News: April, 2003 - Vol. 7, No. 4
Table of Contents
Digital Library Lending Program
Journal Locator
The library has introduced Journal Locator, a one-stop searching service that helps users find full-text journals. The journals may be available online through the library's electronic resources and databases or in its print and microfilm collections. Users may search using a "Search for Journal Title" option or use an alphabetical list to browse for a journal or magazine title.
Links to many journal titles will go directly to that full-text journal where the user will be able to browse by volume, issue or date. Other titles that are included within a large database will link to that database’s search screen. Links for print and microfilm materials will go directly to the holdings listing in the Library’s online Voyager catalog.
The electronic journals are for use by UMD students, faculty and staff. Due to licensing agreements, they are only available on campus or through the library’s proxy service. Some e-journal listings require an additional username/password specific to that title. To access these, go to the password page for the additional link.
For more information, contact Susanne Andrews (508-999-8676).
To increase the availability of full-text journal articles, the library has negotiated a joint purchase with the libraries of UMass Amherst and UMass Boston to access ScienceDirect, one of the world’s largest providers of scientific, technical and medical literature.
Library users can search for a journal through the Journal Locator (see above), which will provide a link to the ScienceDirect holdings, or they can search within the list of subscribed journals.
The joint purchase offers access to more than 900 journals, a large subset of the more than 1700 journals available from ScienceDirect, with some titles available as far back as the 1980s (although most are from 1996 or 1993 forward).
The library’s level of participation in ScienceDirect is proportional to the print subscriptions it maintains, explained periodicals librarian Susanne Andrews. The collaboration among the three libraries allows for the availability of many more journals than would be available through a stand-alone purchase.
The service concentrates on journals published by Elsevier but also contains full-text journals from other participating publishers. Despite its focus on the sciences, ScienceDirect is multi-disciplinary, with content in the arts and humanities, business, economics, nursing and the social sciences with such journals as Brain Research, Journal of Archaeological Science, Ethology and Sociobiology, Art Psychotherapy and Speech Communication.
For more information, contact Susanne Andrews (508-999-8676).
An evening of mystery, 4/28
If you’re a fan of mystery thrillers, you’ll want to be at the library’s browsing area at 7 p.m., April 28 to meet popular mystery authors G.H. Ephron and Gary Braver. The Library Associates are sponsoring the event, at which the authors will speak about their books and the writing process. A book signing will follow; books will be available for sale at the event.
The event is free and open to the public.
Library Associates president Prof. Mel Yoken is planning a "dinner with the authors" at a local restaurant, to precede the on-campus event. Proceeds from the dinner will benefit the library. For more details, contact Mel Yoken (508-999-8335).
"G. H. Ephron" is the pen name of two writers: Hallie Ephron and forensic neuropsychologist Dr. Donald Davidoff. The co-authors have published the medical thrillers Amnesia, Addiction, and Delusion in addition to Malingering, a 7-part mystery that was serialized in USA Today last fall.
Gary Braver is the pen name for novelist Gary Goshgarian. His most recent work is last fall’s Gray Matter, a medical thriller about a secret procedure that claims to turn slow children into geniuses. Braver has also published Elixir, a biotech thriller that has been optioned for film by director Ridley Scott. Writing under his own name, he has also published the novels Rough Beast, The Stone Circle and Atlantis Fire.
Birds of North America
The library recently received the final volume in the landmark subscription reference series Birds of North America, Life Histories for the 21st Century. The new compendium of bird knowledge is in the tradition of great bird enterprises such as John James Audubon’s Birds of America and the Life Histories of North American Birds, published between 1919 and 1968 by the Government Printing Office.
Each life history in the current series is an overview of the available research, including population, behavior, habitat, diet and sonograms of song. The 18-volume series, which took ten years to complete, includes profiles of more than 700 birds.
The spotted towhee is one of the birds profiled in Birds of North America.
Digital Camera Lending Program
The Library’s PhotoGraphics Services department is pleased to announce the availability of its Digital Camera Lending Program. As part of a pilot project funded by the university’s Information Technology bond project, PhotoGraphics Services has acquired two digital cameras that may be borrowed by UMD students, faculty and staff who have an up-to-date UMass Pass with a valid library barcode.
To borrow one of the cameras, visit the PhotoGraphics department, which is located in the lower level of the library. Cameras may be checked out from PhotoGraphics Services between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and must be returned one hour before the department closes. Cameras may be checked out for up to 3 hours and may be renewed only if there is another camera available for other patrons.
For more information, visit the program’s web page at or contact Manny Pereira (508-999-8694).
Staff news
In January, health sciences librarian Mary Adams attended a meeting of the New England Library Instruction Group (NELIG) on "Innovative One-Shot Library Sessions." Following the program, she joined with others to begin planning for NELIG’s annual program in June.
Adams also served as a judge for the Taunton High School Science Fair held in January.
In March, Adams hosted a regular meeting of SEMCO, Southeastern Massachusetts Consortium of Health Sciences Libraries, at the library. She also served as site coordinator for SEMCO’s sponsorship of the Medical Library Association Satellite Teleconference "Get HIP to HIPAA: Health Information Professionals and the Health Insurance Portability Act," which was open to the campus community.
