Thursday, October 25, 2007

Newspaper Heaven!!

We have all grown used to reading newspapers over the internet in recent years but there is often the sense that we are missing out on the whole experience - all the local politics, human interest stories and small town scandals that never make it to the websites or disappear within a few days.

The Library's newest service Library.PressDisplay is a "newspaper view" database which shows each newspaper exactly as it was published. Over 500 newspapers and magazines are searchable by keyword, language, and country. Other features include sound integration, advanced searching, and a 60-day rolling archive. Newspapers are available from over 65 countries, including New Zealand, Australia, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States. New Zealand titles include the Manawatu Standard, New Zealand Herald and Dominion Post. Coverage of other countries includes the serious dailies such as the Washington Post and the Guardian as well as the tabloids.

Library Press.Display will be of great interest to homesick students and staff but is also a very extensive collection of international media for the serious researcher. It can be accessed through the Article Databases List from the Library's homepage. There is a limit of three Massey users at any one time so you may occasionally be denied access.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Extramural Study Guides in the Library

The Library at Turitea has a full set of study guides as an aid for the Distance Library Service and individual folders are occasionally made available to internal students requesting to see them. However they are not held on reserve and issued to students unless this is specifically requested by course controllers. If you wish your internal students to have access to the study guide please use the Temporary Material section of this request form to have a copy placed on reserve at your campus - http://library.massey.ac.nz/doit/onlineforms/reserveplacementform.htm

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

SciFinder Scholar 2007 now available


SciFinder is the premier database for Chemistry and all related sciences. The Library encourages users to have the latest version so as to maximize the benefit of additional new features.

The latest (2007) version of the SciFinder software is available for downloading and installing on campus machines, in both Mac OSX and Windows PC versions. [Note: If you have an earlier version, install the new one into the same folder to upgrade.] Windows users can now also download ViewerLite software for 3D views of molecular models for structure results.

If you need assistance to install the updated version, don't hesitate to ask.

Monday, June 11, 2007

New Books List Direct to You!


Every week the Library New Titles web page lists the most recent books added to our collections. This has proved to be popular for those wishing to browse the latest acquisitions but the list of new science titles is generally pretty extensive and not terribly convenient - especially as you have to remember to visit it regularly.

Using RSS Feed technology we are now able to stream subject specific lists of new books to anyone with feed reader software or a web-based reader. This greatly simplifies the task of checking on new books - in fact the lists come to you! The following lists have been created

Agriculture and Horticulture

Computer and Information Science

Earth Sciences

Life Sciences

Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry

Technology

Veterinary Science

The Veterinary Science list is a subset of the Agriculture and Horticulture list so it will be unnecessary to subscribe to both.

Click on the links above to subscribe. You will need either to download RSS feed reader software or to register with a web-based service like Google Reader or Bloglines. Users of FireFox can subscribe to feeds using Live Bookmarks while Internet Explorer 7 has RSS feed capability built in.

Library Catalogue - Your Reading History Option


A new feature in the Library Catalogue enables you to keep a record of items that you have borrowed, if you choose to do so.


From the Library Catalogue Home Page click on Log In and enter your details (ID number and PIN). Click on the My Reading History button at the right of the screen and then click on Opt In to enable the Catalogue to record details of items that you have borrowed.


Once Reading History has been set up, every item that you subsequently borrow will display on your record. You can choose to delete items from your record (all or one-by-one) if you no longer wish to retain a record of them.


With Reading History turned on, you can choose to exclude items you have already borrowed when searching the Catalogue.


If you wish to opt out of Reading History, simply click on the button when logged in to your Patron Record and select Opt Out. Note that all data will be lost so that if you opt in again at a later date the Reading History will start from then and won’t include earlier items.


If you need help with using the catalogue, or have further questions or comments, please contact us.