New BIOSIS Previews URL; bookmark that PID!

Beth Weil, the BIOSIS Previews Resource Liaison, recently uncovered a problem with access to Ovid’s BIOSIS Previews database.

In reviewing the statistics from Ovid for this database, it became clear that all UC campuses have a significant number of sessions going to the wrong Biosis file.  Back in January 2003 it was necessary to switch from a URL which included “bioz” as part of the URL construction to one with “b3oz” included in order to access the 2003 data.  At that time CDL created a PID with the correct URL for the Ovid ‘jumpstart’ to this database.  It now appears that all UC campuses still have sessions that use the previous URL and consequently these end-users aren’t seeing any data beyond 2002.

In May 2003, UCB had 193 sessions, UCD 346, UCSB 136, UCSC 121, UCSD 85, UCLA 128, UCSF 254, UCI 1007, UCR 167 using the previous URL rather than the new one, which includes the current data. Since all of the CDL and campus library web sites use the PID (“Persistent ID” for the new URL), the most likely answer for this high number of sessions is that end-users have bookmarked our earlier jumpstarts (URLs).  For most campuses the number of sessions using the incorrect URL are slowly decreasing.

Correct PID: http://uclibs.org/PID/10348 (actual URL: http://gateway.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&MODE=ovid&PAGE=main&NEWS=n&DBC=y&D=biopcdl –in case you need it for troubleshooting purposes)

This would be a good time to review all of your campus’ BIOSIS Previews links to make sure that they are using the PID mentioned above.  For those who bookmark web sites, the best solution is to bookmark the PID; this will prevent any future version issues–if/when there are changes, the PID will be updated automatically to go to the new version.

Below are instructions on how to bookmark a PID:

PC Users: Internet Explorer:
1. Open BIOIS using the PID
2. Click on Favorites (to display bookmarks)
3. Right-click on the bookmark and choose “Properties”
4. Under the “Web Document” tab, change the URL to the PID in the URL box
5. Click OK

PC Users: Netscape 7:
1. Open BIOIS using the PID
2. Under Bookmarks, choose “Manage bookmarks”
3. Right-click on the bookmark and choose “Properties”
4. Under the “Info” tab, change the URL to the PID in the Location box
5. Click OK

MAC Users: Internet Explorer:
1. Open BIOIS using the PID
2. Select Windows / Favorites (to display bookmarks)
3. Select bookmark
4. Click and hold mouse until menu displays
5. Select “Edit Address”, then change the URL to the PID
6. Click Enter

MAC Users: Netscape 7
1. Open BIOIS using the PID
2. Under Bookmarks, choose “Manage bookmarks”
3. Highlight the bookmark and click the “Properties” button
4. Change the URL to the PID
5. click OK

Special thank you to Renee Chin in UCSD Acquisitions department for providing information on bookmarking PIDs.