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Tag Archives: Databases
Tech Sharecase, 10 May 2013
Primo vs. Summon vs. EBSCO Discovery Service
We watched a video from Ex Libris about Primo, a web-scale discovery tool that CUNY is working on a licensing for all of the CUNY libraries. We compared the interface with that of Summon (Bearcat Search) and with a trial we have from EBSCO of EBSCO Discovery Service.
Alma
We next looked at the nearly content-free video from Ex Libris about Alma, the company’s uniform resource management system (actual details of the system can be found on the Ex Libris site). Boston College is the first Alma customer to go live (details in this Digital Shift article from Library Journal).
PolicyMap
As a group, we thought it would interesting to poke around in the PolicyMap database we have a trial for (a link to it can be found on the “Trials” tab on the Databases page).
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Alma, Bearcat, Boston College, Database trials, Databases, Discovery tools, EBSCOhost, Ex Libris, Primo, Summon, Tech Sharecase
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A Better Approach to Database Tutorials
There is an interesting column by Meredith Farkas in American Libraries about the approach that the University of Arizona is taking with database tutorials, which they call “Guide on the Side.” Basically, you get a slick looking tutorial right next to the database interface. This approach has been tried in the past at other colleges using frames to put the tutorial and database next to each other, but the design constraints of the past meant wonky vertical and horizontal scroll bars across the page. The U of AZ solution looks better.
It’s my understanding that the University of Arizona be releasing the software this summer that will enable libraries to make their own local versions of these tutorials. I was thinking these might be useful for us if we are trying to create some online instructional content that we might otherwise try to do in the classroom. I realize that these tutorials only hit the traditional, tool-based kind of instruction (click here, type that there, etc.), but it’s worth thinking about whether these play help a supporting role in our online instructional efforts.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Databases, Information literacy, Instruction, Tutorials
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Essential Reading on Dealing with the Move to Digital
The Education Advisory Board recently released an insightful and provocative slide deck from a presentation that looked at the issues academic libraries are dealing with as they work through the process of moving deeper into digital collections: Redefining the Academic Library: Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Big Deal, Collection development, Collection management, Databases, Disintermediation, E-books, Journal prices
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Database Pages on Libary Websites
As work is underway on our library website, I’d like suggest that we seriously consider how we design our databases page. Mita Williams, a librarian at the Leddy Library at the University of Windsor, recently published a thoughtful post where she considered various options for laying out the A-Z list of resources. One thing that I found interesting in her post was the idea of mimicking the way search engine results pages show the same basic info: title of resource, text snippet, and URL. I’d also like to second the idea of giving each database a unique page on the library website (with a URL that is stable and can be shared).
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Databases, library web site design
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A Little Help, Please
Eric Frierson, a librarian at UT Arlington, mentioned in a blog post recently his library’s efforts to augment databases with sidebars offering assistance. The help provided on the side of this version of ERIC includes an embedded video from Frierson, who, as the education librarian, asks anyone who needs help to contact him or to contact a librarian using the embedded chat widget below the video. The sidebar also provides links to relevant videos:
- “Bad results?” This video teaches you basics of Boolean searching.
- “Where’s the PDF?” Shows you how to use the link resolver button (SFX).
- “I need peer-reviewed.” Demonstrates how to limit results for peer-reviewed articles.
- “How do I cite it?” Explains citation styles.
It’s not clear to me where on the library website you can find these “assisted databases” (as Frierson calls them) or how many augmented interfaces they’ve done for other databases. Still, it’s a very intriguing way to provide instruction at the point of need (on the same page as the search boxes).
Frierson, Eric. “Are We Marketing Well?” live wire librarian, 20 October 2009. Web.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Databases, ERIC, Information literacy, Information retrieval, Instruction, Search, Videos
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Tech Sharecase, 2 October 2009
Attendees
Jin Ma, Mike Waldman, Matt Haugan, Ellen Kaufman, Mike Waldman, Stephen Francoeur
EBSCOhost Integrated Search
Mike Waldman showed us this tool that CUNY is looking at and asked us to think about how it compared to Bearcat Search. EBSCOhost Integrated Search will search everything that CUNY Central pays for (as well as the unique EBSCOhost databases we’ve subscribed to). We can customize the display of search results so that the databases are grouped into first and second tiers. We took a look at how Brooklyn College has set up their instance of this tool. One difference that we noted was that Bearcat doesn’t have search field for “source” but the EBSCOhost Integrated Search does.
xFruits
We talked about how the free xFruits web services can be used to repurpose RSS feeds or to create new ones. For example, you can convert email into an RSS feed using this tool.
Google Wave
In light of this week’s release of beta invitations to Google Wave, we talked again about what this new tool might allow us to do.
Software for Collaboration and Communication
Ellen Kaufman talking about technology at her old job and how they used Microsoft Sharepoint, portals, and Confluence.
ticTOCs
This free service from JISC offers table of contents alerts as RSS feeds.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Bearcat Search, Confluence, Databases, EBSCOhost, Federated search, Google Inc., Google Wave, JISC, Microsoft SharePoint, RSS, Tech Sharecase, ticTOCs, xFruits
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Tech Sharecase, 9 July 2009
Attendees
Arthur Downing, Linda Rath, Stephen Francoeur, Rita Ormsby, Frank Donnelly, Louise Klusek
New Accounting Standards Codification
Rita Ormsby showed the various ways to access the new Accounting Standards Codification:
- Free basic version on the FASB web site (click the link for “order” in the right where it says “New Users”)
- Academic user version on the FASB web site (accounting students and faculty at Baruch should have the login info and will click “Academic Accounting Access”)
- CCH Accounting Research Manager (via our Databases page)
- RIA Checkpoint (via our Databases page)
Google OS
Discussed the news about Google’s plan to release its own operating system next year. Louise Klusek noted this article from today’s Wall Street Journal that discussed Google’s strategy to compete with Microsoft.
Bing
We compared searches in Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, to those in Google and found some ways that it offered improved results for certain kinds of searches.
Compare “starbucks” in Bing to “starbucks” in Google, for example. Note that Bing automatically clusters results into topics in ways that may be useful (Google just offers a vanilla list of results).
FriendFeed
I discussed how I use FriendFeed to publish from all my web services that I use (Facebook, Twitter, blogs where I am an author, Flickr, YouTube, etc.) in one location that others can subscribe to and add comments. I highlighted the way that I use it for social recommendation of recent articles and blog posts and for submitting requests for help or advice to the librarians and others who subscribe to me in FriendFeed.
Harvard Business Review Curtailing Deep Linking to Articles in Business Source Premier
A number of blogs have commented lately on the Harvard Business School Press’ terms of service that forbid free linking to Harvard Business Review articles in Business Source Premier. It was suggested that maybe the journal may be thinking of moving its content exclusively to its own platform much as Institutional Investor did. We also discussed the way that most database vendors are trying to protect their brands by controlling the way that screenshots of their products are published (as in the case of a tutorial created by a library).
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Accounting, Bing, Business Source Premier, Databases, FASB, FriendFeed, Google, Google OS, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Press, Microsoft Corporation, Screenshots, Search engines, Social information processing, Tech Sharecase, Tutorials, Wall Street Journal, Web services
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Reviewing Serials and Databases in Tough Budget Times
Annette Day and Hilary Davis have published a great post about what an academic library needs to do when it is trying to make cuts in its serials and database subcriptions:
The experience of a serials and databases review-reviewing all continuing expense obligations-can be a painful, traumatic process for any library. But it can also give a library some tremendous insights into its collection, its level of credibility within its parent organization, and just how well-positioned it is to fully support the needs of its constituents. A review can unveil some interesting issues in the business of librarianship, publishing, and scholarly communication – from the tools and skills necessary to make value judgments about a library collection to the potentially fatal future of some segments of the publishing industry. In this article, we outline the steps of a serials and databases review from the perspective of an academic library and unpack some of the big issues and questions that face our profession as surfaced through the experience of a conducting a review.
Read the full post here at the group blog, In the Library with the Lead Pipe.
Day, Annette and Hilary Davis. “A Look at Librarianship through the Lens of an Academic Library Serials Review.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, 8 July 2009. Web. 8 July 2009.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Annette Davis, Budgets, Collection analysis, Collection management, Databases, Hilary Davis, Journals, Serials
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