The OCLC FirstSearch service will be unavailable between 2:00- 6:00 am US ET (-5 GMT) on Sunday, February 13th. OCLC will be conducting a maintenance install. Service will resume at least by 6:00am US ET.
Author Archives: scofieli
Trial Database: Mergent Online (available until 3/18/2011)
Mergent Online is an Internet-based suite of information resources that enables in-depth business and financial research.
This OSU Trial runs through 3/18/2011.
Please tell us what you think. Comments on this resource can be submitted on the electronic resource evaluation form.
Trial Database: Plunkett Research Online (available until March 15, 2011)
Plunkett Research Online provides statistics, trends, and in-depth analysis of industries and the companies that make up those industries. Besides public companies, it includes information on many international companies, and many private companies.
This OSU Trial runs through 3/15/2011.
Please tell us what you think. Comments on this resource can be submitted on the electronic resource evaluation form.
Now Available: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a collection of more than 57,000 specially written and illustrated biographies, which describe the lives of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond from the 4th century BC to the 21st century. It includes 16,500 biographies of new subjects from all periods. The revised entries offer detailed and extensive biographical information drawn from primary and secondary sources.
Now available: LearningExpress Library
LearningExpress Library provides supplemental skill building tests and ebooks for students of all ages. In the section for college students, you’ll discover eBooks, instantly scored practice tests, and interactive lessons in areas such as public speaking and mathematics skills improvement. If you have an eye on graduate school, you’ll find practice tests for the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, and more. Free Registration is required to utilize this resource.
Now Available: Encyclopedia of Geography
The six volumes (1200+ entries) of the Encyclopedia of Geography encapsulate a diverse array of topics to offer a comprehensive and useful summary of the state of the discipline in the early 21st century. Key features:
- Gives a concise historical sketch of geography’s long, rich, and fascinating history, including human geography, physical geography, and GIS
- Provides succinct summaries of trends such as globalization, environmental destruction, new geospatial technologies, and cyberspace
- Decomposes geography into the six broad subject areas: physical geography; human geography; nature and society; methods, models, and GIS; history of geography; and geographer biographies, geographic organizations, and important social movements
- Provides hundreds of color illustrations and images that lend depth and realism to the text
- Includes a special map section
- Cross references between entries allow readers to pursue topics in depth
Trial Database: ProQuest Newsstand™ (available until Feb. 3, 2011)
During January 2011, OSU Libraries is trialing ProQuest Newsstand™. This full-text newspaper database provides access to more than 1,200 newspapers. Find the Chicago Tribune here exclusively. Other national titles are: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. More than 90 regional, local, and military titles are also included. For many titles backfiles date to 1980s.
The OSU Trial runs through 2/3/11.
EBL Brief Scheduled Downtime: December 22nd
Due to necessary system maintenance being performed by their host provider, EBL will be unavailable for 5-15 minutes during the following scheduled time:
USA (Pacific): 20:00 – 21:00 December 22nd, 2010
Contemporary Women’s Issues Discontinued
As of January 2011, OSU Libraries will no longer supply access to the Contemporary Women’s Issues (CWI) database.
Last spring, the vendor for Contemporary Women’s Issues, OCLC, announced it is no longer supporting this database. Usage has steadily declined from when the library started recording in 1999. CWI was most used in 2000—there were 1042 searches. In 2010, there was half that-571 searches. Compare this to Women’s Studies International which the library added in 2008. In 2010 there were 2216 searches.
Much of the content in CWI can be found elsewhere: library catalogs, the open web and the libraries’ other databases, in particular Ebsco.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index Discontinued
As of January 2011, OSU Libraries will no longer supply access to the Arts & Humanities Index (A&HI) database.
Last spring, the vendor for A&HI, OCLC, announced it is no longer supporting this database. Since 2002, usage has steadily declined. Add to this that just over 60% of the titles indexed in A&HI are also indexed in other library databases (Ebsco, Project Muse). Thus OSU Libraries will not seek another vendor at this time.