CDL Database Transitions

a. Reminder: Eureka Telnet Access to RLG Databases to Retire November 29

A reminder that as of November 30, telnet users will no longer have access to any of the RLG/Eureka databases via Eureka’s telnet or via USE Eureka from CDL’s telnet.  They will have access to the following databases only via Eureka’s native web interface:

Bibliography of the History of Art
Francis
Hand Press Book File
Index to 19th Century Art Periodicals
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
Inside Information Plus
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliography
SCIPIO

If you direct your users to go to CDL’s telnet and then type USE Eureka to get to any of these databases, please replace these instructions with URLs to these databases in Eureka.

The following RLG/Eureka databases will still be available via both CDL’s telnet and web Z39.50 interfaces through the end of December 2002, as well as in Eureka’s native web interface:

Anthropological Literature
Avery Index
Chicano Databases
English Short Title Catalogue
History of Science and Technology
RLIN Bibliographic File

See the September 12, 2002 issue of CDLINFO for more information: [http://www.cdlib.org/news/cdlinfo/cdlinfo091202.html#1]

b. New CDL Updates No Longer Available

As of November 20, web and telnet users will no longer be able to set up new Updates in the CDL-hosted journal article databases, but will continue to be able to in the Melvyl Catalog.

Campus members of the Transition Steering Committee, Users Council, and Resource Liaisons have received campus-specific lists of the numbers of Updates holders on their campuses and their holders’ email addresses.  See the September 26, 2002 issue of CDLINFO for further information: [http://www.cdlib.org/news/cdlinfo/cdlinfo092602.html#1]

c. The End is Nigh!

The end of the CDL-hosted databases, that is.  Because of the Thanksgiving and Winter Holidays, there will be only two more editions of CDLINFO in 2002.  We wanted to remind our readers one last time–in case they need reminding–that the CDL-hosted databases will be retired at the end of this year.  The Melvyl Web interface will remain as it is now, directing users to the vendor versions of the databases, rather than the two choices of the CDL-hosted and vendor versions of a database.

This is an opportunity to thank all of those campus staff who have participated in making the transition a success–particularly the Transition Steering Committee, the Resource Liaisons and others testing the new versions of databases, and campus staff who have done publicity, outreach, and training of the new databases, as well as those behind the scenes who made technical changes.  This transition has been a collective success thanks to all your contributions.

As for the retired databases, MAGS tell us that she plans to spend time reading and gardening; ABI/Inform has joined an investment club; BIOSIS is writing the great American novel…

d. Multi-Item Services for PubMed

Beginning Tuesday, November 19th, the CDL will implement enhancements to Multi-item Services via PubMed.  Before UC-eLinks was implemented, CDL created Multi-item Services that allowed users to see UC holdings, access UC licensed e-journals, and to Request a list of items from PubMed.  Multi-item Services was implemented in order to provide the same functionality that users had in the CDL-hosted version of MEDLINE.

The Multi-item Services tool currently duplicates the services offered by UC-eLinks for individual items (links to holdings, e-journals and Request).  UC PubMed users will continue to be able to use UC-eLinks for single items and to use Multi-item Request (via the “order” button on PubMed for one or more items).  Although Multi-item Services are currently available only for PubMed, the CDL hopes to extend them to other vendors in the future once the CDL-hosted databases and Melvyl retire.

In consultation with the PubMed Liaisons and Patron Initiated Request Operations Group, the following decisions have been made about the service.

–Links to electronic items will show in the default record display for the Multi-item Request opening screen—no need to ask for holdings to see these.  These journal links will be derived from UC-eLinks, and will display as a simple hyperlink after the citations that says: “View article.”
–Wording for the holdings link has been made more consistent with the UC-eLinks holdings link text:

FROM:
Check to see if your campus library owns this item [a new window will open]

TO:
See if your campus has this. Check the Melvyl Catalog/Periodicals

–Eventually, we hope users will be able to choose holdings from more than one citation at a time and have the holdings display integrated with the citation display (as it appears now in the CDL-hosted databases).  For the moment, however, they will only be able to view holdings for items one at a time.

Some other changes are also taking place.
–Vendor name:
For the multi-item services page and Request, we will be able to report the vendor from which the citations came. This should help with troubleshooting.

–Graphics:
The graphics will change to look similar to those used for UC-eLinks and for the version of Request that appears through UC-eLinks.