TRIAL: Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports

URL: http://infoweb.newsbank.com/; trial ends 2008.01.31. Access restricted to yorku.ca domain.

From the vendor:

Until January 31st, 2008, you have at your disposal a online database trial of Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports Series: 1 (Middle East, Africa, South Asia MEA/NES). To access this collections all you need do is go to http://infoweb.newsbank.com and click on the collection.

For information on this database go to http://www.readex.com; there you will find further resources: full description of the material, accolades, its Advisory Board, and details of Readex’s ETC (Enhancements, Training, Content) Program.
Quick Facts: Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports Series: 1 (Middle East, Africa, South Asia MEA/NES):

• Series: 1 (Middle East, Africa, South Asia MEA/NES) comes online Monday, December 19th. After Series: 1 (Middle East, Africa, South Asia MEA/NES), the remaining seven geographical series will come out every 4-5 months until completion in two years.

• Middle East and [North] Africa (MEA), 1974-1987; Near East and South Asia (NES), 1987-1996
• South Asia (SAS), 1980-1987; Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 1974-1980; and (AFR), 1987-1996
• China (CHI), 1974-1996
• Asia and the Pacific (APA), 1974-1987; East Asia (EAS), 1987-1996
• Latin America (LAT and LAM), 1974-1996
• Eastern Europe (EEU), 1974-1996
• Soviet Union/Central Eurasia (SOV), 1974-1996
• Western Europe (WEU), 1974-1996

• Web-based, fully searchable edition of the FBIS Daily Reports
• Transcripts of foreign broadcasts and news, translated into English
• Features materials selected by the Central Intelligence Agency for distribution to U.S. policymakers and security analysts

Upcoming enhancements to EBSCOhost interface

From the vendor:

On 11/21/07, we announced plans to upgrade the Visual Search option
on EBSCOhost and other user interfaces, at the end of this
calendar year. We are pleased to announce that the new version of
Visual Search is about to become available to your users. Please note
that a comprehensive tutorial will open automatically when a user
clicks on the Visual Search tab in EBSCOhost, to guide them
through the functionality of the new Visual Search screens.

In conjunction with the Visual Search release, we are introducing an
enhancement to EBSCOhost Result Lists: Image Quick View. This
exciting new feature will include the appearance of thumbnail images on
Result Lists which, when clicked, will instantly reveal full-sized
images to users. Open records will include links to thumbnail images,
where applicable. Users will be able to try the new feature in EBSCOhost
by clicking on the Try It! box beside Image Quick View on the
New Features screen, and enabling Show Image Thumbnails under the
Preferences link in the upper right corner of the screen. For more
information about the new Visual Search design and the Image Quick View
feature, please see the first two top stories on EBSCO’s Support Site
(http://support.ebsco.com).

TRIAL: LexisNexis Congressional

Trial ends 2008.01.07; login information available on the staff ‘Trial databases’ page . Please come back here to leave your comments.

From the vendor:

The LexisNexis Congressional service provides users with efficient, targeted access to the most comprehensive collection of historic and current congressional information available anywhere online. This collection includes the full text of congressional publications, finding aids, a bill tracking service, and the full text of public laws and other research materials to enable both novice and experienced researchers to complete many types of research projects using a single, user-friendly interface. Since Congress is interested in all public policy, social, and economic issues, the database is an effective source for general research in many academic disciplines, in addition to research related to specific legislative proposals and laws. (more …)

TRIAL: LexisNexis Statistical

Trial ends 2008.01.07; login information available on the staff ‘Trial databases’ page . Please come back here to leave your comments.

From the vendor:

LexisNexis Statistical provides fast and easy access to statistics produced by Federal agencies, states, and intergovernmental organizations with its advanced Search Tables functionality – the shortcut to finding statistics online. (more …)

Upcoming ProQuest maintenance outage

From ProQuest :

The next ProQuest® platform enhancement release will be on December 15, 2007. A twelve (12) hour maintenance window will take place to install these exciting new enhancements. The window will begin *Saturday, December 15, 2007, at 22:00 EDT to Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 10:00 EDT*.

Enhancements include:

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Multimedia Support release*—ProQuest has seen an increase in dissertations and theses that include supplementary digital materials – audio, video, spreadsheets, etc. To properly support scholarly access to these materials, ProQuest is now making them available online in the Full Text version of the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database.
• ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source Study Paths*—Study Paths allows a user to quickly view full text articles recommended by a board of experienced nurse educators on topics relevant to their curriculum. This exciting new enhancement makes it easier for users to complete their assignments, research a topic, or prepare for examinations. A new splash page will appear when users log into the product. The Study Paths feature is for the ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database only and does not impact other ProQuest products.

The following products will be unavailable during this window:

• ProQuest interface products, ProQuest Historical Newspapers (traditional and graphical K12 interface), American Periodicals Series
• Third-party databases such as ERIC® PlusText
• ProQuest Archiver™
• eLibrary®, SIRS®, and CultureGrams™
• Chadwyck-Healey products housed in the US (all products with domain names ending with chadwyck.com)
• “Digital Vault” products, including ProQuest Dissertations & Theses and Digital Sanborn Maps

Changes to ISI Web of Knowledge

The new interface/version will take over on 2008.01.27; for details, see the full report on the Thomson Scientific website.

TRIAL: 20th Century Drama

http://collections.chadwyck.com/; trial ends 2008.01.04. Restricted to yorku.ca domain.

From the vendor:

When complete, Twentieth-Century Drama will contain 2,600 plays from throughout the English-speaking world, covering the history of modern drama from the 1890s to the present.

TRIAL: Colonial State Papers

http://colonial.chadwyck.co.uk/; trial ends 2008.01.04. Restricted to yorku.ca domain.

From the vendor:

Colonial State Papers provides access to thousands of papers concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Also included is a digitised version of The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739, which contains bibliographic records and extracts for thousands of additional documents.

TRIAL: 18th Century Parliamentary Papers

http://parlipapers.chadwyck.com/; trial ends 2008.01.04. Access restricted to yorku.ca domain.

We already subscribe to

• 19th century (1801-1900)

• 20th century (1901-2003/04 session)

• Current (2004/05 session onwards)

Many SP databases available once again

The following (from our list of SP databases) are greyed out and unavailable for searching. Other institutions are reporting similar problems, and one has discoverd that the problem is at the Scholars Portal end. I’ll keep you posted. now accessible once again.

• ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts
• BioOne Abstracts and Indexes
• Communication Abstracts
• Communication Studies: A SAGE Full-Text Collection Conference
• Papers Index
• Criminal Justice Abstracts
• Criminology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• E-Journals @ Scholars Portal
• EconLit
• Education: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• ERIC
• GeoRef
• GeoRef In Process
• Health Sciences: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• Iter @ Scholars Portal
• CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
• LISA: Library and Information Science Abstracts
• Management & Organization Studies: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• Materials Science: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• Physical Education Index
• PILOTS Database
• PsycARTICLES
• PsycBOOKS
• Psychology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• PsycINFO
• Science Citation Index Expanded ™ (1982-1993)
• Science Citation Index Expanded ™ (1994-1999)
• Science Citation Index Expanded ™ (2000-2004)
• Science Citation Index Expanded ™ (2005-current)
• Sociology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
• Urban Studies & Planning: A SAGE Full-Text Collection