis Business and News.

CSA Illumina – access entitlement problems resolved

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to LLR’s full suite of subscription databases has been re-established on the CSA Illumina platform, following the temporary interruption in service earlier this week. Please advise if you continue to experience any further access problems.

New collections: Digimap

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to new additional collections on the Digimap platform has now been enabled: Historic Digimap and Geology Digimap.

Through Historic Digimap a registered vistor can:

View images of historic Ordnance Survey maps dating from 1843 to 1996. Up to 4 maps of the same location but different dates can be viewed simultaneously. Print maps and download image data for use in GIS and image processing software.

Through Geology Digimap a registered visitor can:

View and download contemporary British Geological Survey map data. 1:50,000, 1:250,000 and 1:625,000 scales are available in ESRI and MapInfo formats, plus information from the Lexicon of Named Rock Units.

These two new collections are provided in parallel with the existing Digimap Ordnance Survey collection. Members of NTU already registered to use Digimap will need to complete an additional registration for Geology Digimap before being able to make use of the service. Members of NTU registering with Digimap for the first time will now be able to register to use Geology Digimap and the Digimap Ordnance Survey collection through a single registration process.

New resource: Credo Reference

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Access to the Credo Reference online reference library has been set up in eSearch. Access is direct on-campus; off-campus access is not yet enabled, but will follow shortly (and will by provided through Athens authentication). The resource is described as follows:

Credo Reference offers an extensive collection of reference resources – including the full text of a wide subject range of fact books, directories, dictionaries and encyclopedias. As well as full-text, Credo Reference provides images, sound, maps, customizable data, visual concept maps of results and other dynamic search and retrieval tools.

Credo Reference can be cross-searched within eSearch. For assessment purposes, in addition to the standard Credo Reference search configuration (which searches all the available collections), additional configurations have been set up for specific collections within Credo Reference, namely: Biography, Dictionaries, Encylopedias and Quotations. Feedback on whether the ability to restrict searches to specific collections in this way is useful is welcomed.

Because of the way that data is presented within the Credo Reference platform, SFX connections from search results in eSearch have been disabled. Direct access to the specific entry in any of the Credo collections is provided by either of the clickable links in the eSearch search result (see illustration below):

Credo - screengrab of MetaLib result display

Within the Credo Reference platform itself, in addition to NTU branding, clickable links back to the LLR web site and to the university home page have been added (see illustration below):

Credo - screengrab of NTU branding in the Credo Reference platform

Credo Reference has been enabled as an SFX ‘source’, and the ‘Find it @ NTU’ button appears under the ‘linked resources’ heading on the left-hand side of the page of any search results. When clicked, this submits the Title and ISBN from which the entry in Credo Reference has been sourced to SFX (see illustration below):

Credo - screengrab of SFX button display in the Credo Reference platform

Catalogue records for each of the eBooks in Credo Reference will be added to the Library Catalogue in due course.

New resource: KnowUK

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

LLR has a new subscription to the KnowUK service. The listing for this resource in eSearch has been moved from the eResource trials Category to join the A-Z eSearch list – and can be added to Categories and Sub-Categories at the request of members of the ALT.  Access to KnowUK is direct on-campus; with Athens authentication for off-campus visitors.

EBSCOhost – full-text .pdf problems resolved

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

EBSCOhost’s technicians have now confirmed that the problem affecting access to full-text .pdf content on the EBSCOhost platform were resolved shortly after they were reported. All full-text content, in all formats, should be available across all of LLR’s subscribed EBSCOhost databases.

GMID (Global Market Information Database)

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

The GMID database service has migrated to a new platform, and all of LLR’s resource discovery links have been updated accordingly. Access remains direct on-campus; with Athens authentication required for off-campus access. On-campus visitors will need to review and accept the GMID Terms & Conditions each time they access the service; off-campus vistors will only be required to accept the T&C once (as their acceptance is recorded against their Athens username).

eServices has forwarded several recommendations to GMID to improve still-further access and authentication management on the new platform: there is, at present, no facility to log-out of the service; and visitors can find themselves locked out of the interface if they make navigation ‘errors’. Please report any customer access difficulties on the new platform to eServices.

EBSCOhost – full-text pdf content unavailable

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

EBSCOhost’s engineers are investigating a problem which currently appears to be affecting the delivery of .pdf full-text content. While it is possible to search (in the native interface and via eSearch), retrieve results and connect to SFX from all EBSCOhost databases, full-text .pdf requests are failing and delivering ‘page/server cannot be found’ error messages. Where available, full-text .html content continues to be accessible.

The affected databases are:

  • Business Source Premier
  • Regional Business News
  • EconLit
  • TTI
  • PsycARTICLES
  • PsycINFO
  • Academic Search Elite

We will update when we have more information from EBSCO.

ejournal and eBook records to be added to ‘live’ ALEPH this week

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

During the course of this week, changes will be made to ‘live’ ALEPH to enable ejournal and eBooks to be made discoverable through the OPAC. There may be some very short interruptions in the OPAC service (lasting only a few seconds) while these changes are enacted. Initially, changes to the look of the OPAC record display (identical to those trialled in ‘test’ ALEPH) will be replicated in ‘live’ ALEPH, and eBook and ejournal records will then be loaded and indexed.

All SFX delivered ejournals and eBrary eBook records should be available through the ‘live’ OPAC by the end of the week, with records for Taylor & Francis, Knovel and other eBook providers available shortly after. Updates will be provided as the process progresses.

New resource trial: KnowUK

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Trial access to the KnowUK service has been set up in eSearch in eResource trials > Active trials. Access is direct on-campus (with no off-campus access available during the trial). Trial access is available until 25 July 2007. All feedback on the trial should be sent to Terry Hanstock. The resource is described as follows:

UK-specific reference information from over 100 of the most widely used reference publications in the UK. Includes a wide range of guides, directories, registers, yearbooks and other sources across a diverse range of subject areas.