ERAAT (aka Electronic Resources Administration and Advisory Team) was finally put out of our misery on this date. Witnesses were satisfied that it was all for the best. In lieu of flowers, more comments on trial databases would be appreciated.
September 27, 2007
September 21, 2007
Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life available from EBSCOhost
From the vendor:
Dear EBSCO customer,
As previously announced, EBSCO is now the provider of two popular, respected databases originally offered by ABC-CLIO: Historical Abstracts, and America: History & Life. An important part of the transition of these products to EBSCO is the retention of the expert services of ABC-CLIO’s editorial staff, contracted to continue enhancing both databases with updated content. For your convenience, EBSCO will provide access to the databases from its multi-functional, world-renowned EBSCOhost interface, as well as from the original ABC-CLIO platform (through June 2008).
The imminent release of access to these databases from the EBSCOhost interface will include the support of certain functionality available on the ABC-CLIO platform, in addition to the strength of EBSCOhost’s many features. Access to the ABC-CLIO and EBSCOhost platforms will be available from EBSCO’s Select New Service screen (http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=cookie,ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=ahl [ahl represents America: History & Life; for Historical Abstracts, substitute hia for ahl at the end of the URL]). Some of the significant features available from EBSCOhost for Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life will include:
- The Historical Period Limiter: The historical period limiter searches the time span of the event described within the record. Every item is indexed with its relevant historical period, or periods. The EBSCOhost implementation searches the exact historical timeframe displayed in the full record. Additionally, you will notice that the Historical Period content is included in the default Result List.
- Multi-database Searching: EBSCOhost users will be able to select one or several databases from the EBSCOhost Choose Databases screen, including Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life.
- Linking Features: Where possible, links to commercial full text providers such as JSTOR, EBSCO’s Electronic Journals Service (EJS), and Swets, etc., will be handled by EBSCOadmin’s CustomLinks functionality. Those links determined to be freely available (open access) will be retained in the full record.
- Reports & Statistics: EBSCO presents its EBSCOhost interface usage statistics in multiple formats, from standard reports that document usage by site, title, IP address, session, database or interface, etc., to the four most popular COUNTER report formats. EBSCO also provides colorful graphical report choices, useful when presenting statistical information to others. All report options are available to library administrators with access to EBSCOadmin free of charge, and include the ability to view usage information instantly, as well as via ongoing automatic report alerts to administrator-supplied email addresses.
- My EBSCOhost Personalized Folders: EBSCOhost users can create free, personalized folder accounts in which to save individual search results, search histories, persistent links to searches, Search Alerts, Journal Alerts and web pages created using Page Composer, across multiple sessions, for use in future sessions. EBSCO recently enhanced My EBSCOhost to include support of multiple folders, allowing users to sort and efficiently manage results with various, customizable folders.
- Source Type Searching: Users can filter the EBSCOhost Result List by Publication Type. Available options (depending on the content retrieved in a search) include Academic Journals, Magazines, Books, Monographs, Conference Papers and Dissertations.
- Index Browse Fields: EBSCOhost offers additional Index Browse Fields, such as Document Type, ISSN, and Year of Publication.
- User-friendly Print/Email/Save Functionality: EBSCOhost presents users with numerous opportunities to print, email or save search results–from within an open record, the temporary session folder, or the personalized (My EBSCOhost) folder, for example. Customized options are available when users elect to print/email/save results, allowing users to select which fields they want to include.
September 17, 2007
TRIAL: Books24×7
Trial ends 2007.10.12; restricted to yorku.ca domain.
From the vendor:
Books24×7 is a leading provider of on-demand business, technical and engineering content containing thousands of digitized “best-in-class” books, book summaries, research reports and best practices. The Books24×7 On Demand Platform enables users to search, browse, read and collaborate with other users of these vast professional libraries.
We will have access to the following subsets:
- BusinessPro
- FinancePro
- ExecSummaires
- ExecBluePrints
- EngineeringPro
- ITPro
Also, a couple of search guides:
September 12, 2007
TRIAL: Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
Link to database; restricted to yorku.ca domain.
Trial ends 2007.10.11
From the vendor:
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online is the first comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world’s peoples. More than 9,000 pages of material, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world, make this the most complete body of work focused on world music. This release includes 1210 essays and images from 10 sources.
September 11, 2007
September 7, 2007
September 6, 2007
TRIAL: Britannica’s Global Reference Center
Trial ends 2007.10.15; see the staff Trial Databases page for the link and username/password.
From the vendor:
The Global Reference Center is an extensive collection of Encyclopædia Britannica’s
foreign language content, offering trustworthy information in Spanish, Japanese,
Korean, Simplified Chinese, and French. It contains
- ENCICLOPEDIA UNIVERSAL EN ESPAÑOL — Spanish Language Reference for Ages 6 and Up
- ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA ONLINE JAPAN — The Authority of Britannica Applied to Japanese
- Encyclopedic Resources
- ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA ONLINE KOREA — Powerful and Easy-to-Use Korean-Language
- Reference Source
- BRITANNICA CHINESE POCKET ENCYCLOPEDIA ONLINE — Thousands of Trustworthy
- Articles in Simplified Chinese
- ENCYCLOPÆDIA UNIVERSALIS — The Largest French-Language Encyclopedic Resource Online
