Molstead Library News

New database: Credo Reference.

Our new online reference tool, Credo Reference, provides full-text access to nearly 300 reference works.  Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks from a diverse array of subject areas are now at your fingertips.

You will find Credo Reference on our Reference Links page under Web Resources on the right-hand side of the library home page.  Enjoy!

New databases: CQ Global Researcher and Points of View from EBSCO.

Two new databases have been added to the library web site.  CQ Global Researcher is similar to the traditional CQ Researcher but with a focus on international news and issues.  Points of View Reference Center is yet another tool for exploring current world issues but also includes guides and articles on formulating arguments and writing undergraduate level research papers.

Both of these new tools can be found under the "Find Articles" section of the library web site by clicking on "News & Issues." 

New database: Wilson OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition.

Molstead Library has added a new suite of periodical databases--Wilson OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition--to supplement our current collection and to fill some holes in areas such as Humanities, General Sciences, and Applied Science. 

Take a look at our collection of article databases at the library web site http://www.nic.edu/library under "Find Articles."

Here is a general description:

"Wilson OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition provides access to full text articles, page images, article abstracts, and citations from thousands of sources (Full text of articles from over 1,750 publications and article abstracts and indexing from over 3,500 publications). Coverage back as early as 1982 ensures that every search is as deep as it is broad. Users have access to information on virtually any subject.

"Wilson OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition includes several individual databases covering a variety of fields all in full-text. Education, General Science, Humanities, Readers' Guide, Social Sciences, and Wilson Business databases are included."

Campus Research™ in, Lexis-Nexis™ out.

Campus Research™ is a product that combines a powerful news and business database with a comprehensive legal research tool.  After a brief trial of this new product, we here at Molstead Library believed that Campus Research™ provided all that we needed in news, business, and legal information with increased useability and at a cheaper cost than the venerable Lexis-Nexis™.

Please enjoy the new service and please feel free to let us know what you think!

CQ Weekly now available online.

Say good-bye to the pea-green CQ Weekly, in print form that is.

In an effort to save shelf space and provide easier access to a good resource, Molstead Library has added CQ Weekly to our suite of CQ Press online databases.  A direct link to the database can be found at the library's web site under "Find Articles" by clicking on the "Politics, Law & Government" link.  The entire CQ Press suite of databases can be found here.

Here is the PR on CQ Weekly.  If you haven't used it in the past, you might want to check out the digital version!

Only CQ Weekly reports on the world's most powerful legislative body completely and accurately every week.

How? The CQ news team - by far the largest on Capitol Hill, with more than 100 reporters, editors and researchers - covers virtually every act of Congress, delivering nonpartisan news and analysis unavailable anywhere else.

That's why it is the choice of 95% of the members of Congress, the White House, every federal agency, the media and thousands of leading businesses.

Not to mention 3,244 libraries like yours.

Each issue of CQ Weekly - in your stacks or fully archived to 1983 on the Web - looks forward and back. Your readers get in-depth reports on issues looming on the congressional horizon, plus a complete wrap up the previous week's news, including the status of bills in play, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, committee and floor activity, debates and all roll-call votes.

Just as important, CQ Weekly is written in plain-English prose that makes it easy for people "outside the beltway" to understand complex legislation, and its ramifications, just as well as any Washington insider.

Simply put, no matter what legislative issue your readers follow or research, CQ Weekly is the one source that can be relied on to cover it, to make it simple to understand, and to do so in a manner that is even-handed and accurate.

CQ Weekly Online includes an archive dating back to 1983 and access by IP authentication. Search by topic, page number, committee, "exact phrases or words," bill number, byline or reporter and by Boolean full-text and date searches. Detailed floor votes dating back to August 1983 are easily retrieved.

New Database Trial: SocINDEX & SocINDEX with Full Text.

The library has obtained a trial subscription to two new companion databases offered by EBSCO publishing. Below you will find a direct link into these databases and descriptions of these products courtesy of EBSCO. Enjoy and let us know what you think!

SocINDEX & SocINDEX w/Full-Text

SocINDEX  

SocINDEX is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. The index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,000 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers.

This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,070 "selective" coverage journals. Further, extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is included.

Searchable cited references are also provided. SocINDEX offers coverage from all subdisciplines of sociology, including abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, cultural sociology, demography, economic development, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, violence, welfare, and many others.

SocINDEX with Full Text

SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. The index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,000 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers. This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,070 "selective" coverage journals. Further, extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is included.

Searchable cited references are also provided. SocINDEX with Full Text offers coverage from all subdisciplines of sociology, including abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, cultural sociology, demography, economic development, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, violence, welfare, and many others. SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for 241 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895, and 72 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for 545 books and monographs, and full text for 6,711 conference papers.

A title list for this database can be found here: http://www.epnet.com/titlelists/pdf/sift.pdf

Ebrary problems RESOLVED! Off campus access is restored.

Off campus access to Ebrary has been restored.

Thanks for your patience!

Ebrary technical problems: off campus access disabled for now.

I have been hearing from students who are not able to access electronic book titles in the Ebrary database.  The problem is with our EZproxy server software which is woefully out of date.  Once the server is updated, everything should be back to normal.  This may take a day or two at the soonest, hopefully not much longer.

In other Ebrary news, the Ebrary browser plugin is being upgraded and Mozilla Firefox support is being enabled.  This upgrade is taking place as I write this and should be 'live' this week.  Here is the information I was sent from Ebrary support about the new features and installation instructions:

The ebrary Reader for PC/Windows plugin version 3.1.1 includes several new features, developed based on feedback from customers:   

• Copyright information in citations: publisher copyright details (date, publisher name, copyright statement) are now automatically included with every citation, when copied and pasted or printed.
• Customizable citations:  ebrary now offers four user-selectable and administrator-customizable citation styles, which are automatically included when text is copied and pasted or printed.  All ebrary citations include a URL to the exact page from which the information was obtained.  In addition to the ebrary Standard format, a user can choose from Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and Alliance for Computers and Writing (ACW) citation styles.
• Refine search option in InfoTools:  ebrary now allows patrons to perform an Advanced Search on any text within a document (versus Simple Search in the prior release) using InfoTools.
• 'Scale to Width' feature in the Zoom menu: in addition to scaling a page to fit lengthwise into the ebrary Reader frame, without scrolling (using the Scale to Fit option), the user can now scale to fit the document page horizontally in the Reader frame.
• Support for Mozilla Firefox browser.
• Improved stability.

This release also updates the ebrary Reader for Macintosh plugin to version 2.7, providing improved stability.

Current ebrary users (who have the ebrary Reader installed) will encounter a pop-up alert requesting installation of the new plugin.  The user may choose to install immediately (no reboot required), not install at all, or 'Remind me later.'  If the last option is chosen, the user will see this alert pop up again in 30 days.

If you are experiencing difficulty with Ebrary from your home computer, please be patient and await our maintenance of the server software.  Thanks for your patience!