Early English Books Online

Usually the Library boasts of the up-to-dateness of its electronic resources that allow you to see scientific articles months or even years before they appear in print.  So what are we doing telling you about  a resource like Early English Books Online that contains nothing published after 1700? Surely that's the province of the humanities!

Maybe so, but EEBO contains the original editions of some of the most important scientific works ever published  - Newton's Principia Mathematica, Robert Boyle's Sceptical Chymist and William Gilbert's De Magnete.  Any scientist will appreciate the importance of being able to examine the original data in any research and this represents a huge resource that would have been quite impossible to assemble before the internet era.  Those with an interest in the heritage of their discipline will find a great deal here to interest them.

Services for extramural students

Borrowing books from other NZ University Libraries

Massey University Library is a member of the ULANZ reciprocal borrowing agreement among 7 of the 8 New Zealand Universities. This gives registered Massey University Library borrowers (i.e. staff and students) the right to enrol for limited borrowing privileges at those university libraries.

The other universities offering this service are AUT (Auckland), Waikato (Hamilton), Victoria (Wellington), Lincoln (Christchurch), Canterbury (Christchurch) and Otago (Dunedin). This may well be a service that is useful for extramural students living in these regions, so please publicise it to them.

Full details are available on the Library web site under the heading Borrowing Information - ULANZ Reciprocal Borrowing Scheme.


Study Guides – Information on Library Services

Each year the Library provides information on the services and resources available for extramural students. This study guide insert (available from the Library web site) should be downloaded annually and added to extramural study guides so that students get correct and current information.

If you wish to include Library information more specifically targeted at students enrolled in your course, please contact College Liaison Services staff.

E-Journals, Safari, Firefox, Databases and Google Scholar

We have discovered that there are difficulties in downloading PDFs from the major electronic journals using the Safari browser which runs on Apple Mac. If you use Safari and want to access e-journal content try using Mozilla Firefox instead - it can be downloaded from http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/. You should then prefer it for any internet activity that is likely to lead you to PDFs, not only formal databases but search engines such as Google Scholar.

Incidentally, most of the content you are able to access via Google Scholar comes from the Library's electronic collections. If you are using it off-campus always remember to go to it through our list of databases - that way you get to sign in and take advantage of all your Massey entitlements to journal content.

Don't hesitate to get in touch whenever you have difficulties getting hold of journal articles - most problems are easily fixed!

Encyclopedia of Statistics in Quality and Reliability (ESQ&R)

The Encyclopedia of Statistics in Quality and Reliability offers extensive coverage of this field important to engineers, technologists, statisticians, quality managers, and related professions. Includes case studies as well as the usual range of articles in around 400 entries covering academic, business and governmental aspects. The ESQ&R complements and extends coverage of quality and reliability statistics in the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences.

The ESQ&R can be searched via its homepage, Table of Contents , or Topics pages.

Other major references sources are listed on our Reference Resources pages.

Also . . . . . . check out our other encyclopedias from Elsevier and Wiley.

New: Journals Page on Library Website

The Library has replaced the E-Journals page on its web site with a set of new journal pages giving more comprehensive information about journals, in both print and electronic formats.

Included is information on publishing in journals, journal citations and rankings, and the process for obtaining new journal subscriptions.
Access to e-journal packages is still made available via the new pages, but if you had bookmarked the e-journals page you will need to change the link. We apologise for any inconvenience.

If you are looking for a specific journal title – use the Journal search on the Library catalogue (ie: click on the Journals tab from the Catalogue home page).

Database Trial - Scopus

The Library is currently trialling Elsevier's Scopus database (through until the end of June 2008). Scopus is a multidiscplinary database - with greater breadth than Web of Science (about 4000 more titles) and with some of the equivalent citation searching features. Its coverage of "regional" journals is also broader than Web of Science currently provides. Universities and research institutions in the United Kingdom are using Scopus as a way of tracking citations, and several of the New Zealand university libraries also subscribe.

We would welcome your feedback on Scopus - both for citation tracking and topic searching.
The Library is not planning to subscribe to Scopus instead of Web of Science, rather it be would be complementary to our current database holdings (should funding permit).

Access the Scopus trial via the Library web site's "What's on Trial" page. Feedback can be submitted via the Trials page, or by emailing your comments to libcol@massey.ac.nz.

New Titles from FoodnetBase

Just a selection of recent additions from the 302 titles now available.

Olive Oil: Chemistry and Technology, Second Edition

Optimizing Women's Health through Nutrition

Handbook of Food Engineering, Second Edition

Wine: A Scientific Exploration

Sociology for Pharmacists

Handbook of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, Second Edition

Sports Nutrition: Energy Metabolism and Exercise

Understanding and Controlling the Microstructure of Complex Foods

Handbook of organic food safety and quality

MasseyLink - Have your say

Back in January we told you about MasseyLink, the little icon that appears next to records on your database searches - by clicking on it you will often achieve a much more direct link to the article than by searching the library catalogue and even if you don't MasseyLink will automatically open the catalogue for you with details for the appropriate journal.

Our staff have been monitoring and fixing problems as they occur and so far progress has been pretty smooth. At the library we generally hear from you only when things don't work as they should, which is as it should be, but this time we would really like to hear from you if you have found MasseyLink useful or if you have suggestions of how it could be improved. If you have used MasseyLink please take a moment to email us with your reaction and ideas.

Bruce White

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (CDSB)

This classic work is now available online in a new updated and expanded (26 volume) edition. The CDSB is an encyclopedic dictionary that offers comprehensive and authoritative articles on the life and achievements of many of the world's significant scientists. The articles have substantive cross referencing and bibliographies for further reading. Coverage is for individuals who have died.

The CDSB is an ideal starting point for the researcher requiring background information, and for biographical assignments and essays.

The CSDB can be searched via its homepage, or the Table of Contents page.


Other major references sources are listed on our Reference Resources pages.

Also . . . . . . check out our other encyclopedias from Elsevier and Wiley.

MasseyLink: what does it mean and why is it appearing in my searches?

Some of you will have noticed when doing database searches that the little icon above is appearing on results lists and alongside records. As the name suggests, it is a link between the database and Massey’s holdings. The advantage it gives over the current system of linking is that in the best case scenario it will take you directly to the article in a couple of clicks. From the results screen:



To the MasseyLink screen:


Ta da!

Yes, the full article with none of that dull scribbling down of volume and issue numbers. And if a link to the item is not provided, click on "Search the catalogue". MasseyLink will automatically populate a catalogue search for you, so you can see immediately if Massey University Library has the item. If not, you could use MasseyLink to request an Interloan. All of your options for obtaining the item you need are available in one convenient location.

However, you will have noted that this is the best case scenario: there are a few hiccups at present, as the system is still being implemented. If you come across something strange when trying to follow a MasseyLink, please use the "Report a problem" link to let us know.

Feel free to ask us questions about this. We're very excited about MasseyLink's potential. Even at this stage MasseyLink can be a useful tool and should be a great help to searchers once it is fully up and running.

Katherine Chisholm

Encyclopedia of Magnetic Resonance - now available online

The Encyclopedia of Magnetic Resonance is the major source for information all aspects of this rapidly expanding field. Since the original publication of Encyclopedia of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in 1996, the area of magnetic resonance has seen extensive developments and now encompasses a whole range of techniques, NMR, MRI, ESR/EPR, NQR and MSR. This expanded online edition covers all the essential information about the theory, applications and history of magnetic resonance. The annual addition of new articles and updates of existing articles will ensure that EMR remains the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference in the field.

In addition to being searchable via the SEARCH THIS TITLE box, the encyclopedia is structured by topic where you will find information on:

• MRI and clinical applications
• NMR and ESR in biology, chemistry, physics and materials science
• Fundamentals of magnetic resonance
• History of the development of magnetic resonance [MRI and NMR] and its key contributors

Other major references sources are listed on our Reference Resources pages.

Also . . . . . . check out our other encyclopedias from Elsevier and Wiley.

Science Online now available

As promised last year Science is now available electronically through the American Association for the Advancement of Science website with the latest issue available and full PDF versions of articles from 1880 to the present.