The Smithsonian Libraries, Archives and Museums have just announced the creation of their Collections Search Center.   This system allows the public to search over 2.3 million records.

Check out the press release below:

Smithsonian Libraries, Archives and Museums have worked together and created the Collections Search Center (http://collections.si.edu), a one-stop-searching center for the public for SI collections.  This fast growing Collections Search Center is hosted by OCIO and currently contains 2.3 million records with 280,000 online media such as images, sound files, videos, and online collections.

Collections are contributed by:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

National Air and Space Museum

National Museum of American Indians

National Museum of Natural History

National Portrait Gallery

National Postal Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Archives at the National Museum of the American Indian

Archives Center at National Museum of American History

Archives of American Art

Archives of American Gardens

Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives,

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Human Studies Film Archives

National Air and Space Museum Archives Division

National Anthropological Archives

Smithsonian American Art Museum Photo Archives

Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory – Chandra X-ray Observatory

We encourage you to look at and explore the search center and see the power of pulling our resources together.  The following includes just a few examples:

American Artist portraits

American Indian beadworks

African American pilots

Butterflies

This search center also supports the ability to read manuscripts page-by-page with zooming capability.  Please try these examples:

Notebook by Albert Samuel

Sitting Bull pictographic autobiography, 1882

We thank all the partners for making this effort possible.

Ching-hsien Wang,

Library and Archives Systems Support Branch,

Office of Chief Information Officer

The third Library Assistants’ Day was held on November 3, 2009 in Syracuse.  Over 115 people came to this event that was co-sponsored by Nylink, CLRC, SCRLC, RRLC, and Upstate Medical.  It was a great turn-out and a wonderful opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the state and one from Canada.   Sessions included customer service based upon FISH!, social networking, creating library exhibits and displays, genealogy resources, an update on Microsoft 2007 and time management.   Thanks to all of the attendees and our speakers for a day well spent learning and networking.  Now it is onto the fourth annual Library Assistants’ Day, 2010.

Oxford University Press is conducting surveys to obtain your input for guiding Oxford on the enhancement of Grove Art Online and Grove Music Online. As an incentive, Oxford is entering all survey respondents into drawings for Amazon Kindles.  In addition, Oxford encourages you to pass the survey links on to colleagues, professors, researchers, and students, directing them to provide your contact information at the end of the survey. The librarian or individual with the most referrals will be awarded $250 to spend at the OUP website (for Oxford books).

Here are the survey links:

Grove Art — http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=izEtVGCiuHyr15RgppMIlQ_3d_3d

Grove Music — http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6NxNBwCaSUQ3N0_2fvDSlZWA_3d_3d

Surveys must be completed by Friday, November 20, at 5 p.m.

OTHER GROVE ART AND GROVE MUSIC NEWS:

The Fashion Institute of Technology, including FIT’s Gladys Marcus Library, recently collaborated with Oxford  to enhance Grove Art Online with the addition of content focusing on fashion as a visual art. As a result, Grove Art Online has been enriched with more than 100 new and revised articles and over 160 new images. A general introduction to fashion content in Grove Art can be  accessed by clicking on “Tools & Resources” within the Oxford Art Online portal, and then following the link for “thematic guides” to the  “Fashion” icon/link.

For Grove Music Online, an “Essential 20th-century Reading List” has been added to the Tools & Resources area (see link under Oxford Music Online banner). This list outlines some of the most influential writings on contemporary music, from composer tracts to periodicals to historical and theoretical studies published during the era. Hyperlinks are provided to help explore related content in Grove Music Online.

The Tools & Resources area offers several other pathways to content within and outside of Grove Music Online including an index of opera roles, music timelines, topical guides (e.g.,  women composers), and notably, research resources that provide detailed overviews of the types of resources (e.g., musical congress reports, periodicals, manuscript sources) and the types of institutions (e.g., libraries) that house them.

New Feature: “search within this article” (Grove Art and Grove Music) – You can now limit your search to the article you are viewing. This new functionality is particularly helpful with large articles spread over multiple pages, allowing users to search for terms within a single article, such as large country articles and articles on families.  The “search within this article” box is located near the top left of each entry. Simply click on the plus sign [+] to open the search box, enter your term(s) and click “search”. The search box expands to display a convenient list of search hits along with headings to contextualize them.

If your library is not currently subscribing to Grove Art Online or Grove Music Online, and you would like to take a look, you can sign up for free 30-day trials at https://ams.oup.com/user/trial.pfm. Contact Nylink for discounted pricing at services@nylink.org.

How can cultural heritage institutions legally use the Internet to improve public access to the rich collections they hold?

A new digitization manual from Peter Hirtle, Cornell University Library’s senior policy advisor, can help professionals at these institutions answer that question."Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums," published by Cornell University Library, is based on a well-received Australian manual written by Emily Hudson and Andrew T. Kenyon of the University of Melbourne, and it conforms to American law and practice. See more information about this publication here: http://communications.library.cornell.edu/com/news/PressReleases/manual.cfm

As reported in a previous posting (http://nylink.org/SL/index.php/archives/715), the LexisNexis Academic interface will soon be changing. LexisNexis is seeking feedback on the enhancements and posted the following message today on the LexisNexis Academic e-list:

Dear Colleagues,

We are entering the final design phase of the interface enhancements to LexisNexis Academic and we would like to hear your reaction to the Beta that has been available since September. I will be hosting 3 teleconferences in the next couple of weeks to provide an opportunity for you to discuss the new interface with me and your colleagues at other institutions.  We have also posted an online survey that we encourage you to complete if this is more convenient for you than the conference calls.

 Teleconference Schedule (all times are US Eastern Time)

 - November 4, Wednesday, at 2:00-3:00 PM       

 - November 6, Friday, at Noon-1:00 PM  

 - November 9, Monday, at Noon-1:00 PM

 Attendance is limited to 15 people on each call. Please sign up at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SlxgJdcMYez9k6JM8ICrQA_3d_3d

 Or, take the online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lPYM2pb1NkexMFdEp92vSQ_3d_3d

 And, as always, please feel to contact me directly.

 Best regards,

Alistair

Alistair Morrison, MA, MLS

Product Manager

LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions
7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 1300

Bethesda MD 20814

Telephone: 301-951-4529 | Switchboard: 800-638-8380 | Fax: 301-652-1273
Email: alistair.morrison@lexisnexis.com
Website: http://academic.lexisnexis.com�
Subscriber Wiki: http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic
Web Subscription Support: academicsupport@lexisnexis.com
Join Our ListServ: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/listserv

H.W. Wilson’s Art Full Text database now features coverage of 63 additional journals (46 of them in full text), expanding user access to research in important art-related subjects such as history, cultural studies, and art education. Full-text biographical profiles have also been added — rich, narrative life stories of more than 6,000 important artists (and growing).

New WilsonWeb tools also make using Art Full Text easier and more productive, including electronic translation of articles from English into 11 languages, translations of foreign-language articles into English, the ReadSpeaker text-to-speech converter (read about this handy tool at http://www.hwwilson.com/news/news_1_26_09.htm), and “My WilsonWeb” space for storing searches, results, and notes.

Learn more about Art Full Text at http://www.hwwilson.com/news/news_10_1_09.htm.

Wilson is currently offering special discounts (in addition to the lower prices already available through Nylink) on new subscriptions to Art Full Text and other Wilson art-related databases:

Art Museum Image Gallery (http://www.hwwilson.com/Databases/artmuseum.htm)

Cinema Image Gallery (http://www.hwwilson.com/Databases/artcinema.htm)

Art Index Retrospective, complements Art Full Text by providing indexing coverage back to 1929 of nearly 600 publications that collectively provide an in-depth record of contemporary art history. Learn more at http://www.hwwilson.com/databases/artretro.htm.

Art Abstracts and Art Index, alternative versions of Art Full Text without the full-text access.

Free 30-day trials are available by signing up at http://www.hwwilson.com/wwebforms/Wwebtrials/newtrialform/wweb1_2.cfm.

Contact Nylink for pricing at services@nylink.org.

Did you know that the LexisNexis Academic interface is undergoing changes that are scheduled to take effect in December? If not, you might want to read the information available at the LexisNexis Wiki for Higher Education, accessible at http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic. This wiki is loaded with helpful information that supports librarians on the use of LexisNexis Academic, LexisNexis Congressional and LexisNexis Statistical. 

General information about the Academic enhancements is available on the wiki in an FAQ located at http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Academic#Enhancements_for_December_2009.

For enhancement specifics, including changes to search forms and access to a beta version of the new
Academic interface, go to http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Academic_Search_Form_Menu.

According to LexisNexis, the primary means of communicating with subscribing libraries about the upcoming changes to Academic is the Academic listserv. Sign up at http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/listserv/default.asp.

For those libraries that are currently subscribing to LexisNexis Statistical, you should note that the Statistical interface is being enhanced as well, as of January 2010. Read about it on the wiki at http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Statistical.

If you’re interested in subscribing to any LexisNexis e-resources, contact Nylink at services@nylink.org for pricing and trials.

OCLC offers you a way to boost your buying power and build your eBook collection. NetLibrary Shared eBook Collections include titles hand-picked by OCLC collection development librarians.

A shared collection is a great way to start or add to your eBook collection. You’ll gain access to hundreds of frontlist eBooks by combining your buying power with that of other participating libraries. And the great thing is, with continued participation and feedback from the membership, the collection keeps growing!

With the OCLC Shared Collections, you’ll benefit from:

• eBooks available 24/7 via the Internet. Allows users to self serve on any computer with Web access.
• Collections developed specifically for libraries like yours. Projected list of 1,000–1,500 titles gives you access to content from leading publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis and Facts on File.
• Real-time usage reports. Available anytime online.
• No physical inventory to manage. Check-outs and check-ins handled automatically.
• Full OCLC-MARC record sets. Yours at no extra cost.

Order now and save!

Order your collection by December 31, 2009 to take advantage of current low rates. Please contact us for details on this exceptional collection at 1-800-898-6252, ext. 3800 or www.oclc.org/info/sharedcollections

The new OCLC Training Portal aggregates all training available throughout the nation on OCLC products and services, as well as related training—topics relevant to today’s information specialists. In addition to training conducted by experienced OCLC staff, you can find and register for training available from all OCLC-certified Training Partners.

OCLC and its Training Partners work together to ensure that the training requirements you have throughout the year can be easily fulfilled. Outlined below are classes we have planned for the next few months. We add new classes frequently, so to stay as up-to-date as possible, sign up for our Training E-mail Updates at: www.oclc.org/us/en/email/subscribe.htm

OCLC Connexion Client Training

Need help improving your cataloging productivity? Whether you’re looking for a comprehensive course or targeted skill-building, our wide selection of classes will give you what you need.

• OCLC Connexion Browser Training
• OCLC CatExpress Training

Introduction to Developing and Managing Digital Programs

Basic-level digital project planning, process development and implementation strategies. For libraries, archives, museums and heritage organizations:

• CONTENTdm5: Adding Visual Materials
• CONTENTdm5: Adding Textual Materials
• CONTENTdm5: Maintaining Collections
• Overview of Metadata for Digital Programs

WorldCat Resource Sharing Basics

Learn the basics of using the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing system for Interlibrary Loan:

• Streamlining OCLC Resource Sharing Workflows
• Empower the Patron: Unmediated Requesting in WorldCat Resource Sharing
• Custom Holdings on WorldCat Resource Sharing

For more information, please contact OCLC’s Support department by phone at 1-800-848-5800 and follow the prompts (menu selections 1-4-2-1 for FirstSearch and WorldCat.org), or by e-mail at support@oclc.org.

Attention all Nylink subscribers to LexisNexis e-resources! Please see the following announcement posted today to the LN Academic list:

Dear Colleagues,

All LexisNexis online products will be unavailable during a scheduled maintenance outage related to the end of Daylight Savings Time.  Products affected include LexisNexis Academic, Congressional, and Statistical.

LexisNexis online products will be unavailable to users from October 31, 9:00 p.m. through November 01, 2009, 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

While we have scheduled the outage at time of relatively low activity, we regret the inconvenience it will cause for some users.  Please help us minimize the inconvenience by notifying the users at your institution who may be affected by this interruption.  

Best regards,

Alistair

Alistair Morrison, MA, MLS

Product Manager

LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions

7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 1300

Bethesda MD 20814

Telephone: 301-951-4529 | Switchboard: 800-638-8380 | Fax: 301-652-1273

Email: alistair.morrison@lexisnexis.com

Website: http://academic.lexisnexis.com

 Subscriber Wiki: http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic

Web Subscription Support: academicsupport@lexisnexis.com

Join Our ListServ: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/listserv