New Resources Available

June 22, 2006 Author: CDLCategories:

a. Education Index Retrospective

By Diane Childs (UCLA), Resource Liaison

Education Index Retrospective, with indexing for 1929 through 1983, has recently been purchased by the CDL. On WilsonWeb, it complements the current UC subscription to Education Full Text (with indexing 1983-; abstracts, 1994-; and selected full text beginning with 1996).

While most students want to know about only the most recent articles (and the ones that are the first 10 or a screen-full of results, whichever comes first), a significant audience exists for articles published about a situation at the time that it was happening. Education Index Retro will be of use to graduate students in education (especially the history of education) but also people in history, political science, sociology, law, and more.

Given the overlap in coverage for 1983 between Education Full Text and Education Index Retrospective, one might expect duplication, but that is not the case. On June 16, 2006, in a search for “blacks” in keywords in 1983, a total of 208 results were retrieved in both Education Index Retro and Education Full Text. Of these, 144 came from Education Full Text and 64 from Education Index Retro. In the one instance of duplication, both records were from Education Index Retrospective.

With coverage that extends over a long period of time, librarians are always concerned that searchers will fail to use the older terminology they need for a thorough search. Wilson has applied current vocabulary to old records. Furthermore, they are showing both the historical subject headings and the current subjects. Wilson has also introduced a feature that can help people think of terms that had not occurred to them or focus on particular aspects of their topic. Subject headings included in the results are highlighted before the search results are presented.

Users of these databases should still keep in mind that Wilson uses automatic plurals. A workaround for this default is to use quotation marks around single words to make certain that they are searched as typed. If you search the thesaurus, results are returned in alphabetical order with the source of the terminology indicated in a tab above the term. You can use the search history to set up an alert as well as to rerun the search. (The New Results link seems not to be working at the moment.)

Users can also use the “aims and objectives” feature. The “aims and objectives” sub-division has been one of the best selling points for Education Index and its successors for many years. Recommend it to people wanting to know “why” things are as they are or what the arguments for and against any particular education phenomenon might be.

As described by Wilson, the Education Full Text and Education Index Retrospective databases cover the following topics:

Education Full Text: Competency-based Education, Computers in Education, Educational Technology, Instructional Media, Literacy Standards, and Prayer in Public Schools.
Education Index Retrospective: Curriculum, Distance Learning, Educational Law & Litigation, Juvenile Delinquency, Literacy, Psychology of Learning, School Buildings, Tests & Measurements, and War & Education.
Both Education Full Text and Education Index Retrospective: Adult Education, Arts, Athletics, Comparative Education, Continuing Education, Elementary Education, Ethnic/Multicultural Education (Education Index Retrospective) or Multicultural/Ethnic Education (Education Full Text), Government Funding, Higher Education, Language Arts, Library Science, Parent-Teacher Relations, Preschool Education, Religious Education, School Administration, Science & Mathematics, Secondary Education, Special Education, Student Counseling, Teacher Education, Teacher Evaluation, Teaching Methods, and Vocational Education.

b. Handbooks in Economics

By Harold Colson (UC San Diego)

The authoritative and heavily used Elsevier “Handbooks in Economics” monographic series is now activated for online use across all UC campuses. The series presently comprises 23 titles in 64 volumes containing more than 700 review essays, many of which are authored by UC contributors and some of which stand among the most highly cited works in all of economics.

Print versions of the Handbooks circulate frequently in our libraries and are often held in multiple copies to keep up with heavy faculty and graduate student use. The new online versions provide durable links, PDF display, search functionality, and dynamic reference linking to e-journal articles and abstract databases.

Cancellations of print subscriptions are permitted under our license, and our online fees will provide access to new series titles and volumes as they are released.

The Handbooks in Economics series consists of 23 titles, with three new arrivals expected in 2006.

c. Oxford University Press Journals Archive

By David Michalski (UC Davis), Resource Liaison

The UC libraries have recently acquired system-wide access to Oxford Journals’ Online Archives. The purchase of the complete archive allows users to access the recently digitized backfiles of more than 140 titles, with the oldest material dating back to the middle of the 19th century.

Users are able to search and browse the many important Oxford Journals titles in the fields of the Humanities, Law, the Social Sciences, Medicine, and the Sciences. The archives contain the content of each journal from Volume 1, Issue 1 up until the end of 1995. Post-1995 current journal content continues to be available by subscription separately.

The Online Archives’ integrated search interface covers the archive holdings and recent content. Results will display citations and abstracts in HTML, and links to the PDF files of the full text, including all images and graphics. Links to “similar articles in this journal” will also be provided.

This archive will be met with enthusiasm by users looking for digital convenience and full-text search options. It also fills in gaps in our collections of Oxford Journal titles, and provides libraries with space-saving options.

More information about this acquisition can be found at: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/access_purchase/archives.html

Access will be available for all campuses later this week.