Massey Theses on the Web - DigitalCommons@Massey

As well as being valuable sources of information doctoral and masters theses serve to raise the profile and promote the work of individual researchers during the early years of their careers. Massey graduates are now able to deposit electronic copies of their theses into the University's digital repository - DigitalCommons@Massey. Theses can be submitted as either Word or PDF files and must be the final version after all changes have been made and participation is not restricted to recent graduates - in fact anyone who has their work in electronic format should consider submitting it as a contribution to the community. Even embargoed theses can be held - only the title and abstract will be accessible until the period of embargo has ended.

Theses held in the repository will be fully accessible to Google searchers and it is intended that coverage will extend to Google Scholar in the future.

Library Serials Review Deadline

The deadline for responses to the proposed cancellations of journal subscriptions is Friday 11 August. The list of titles was circulated to departments on 27 July and a revised list based on the feedback received will be sent out on Friday 18th.

The cancelling of journals is not something that the Library undertakes lightly and this year's exercise has been necessitated by the university's request for financial stringency combined with the tendency of journal price increases to run ahead of the rate of inflation. The strategy adopted for science journals has been to select predominantly print titles which have been used much less heavily in recent years as electronic access has become the norm. Expensive titles have been particularly targeted as providing the greatest savings for the least impact unless there is clear evidence that they are of critical importance.

One electronic journal package - Taylor & Francis - will be cancelled because its cost structure has become insupportable. Individual titles from this publisher to which we subscribed before taking up the package will continue unless a further decision is made, as has been done in some cases, to cancel them on the grounds of cost and low use. Titles that were not previously held and that came to us as part of the T & F package will no longer be received and will disappear from the Library catalogue.

When cancellations are made interlibrary loan becomes an alternative means of acquiring articles and it is acknowledged that this does involve passing some costs on to departments. The major part of the cost is still carried by the Library and in the case of expensive journals that are infrequently used this proves to be much less expensive than a subscription. While we are sensitive to the question of whether a journal is held by other New Zealand libraries it is worth noting that the Library no longer charges an extra amount for overseas interloans and they are often obtained more quickly than those sourced locally.

Requests are received from time to time for new journal titles - it will be unusually difficult to institute any new subscriptions unless a substantial saving is made on existing expenditure.

Whilst the timeframe is tight we are pleased to listen to any suggestions, proposals or objections - you can phone Bruce White or Chris Good (Turitea) on extension 7814, Valerie Cohen (Albany) on 41077 or Diana Fehsenfeld (Wellington) on 6855 or email us.

Reference Resource of the Month - Wiley Reference

Wiley InterScience is a publisher of many major science reference tools. The Library subscribes to some of these, which are listed below (in order of relevance):

Encyclopedias

• Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology
  Now into its 5th edition, Kirk-Othmer is the premier encyclopedia for chemistry and all its related applications offering comprehensive articles with extensive referencing for further research.
• Ullman's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry
  This new 7th edition offers 1000+ high quality entries by 3000+ authors who are experts in their fields. Covers all aspects of industrial chemistry and related areas.
• Encyclopedia Of Polymer Science and Technology
  Provides information about polymers, plastics, fibres, biomaterials, elastomers, and polymerization processes in around 300 articles.
• Encyclopedia of Bioprocess Technology: fermentation, biocatalysis, and bioseparation
  "Presents the state-of-the-art in biotechnology focusing on fermentation, biocatalysis and bioseparation."

Handbooks

• Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products
  The standard reference on the chemistry and processing technology of edible oils and fats as well as industrial and non-edible derivative products. Now in its 6th edition.

Web of Science Goes With Google

ISI have made a fundamental change to the way that Web of Knowledge (including Web of Science) databases search.

When using the Topic Search or Quick Search options, search terms are no longer automatically "phrase" searched, they are instead automatically "anded".
This is similar to the way that the Google search engines operate. If you enter a phrase it now searches for records containing all of the words in the phrase rather than only for those containing the phrase itself - quotation marks are necessary to force an exact phrase search.

For example, instead of entering fire blight AND zealand
you should now enter "fire blight" zealand

However if you wish to use OR to allow a choice of keywords it is necessary to enclose the ORed terms in brackets and to use AND -

"fire blight" AND (zealand or australia)


For more information see the help screens on Web of Knowledge, or contact your Liaison Librarian.

Library teaching and research consultations 2006 (Semester 2)

The beginning of semester is a very good time for grounding your students in the use of the library and information resources.

Library Seminars
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 or tutorials as well.

Please contact:

• Noelene White (Palmerston North undergraduate)
• Bruce White or Chris Good (Palmerston North postgraduate)
• Valerie Cohen (Albany)
• Diana Fehsenfeld (Wellington)

Research Consultations
Postgraduate students and staff can also 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, and also advice on managing references with EndNote. A research consultation can provide the basis for ongoing contact between a researcher and the Library over the course of their studies. 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, Chris, Valerie or Diana