Radio Broadcast on Copyright and the Internet

Not exactly compulsory listening for the holiday season, but there was a very interesting discussion on Chris Laidlaw's Sunday programme on National Radio on the challenges to copyright law posed by the Internet. Among those speaking is Dr Steven Harnad who is a keen proponent of the idea of the Creative Commons and the need for universities to take control of the intellectual property they produce. You can listen to it here.

New Zealand Newspapers and Magazines

We have become used to the free availability of current issues of newspapers online through such sites as Stuff but you will usually be charged a fee to read older articles from their archives. I was asked yesterday about free access to newspaper articles and was happy to report that it is available though the Newztext Database. The titles covered are

• Waikato Times (1/5/96 to date)
• Sunday Star Times (8/12/95 to date)
• Sunday News (8/12/95 to date)
• The Dominion (1/1/95 to 6/7/02)
• The Dominion Post (8/7/02 to date)
• The Evening Post (1/1/95 to 6/7/02)
• The Press (7/6/96 to date)
• The Timaru Herald (1/7/96 to date)
• Evening Standard (15/6/96 to date)
• The Daily News (12/8/96 to date)
• Truth (8/12/95 to date)
• The Southland Times (1/3/97 to date)
• Taupo Times
• Nelson Mail (1/7/97 to date)
• Whangarei Leader
• Stuff
• NZ Herald (ca.1998 - date)
• NZ Herald Classifieds (5 June 2002 - date)
• Radio New Zealand Newswire (1999 - date)

Newztext is not an archive in the sense that you cannot look at complete issues of newspapers but it is a searchable fulltext database. This means that you can find all articles containing the words sustainable, horticulture and Massey. A huge amount of material relevant to university research, particularly in the applied sciences, appears on fish and chip wrappers and to be able to track it all down can be really useful.

A companion product Newztext Magazines covers such major business titles as the NBR and the Independent as well as NZ Dairy Exporter and a number of other specialist trade titles.

Both databases can be found through the Article Databases link on the Library home page.

Waltham Veterinary Videos

We have recently received three videos from Waltham Veterinary which are suitable for both teaching and independent viewing by students -

Basic canine dentistry

Waltham Forum video. Vol. 10, no. 2

Topics include Bone plate stabilization of the ilium - Rectal polyp removal - Urethral obstruction and cystotomy - Parenteral nutrition

Waltham Forum video. Vol. 11, no. 2

Topics include Nasal planum resection - Fine-needle aspirate - Lymph node cytology - Supplemental feeding for kittens and puppies

2005 - the Year in Retrospect

Seasons greetings to you!

This blog Science News from Massey Library has been in operation since October 2004. It was developed as a useful way of archiving the email messages sent to academic staff - we are aware that the majority of emails are deleted sight unseen and that people will generally want them only months after they have been trashed! We only recently discovered that we may have the distinction of being New Zealand's first library bloggers - and it doesn't come much bigger than that, folks! (We may also be the only blog anywhere to feature the Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences).

Here are some of the highlights of 2005 (we've left out the nagging and there wasn't any bad news) -

Eight new Nature journals added to the Library's collection (December)

BioOne journal collection (November)

Elsevier ScienceDirect backfiles (November)

Extended coverage for Web of Science (November)

Encyclopedia of Information Systems (November)

SciFinder Scholar 2006 available (November)

Are Journal Citation Reports Distorting Science? (October)

Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences (October)

Bailey's Industrial Oils (September)

Massey's most cited science journals (August)

New Zealand Science Database (August)

Nine new encyclopedias from Elsevier (March)

JAMA Online (February)

Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food and Biological Engineering (January)

Library teaching and research consultations 2006

The beginning of semester is a very good time for grounding your students in the use of the library and information resources. If the Library has taught your students in the past please remember that you will need to reconfirm this soon. If you haven't made use of this service, we are able to take new bookings but will need time to prepare a session that will suit the specific needs of your paper. It is always a good idea to get in early to make sure that our Training Room is available at the time you want it. We are of course happy to come out to speak to students within lectures as well.

Please contact

Noelene White (Palmerston North undergraduate)
Bruce White (Palmerston North postgraduate)
Rae Gendall (Albany)
Kirsty McNeill (Wellington)

Postgraduate students can benefit from a one-on-one research consultation. We will outline the main information resources available to them and teach them the use of databases and electronic sources in detail. A research consultation can provide the basis for ongoing contact between a student and the Library over the course of their degree. A research consultation is especially useful at the beginning of their thesis or research project, before they have wasted a lot of time or fallen into bad habits! Contact Bruce, Rae or Kirsty.

Seminar - Knowledge Management in Research

Please note that another presentation of this popular Training and Development Unit seminar will be held next Friday - it is a useful and topical introduction to the world of electronic information and to some of the productivity tools that are now available to busy researchers.


KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN RESEARCH 1

Date: Friday, 9 December 2005
Time: 08:45-12:30/13:00
Venue: Library Training Room: Library: Turitea Campus Massey University: Palmerston North
PRESENTERS: Mr Bruce White and Ms Heather Lamond

09:00 Introduction: The changing world of information

09:30 The Internet: Hands on

10:00 Finding electronic resources from the Library Web Page

10:30 TEA

10:45 Database Searching: Hands on

11:20 Bibliographic Management Software: Brief introduction to Endnote: Hands on

11:45 Keeping up with your subject

12:00 Finding the best journals: Hands on

12:10 Getting yourself cited

12:20 Life Long Learning

12:25 Review and Evaluation

12:30 Close/Optional hands-on until 13:00

Enrolments to: Sarah Cresswell

Encyclopedia Of Polymer Science and Technology

Another useful specialised encyclopedia from our electronic collection, the Encyclopedia Of Polymer Science and Technology presents the state of the art in all areas of polymer science, covering nanotechnology, new imaging and analytical techniques, new methods of controlled polymer architecture, biomimetics, and more. Following the Encyclopedia's launch in October 2001, content has been added regularly, and the database now comprises about 300 articles covering all aspects of the field of polymer science.

The Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology is an invaluable resource for researchers in both library and professional settings, providing information about polymers, plastics, fibers, biomaterials, elastomers, and polymerization processes.

NEW NATURE JOURNALS FOR MASSEY LIBRARY!!!

Massey Library is delighted to announce that the following Nature journals have beed added to our holdings -

Nature immunology
Nature medicine
Nature neuroscience
Nature reviews. Genetics
Nature reviews. Immunology
Nature reviews. Microbiology
Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology
Nature reviews. Neuroscience

FoodNETBase Trial Finishes Friday 2 December

Just a reminder that the trial of FoodNETBase, the collection of CRC Press electronic books on food science and technology, finishes this Friday. I have had some positive comments but more support would be very welcome - or if you don't think this is a good direction for us to be heading in then we need to hear that as well. Use FoodNETBase this week and comment to Bruce White by 9 December please.

For more detail see the earlier posting on FoodNETBase.

Extended coverage on Web of Science

The Library has recently purchased additional backfiles on the Web of Science database, providing access back to 1945. The updated coverage is:

• Science Citation Index Expanded 1945 - present
• Social Sciences citation Index 1956 - present

This has increased our coverage on the Science Citation Index by including the years 1945-1969.

Elsevier ScienceDirect Backfiles Now Available

The Library has recently purchased backfiles of Elsevier journals in the areas of Engineering and Technology and Environmental Sciences. Usually our electronic coverage of journals from the ScienceDirect collections dates from 1994 but these collections will extend that to Volume 1 Issue 1 for most titles. It will take some time for the library catalogue to reflect the new coverage but in the meantime the titles can be accessed through these links -

Engineering and Technology

Environmental Sciences

Please note that there are a small number titles on these lists to which extended coverage does not apply.

Seminar - Publishing for PBRF

Knowledge Management in Research 2 :Publishing for PBRF (Palmerston North only)
Date: Friday, 2 December 2005
Time: 08:45-12:00
Venue: Library Training Room

Modern research assessment exercises like PBRF emphasise the measurement of outputs, the most important of which are publications. An ability to interpret publication data and to make strategic decisions in the placement of published work is essential for the researcher seeking to enhance the reputation and standing of their work. Similarly it is important to be able to trace citations to published work, wherever these may appear.

This session aims to fulfil the following objectives: You will have:

• An understanding of the role of citation counts in research assessment and of their limitations;
• An understanding of the variations in bibliometric data between disciplines;
• An ability to make informed decisions on the choice of journals in which to publish;
• An enhanced ability to measure and interpret individual research outputs;
• Techniques to make individual research outputs more visible;
• An enhanced ability to track down citations of published work; and
• Opportunities for hands-on practice of techniques.

Issues that will be covered in this seminar are:

• the use of Web of Science and other sources to measure citation rankings of individual journals and within disciplines
• the use of Web of Science and other sources to measure citations of individual articles and books
• the use of "clustering techniques" in bibliographic databases to determine appropriate journals in which to publish specific research
• identifying key authors and their characteristics
• difficult cases and the limitations of the bibliometric approach
• the use of novel information sources like Google Scholar to locate citations
• the strategic use of keywords to attract readers to articles

Enrolments to: Sarah Cresswell

SciFinder Scholar 2006 is now available!

Users of SciFinder Scholar, the premier chemistry database, can now download the latest version of the software from the Library website using this link.

Read the instructions carefully. The software is available for both Mac and Windows. When you have completed installing the software you also need to download the password file (Site Preferences) from the same page and install it to the main Scifinder Scholar folder. New features of SciFinder Scholar 2006 are

·Structure Similarity Searching (SSM only)

·New structure and reaction query tools

·Query highlighting in reaction searching

·Easy access to additional reaction information

·Enhanced multi-step reaction display

·New quick look-up of research references

·Duplicate detection/removal

Please contact Electronic Services Librarian Tracey Randall if you need help.

BioOne journal collection now available

Back in August we promised that the BioOne collection would be available from the beginning of 2006, but the vendors have made it available ahead of time. It now consists of 77 titles which can be accessed through a journal search on the Library catalogue. You can also search the whole collection.

Click below for catalogue links to individual titles -

Ambio

American biology teacher

American fern journal

American midland naturalist

American museum novitates

American zoologist

Annals of the Entomological Society of America

Applied vegetation science

Arabidopsis book

Arctic, Antarctic, and alpine research

Auk

Avian diseases

Biology of reproduction

Bios

BioScience

Biotropica

Botanical review

Brittonia

Bryologist

Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History

Castanea

Cell stress & chaperones

Coleopterists bulletin

Comparative parasitology

Condor

Copeia

Economic botany

Environmental entomology

Evolution

Florida entomologist

Herpetologica

Herpetological monographs

In Vitro cellular and developmental biology - Animal

In Vitro cellular and developmental biology - Plant

Integrative and comparative biology

Journal of arachnology

Journal of avian medicine and surgery

Journal of coastal conservation

Journal of coastal research

Journal of crustacean biology

Journal of economic entomology

Journal of eukaryotic microbiology

Journal of field ornithology

Journal of herpetology

Journal of insect science

Journal of mammalogy

Journal of medical entomology

Journal of orthoptera research

Journal of paleontology

Journal of parasitology

Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society

Journal of the New York Entomological Society

Journal of the North American Benthological Society

Journal of vegetation science

Journal of vertebrate paleontology

Journal of zoo and wildlife medicine

Mammalian species

Micropalaeontology

Mountain research and development

Northeastern naturalist

Northwestern naturalist

Palaios

Paleobiology

Palynology

Photochemistry and photobiology

Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

Radiation research

Society of Wetland Scientists bulletin

Southeastern naturalist

Southwestern naturalist

Systematic botany

Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science

Ursus

Waterbirds

Weed science

Weed technology

Wetlands

Wilson bulletin

New - Encyclopedia of Information Systems

You now have access to the "Encyclopedia of Information Systems" online, via the Massey University Library.

This reference work is available electronically to all Massey University staff and students, and is a comprehensive work containing lengthy articles from experts in each field. Each entry includes a full bibliography.

The Encyclopedia is divided into 10 main subject categories:

• Applications
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data communications, the Internet and Electronic Commerce
• Database design and utilization
• Hardware and software
• Management support systems
• Office automation and End User Computing
• Social, legal, organizational and international issues
• Systems analysis and design
• Theories, methodologies and foundations

You can search the Encyclopedia, or you can browse by Title, Subject or Author.

Either access it via the Library Catalogue, or through the Computer Science and Information Systems subject guide

Although intended for information systems specialists the Encyclopedia is a useful reference source for anyone wanting background on an IT topic. Individual sections can also be linked to from WebCT.

Trial of FOODnetBASE Electronic Library

The Library is currently trialling FOODnetBASE, a collection of electronic books and reference sources of food science, food technology and nutrition information. FoodNetBase covers a wide range of food industry topics from safety, regulations, and quality assurance to packaging, biotechnology and product development and includes publications from CRC Press, Marcel Dekker and Woodhead. Many of the titles are already held in the Massey Library in print and they tend to be regularly borrowed, so FOODnetBASE offers the promise of bringing some really useful books to the desktop. There are currently over 140 titles offered and they seem to be adding more quite regularly.

Access FOODnetBASE

The search box is in the top left hand corner. You need to use a Boolean "AND" if you are searching on more than one term - e.g. campylobacter AND gastroenteritis. Two or more words entered as a string without an intervening AND are searched for as a phrase - e.g. "hazard identification". Navigation to your search results is reasonably intuitive and the individual chapters load as PDF files which can be saved. Please get in touch with me if you are struggling with any of its features.

This trial is due to end on 2 December. We are really interested in your comments on both the content and usability of this product and on its suitability for research and use by students. In particular let us know whether access to the information in this form would be an acceptable substitute to the printed books. Please email your thoughts to Bruce White.

Safari Tech Books Online

The electronic book hasn't quite caught up with the ubiquitous e-journal in terms of popularity or availability and it will be some time before we are reading them in bed or on the bus. However there are plenty of occasions when you need a book right now, when googling is just too random or you want something a bit more structured than what is generally found on a website. Safari Books Online is a collection of 'real books' on computing and related subjects that are just the sort of thing you might want to consult urgently or to browse at your leisure. Topics covered are

Desktop Applications (Including Word, Excel and PowerPoint)

Desktop Publishing

Computer Graphics

Networking

Programming

The full Safari package for Massey consists of 143 titles. It can be accessed from the Databases list on the Library web page or by clicking here.

Massey University Library is purchasing an increasing number of e-books to supplement our print collections. Electronic books are searchable via the Library catalogue - do a keyword search, limiting to Electronic Resources Collection.

Are Journal Citation Reports Distorting Science?

Have you heard about the journal that was responsible for 85% of the citations of its own articles? Or about the practice of encouraging authors to "look at some recent issues of the Journal of ... and add citations to any relevant papers you might find. This helps our authors by drawing attention to their work, and also adds internal integrity to the Journal's themes." As the demand for academics worldwide to not only publish but to place their work in the most prestigious journals the use of ISI's Journal Citation Reports impact factors has become the most widely recognised measure of the standing of scientific journals. In a balanced and thoughtful article in the most recent Chronicle of Higher Education Richard Monastersky looks at the internal forces within academia that have lead to this situation and describes some of the ways in which editors and publishers try to massage their impact factors. He concludes that "scientists have little choice but to accept the system — although competitors are emerging that could alter the situation."

Read the full article here

If you want to understand what JCR impact factors are, how they are used and also what alternatives there are, sign up to this training session run by the Library though the Massey Training and Development Unit

Knowledge Management in Research 2: Publishing for PBRF

Finding the New York Academy of Sciences

A colleague told me this morning that her son, who is a Massey science student, had been given the cruel and unusual punishment of having to find and read a chapter from one of the volumes of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. This series is made up of edited monographs (okay, books!) each of which is separately catalogued by the library. This can make it tricky to track down a reference. Lets say we are looking for the following -

FITCH, W. M. (1974) Comparison between evolutionary substitutions and variants in human hemoglobins. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, 241, 439-448.

This is a chapter in the book "Hemoglobins : comparative molecular biology models for the study of disease" edited by Hyram Kitchen and Samuel Boyer but of course the chapter author (Fitch) and title (Comparison between evolutionary...) do not appear in the catalogue which lists the book and editors only. Fortunately each volume from the series does have an entry of the form "Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences ; v. 241" and you can search for them directly as a title search if you enter them directly in this precise format.

An easier method is to do a keyword search which includes the volume number - annals new york academy sciences 241. This will take you directly to the catalogue record for that volume. All the students need to do then is to familiarise themselves with the unusual print on paper format!

Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences - New electronic resource

An objective view from the publisher -

"Prepared by an international team of experts, this reference work covers all important aspects of meat science from stable to table, including animal breeding, physiology and slaughter, meat preparation, packaging, welfare, and food safety, to name a few. This Encyclopedia further covers important topics such as food microbiology, meat in human nutrition, biotechnological advances in breeding and many more. The Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences will be an invaluable resource to practitioners of meat science and students alike."

One of the editors of the encyclopedia is Carrick Devine, of the Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand in Hamilton.

Access Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences

It will be added to the Technology Subject Guide on the Library's website or can be found by a Title search on the Library catalogue

Rae Gendall Transferring to Albany Library

Rae Gendall Transferring to Albany

Rae Gendall who has been a Liaison Librarian for the College of Sciences at Palmerston North since 2002 is moving to the same position on the Albany campus.  Rae has made a significant contribution to the development of library collections and services both at Turitea and nationally and is a major contributor to the Library/TDU Knowledge Management in Research Programme.  Her final day at Turitea will be Tuesday 20 September and she will begin at Albany on Monday 26 September.  All requests for assistance or other communications on the Turitea site should now be made to Bruce White.  

Baileys Industrial Oil and Fat Products Now Online

Since publication of the first edition in 1945, Bailey’s Industrial Oil and Fat Products has remained the standard reference on the chemistry and processing technology of edible oils and fats as well as industrial and nonedible derivative products. The Sixth Edition features seventy-five articles that synthesize and present the latest information available on products, processing and equipment, technology and by-products.

The theory and practice of handling, formulating and isolating oils and fats, as well as analytical methods and uses, are all covered. Plus, the information and background needed for the development of new products and applications are also provided. Moreover, all the latest topics are presented, including new articles on fungal and algal oils, conjugated linoleic acid, cocoa butter, phytosterols, and plant biotechnology used in oil production.

View Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products

Bailey’s can be accessed through the Technology Subject Guide (Recommended Reference Resources) from the Library’s web page.

Library Serials Review and BioOne Life Sciences Collection

The Library has undertaken a relatively small review of its journal holdings in 2005. After consultation with relevant groups ten titles were cancelled and two new single subscriptions initiated, taking effect from the beginning of 2006. Of considerable greater significance, however, is the addition of the BioOne electronic collection to the Library's holdings. BioOne consists mainly of learned society journals in the pure and applied life sciences; these are titles that have fallen outside the large publishers' packages. Out of a total of 82 titles 52 will be totally new to Massey while many of the others have been available in print only, including Auk, Journal of Parasitology and Annals of the Entomological Society of America. The BioOne package will be available from the beginning of 2006.

New single titles

Journal of ethology (Albany print)
Nature reviews molecular cell biology (Online)

Cancellations

Acta virologica
Advances in applied microbiology
Belgian journal of botany
Biochemistry & cell biology
Canadian journal of microbiology
Hybridoma & hybridomics
Market outlook : Pigs
Novon – including Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Silvae genetica
Vitamins & hormones

BioOne Electronic Collection

New Titles

Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment
American Biology Teacher
American Fern Journal
American Midland Naturalist
American Museum Novitates
American Zoologist (continued by Integrative and Comparative Biology)
Applied Vegetation Science
Bios
BioScience
Brittonia
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
Castanea
Cell Stress & Chaperones
Coleopterists Bulletin
Economic Botany
Florida Entomologist (Open Access)
Folia Geobotanica (forthcoming)
Herpetologica
Herpetological Monographs
In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology - Animal
In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology - Plant
Integrative and Comparative Biology (continues American Zoologist)
Journal of Arachnology
Journal of Coastal Conservation
Journal of Crustacean Biology
Journal of Field Ornithology
Journal of Herpetology
Journal of Insect Science (Open Access)
Journal of Medical Entomology
Journal of Orthoptera Research
Journal of Paleontology
Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science
Journal of the New York Entomological Society
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
Mammalian Species
Micropaleontology
Mountain Research and Development
Northeastern Naturalist
Northwestern Naturalist
Palaios
Photochemistry and Photobiology
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
Radiation Research
Rangeland Ecology and Management (forthcoming)
Rangelands
Society of Wetland Scientists Bulletin
Southeastern Naturalist
Southwestern Naturalist
Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science
Ursus
Waterbirds
Wetlands

Titles on BioOne Already Subscribed To

Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
Auk
Avian Diseases
Biology of Reproduction
Botanical Review
Bryologist
Comparative Parasitology
Condor
Copeia
Environmental Entomology
Evolution
Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery
Journal of Coastal Research
Journal of Economic Entomology
Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology
Journal of Mammalogy
Journal of Parasitology
Journal of the North American Benthological Society
Journal of Vegetation Science
Journal of Wildlife Management
Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine
Paleobiology
Palynology
Weed Science
Weed Technology
Wildlife Society Bulletin
Wilson Bulletin

Massey's Most Cited Science Journals

I recently compiled a list of the journals most heavily cited by Massey-authored articles appearing in Science Citation Index (i.e. the science part of Web of Science) in 2004. Here are the top 20 with the number of times each was cited by Massey researchers -

Nature	137
Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA	117
Science	111
Journal of Biological Chemistry	100
Journal of Dairy Science	96
Journal of Applied Physiology	90
New Zealand Veterinary Journal	86
Journal of Animal Science	82
Applied and Environmental Microbiology	81
Veterinary Record	79
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association	77
Physical review B	71
Journal of Environmental Quality	67
Equine Veterinary Journal	61
British Journal of Nutrition	60
Poultry Science	59
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry	56
Research in Veterinary Science	56
Journal of the American Chemical Society	54
Journal of Dairy Research	52

Biological Abstracts, FSTA, Medline - New Features for OVID Databases

OVID have launched a new-look interface for their popular suite of databases which includes Biological Abstracts, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, Medline, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and others. As well as including a so-called "Simple Search" option (which looks very much like the Advanced Search with the addition of a box for author name) they have introduced a number of new features -

• Find Similar
• Find Citing Articles
• Find Citation

The Find Similar feature is superficially similar to the Related Records search in Web of Science (WoS). You find a record of high relevance and use it to link to other relevant titles that may not have been turned up by your keyword search, but where WoS uses shared cited references to establish relevance OVID takes subject relevant terms from the title of the originating article and finds other records that contain them. As with WoS the results of Find Similar in OVID can be somewhat random at times, but it certainly worth trying when your initial search has not produced many hits.

The Find Citing Articles feature allows you to locate articles that have cited one of those returned from your keyword search. You need to be aware, however, that the OVID databases do not contain cited reference information. Instead Find Citing Articles uses information from the Journals@OVID database which contains full-text information on some 2,200 journals largely from the medical and life sciences (Massey subscribes to only a few of these through the OVID platform). This means that the Find Citing Articles link will find other articles from these 2,200 journals only.

The Find Citation feature is not the same as Cited Reference searching in Web of Science. Instead it is a way of narrowing your search to locate a specific article by entering details of the journal name, the author and title, the date of the article and the volume number. It is usually easy enough to narrow your search to a specific article by searching for a distinctive phrase from the title but this feature could be useful for finding articles from very truncated references.

There are a number of unique OVID features that have not changed. The $ symbol is still used as the truncation symbol. The Map Term to Subject Heading is still switched on by default in Advanced Search and often produces unimpressive results - you might want to "untick" it or use the Simple Search instead. OVID persist with describing the EndNote/ProCite download format as Reprint/Medlars to the confusion of yet another generation of students. And the link to full-text articles through the Library catalogue is still messy. That said OVID is still a very good platform and the ease with which sets can be created and combined - in both Simple and Advanced Search - is as good as any similar product.

NZ Science Database

Much New Zealand scientific literature is available through the standard international databases like Web of Science, Medline and Biological Abstracts which cover not only research by New Zealanders and on New Zealand topics published in international journals but which index the major New Zealand journals as well. However not all useful research is published in journals - much of it appears in reports, theses, environmental impact statements and the like. This is often known as the "grey literature".

NZ SCIENCE (formerly also known as "SIRIS" and "STIX") is a comprehensive index of New Zealand Science, provided by The Crown Research Institutes, and The Royal Society of New Zealand. Because it is created from submissions from these institutions rather than
from indexing a set range of printed publications NZ Science has an impressively wide range of sources.

NZ Science is part of the Superindex collection and is indexed with a number of newspaper indexes.

This can be interesting but if you are searching for a term that is likely to appear frequently in the press - "kiwifruit" or "earthquake" for example - you should probably switch these sources off.

It is a good idea to extend the date range at the same time - you will notice that NZ Science contains records back to the 1840s!

Use of SciFinder Scholar Database

The American Chemical Society, suppliers of the SciFinder Scholar Database, have asked us to remind you that the terms under which we purchase it allow use for academic research only. This means that if you are working part-time for another company or research institute then you are not permitted to use SciFinder Scholar for this work as it is non-academic research.

There is no reason to believe that these terms are being breached at Massey.

IEEE Xplore upgrade

IEEE recently upgraded their Xplore database. IEEE Xplore release 2.0 has a new interface which aims to look more up-to-date and requires less clicks to access results than the previous one.

There are some significant improvements:

• You can now select several records to view or download.
• When you export records to EndNote it identifies the reference type correctly (it can tell the difference between journal articles and conference proceedings).
• PDF's are searchable
• You can view and edit your search history

However, there is one notable problem.

IEEE reverses the journal and conference titles on the Xplore database, e.g.
"Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on"
"Paper presented at the Fuzzy Systems, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE International Conference on".
This means that the records you download into EndNote or other reference software will be reversed and you will need to edit them within your EndNote records.

Updated Browser Recommendations

For best performance and to ensure accuracy, IEEE recommends you use one of the following supported platforms and browsers:

Windows - Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher; Netscape 7.x or higher; Opera 7.23; Mozilla Firefox 1.0
Mac - Internet Explorer 5.2.3 ; Netscape 7.1
Unix - Netscape 7.x or higher

In addition, cookies, JavaScript and CSS styles must be enabled within the browser.
For best dial-up performance, a 56.6 or higher modem is recommended For viewing PDF files, Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.X or higher is recommended.

IEEE's own release notes:

Search Enhancements

• IEEE Members and institutional subscribers Basic Search of all fields from the home page
• 100% full text searchable PDFs
• Search the latest content update
• View the citation or citation & abstract in search results
• Select items to print, email, or download citations
• Session history view and edit your search history

Browse Improvements

• Filter the Journal & Magazine or Conference Proceedings list by publisher
• The default view for each list has increased to 25
• Conference Proceedings are grouped to show title history
• Standards list now includes the standard number in addition to title

Abstract and AbstractPlus Enhancements

• Abstract records include: document’s citation, DOI (if available), posted online date, abstract, link to full text, and buy document option
• AbstractPlus records include: document’s citation, DOI (if available), posted online date, abstract, index terms, references (if available), citing documents (if available), and link to full text

Direct Export to EndNote from Biological Abstracts

If you find that a pesky SO - is appearing before journal titles when you export records from the Biological Abstracts database to EndNote the following "simple" operation will fix the problem:

1. Click on Edit/Import Filters
2. Click on Open Filter Manager
3. Scroll to Biological Abstracts (OVID) and double-clickto open the Filter editor
   
4. From the list on the left hand side of the screen click on the bottom option, Source Parsing
5. Click on the Use Smart Parsing option
6. Click on File/Save and close the Filter editor

Your direct export should now work probably. If it doesn't, or if you can't follow these instructions, please contact us.

Seminar on scientific publishing

Dr Peter Jolly has kindly agreed to offer a repeat of his seminar on scientific publishing originally delivered on 8 April as part of the IVABS Seminar Series. It will be held in the Library Training Room next Friday 6 May at 3.30 pm and this session will be aimed primarily at librarians, but anyone who missed out on attending first time round is very welcome to attend. It would be of particular interest to those involved with the editing or publishing of journals or conference proceedings.

Microbiology Abstracts Online

At the beginning of 2004 the Library converted its print subscriptions to Microbiology Abstracts to online access only. The three parts are -

• Industrial and Applied Microbiology Abstracts (Microbiology A)
• Bacteriology Abstracts (Microbiology B)
• Algology, Mycology and Protozoology Abstracts (Microbiology C)

It is possible to search these parts separately or as a single block - the latter strategy is preferable in most circumstances. Due to the nature of the subscription electronic coverage beginds from the start of 2004 and does not overlap with the printed abstracts.

There is a substantial overlap between the coverage of Microbiology Abstracts and that of Biological Abstracts and Web of Science, but for absolutely comprehensive coverage of a topic a search of all three databases is still recommended. Microbiology Abstracts' point of difference is its substantial coverage of conference proceedings. The Cambridge Scientific Abstracts interface is used - the Boolean logic is quite standard and the * symbol is used for truncation. Records can be exported to EndNote.

Encyclopedias from Elsevier ScienceDirect

The Library has recently acquired a number of new electronic encyclopedias and reference works from the ScienceDirect collection. The full offering available to the Massey science community is –

• Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry II
• Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry
• Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences
• Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology
• Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition
• Encyclopedia of Genetics
• Encyclopedia of the Human Brain
• Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition
• Encyclopedia of the Neurological Sciences

Reference works of this sort are a useful means of getting a fast start on a new area of research. They are also a valuable resource for students who otherwise tend to go straight to databases and begin reading journal articles. Links can be made directly from WebCT to articles from these and other electronic reference works - please contact us if you wish to do this.

EndNote 7 and 8

The following recommendations are intended to guide EndNote users in the Massey environment:

• Unless EndNote 8 is specifically requested, EndNote 7 should be the version sold to new purchasers, particularly to students.
• EndNote 8.02 should be the preferred version for anyone wishing to include Unicode characters, such as the macron in Maori words or non-Roman scripts, in their records.
• Otherwise, anyone who has purchased EndNote 8 and has not begun to store records should seriously consider changing to EndNote 7.
• Anyone who has begun using EndNote 8 should upgrade to EndNote 8.02, even if there are no immediately apparent problems.

EndNote users and technical support staff should note that while EndNote is distributed by ITS, functional support of the software and training are provided by the Library.

When EndNote 8 was released in mid 2004 it soon became apparent that it contained major flaws and that it had gone on sale without thorough beta testing. Not only was the software unstable and prone to crashing and inexplicable error messages, it was faulty in some quite important areas of functionality as well. Some of these problems would not have been apparent to a user until they tried to make use of a particular feature.

Because of these faults, which were the cause of considerable alarmed discussion among EndNote users worldwide, the Library contacted ITS and asked that they continue to sell EndNote 7 to purchasers rather than EndNote 8. This was contrary to the standard ITS policy of selling the latest version of the software they offer but it was agreed that this was a somewhat unusual case and that they would continue to offer EndNote 7 unless the later version was specifically requested. By this time, however, a considerable number of copies of version 8 had been installed around the university. EndNote 7 continues to be the Massey “official version” and is installed in the Student Computing Labs and the Library Information Commons. It is worth noting that many universities still support EndNote 6 as their preferred version.

Because EndNote 8 supports Unicode it is not backwardly compatible with earlier versions. This means that while it will open database files (known as libraries) from earlier versions, any library created in version 8 cannot be accessed by EndNote 7 or earlier versions. This is an important consideration for anyone who might want to work in the Student Computing Lab or Library Information Commons environments or share libraries with colleagues. Essentially the decision to use EndNote 8 to store information is an irreversible one. The advantage of Unicode is that it allows for a much enlarged character set, including macrons and non-Roman scripts.

Fortunately a new release of the software, EndNote 8.02, appears to have corrected most of the problems and can be considered a workable piece of software, with some improvements over the earlier version. However, these are generally so minor that unless the use of alternative character sets, such as Chinese characters or Maori vowels with macrons, is required there is no particular benefit to be gained from it.

Journal Citation Reports and More

In December we offered a number of introductory sessions on Journal Citation Reports which were well attended and led to some lively discussion on the various methods of measuring "publication impacts". At the time we agreed to offer a further session for those who had been unable to attend and in light of the discussion we have broadened it to cover the following topics:

•Assessment of journal standing – Journal Citation Reports
•Where is material on my research area published?
•Which databases index this journal?
•Where do the top researchers in my field publish?
•Has my article or book been cited?
•Has my book been reviewed?

The session will be held in the Library Training Room at 11 am next Friday 18 February.

EndNote Classes Semester One

The Library will presenting two-hour classes on the use of EndNote on the following dates

Thursday 24 Feb., 9.00am ( EndP2402)

Wednesday 2 Mar., 12.00am (EndP0203)

Wednesday 16 Mar., 12.00am (EndP1603)

Booking is handled through ITS - http://its-intra.massey.ac.nz/training/Course_Registration_Turitea.shtml

Use the course codes shown above. There is no charge for EndNote training through the Library.

These classes cover basic aspects of EndNote use including downloading from databases and Cite-While-You-Write. If the times don't suit but you would like an EndNote class for a group of four or more staff or students get in touch with Bruce White or Rae Gendall on extension 7814 and we will arrange a session.

JAMA Online

JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) is now available online through the Library catalogue.

JAMA

All electronic titles can be accessed through a Journal Search on the Library Catalogue.

Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering

The Library has just acquired the following Dekker publication:

Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering

The print copy has not yet arrived but you will probably prefer to use the electronic version which will be added to the Technology and Engineering and Agriculture Reference Resources on our website in due course. In the meantime link to it through the Library catalogue.

Have a look at the encyclopedia if you are teaching undergraduates in any aspect of food, environmental or agricultural engineering as it is quite accessible with plenty of practical examples. Its coverage of genetic biotechnology is not strong - Kirk-Othmer would be a better source in this case.

Library teaching and research consultations

The beginning of semester, which is approaching (too) quickly, is a very good time for grounding your students in the use of the library and information resources. If the Library has taught your students in the past please remember that you will need to reconfirm this soon. If you haven't made use of this service, we are able to take new bookings but will need time to prepare a session that will suit the specific needs of your paper. There will be some additional teaching space this year within the Library but it is always a good idea to get in early to make sure that our Training Room is available at the time you want it. We are of course happy to come out to speak to students within lectures as well. Please phone Bruce or Rae on 7814 or email us.

Your postgraduate students can benefit from a one-on-one research consultation with either Rae or Bruce. We will outline the main information resources available to them and teach them the use of databases and electronic sources in detail. A research consultation can provide the basis for ongoing contact between a student and the Library over the course of their degree. A research consultation is especially useful at the beginning of their thesis or research project, before they have wasted a lot of time or fallen into bad habits!

Cell Press Journal Archives

Elsevier ScienceDirect have made available electronic access to the archives of all eight Cell Press journals:

Cancer Cell
Cell
Chemistry & Biology
Current Biology
Immunity
Molecular Cell
Neuron
Structure

As the access is "complimentary" it does not include issues from the most recent twelve months, but note that the Turitea Library has print subscriptions to Cell, Neuron and Curent Biology. Of these titles Molecular Cell, Cancer Cell and Chemistry and Biology are new to Massey. The publicity material promises archival access back to volume one but this does not yet appear to be the case for all titles. A further title Cell Metabolism is due to be launched this month, but it is likely we will have to wait a year before receiving online access.

All electronic titles can be accessed through a Journal Search on the Library Catalogue.

Digitisation of Royal Society of New Zealand Journals

The Royal Society of New Zealand is progressively digitising back issues of its journals back to voume one. These are freely available over the web and we have added links from the Library catalogue in order to indicate the full holdings available. To date they have completed back to 1994

Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 1994-

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 1994-

New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1987-

New Zealand Journal of Crop & Horticultural Science, 1994-

New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 1994-

New Zealand Journal of Marine & Freshwater Research, 1994-

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 1994-