Number 8 -- August 1995

Internet access at the Barr Smith Library

As we announced in the last issue, part of the additional recurrent funding received by the Library is being applied to improving access to bibliographic information in electronic format. The expansion and networking of the Electronic databases (CD-ROM) service has now been followed by the introduction of Internet access terminals. Eight dedicated computer terminals have been installed outside the Subject Librarians' area on Level 3 South of the Library to provide access to sources on the Internet and to the Electronic Reserve pilot project.
The Internet terminals may be used by any currently enrolled student or staff member of the University of Adelaide for half an hour at a time (sessions may be booked up to a week ahead).
The menu on each terminal gives you the choice of using a subject guide to sources on the Internet (which is being compiled by the Subject Librarians) or you may choose to explore the 'information superhighway' directly by using the NetScape program.
Another menu option leads you to the Electronic Reserve pilot project. This is still being developed and currently contains a set of the 1994 University of Adelaide examination papers.
Each group of four terminals (there are four PCs and four Macs) is connected to a printer which operates by means of the normal COPY CARD that is used for the photocopiers and for printing in the Electronic databases area.

Please ask at the Barr Smith Library Information desk if you need more information.

Staff changes

Several staff changes took place at the beginning of July - part of the Library's restructuring process.

Stephen Cramond, formerly Subject Librarian for Medicine and Dentistry, has taken up the position of Electronic Information Resources Librarian, monitoring current practices in electronic knowledge resources for the Library and its users. As a result of Stephen's move several subjects have been re-allocated amongst Subject Librarians. Details of this will be announced in the next issue.

Judith Lloyd is now sharing her time between the duties of the newly created positions of Quality Coordinator and Document Delivery Librarian. The latter involves coordinating present inter-library loan procedures and monitoring the development of future services, especially in the area of electronic document delivery.

Margaret Emery, formerly Roseworthy Campus Librarian, replaces Judith as Information Services Librarian; she is responsible for effective information services in the Barr Smith Library and coordinates the work of the Subject Librarians.

Angela Mills has moved from the Waite Campus Library, where she was deputy librarian, to be Acting Librarian at Roseworthy Campus.

Julia Masters, from Technical Services in the Barr Smith Library, is now the Assistant Librarian (Acting) at the Waite Campus.

New face at the Loans desk

Terri Windsor has recently taken up the position of Lending Supervisor in the Barr Smith Library's User Services Division.
Terri has worked for many years in the Library's Technical Services Division, mostly in the Acquisitions area.
Her technical background and supervisory skills will stand her in good stead in her new position.

Interlibrary Loans

Just a reminder that the Library is subsidising interlibrary loans for 1995 and that the service is now available to our undergraduates.
We have also introduced two levels of request:

Normal: we will try to get the item within two weeks.
Urgent: we will try to get the item within two working days.

Costs

For academic staff and students of the University of Adelaide the rates are:

Photocopies
Normal: $5.00 for 1 to 30 pages; $5 for each additional 30 pages (or part thereof)
Urgent: $10.00 for 1 to 30 pages; $10 for each additional 30 pages (or part thereof)

Books
Normal: $5.00
Urgent: $10.00

For Alumni and Community borrowers:

Photocopies
$9.00 for 1 to 30 pages; $9 for each additional 30 pages (or part thereof)
Books
$9.00
(Normal rates only; the Urgent service is not offered)

Payment may be made by cash in advance or may be charged to a Departmental fund by means of a requisition number.
If a request cannot be fulfilled, a refund will be given if cash has been paid in advance, or a funds transfer has been arranged.

Why not take advantage of these special rates to obtain copies of items that are not available in the University of Adelaide Library collections.*
Patrick Condon

*Please check the catalogue carefully: an item found in the University of Adelaide Library system and collected from the shelves will be charged for as if it had been obtained on interlibrary loan.

Electronic databases sponsored by CAUL

Following the recent trial of CITADEL databases that was sponsored by CAUL (the Council of Australian University Librarians) the Library is subscribing to Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (the major architecture indexing service) and Anthropological Literature which indexes articles in anthropology and archaeology.
We are also subscribing to three engineering services from Cambridge Scientific Abstracts: Engineering Materials Abstracts, Metadex and Water Resources Abstracts. The latest five years of these databases is available.
All of these services can be accessed through the Internet and they have been made available at substantially reduced subscription rates under the CAUL scheme.
For information on access pathways and pass-words for these services, talk to your Subject Librarian or Branch Librarian.

New databases to try

A number of new CAUL database trials began in July. Services to be trialled include Lexis-Nexis which has been available in the Law Library for some time. In addition to indexing legal sources Lexis-Nexis allows access to a wide range of other resources including full text services and newspapers. Twenty databases will be available through Silver-Platter's Electronic Reference Library, some of which are already available in the Library's Electronic databases service. There will be an opportunity to evaluate two versions of ABI Inform, with access to full text of some of the business journals. The Information Access Company's, Extended Academic Service indexes approximately 1 500 social sciences, humanities, general science and current events journals with access to the full text of some of them. Further information will be published soon in the Library's Newsline and in electronic format on the Library Information Service. We'd like interested users to try these services and provide feedback on their value. Steve Cramond

Current Awareness Services

With continuing cutbacks in journal subscriptions and increasing costs of subscriptions, current awareness/table of contents services are becoming increasingly important. Several services are now available on the Internet. The Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL)-sponsored Current Contents service and First Search Contents First/Article First services are available to University staff and students within the Library and to staff and postgraduate students outside the Library when they have network access and passwords. Passwords are available from your Subject Librarian or Branch Librarian. Current Contents from the Institute of Scientific Information covers the contents of 8 000 science, social sciences and humanities journals. Two years' retrospective data are available and abstracts are included for many entries. All Current Contents editions can be searched or searches can be limited to one or more of the editions, such as Clinical Medicine and Life Sciences. Searches can be stored on the system and run against each week's new articles. The First Search database provides access to contents and articles from more than 8 500 journal titles through its Contents First/Article First services. Uncover includes table of contents listings from some 17 000 journals including around 900 Australian journals. Approximately 51% of all journals are scientific, 40% social sciences, 9% humanities. It can be searched without password using the Library Information Service. Uncover Reveal lets you request a list of contents of up to 50 journal titles to be regularly e-mailed to you as they become available. You may store up to 25 search strategies to be searched against these titles. The cost of this service is $20 per year. In addition to these broad-based services there are more specialised ones such as Genethon biological journals, Springer journals preview service, and IEEE Abstracts, all available on the Internet. Please read the Document Supply article over the page for information on how to get copies of documents that you have identified by using these services. Judith Lloyd

New on the Internet

S.A. on the 'Net

Two new sites of local interest provide cultural and commercial information on South Australia. They are both on the Library Information Service (LIS) in the 'Other services' section of Services available through the Internet.
The South Australian Web-MacMedia is at URL http://www.macmedia.com.au/ - have a look at the display of Aboriginal art at Tandanya.
Camtech have produced Wombat on the Web public and commercial information for Australia, with special emphasis on South Australia. Have a look on the LIS or point to URL:
http://www.camtech.com.au/wombat/
An Australian New Zealand Studies Centre home page has been established by Pennsylvania State University. Have a look at this promising site on URL:
http://www.psu.edu./research/anzsc/

News services

There are several services which provide access to newspapers, news summary services and press releases. One of the most comprehensive listings is a service maintained in the Netherlands. The Daily news is at URL:
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gerben/news.html.
A much smaller and newer service, the Newspaper and Journals section of the National Information Services and Systems (NISS) in the United Kingdom, links to highlights from the Times Higher Education Supplement and Academe this Week, extracts from The Telegraph and Der Spiegel and full text of Time Daily and Time Magazine. It can be found at URL:
http://www.niss.ac.uk/news/index.html.
You might also like to look at the THES service which provides news, views and jobs in the higher education sector.
The URL for the THES is
http://www.timeshigher.newsint.co.uk/

Document Delivery

Articles found by using current awareness services, such as those described on page 3, may be available in the Library's collections. If not, you can make a request through the Library's Interlibrary Loan Service which uses traditional interlibrary loan methods as well as the newer electronic document delivery services.
Uncover users may order articles directly, paying by Mastercard or Visacard. Costs will vary with the publisher. Uncover complete is an extension of the service which allows articles to be ordered from any journal listed, whether or not the issue or item is indexed.
Detailed instructions on how to use these services is available from the Library Information Service and individual help is available from the Subject Librarians and Branch Library staff.
Judith Lloyd

10-week loans

Staff members are entitled to borrow on 10-week loan items that are available for the 'Normal loan' period of 2 weeks.
A condition of this extension to the normal loan period is that the item will be recalled if another user places a Hold on it, and the item has been on loan to you for two weeks or longer.
Patrick Condon

If you would like more information about any of the topics mentioned in this issue of News, please get in touch with the person named in the article, the University Librarian, Ray Choate, or Alan Keig at the Barr Smith Library.