CDL Database Transitions

a. Ovid Chosen as Replacement Vendor

The Transition Steering Committee, with analysis from the Resource Liaisons, has recommended Ovid Technologies as the vendor for the following databases:
-BIOSIS Previews, 1970-present
-Current Contents, 1993-present
-Ei Compendex Plus, 1970-present
-INSPEC, 1969-present
-MLA International Bibliography, 1963-present

Ovid Technologies is a major provider of electronic information to the academic community.  UC users will have unlimited access to all five databases.  The remaining two months of 2001 will be devoted to development customization, implementing links to full content, and testing.  Ovid has agreed to implement a number of enhancements to its interface that will be added over time.

Below is the transition schedule for these databases:

*CDL is committed to maintaining access through December 2002 unless there are unforeseen circumstances, such as vendors making significant changes to their data structure, or recommendations to remove parallel access earlier.

Please refer to the Database Status document for detailed information about which services (e.g., Request, Update, etc.) will be available and when in the new versions of all A&I transition databases. Available at: [http://www.cdlib.org/news/databasestatus.html] .

Directions for access to these resources will be announced closer to their implementation date, after the CDL has verified access.

b. All Transitioning CDL-Hosted Databases Now Have New Homes

What had seemed like an overwhelmingly difficult task last spring has successfully come to the end of its first phase.  With the selection of Ovid as the vendor for the remaining group of CDL-hosted databases (see article above), all of the transitioning A & I CDL-hosted databases now have new access providers. [For the full list of databases undergoing transitions, see the Detailed Status of the Journal Article Databases Transition [http://www.cdlib.org/news/databasestatus.html].  The task at hand now is to ensure that the databases function well with their new vendors, and that CDL enhancements are in place by the time the CDL-hosted versions of databases retire.

Many people have been involved in making the transitions successful: SOPAG for its initial endorsement of the transition; the Transition Steering Committee (TSC), with representatives from the nine campuses who determined policies and principles to guide the transition, and who made recommendations on vendors to select; the campus Resource Liaisons who recommended which vendors to review, and who gave several different vendor versions of databases a thorough work out, as well as for their continued coordination with database vendors, campus staff, and the CDL as the new vendor versions unroll; the UC Health Sciences Librarians and CDL MEDLINE Transition Task Force Members, who prepared stellar guides for making the transition to PubMed considerably easier for us all.

At the CDL, an A & I Team skillfully chaired by Laine Farley met weekly to ensure that all aspects of the transition went smoothly.  Over the course of this phase, team members have included Jayne Dickson, Mary Engle, Linda Gallaher-Brown, Mary Heath, Rosalie Lack, Ellen Meltzer, John Ober, Margery Tibbetts, and Sherry Willhite.  Programmers who have helped with many of the behind-the-scenes programming tasks that helped us make users aware of upcoming changes and who have been working on Request include Ellen England, Michael Russell, Claudia Woo, David Loy, and Michael Thwaites.

Many thanks to all of these people and groups who have enabled us to reach this important milestone.  We have many equally important tasks ahead to ensure that these databases will continue function as valued research tools in the years ahead.