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Library News for the Faculty |
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October 1996
In This Issue:
Digital Evolution Leads to ORION ReplacementThe UCLA Library has contracted with Saint Louis-based Data Research Associates (DRA) to replace the library's current online information system, ORION. The development of the ORION system over the past 30 years has been an outstanding achievement, resulting in a very flexible and powerful tool for gaining access to a variety of bibliographic databases and other information resources. Although ORION has served the library well, it has become obvious that in order keep abreast of the latest developments in information and system technologies a completely new system was necessary. After an exhaustive and exhausting search the library has chosen the new DRA library system software. Although we are turning to an outside vendor, the new system will be far from off-the-shelf. The system will be highly customizable, allowing for the design of public and staff workstation interfaces for specific environments and functions. In addition, the library will be building its own hardware infrastructure. Implementation by 1998 More Powerful Searches A Graphical Interface Access Across the Internet The improvements built into the new library system-object-oriented programming, client/server architecture, graphical user interface, and Internet/Web capabilities-are an important part of the Library's strategy to deliver the resources that UCLA students and faculty will need in the years to come. A Click Away: Scholarly World Wide Web Resources Now Organized and Accessible by DisciplineMusic of the 14th Century, Sparky Fractal Database, National Security Archive, The Urbana Atlas of Pathology, and The Arabic Newstand. What do these titles have in common, and why should faculty care? They are all examples of hundreds of resources collected and made available to the UCLA community through the Library's new Collections and Internet Resources by Discipline (CIRD) Web pages. >Over the past year, collection development librarians have created Web pages geared to the research and teaching interests of the faculty. Focusing on specific fields or disciplines, selectors have organized Web pages with hypertext links to electronic journals, archives, bibliographies, numeric databases, scholarly societies, and, in general, to the best scholarly focused Web sites on the Internet. In providing access to scholarly Internet resources, the Library has used the academic discipline or field as the organizing principle. Faculty can find their subject-specific Web pages on the UCLA Library's home page by clicking on Collection and Internet Resources by Discipline. The basic organization of the categories reflects the academic organization of the university's departments and schools. Within divisions such as Social Sciences or Physical Sciences, faculty will find links to Web pages in their fields and disciplines, such as Political Science or Physics. The subject-specific home pages are coherent packages of information and access points, not only linking to a wide range of remote scholarly resources, but describing and highlighting locally held collections and sources, listing information on conferences and meetings, and providing relevant information on library services. For example, the Arts Library's Selected Internet Sources in Art and Art History points to general teaching resources such as Art Images for College Teaching, specialized research sources in art history such as the Dante Gabriel Rossetti Archive, electronic journals such as Journal of Post-Modern Culture, and museum Web pages. One describes the Arts Library's Special Collections and the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana with links to Leonardo-related Web sites. Library selectors are working in concert with academic departments and programs to design Web pages that enhance access to UCLA collections, as well as to world-wide resources. For example, the Library's West European Studies Bibliographer is coordinating construction of the French Studies CIRD Web page with the European Studies Program's own plans for a home page on French Studies at UCLA. One of their shared goals is to demonstrate the richness of UCLA's holdings in French materials in order to attract scholars and students to UCLA. Science and Biomedical librarians have worked with faculty and publishers to provide Web-based access to full text journals such as Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of Molecular Biology. In selecting specific Internet titles, selectors use the same intellectual criteria as they would for printed materials. Primary documents are evaluated for their research value, titles for their scholarly value, and teaching sources for their relevancy. Selectors also evaluate factors that are unique to the format, such as reliability and authority of the Web site and whether passwords or special software are needed to access the materials. College Library Reopens in Powell with Blend of the Traditional and Cutting EdgeThe undergraduate College Library has returned to the newly renovated Lawrence Clark Powell Library Building, and is now open for users. In the new Powell, the building's Italian Romanesque architectural style provides an historic background for an array of up-to-date technologies and services. The four-year renovation project has included structural reinforcement for seismic stability and upgraded cabling for enhanced computing capabilities.New interior design and furniture have created an environment that is traditional while expressing many new features that make it beautiful, functional, and flexible. A variety of study and seating arrangements accommodate individuals and small groups at carrels, tables, or in comfortable lounge-type groupings. Plug-in capability allows users to access the campus computing backbone network from hundreds of spaces in the library. Sharing the space with the Library is the recently launched College Library Instructional Computing facility, which includes both a drop-in computing commons plus interactive classrooms which are available for faculty use. Night Powell, the late-night study space, is located in the West Reading Room on the first floor. In the Library, book collections are located on the ground and first floors. The Main Reading Room on the second floor houses the reference collection and banks of personal computers where users may access ORION, Melvyl, and World Wide Web resources. Reference and instructional assistance are available in the Main Reading Room. In recent months, the College Library has been experimenting with a program of "reference rovers," library assistants who offer navigational help with the electronic resources; this roving assistance will be offered during peak use times in the reference area. In a newly equipped electronic classroom on the second floor, adjacent to the Main Reading Room, librarians will be offering library-sponsored instruction on use of the Web and other electronic resources, and can work with faculty to devise library assignments that make optimal use of College Library resources. During the past year, electronic reserves have also been introduced in the College Library. This program was an instant success, with thousands of searches performed weekly in the database of reserve listings. This program will be expanded this fall, when scanned images of materials such as exams will be made available through the World Wide Web, enabling students to access selected reserve materials from within and beyond the library's walls. Thematic Maps Created with GIS System Play a Role in Many FieldsFor the last year the Henry J. Bruman Library, Maps and Government Information (MGI) has been working to introduce Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into the UCLA Library system. GIS is a cutting edge computer technology that examines digital spatial data in new and exciting ways, enabling a user to input, manipulate, store, analyze, display, and print out thematic maps. Many people believe that GIS is merely a means for creating computerized maps. In reality the true strength of a GIS resides in a user's ability to query the system concerning the relationships that may exist between its individual features. A GIS's ability to conduct queries promotes spatial analysis as a valuable tool for facilitating the management of information when that information, such as census data, street files, etc., can be linked to a particular geography. Spatial information systems are being employed as fundamental instruments that assist in finding solutions to problems in a wide variety of disciplines and fields in and out of academia. The MGI facility has three workstations, each consisting of a computer operating with a pentium chip, thirty-two megabytes of RAM, a quad speed CD-ROM player, and a twenty-one inch color monitor. Maps may be printed using a laser printer or a color plotter. Each of the computers has access to the Internet and the capacity to ftp data. Each user of the facility will have his or her own logon id and storage space on a server which will insure data security as they work on projects over time. Each of the GIS workstations provides access to the Internet. GIS staff will point users to appropriate data sources which can be incorporated into a geographic information system. These data sets will include both digital geospatial data and attribute data associated with the geography. To operate its GIS system, MGI is using software called ArcView 2.1 which encourages the exploration of the complex relationships that exist between humans and the environment. ArcView allows users to create maps and generate statistical reports and charts based on the numerical data behind the geographical and attribute data. Use of the GIS facility will be available exclusively to UC faculty, students, and staff. Because ArcView is a Windows-based software program, a knowledge of Windows is required in order to use the facility. MGI staff also requires users to attend an instructional class that is intended to accomplish two objectives: first, to introduce the digital data resources available in MGI and how they can be incorporated into a GIS; and second, to teach the basic steps necessary to create a final product. It is our intention to assist individuals in the design and creation of their own maps. After attending the instructional class, individuals will be able to sign up for work sessions on one of the facility's computers for up to three hours at a time. The Growing Use of GIS Maps
Biomedical Library Dramatically Enhances Microcomputing Facility"Digital storage of medical records and medical information will have a profound effect on the materials available for teaching medical students. It is imperative that the School of Medicine implement the changes necessary to assure that our students are able to work with the digital information which will be available." This quote from a report on multimedia education of medical students, prepared by Vice Provost for Medical Sciences Alan Robinson, provides the context for exciting developments taking place on the second floor of the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library. The action plan developed to implement the changes envisioned in Dr. Robinson's report included requiring each student enrolling in the School of Medicine in August 1996 to purchase a computer, and expanding and enhancing the Instructional Microcomputing Facility (IMF) in the Biomedical Library. The latter goal has been largely accomplished as a result of the collaborative effort of the Biomedical Library and the School of Medicine. Returning and incoming medical students will find a completely renovated IMF which includes over 70 individual workstations and several small group multimedia rooms. As additional funding for equipment is identified, the number of individual workstations will increase, and three to four additional small group multimedia rooms will become available for use. Another important action item in this key initiative is to develop a cadre of faculty who teach with computers. Staffing for the School of Medicine's Center for Educational Development & Research has been expanded to create an Instructional Design and Technology Unit (IDTU) to identify appropriate technologies for instruction and assist faculty in the design and redesign of basic science and clinical instruction. In an area adjacent to the IMF, the UCLA/Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Imaging Facility has begun operation. The School of Medicine received funding from HHMI, Vice Chancellor for Research Kumar Patel, Provost Gerald Levey, and Dean Fred Eiserling to develop shared imaging resources to convert primary biological data into digital formats. The Imaging Facility in Biomed will be used by UCLA faculty and staff for data analysis, presentation, and publication. The facility will also serve as the central organizing mechanism for digital storage, analysis, and dissemination of biological scientific data at UCLA. Many exciting collaborative projects are already underway as a result of the synergy created by bringing together faculty, librarians, staff, and students interested in taking full advantage of technology to enhance education and research activities. During the 1995/96 academic year, the IMF was used over 95,000 times to access computer-assisted instruction and personal productivity programs, e-mail, and World Wide Web resources. Faculty Feedback Invited on Full-Text Electronic Journals InitiativeProject Muse is an initiative of Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP) to provide World Wide Web access to the full text of its scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Forty of the press's journals will be integrated into Project Muse by the end of 1996. Currently almost half of the title list is available. The UC Libraries have negotiated a trial subscription to all of the electronic journals that are part of the Project Muse database. Through December 1996, the UCLA community has unlimited access to all of the journals mounted on the Project Muse Server. (Check out the Project Muse Home page at Faculty can view and search the journals using a variety of Web browsers from workstations at home or in their offices. A password is not necessary; anyone using a machine within the domain of the UCLA campus community may access the Web site. Faculty may download, save, and print articles for their personal use and distribute articles in multiple copies for classroom use, following the same guidelines as for printed journal literature. The library will in effect own the material from the electronic files to which it subscribes, and can archive the journals locally. Scholars from across campus will find familiar titles in the Project Muse database, including American Journal of Mathematics, American Quarterly, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Callaloo, Human Rights Quarterly, Modern Fiction Studies, Reviews in American History, and Theatre Journal. Journal titles in literary theory and American Studies begin with the 1995 volume and are updated monthly. Not surprisingly the UCLA libraries currently subscribe to the print format of all but four of the forty JHUP journals selected for digitization in Project Muse. However, Project Muse electronic journals allow searching capabilities that cannot be duplicated in the print environment. One can do keyword searching of the full text or for authors and titles in the tables of contents of a number of journals at once. The user designates which journals to search. Project Muse provides hypertext links to the tables of contents and endnotes. In addition, Project Muse journals are available earlier than their print counterparts. Whether or not the library subscribes to any of these electronic journals on a permanent basis will depend on how the faculty evaluates them during the trial subscription. The Library will be seeking feedback from the faculty via email toward the end of Fall Quarter. Send comments regarding Project Muse journals at any time to Cindy Shelton, Head of the Bibliographers Group at <cshelton@library.ucla.edu>. Major Microfilm Titles to Be Cataloged on ORIONThe Library has embarked on an ambitious program to improve bibliographic access in ORION to titles in large microfilm sets. By Fall quarter, the Library will have completed full cataloging records for over 65,000 titles from the following microfilm sets. Until now, titles in these sets have been virtually inaccessible. With full cataloging in ORION for individual titles, library users will have title-level access to these resources, including the ability to access them by subject headings.
Research Library Collections MoveBeginning in Fall Quarter 1996 the temporarily uncataloged collection (CatSup) can be found on the 5th floor, northwest corner of the URL. This temporary collection of material that is available for use while awaiting permanent cataloging was previously located on the 2nd floor of the URL. The Harvard-Yenching Collection of the East Asian Library will be moved during the early part of Fall Quarter to open stacks on the 2nd floor of the URL just outside of the East Asian Library. |
