Search multiple databases from DOE

Science Accelerator is a federated search engine for the U.S. Department of Energy's science and technical information. Using Science Accelerator, users can search Research & Development reports, e-prints, conference proceedings, patents, and Web sites. Using a basic search or an advanced search, users can access primarily full text information. In addition, Science Accelerator has a number of features usually found in subscription databases, such as the ability to download results to bibliographic citation software, automatic spell-checking, and topic clustering to assist in narrowing your search. Basic searches in various topics yielded results in energy, environment, computing, physics, geology, chemistry, and marine science.

Scifinder Scholar accessible on the Web

Happy New Year and welcome back for Winter Term!


I know many students and faculty are experiencing Winter Term off campus. I was going to wait until Spring semester for this announcement, but I am too excited. Plus, as most of you know, I will be having a baby around the start of Spring Semester, and I did not want you to miss this news.

Scifinder Scholar has migrated to its Web platform for Eckerd College. This means you do not have to access Scifinder Scholar via the desktop platform, which is only available in the library and the chemistry lab.

The new Scifinder Scholar interface is available through the library web page in the database list and on some of the science subject guides:

• A to Z Database List
• Biology
• Chemistry

To use the new interface, you have to establish an account with Scifinder Scholar. This will be a free account, and it will only accept your Eckerd email. To sign up, click here. Once you have an account, you can log in to use the database.

Not only is the platform different, but so is the search interface. I think many of you will find it similar to other databases you may use, such as Web of Science. Web training, how-to guides, and strategies for new search interface are available from CAS.

Note that while the access point has changed, our access limits are still in place. We share 2 seats among 3 colleges. Therefore, you may encounter times when you cannot enter the database. Try again later. For this reason, I also urge you to log out when you are finished so you are not blocking another user. (You will be logged out automatically if you leave the interface idle for too long.)

UPDATE: Jan 20. I have learned that you cannot register for Scifinder Scholar off campus, and at this time, you also cannot access the web version off campus. However, the latter issue is being worked on by our It department. Soon you should be able to access the Web interface from off campus AFTER you register on campus.

Web of Science adds citation mapping

The newest feature from Web of Science creates a citation map for a particular article. Using the mapping technology, you can view first and second generation citations, moving forward and backward (i.e., those that cite that article of interest and those the article of interest cites.) Users can arrange the citations and color code them according to numerous criteria, such as subject, journal title, year published, and more. A 5-minute demonstration video is available from Thomson Reuters. Take some time to check out this cool new feature!

EBSCO offers free environmental database

GreenFile is a database offered at no charge by EBSCO. According to their Web site,

In keeping with our commitment to environmental consciousness, EBSCO proudly offers GreenFILE, a freely accessible research database focusing on the relationship between human beings and the environment, with well-researched but accessible information on topics ranging from global warming to recycling to alternate fuel sources and beyond. Comprised of scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports, GreenFILE offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the ecology. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE will serve as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet.

Among the 600 titles indexed by this database, many are open access, meaning the full text is available for free. Many of the titles are covered comprehensively from their originating date to present. Similar to other EBSCO databases, the Visual Search is available through GreenFile.

Preview the Web version of Scifinder Scholar

CAS is rolling out a Web-based version of the popular Scifinder Scholar. The new version was shown at the April 6 American Chemical Society meeting. The press release from CAS is available on their Web site, in addition to a demo of the new Web interface. The implementation of this new interface is taking place as a phased roll-out with Eckerd College's access starting in the fourth quarter according to a representative I spoke with by phone.

AGRICOLA publishes new thesaurus

AGRICOLA, the National Agriculture Library (NAL) catalog, has published a new thesaurus. Some students in my library instruction have used the NAL thesaurus to improve their search terminology. The thesaurus lists the controlled vocabulary for the online catalog. Using the controlled vocabulary can improve your searches. Changes to the NAL Thesaurus are as follows (from USDA National Agriculture Library http://agclass.nal.usda.gov/agt/dne/whatsnew.shtml):

Terminology associated with fuels, chocolate manufacture, bodies of water and the US National Forest System were expanded this edition. The taxonomic classification of viruses was enhanced by the addition of acronyms used by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).

NAL provides a list of new terms as well as a list of replaced terms. For example, the term "Tetrapedia" has been replaced by "Tetrapedia (Algae)."

New Web of Science interface finally here

As promised, when you log in to Web of Science, you will now see the new interface pictured below:


Recorded classes are available from the vendor, Thomson ISI, at the following links:

• Web of Knowledge overview: http://scientific.thomson.com/support/recorded-training/wok/
• Web of Science: http://scientific.thomson.com/support/recorded-training/wos/
• EndNote Web: http://scientific.thomson.com/support/recorded-training/endnoteweb/

Students or faculty should feel free to sign up for any classes. In addition, I am available to help you, your study group, or an entire class. Contact me to set up a time.

New electronic resources for NAS

Welcome back!

I know many of you have been back for a week and a half, but I spent last week at an NCBI training workshop on microbiology resources. So can I find you the DNA sequence for PER2 gene? Yes, I can now--but more about that in an upcoming blog post.

For now, let me tell you about our new resources. We have added GeoRef, a geology database accessible to all Eckerd community. To quote from the Web site,

The GeoRef database, established by the American Geological Institute in 1966, provides access to the geoscience literature of the world. GeoRef is the most comprehensive bibliographic database in the geosciences and continues to grow by more than 90,000 references a year. The database contains over 2.8 million references to geoscience journal articles, books, maps, conference papers, reports and theses.

A complete title list is available at http://www.agiweb.org/georef/about/serials.html

GEOBASE will remain available with a password available from the librarians or your professor.

In addition, we have added the complete full text to BioOne. Any article you locate via BioOne should be available in full-text format. Furthermore, if you search BioOne through the CSA Aquatic Science and Fisheries Abstracts interface, you will be able to connect to the full text from there.

Finally, the JSTOR Biological Sciences Collection is now active. This would provide the backfiles in full text for most of the journals we get through BioOne. Full title list is available at http://www.jstor.org/about/biosci_content.html.

As the Spring semester approaches, please remember that I am available to conduct a class on these resources and others that may be pertinent to work being done in your classes. Contact me as soon as possible to book the lab.

Credo Reference added to virtual Reference Shelf

Eckerd College has recently purchased Credo Reference, an online interdisciplinary reference resource. Credo Reference is available to all members of the Eckerd community on campus, or off campus, by using your e-mail user name and password.

To reach Credo Reference, choose the link Reference Shelf from the home page (as seen below).


Once you reach our virtual reference shelf, you will see Credo Reference as the first link listed under Encyclopedias and Dictionaries.

In Credo Reference, you can search all 289 reference books, or you can narrow your search to all the science reference books (complete title list below), or one particular reference book. Many results have images or even video links included. For example, I searched "Comet" in the Astronomy Encyclopedia to find an entry on Comet Holmes, which has been prevalent in recent news. In addition to an entry on this comet, more than 100 other entries, many with images, were available.

Credo also include concept map searching. The image below shows an example concept map for photosynthesis. Each dot represents a concept that is linked to photosynthesis. This feature is a fun way for you to explore larger concepts that you are trying to focus for a research paper. To see a larger image of the concept map, click on the map.


The science titles included in Credo are listed below:

• Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology
• Astronomy Encyclopedia
• Atlas of the Universe
• Collins Dictionary of Astronomy
• Collins Dictionary of Biology
• Dictionary of Astronomy, Peter Collin Publishing
• Dictionary of Developmental Biology and Embryology, Wiley
• Encyclopedia of Paleontology
• Guide to Gems
• Guide to Global Hazards
• Guide to Minerals, Rocks and Fossils
• Guide to Seashells of the World
• Guide to Stars and Planets
• Guide to the Oceans
• Illustrated Dictionary of Science, Andromeda
• McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
• McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms
• Reader's Guide to the History of Science
• The American Heritage Science Dictionary
• The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists
• The Macquarie Dictionary of Trees & Shrubs
• The New Penguin Dictionary of Science
• The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics
  
• The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
  

Scitopia reaches final version

It has been a crazy week with meetings for me first in Ohio and then in Fort Myers. Therefore, instead of my take on the new Scitopia, I am going to direct you to an excellent article in Information Today. In brief, Scitopia has improved the XML to provide more exact results. The patent search includes Japanese and European patents, as well as those in the United States. In addition, the article claims that in comparison to one expensive database, the coverage is better. No names are used but at Eckerd, I know for our subject guides, I will be directing you to Scitopia over a few smaller search pages such as SIAM or AGU, since Scitopia covers their content.

Societies join to create federated search

Although active for a few months now, I thought many people at Eckerd might not be aware of Scitopia. Scitopia (www.scitopia.org) offers free federated searching throughout 13 scholarly societies. The federated search engine allows access into the digital libraries of member societies. Member societies include the following:

• Acoustical Society of America
• American Geophysical Union
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• American Institute of Physics
• American Physical Society
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• American Vacuum Society
• The Electrochemical Society
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Institute of Physics Publishing
• Optical Society of America
• Society of Automotive Engineers
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• SPIE

Once citations have been located, Scitopia will connect to the full text if we subscribe to the journal electronically. This should work automatically if you are in the library or on campus. From off campus, you will have to log in using your Eckerd email address. For example, I searched for an article from the Journal of Applied Physics. Searching by title, I was able to pull up the citation and link directly the article PDF.

What happens if you cannot access the full text? There are two options. First, check to see if the journal is available in print from Eckerd College Library. If not, you can order the article through interlibrary loan. Not sure how to do that? Chat with me on Meebo via my home page. Visit the library Web site, click on staff and then my name for all contact info.

Scifinder Scholar 2007 expands search features

The 2007 version of Scifinder Scholar has a number of new features to simplify your research process. Now when you locate a substance, you can extend your search by clicking on the structure.

In this screenshot, by clicking on cyclobutane, a drop-down menu for a number of search possibilities appears. By choosing, “explore” or “refine” you will automatically open the drawing window where you can alter the chemical structure to conduct more searches. The drop-down also offers you a number of other options. For example,

when you click on references, you are offered choices to create a more precise search (as seen below). Using the provided subject categories, one can search cyclobutane associated with adverse effect, including toxicity.

Another new feature is categorize. The categorize feature will analyze the subject terms of references you have retrieved and provide bar graph analysis per subject word. Using this analysis, you can combine subcategories to further refine your search. Scifinder Scholar has provided a PDF documenting slides on these new features. To access the slides, click here.

In addition, to sign up for webinars from the vendor, visit here.

Remember, I can instruct your class on this or other databases. Contact me to set up a lesson.

New interface for Web of Science

ISI Web of Science has thoroughly updated its user interface. Presently, the old version and the new version are running concurrently. To access the new version, you have two choices:

1. Go to the library home page. Choose "Web of Science" from the drop-down menu QUICK JUMP: GO DIRECTLY TO A DATABASE. Once you have entered the old version, click the button on the top of the screen to access the new version.

2. Use the following URL from a computer on campus: http://newisiknowledge.com

Upon entering the new version, the most noticeable feature is the availability of several search boxes (Figure 1). In addition, additional databases, such as ISIHighlyCited are no longer present on the introductory page. To access additional resources, one must use the “Additional Resources” tab. The new interface implemented by ISI Web of Science mimics some familiar databases owned by Eckerd College, such as Wilson’s General Science Full Text. The drop-down menu to the right of the search boxes allows the user to choose specific options, such as topic, author, language, and several more.

Figure 1. Initial search interface for the new version of Web of Science (click to see a larger image)

In addition, the results screen offers more new elements (Figure 2). A sidebar easily allows you to refine your results by subject areas, document types, authors, and more. An “Analyze Results” buttons provides a bar graph of your results filtered by your choice of data.

Figure 2. Results screen

Web of Science vendor Thomson Scientific is offering recorded training demos that you must sign up to access at http://isiwebofknowledge.com/currentuser_wokhome/cu_new/newface/. In addition, I have acquired some Powerpoint slides on the new interface, which I can send to you if you email me: dhonduk@eckerd.edu. Don’t forget, though, your friendly librarian is always available to give instruction to you or your classes!