Library news:

From the University Librarian

Welcome to the New Year

The Library is looking forward to significant developments in its collections and services in 2006. Last year we were able to purchase some significant back files of Web of Science, and to subscribe to additional services such as CINAHL full text and the Literature Resource Center. More details of these and other new resources are provided below. In 2006, the new distribution of acquisitions funds will provide more resources for monograph purchases. These are being used to provide more copies of books identified as ‘required reading’ for students and also to allow for greater depth of collecting to support new programs and research areas. We are also in the process of revising our liaison structure to improve liaison with academic staff in collection development.

There have been improvements in the Library’s lending services during the vacation. We can now let borrowers know when books are due for return, rather than when they are overdue, which saves the inconvenience of fines. Also at the beginning of semester we are introducing two new services. It will be easier to request items from other branch libraries within the University, and students will be able to book items they wish to read in the Reserve collection.

During the year the Library will replace its outdated Document Delivery management system. This will provide improved efficiency in managing requests behind the scenes. We are also looking to upgrade the Masterfile system for the registering of copyright material, which presently is inconvenient and makes compliance with copyright legislation more difficult than it need be.

Overall, these projects for the new year will make for greater efficiencies within the Library. We will continue to work with academic staff to develop students’ skills in finding, evaluating and using information effectively, and to provide a welcoming place for students to study.

Linda Luther

Semester 1 Opening Hours

As reported in the last Library News the opening hours of the branch and campus libraries have been reviewed. For the full details for 2006 please check our Web page at: http://www.utas.edu.au/library/about/openhours.html

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News from Sections

Art and Music Library

Paul Reynolds

Paul Reynolds has recently been appointed as the Art and Music Librarian. Paul has been acting in the role for the past two years but with the retirement of the former Librarian Jacqui Pickard, has now been appointed to the position on a continuing basis. Paul has over 9 years experience at the UTas Library with roles including management of the Serials, Acquisitions and Training and Publications sections. He also has previous experience at the University of Ballarat and Monash University.

Circulation

Staffing News
Tricia Vierra will be Acting Circulation Librarian until the end of September 2006. Her position is half time, mornings, ext. 2222, Morris Miller Library. There are some exciting projects in the offing, such as online requesting for books - very soon, and then online intrcampus requesting for photocopies - sometime after Easter. The Library staff are very excited about these new features. Online requesting for books is undergoing stress testing and will be released soon. More details later.

Tricia Vierra

Prue Senior is the Circulation Officer (x3204) in Launceston until the end of September and Kay Hughes will continue as the Circulation Officer in Morris Miller Library (x2221) until the end of June.

Document Delivery

Staff and students eligible for the Document Delivery Service probably know that we are not adjusting the School Document Delivery quotas for 2006. The 2005 quota allocation to the Schools will apply. Most Schools did not use their full quota in 2005.

There has been a slight decline in the use of our Service. We received 18,127 requests from our UTAS clients in 2005 compared with 19,527 in 2004. This 7% decrease is most likely due to the continuing increase in online access to full text journals.

The Document Delivery Librarian is about to send out the final quota usage reports for 2005. Schools will be able to see how close they were to filling their 2005 quotas.

Staff in Document Delivery look forward to obtaining items from outside sources that help you with your teaching and research needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us if your requests have not been filled within at least eleven (11) days. Books can take longer to supply, often three (3) weeks.

Hobart Phone: 03 6226 2230
E-mail: docdel.hbt@lib.utas.edu.au
Launceston Phone: 03 6324 3571
E-mail: docdel.ltn@lib.utas.edu.au

Launceston Library

Launceston Cup Day
This falls on February 22nd this year: this is the week before Semester 1 starts. The Launceston Campus Library will be open 8:30 – 6:00 pm as usual on that day.

Sir Raymond Ferrall Centre Learning Hub
The new learning hub housed in the Sir Raymond Ferrall Centre will be open for the start of Semester 1, 2006. There are more than 20 workstations, 2 group study areas, printing and photocopying facilities and a lounge area in the hub. The area will be a 24 hour access area.

Phone: 03 6324 3276
E-mail: Ltn.Reference@utas.edu.au

Law Library

Deb Bowring’s appointment as Acting Law Librarian has been extended until 30th of June when Deb Wright returns with the completion of her project as Manager for the Library Workforce Plan.

Phone: 03 6226 2063
E-mail: Law.Reference@utas.edu.au

Morris Miller Library

Staffing Update
Welcome to Katrina Dewis who has been appointed as half time Liaison Librarian in Morris Miller until the 29th September, 2006. Katrina is currently taking on liaison for English Language Centre/International Students and for Asian Studies and Languages. Katrina will be available in the mornings, Monday to Friday.

Katrina Dewis

Susan Robson has been appointed full-time Liaison Librarian until the 13th April, 2006. Susan will take on liaison responsibilities for Government, Sociology and Riawunna/Aboriginal Studies.

Susan Robson

Phone: 03 6226 2225
E-mail: MML.Reference@utas.edu.au

Science Library

Serial Usage
The Science Library has just begun a project to try and identify serials located in the compactus units that are high-use so that we can look at ways to try and provide better access to our serial collection. We are asking that all staff and students who use any serials located in the compactus units to record the details of the serial used or viewed on the sheets provided at the end of each compactus row.

Staffing Update
Helen Jackson and Debra Ploughman will both be continuing in the position of Library Officer, until Kay Hughes returns in June 2006.

Sarah Crosswell has been appointed to work with Ian Barton (Clinical Library) to assist in delivering the information literacy component of the new 5 Year undergraduate medical curriculum. Sarah will be based in the Science Library for this new position.

Sarah Crosswell

Phone: 03 6226 2441
E-mail: Science.Reference@utas.edu.au

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New Electronic Services

Analytical Abstracts
The Library’s subscription to Analytical Abstracts has recently changed from Silverplatter to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s own platform. Coverage remains from 1980 onwards. To search the database simply select the 'Search the database' link from the left hand side of the opening page. The citations in Analytical Abstracts include links to 'Full text'. Depending on whether the Library has access/subscriptions to the specific journals in question, this link may take you to the full article or may just take you to an abstract.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases1.html

AustLII
AustLII has now increased its content by adding five new databases.
Users are now able to search Workers Compensation Commission of New South Wales –Presidential decisions 2002 onwards. As well, the repealed ACT and NSW Acts and Regulations are available on AustLII.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases1.html

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
The CINAHL index has become a full text product with the addition of Proquest's Nursing Journals to the Library’s subscription.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases2.html#c

CSA
The CSA Sociological Abstracts database has been enhanced with several new features during 2005:
· The 1952-1962 CSA Sociological Abstracts backfile records have been added to the database. Records originally printed in 1979 in Social Planning/Policy and Development Abstracts have also been digitized and added to CSA Social Services Abstracts.
· Abstracts have been added to 1963-1972 records in the CSA Sociological Abstracts backfile.
· 2,000,000 Cited References have been added to the CSA Social Science Databases.
· Over 100,000 "Scholar Profiles" from the new Scholar Universe: Social Science service have been provided. Author profiles cover currently active authors, faculty, and researchers at 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada and include contact information, education, research interests, home page, and verified publications from CSA collections. Organizational profiles include information, homepage, and member lists.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases2.html#c

EMBASE.com
EMBASE.com provides comprehensive and timely access to pharmacological and biomedical literature. Updated daily, EMBASE.com contains over 16 million EMBASE and Medline records and indexes 6,500 journals from 70 countries. Features of the database include: table of contents for 4,500 EMBASE journals, links from molecular sequence numbers to NCBI information, unlimited e-mail alerting service and a portal to the Scirus web search engine. EMBASE.com is on a 13 month subscription trial.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases2.html#e

Literature Resource Center
Built on Thomson Gale's three hallmark author databases: Contemporary Authors Online, offering biographical coverage of more than 122,000 writers; Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, featuring entries on all authors appearing in CLC since vol. 95 of the print series and complete profiles of 266 most studied authors from editions prior to vol. 95; and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, containing more than 11,000 biocritical essays on authors and their works written by academic scholars. The Literature Resource Center also includes selected full-text from a substantial number of new e-journals. These new e-journals are also indexed in our catalogue and e-journals pages. A trial subscription of this database runs until December 2006.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases3.html#l

SCALEplus
There will be no further updating to the SCALEplus site after the 1 January 2006. Users should now use the ComLaw website for current Commonwealth legislative materials.
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/

Scifinder
The latest version of SciFinder Scholar 2006 has been released. New features include:
· Structure Similarity Searching (SSM only)
· New structure and reaction query tools
· Query highlighting in reaction searching
· Easy access to additional reaction information
· Enhanced multi-step reaction display
· New quick look-up of research references
· Duplicate detection/removal
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases4.html#s

Shakespeare Collection
An impressive array of tools for Shakespeare research from Thomson Gale, including the Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, criticism, commentary and reviews from scholarly journals, magazines and books, facsimile editions and much more.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases4.html#s

Supreme Court of Tasmania website
The website for the Supreme Court of Tasmania has been changed. On this website there is information relating to the court and the court process and links include current sentencing decisions, Supreme Court judgments and also information relating to self represented litigants.
http://www.supremecourt.tas.gov.au

UpToDate
UpToDate provides access to original, evidence-based, peer reviewed medical information with a practical focus. Topic reviews are provided by physician experts which address each clinical problem thoroughly yet concisely. UpToDate is fully referenced, illustrated and linked to 160,000+ Medline abstracts as well as a complete drug information database and drug interactions tool.
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases4.html#u

Web of Science
A backfile set for Web of Science has recently been purchased. The coverage dates are now:
Science Citation Index - 1945 +
Social Science Citation Index - 1956 +
Arts & Humanities Citation Index - 1975 +
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases4.html#w

Xrefer Plus
Eight new reference titles have been added to Xrefer Plus.

They are:
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Collins Irish Dictionary
Macquarie Dictionary
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law
Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary
Oddbins Dictionary of Wine
The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease
Who's Who 2006 and Who Was Who 1897-2005
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/info/dbase/dbases4.html#w

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Teaching and Help

Workshops and Library Classes
Library workshops for 2006 have already begun with large numbers of
students participating in the UniStart program in Hobart, Launceston and
Burnie.

Our branch libraries will be offering a wide variety of classes and hands-on workshops during Semester 1. For details of forthcoming library workshops for staff and postgraduate researchers and our many library tours and other information literacy classes please see the Library Tours and Workshops webpage: http://www.utas.edu.au/library/assist/tours_workshops.html

Special Information Skills Classes
At the start of the year it is time to think about library and information literacy training needs for 2006. Liaison Librarians can deliver information literacy classes or hands-on workshops, which focus on specific subjects or courses. Please contact your Liaison Librarian directly to discuss your information training needs. Liaison Librarians and their contact details are listed at:
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/about/liais.html

Items for Reserve and eReserve
When submitting lists of materials to go on Reserve or eReserve for semester 1 units, please use the online form available on the library's Web pages at:
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/forstaff/reserve_request.html

Staff are asked to submit their Reserve requests, as early as possible before the beginning of the semester. For more information please contact your liaison librarian or see:
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/cat/staffres.html

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