Changes to topic searching.
Previously a term like global warming was searched as a phrase. Now it operates with an and so that you may retrieve the words separately and in any order within a record e.g. you will retrieve global climate change and ocean warming.

To search for a phrase place it in quotation marks. You can still use truncation in a phrase e.g. “neural network*”.

Note that previously saved searches retain their original intent. The number of these searches is displayed with pale green highlighting.

Author Finder
This is useful for differentiating between authors with the same surname and first initial. Following a 4-step process you can narrow your search by subject category and institution.

Links to this feature are below the Quick search box and on the General search screen under the Author search box.

RSS Feeds
You can now receive alerts using an RSS reader, as well as by email. You still need to be registered on Web of Knowledge to do this.

More information
Here’s a helpful training site

EndNote and Current Contents bookings are now available for classes in Nov./Dec.

Donna Barber has put in place the long awaited process that prevents New Book Display items from being issued during the one week ‘display only’ period. Should a borrower attempt to have an item from the New Book Display issued the on-screen message is very similar to that seen when a Recently received journal barcode is scanned. If in doubt please check the item’s status on the catalogue… Requests for the item can still be placed as before

…they are going away for extended periods of time and leaving their bags and books by a computer in the Den, when there are queues of people wanting to use a computer.

I suggest we conviscate their wallets…AJ

SuperIndex is now called New Zealand Index

and now has Index new Zealand on it as well

Have a look at it
18 October 2006
A new name for Superindex! With the addition of the National Library’s INNZ (Index New Zealand) database to Superindex, we have renamed the entire collection New Zealand Index

billion

→ cardinal number (pl. billions or (with numeral or quantifying word) same)
1. the number equivalent to the product of a thousand and a million; 1,000,000,000 or 109. • (Brit. dated) a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 1012).
2. (billions) (informal) a very large number or amount.
– DERIVATIVES billionth ordinal number .
– ORIGIN C17: from Fr., from million, by substitution of the prefix bi- ‘two’ for the initial letters.

“billion cardinal number” The Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Canterbury University. 11 October 2006

Postgrad borrower records have been extended for three months and most students’ records will expire around February 12th, although there are some variations.

JISC Collections Academic Database Assessment Tool
A major new resource giving librarians access to a wealth of information on key academic resources is launched today. The free resource, developed by JISC Collections in association with Nick Andrews Consultancy, provides quick and easy comparisons of the major bibliographic and citation databases currently in use by the academic community, including Web of Science, Scopus, ABI Inform, British Humanities Index and many more.

With feedback from the library community regularly suggesting that the high cost, profusion and complexity of these databases make the task of evaluating them difficult and time-consuming, JISC Collections commissioned and funded the new resource, bringing together a national user panel of librarians and information professionals to guide its development.

The Academic Database Assessment Tool provides details of the journal titles in each database, their date coverage, currency, as well as their functionality, editorial policy, indexing and a great deal more, and allows direct comparisons to be made between the resources and the different platforms on which they are available. Information can be exported into spreadsheets, allowing up to date lists of titles to be created.

Initial testing of the resource – which will continue to be developed in response to feedback – has been extremely positive, with librarians and publishers already welcoming it as an important resource which for the first time allows comparisons of the most popular databases.

Now we have no supernumeraries, please be aware of paper supplies. We particularly don’t want to run out of paper overnight or during the weekend.

The current stapler has ‘died’ this time! Marylin has ordered us a new one -it should be here in a couple of days. Pease refer students to the Copy Centre in the meantime.