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Changes to Databases More than the usual changes have taken place over the past six months at Polk Library in terms of access to electronic resources. Following is a brief summary of the major ones. Online Catalog: The catalog continues to give access to records of titles owned by Polk Library and the other UW campuses. However, the indexes to periodical articles from ERIC, Education Index, Social Sciences Index, and others are now available through the World Wide Web instead. Some of the Web databases will contain full-text articles. EBSCO: Now offers additional choices of databases, thanks partly to a contract for all libraries in the state. In addition to EBSCO's Academic Search database with full-text articles, you may also find full-text articles in Business Source, and bibliographic records for ERIC (resources in education), Medline, CINAHL, and PsycInfo (formerly PsycLit). These databases are all accessible from outside the library. ERIC: Now available via the World Wide Web in two versions-through EBSCO, and also the free versions traditionally linked from the EMC's home page. The CD-ROM continues to be available. CINAHL: Now available through EBSCO on the World Wide Web, rather than CD-ROM or FirstSearch. Available outside the library, and off-campus with password. MLA: The Modern Language Association Bibliography will be available on CD-ROM for the first part of Fall 1998, but is anticipated to switch to a World Wide Web interface via OVID in late Fall. When the change is made, the database will be available outside the library, and off-campus with password. PsychInfo/PsycLit: Now available through EBSCO on the World Wide Web, rather than on CD-ROM or in print format. Available outside the library, and probably off-campus with password. Wilson Databases: This familiar group of titles includes Art Abstracts, Biological & Agricultural Index, Business Periodicals Abstracts, Education Abstracts, General Science Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Reader's Guide Abstracts, and Social Sciences Abstracts. Previously, these indexes were available via the online catalog. They are now available instead as a group through the World Wide Web, with the addition of some full-text articles. Entirely new for Fall 1998: American Chemical Society Journals online. Recent years of ACS journals online in full-image. Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO). "Designed to be the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs." The database offers many full-text items including working papers from organizations, conference proceedings, and some books and journal articles. Newspapers online from UMI. Now in addition to ABI Inform, a major business database, the state contract has provided access some Wisconsin newspapers and national newspapers, many with full-text articles. Full-text titles include both Madison papers, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Detroit News, and Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Women's Resources International. Bibliographic citations to books and articles in women's studies. Check out the new resources!! Why the World Wide Web? Occasionally David Letterman will look directly into the TV camera and say, "Hey, kids do you REALLY like that old WWW?" Well, Dave is on to something. Electronic information is migrating to the World Wide Web rapidly. As Cynthia Huebschen points out (above), Polk Library is offering an increasing number of its electronic databases via the Web rather than through old telnet or CD-ROM versions. Why is Polk Library doing this? There are several reasons why access to electronic databases is moving to the Web. First, the Web usually allows Polk Library to provide increased access to information. It lets students, faculty, and staff access the databases from the library, computer labs, offices, dorm rooms, and (often) home. Second, Web versions of databases often include full-text of articles, not just the citations. Third, Web access to many databases through a few vendors gives library users fewer searching interfaces to learn. Finally, and frankly, a major reason for moving access to electronic databases mainly to the Web is money. Library acquisition base budgets have not increased for four years. Polk Library can no longer afford to provide multiple electronic versions of the same database and still provide books and periodicals needed for the curriculum. Librarians have to make decisions regarding how to provide the best electronic services to library users at the most reasonable price. In short, Polk Library is moving access to electronic information to the Web as a way to spend its limited budget as well as it can to increase access, provide full-text capabilities, and promote a more common searching interface for users. Fortunately, most library users would respond to Dave, "Yep, we REALLY like that old WWW." New Hands-On Lab Give your students a head start in the research process! Polk Library is pleased to announce the opening of a new Library Hands-on Instruction Lab. Librarians now have the opportunity of conducting hands-on classes for students. Training sessions can include instruction about the library's increasing number of databases accessed via the World Wide Web, the online library catalog or about various library CD-ROM databases. Students can learn effective searching techniques from librarians and then get hands-on practice using various databases and search engines. The lab includes 19 trainee workstations and 1 instructor workstation. Trainee workstations have access to the World Wide Web, Telnet (to use the library catalog) and the library's CD-ROM collection. The lab uses a unique projection system that operates without a traditional LCD panel or video projector. A hardware system connects the computers together and broadcasts the instructor's computer screen to all trainee computer screens. This allows for enhanced instructor control and improved vision for students. The Library Hands-on Instruction Lab was made possible with funding from UW System's Laboratory Modernization Program. The Lab is intended as an instructional tool for students to meet their needs to learn how to identify and search library-related information resources. If you are interested in having a librarian lead a training session for your students, please contact Marisa Finkey at 424-3436 or finkey@uwosh.edu ILL: Active Web Forms Interlibrary Loan forms can now be submitted on the World Wide Web! If you need access to books and articles not held at Polk Library, submit a request for the items using an electronic Interlibrary Loan form. The forms for books and articles are available at the address: http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/llr/forms.html Interlibary Loan will process the forms in the same way as the paper forms, which can still be used. As always, please check the library's paper and electronic collections before submitting your requests. Interlibrary Loan service is available to all UW Oshkosh faculty, staff and students. All you need to do is visit the address shown above and provide some basic information about the book or journal article. When you are filling out the form, note that you may choose to be notified via email when your item has arrived at Polk Library. Just make sure you provide your complete email address in the space provided, e.g. username@uwosh.edu For questions about this new service, contact Erin Czech in the Interlibrary Loan office at 424-3348 or czeche@uwosh.edu Could It Be in the EMC? I have the best job in Polk! I work in the Educational Media Collection. Who else gets to demonstrate multi-media software like The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain or Stanley's Sticker Stories? Where else would you find music CD's such as The Banana Slug String Band, Billy the Squid, and The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes? Who wouldn't enjoy recommending books called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs or Is Your Mama a Llama? After reviewing new award-winning titles, I'm inspired to take a bike trek across Africa, a dogsled journey to the arctic, or perhaps go mountain climbing in the Himalayas. Just before leaving work I pick out a couple of films from the AV shelves. How about Tolstoy's War and Peace or Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew? Each question from a patron prompts a mini-investigation: "Do you have any videos that deal with race-relations during the industrial revolution?" "I need plays for my Spanish speaking migrant-school students." "Are there any samples of how to incorporate economics across the curriculum?" "Where can I find posters and maps for my unit on the rainforests?" Our growing collection, which includes ClarisWorks for Kids, Claris Home Page, and Hyperstudio, can meet these needs. The best thing about these wonderful resources is that they are available to everyone: all UW-Oshkosh students and faculty, local teachers, and anyone who still loves to get their hands on a giant book and have a good laugh at the illustrations. Come visit us! For more details, service desk hours, and select educational links, visit our homepage at: http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/llr/emc Good News for UW System Libraries Kathy Pletcher From UW Green Bay Cofrin Library Newsletter The month of August provided two good omens for strengthening library collections and services for the 21st century. The first was the announcement on August 13 that Endeavor Library Systems had been chosen as the next generation library system for all the University of Wisconsin libraries. The second came a week later when the Regents approved the 1999/01 UW budget which includes $12 million dollars for library collections and resource sharing. The library budget initiative is indeed good news for faculty and students. It is no secret that the library book and journal collections have been hit hard by inflation. Over the past 10 years libraries have lost 10-18% of their buying power per year as book and journal prices increased steadily. In order to stay within budget allocations libraries have reduced book purchases, canceled journal subscriptions and relied more heavily on interlibrary loan. Every academic unit on campus has felt the impact of these cuts. In addition to losing ground with traditional scholarly sources, libraries have had difficulty keeping up with the acquisition of electronic databases and journals. We have been fortunate the last few years to have had some help from UW System Library Automation funds for electronic resources. As the debt was retired on the KeyNotis library system, dollars became available to purchase system-wide licenses for EbscoHost, Encyclopedia Britannica and several others. This was seen as a temporary solution to the reduced book and journal acquisitions because the Library Automation funds would be needed to replace the KeyNotis system before the end of the century. Without new funding in the next biennium the University will be facing continued erosion of print resources along with the loss of the electronic subscriptions which have become a very important aspect of faculty and student research. The Regents' $12 million dollar library initiative will go a long way toward improving access to academic information. The new funding will be used to: 1) maintain strong campus collections for frequently used material 2) improve research collections for sharing across the system 3) support a speedy delivery system for resource sharing. The Regent funding initiative is key to our academic mission because it will enable libraries to acquire the intellectual content that supports student learning. However, the $12 million dollars is not secure. The Library Directors have worked with Senior Vice President David Ward and the Regent Education Committee to develop support for this library funding initiative, but our work is not done and we need help. Over the next few months the Regent budget proposal must work its way through the Governor's Office and the Legislature. There are many competing interests for State funding and many people see library funding as unnecessary because they think information is entirely free. As an academic you know that scholarly information is not free, in fact it is very expensive. It is imperative to convince the decision-makers that new funding for UW libraries is critical for teaching and research. If you have ideas for "making the case" I would like to hear from you. Additional library funding is absolutely essential for supporting student learning and faculty research in the 21st century. * Kathy Pletcher is Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Technology at UW Green Bay. This article appeared in the Cofrin Library Newsletter, September, 1998, front page article with headline: $12 Million Library Proposal. People John Berens, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, spoke at the 1998 Annual Conference of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians in April. His topic was "Library+Computing+Media+Networking =Information Technology." Marisa Finkey will be Acting Library Instruction Coordinator for FY 1998-1999. Marisa has been working in Reference since February 1997. In April, Mary Keefer, Educational Media Collection Coordinator, presented a program on Internet resources for teachers, parents, and librarians for the Wisconsin Library Association's Youth Services Section. The program discussed the information needs of middle and high school students who use the WWW for homework. Susan Kiedrowski joined the library staff this summer as EMC Assistant. Susan has a BA from UW Stevens Point. Gerald Krueger, Head of Government Documents, retired on June 5. Gerry provided dedicated and knowledgeable library service to UW Oshkosh for 33 years. William Knudson started as the new Circulation Services Assistant in late August. Bill has a 1992 BA from UW Oshkosh. Sarah Neises, Reference Librarian, taught a class for COEHS during the summer. "The Internet as an Instructional Tool" for elementary and secondary school teachers explored ways to integrate the Internet into classroom instruction. Joshua Ranger began his duties as University Archives and Area Research Center Librarian on August 10. Joshua was a May 1998 graduate of UW Madison's graduate School of Library and Information Science. Michael Watkins will be Acting Head of Government Documents for FY 1998-1999. Mike has worked in documents and reference at Polk Library since 1990. Patrick Wilkinson, Assistant Library Director for Public Services, gave a presentation to the 1998 Annual Conference of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians in April. His topic was "Change and Survival: Academic Libraries in the 21st Century." Patrick
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