The collections (scores, books, recordings) will be housed in state-of-the-art, power-assisted, mobile high-density shelving, which will double the storage capacity of the existing library. The architect team from the local Boston firm Perkins & Will is designing an inviting reading/listening/study area to provide comfortable workspace for library users. Suffused with natural light and overlooking the Ellis Oval, it will be a much-needed improvement over the present cramped and overcrowded basement space. Special construction techniques will be employed to insure that the library will be acoustically isolated from the joyous cacophony the new music building promises to create.

The entire facility promises to usher in a new era of music making and music learning for the Tufts community. Construction will begin in Spring 2005, with the Lilly Music Library slated to open in Summer 2006. The rest of the building will be ready by the start of classes in Fall 2006.

When using the Research Paper Navigator, a student starting a research assignment can enter the starting and due dates for the paper and select a subject area. The student will get a customized list of steps to complete in the research and writing process. Students will be able to read helpful tips as they proceed in their work and can also opt for time-management assistance through e-mail notification about when tasks like finding background information or developing a working thesis need to be completed.

The Research Paper Navigator is available at http://www.library.tufts.edu/researchPaper/navigator.asp. Inspired by the University of Minnesota Library’s Assignment Calculator, it was developed by the Tisch Library, First-Year Writing Program, Writing Center, LITS (Library Information and Technology Services), and ULTS (University Library Technology Services). A grant from the Berger Family Technology Transfer Endowment supported its development. For more information about Berger grants, including a longer description of this particular project, connect to the Berger Grant link from the Tisch homepage.

It is important to recognize, however, that Google Scholar has its limitations. Test searches indicate that it indexes only a very small subset of the scholarly literature, in all fields, that is available online. Test searches also find gaps in Google Scholar’s coverage of both the retrospective and most current literature from the sources it indexes. Content is the most obscure part of Google Scholar, as there is no list of sources, nor is coverage criteria provided.

Consequently, for comprehensiveness and currency, it is important to remind students of the growing collection of scholarly as well as popular research databases in all subjects and disciplines available on the Tisch Library website. The databases, with other sources, are organized by subject as well as by type of source such as reference works, journal articles, news media, government publications, statistical data, etc. For comprehensive, up-to-date literature and information of recognized scholarly quality, it is best to turn to one or more of the databases that the Tufts libraries subscribe to, preferably at the start of a search, but at least as a supplement to what can be found through Google Scholar.

Aware, however, that this new search tool will be popular, the Tisch librarians have made it available on the Tisch webpages, proxying it for off-campus use. Thus, Google Scholar can be accessed from the Databases and Articles link on the Tisch Library homepage, from the Recommended Search Engines page , and at this url directly: http://www.library.tufts.edu/ezproxy/ezproxy. asp?LOCATION=GoogleScholar.

It is ESSENTIAL that students and faculty searching Google Scholar from off campus do so through the Tisch Library pages in order to have access to full-text articles within Tufts' subscriptions. A searcher not reaching Google Scholar through the library's website will be asked to purchase the articles or be told that the articles are not available for purchase even when the library already has subscriptions to the journals containing them.

Remember, it is always possible to make an online request for what Tufts does not own or subscribe to by using our interlibrary loan service.

Most of the changes were never visible to the public. In fact, it is a matter of pride that Tisch library users were not inconvenienced by the transition even as staff were coping, for a couple of years, with the many demands involved in planning and training and in moving from one system to another. A single library department, the Acquisitions Department, is featured here as an example of a small part of what was taking place behind the scenes.

The Acquisitions Department began using the new system for cataloging last April, months before the new OPAC was released to the public. In preparation, Acquisitions stopped most new book orders in mid-spring of last year. Reserve, rush, and faculty orders were not interrupted. This allowed the number of books being received to trickle down to very low levels and allowed use of the new system for orders in July, in a new fiscal year, which greatly eased the difficulty of resolving book fund expenditures between the two systems. Still, hundreds of books ordered on the old system had to be cataloged and processed on the new. Ordering information was not transferred between the two systems, to avoid complicated conversion of fund and vendor data. Books ordered on the old system were still arriving months after the start of using Millennium for new orders.

Although most of the information from the old online catalog was translated into the new system automatically, some information required manual transfer because Millennium stored certain records in a completely different way. Acquisitions performed several large projects to enter this incompatible information into Millennium. Records for funding sources and budget limits had to be entered by hand before orders could begin on the new system. Standing orders also had to be entered by hand. One of the biggest problems was entering check-in records for journals and serials. No easy method was found to translate this information. It took nearly eight months to manually create check-in records on Millennium for all the Tisch journal subscriptions.

Benefits Gained

In short, Acquisitions procedures have undergone constant revision for the last year. The transition to Millennium has changed nearly everything that Acquisitions does, from ordering books to receiving, cataloging, and labeling them for display on the shelves. These changes occurred in stages as staff learned the new system and discovered how to do things better. Many changes required close cooperation with other library departments, Tufts libraries, the University Library Council, and/or outside book suppliers and contractors. Teamwork has been an important part of the entire transition.

A few projects remain to be done. While the automatic translation from the old system to Millennium worked very well, there are still a few small things that could not be translated correctly and will have to be fixed. Interesting new capabilities should be implemented with the receipt of new versions of the software each year. Most of these updates will not be obvious to the faculty and students who use the library but should incrementally make catalog searches better. More obvious improvements will occur with several new features and capabilities of Millennium that have yet to be brought online at Tufts  watch for further notice of these!

As the Acquisitions department continues to adapt to the new system, public access to materials through the catalog will continue to improve.

Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation to Arrive Soon

Contributors to this issue:

Michael Rogan

Anna Neatrour

Chao Chen

Steve McDonald

Paula McGlynn

Esther Richards

Stephanie St.Laurence

Rendering of Music Building: by Perkins & Will

Lincoln Image: permission of ALA Public Programs Office

Other images: © 2005 www.clipart.com

Editor: Margaret Gooch