BiblioTech Connections


Newsletter of the Tisch Library
Tufts University
Winter, 1998, No. 21


Contents:

  1. ISI Citation Indexes Online
  2. Current Contents Databases Online
  3. Research Tools Webpages
  4. New Books
  5. Government Resources Online
  6. Changes in Staff


ISI Citation Indexes Online

Access to premier indexes in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities has taken a great leap forward with the acquisition of important citation indexes online. Misleadingly called the "Web of Science," this multidisciplinary resource includes Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and Science Citation Index Expanded. Together, these indexes, published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), provide coverage of over 12,000 major journals in a broad range of fields. Fewer than forty libraries in the country are providing this service.

Scholars who have used the paper ISI indexes at Tisch know their value for comprehensive subject searches and interdisciplinary research as well as for tracking cited references and publications of authors. However, the Web product offers several advantages over the paper versions. In addition to providing the ability to search all the indexes at once, the web version allows searchers tracing citations to link easily to the full bibliographic records of citing and cited articles and also to locate relevant items through the Related Records function. The number of times an article is cited can be tracked on a weekly basis through automatic updates.

The citation indexes can be used in several ways. Patrons can search the indexes individually or as a group; choose any time period; limit by language or document type; sort results by date, relevance, author, or journal; and save search queries to run against updates. Results can be read online, down-loaded to a disc, e-mailed, printed, or exported into a user's bibliographic management software package.

Access to these indexes is offered to all members of the Tufts community, including those connecting to TULIPS from dormitories, offices, labs, or homes. All that is required is Internet access through the campus network and a browser such as Netscape. They can be reached from the Tisch Library homepage on several of the Research Tools pages, including General Science, General Social Science, General Humanities, and all the sciences. The Web of Science is also available (through the network) at http://www.webofscience.com.

The Reference Department will be offering workshops on this product. If you would like to arrange a workshop for a class or a department, please contact Laurie Sabol, coordinator of library instruction, at x5167.

Current Contents in the Sciences Also Online

ISI, producer of the Web of Science, also publishes several indexes for current contents literature. Three of these are newly available electronically at Tufts. Current Contents/ Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences provides access to the tables of contents of over nine-hundred leading journals in fields including agricultural chemistry, agronomy, aquatic sciences, biotechnology, entomology, nutrition, and veterinary medicine. Current Contents/ Engineering, Technology & Applied Sciences performs the same function for over eight-hundred journals in disciplines including aeronautics and aerospace engineering, automation, computer science, energy, mining, optics, telecommunications and textiles. Current Contents/ Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences makes available the tables of contents of more than eight-hundred leading journals in fields that include astronomy, atmospheric sciences, mathematics, nuclear physics, paleontology, polymer science, and statistics and probability. These databases, updated weekly, provide complete bibliographic information for each article, review, letter, note and editorial listed, with abstracts for at least 70% of the documents.

To access these databases, choose "Research Tools" from the Tisch Library homepage and find Current Contents within the "C" grouping of the "Electronic Research Tools: A-Z." (They are also currently being mounted under the relevant disciplines: Environmental Science, Computer Science, Physics, Geoscience, etc.)

Research Tools Found Helpful

Recent statistics show increasing use of the Tisch Library homepage as a base for learning about, and exploring, new subject websites. In almost fifty different subject areas, librarians with subject expertise are compiling bibliographies of reference sources, indexes and abstracts, periodicals and electronic journals, and Internet and Web resources. These lists of print and electronic titles, identified on the homepage as "Research Tools," provide an excellent introduction to the strengths of the Tisch Library's holdings. The bibliographies are continuously updated and revised to reflect additions to the collections. Faculty are being asked to recommend appropriate titles to the biblio-graphers working with their departments (Laura Walters: social sciences; Miriam Allman: sciences; Wayne Powell: engineering; Christopher Barbour: humanities; Margaret Ericson: music).

The library staff are promoting these tools in instructional workshops and a new initiative: departmental visits. These visits allow reference librarians and bibliographers to demonstrate ways the Research Tools can aid faculty and students in their work. The aim is to hold as many meetings as possible in the Electronic Resource Center so that faculty can see the listed resources first-hand and put them to use immediately.

An A-Z list of all the electronic resources included in the subject categories is the last option on the Research Tools page. New additions are noted in the "What's New" section of the homepage as well as highlighted in the subject listings.

New Books Add Up

Have you had occasion to visit the shelves allotted for "New Books" lately? New additions to the collection are arriving daily. This popular display and browsing area is located past the Reading Room to the right of the main lobby. It invites readers to sample what is currently being published in a wide range of liberal arts disciplines.

Comfortable seating allows for easy perusal.

The gratification of reading new books requires no delay. All items displayed on the New Books shelves are available for immediate circulation. To charge an item, simply take your selection to the Circulation Desk.

The colored tabs used to mark how long the items have been on display double as convenient bookmarks!

More Electronic Government Resources

During the past year the Tisch Library has subscribed to a number of electronic resources that have improved access to a variety of government resources and information. What follows is a selection of some of the more popular resources that are available either in CD-ROM at the Tisch Library Reference Desk or through Tisch Library's webpage (http://www.library. tufts.edu/tisch/). All of the items listed below appear on a number of the Research Tools webpages, including Electronic Research Tools: A-Z and Government Information & Documents. The Internet resources may also be accessed directly by URL, as shown.

Congressional Compass
http://www.LexisNexis.com/cis A major online resource for information on all aspects of Congressional work. Includes hearing transcripts, committee reports, bills, and prints, the Congressional Record, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, and public laws.

Stat-USA [Requires Tufts Internet address (*.tufts.edu)] http://www.stat-usa.gov
An online service of the most recent international trade information available from the National Trade Data Bank, the Economic Bulletin Board, Global Business Procurement Opportunities, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and a variety of other statistical sources.

CensusCD [CD-ROM - Request at Tisch Reference Desk]
CensusCD is the only complete 1990 Census reference source on a single CD-ROM. It includes the full set of Census data from Block Group level up to the nation; all sixteen geographies included in the Census long form databases STF3A to D; all tracts, places, counties, states, Congressional districts, Indian reservations, Zip codes, etc. -- over 375,000 geographic locations in the U.S. It has all 3,500+ Census demographic variables for every area along with millions of street addresses from Tiger94, all distributed by the U.S. Census Bureau.

GPO Access http://www.access.gpo.gov/ su_docs/index.html
A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government.

It includes some of the following publications: Monthly Catalog, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, Commerce Business Daily, and Congressional Record. BNA's Environment Library on CD [CD-ROM - Request at Reference Desk]
Currently contains full text of BNA's Environment Reporter federal reference files, BNA's Chemical Regulation Reporter reference files, BNA's hazardous materials transportation files, and BNA's state environmental laws and regulations, and state regulatory summaries.

SIRS Government Reporter [CD-ROM - Request at Reference Desk]
Provides current and historic government documents, landmark and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, information about federal departments and agencies, and biographical information about members in Congress and Supreme Court justices.

Changes in Staff

Elizabeth Perlman joined the Cataloging Services Department in September as a Library Assistant with primary responsi-bility for copy cataloging. A 1996 graduate of Tufts University, Liz has a degree in French and English and experience as a Software Test Administrator at Vivid Technologies in Woburn and as a student assistant at Harvard's Widener Library.

Also in September, the Library welcomed Wendell Bonhomme as Library Security Guard. Wendell is a familiar face to Tisch night owls who remember when he staffed Late Night Study some years ago.

Sheri Kelley began her work as Archives Assistant on October 1. A Boston area native, Sheri recently completed the dual masters degree program at Simmons College, where her studies were in history and library science with a concentration in archives. She has done archival work for the Boston Center for the Arts, the Concord Free Public Library, and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

In November, Christopher Barbour joined the library as Humanities Biblio-grapher. Chris comes with the experience of serving since 1987 as Humanities Bibliographer at the Brandeis University Library and also with experience as an adjunct reference librarian at Northeastern University. Since 1983 he has been a contributing indexer for the Film and Television Documentation Center, the publisher of Film Literature Index.

Most recently the staff welcomed Edward Oberholtzer as Reference Desk Coordinator. Ed, formerly an attorney, served not long ago as a reference intern at Tisch while obtaining the MLS degree at Simmons. He returns to us after working as a reference librarian at Boston University.

Best wishes also to staff who have recently moved to other positions in the university and elsewhere: James Verrill, Mark Humphrey, Leslie Kriebel, Alan Pochi, and Christine Behr.


BiblioTech Connections is published three times a year: in the fall, winter, and spring. It is also available at bibliotech.htm
Contributors to this issue:
Laura Walters
Laurie Sabol
Jim Walsh
Marsha Paiste
Stephanie St. Laurence
Pauline Boucher (Photography)
Editor: Margaret Gooch

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Tisch Library, Faculty of Arts, Sciences, & Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 
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