Thursday 9 December 2010

Research Libraries UK Calls for Journal Pricing Restraint

At its recent conference, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) announced it would not support future journal big deals unless they showed real price reductions. With a cut to the teaching grant and research budgets flat at best, RLUK members believe that unless this happens they will be forced to cancel significant numbers of subscriptions which will fatally compromise the UK’s capacity for research. (RLUK Press Release, 25 Nov 2010)

RLUK Press Release:http://www.rluk.ac.uk/files/RLUKPressReleaseJournalPricing.doc

Following this press release, the following two articles have been published in the media:

Times Higher Education: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=414367


Wall Street Journal (European edition): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703678404575636820757036514.html

New Version of the Oxford English Dictionary

OUP launch a new version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The new version includes a new design and new functionalities as well as over 2,400 revised entries, new words across the dictionary and the additional of the Historical Thesaurus to the OED. The new version of the OED is available from a new URL http://www.oed.com and is recommended for all off-campus users with a raven password. Your raven password can be used whenever prompted to log-in with Shibboleth.

The new version will be available in parallel with the old version of the OED until the 31st of March 2011. The old version will remain accessible through the old URL http://dictionary.oed.com until this time.

The OED also publishes four updates each year with the next to be added in March 2011.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Please take the time to read this special Christmas package of information as there are some changes this year.

Balfour Library end of term information

Michaelmas Term 2010 ends on Friday 3rd December. All books on loan from the Balfour Library must be returned by this date, or can be renewed for further periods unless they have been requested by another reader. Saturday morning opening has now finished until next term.

Borrowing regulations

Remember that research workers of the Department of Zoology will be able to borrow books that are normally for Overnight Loan for an extended period of 2 weeks at a time during vacations. Undergraduates have special vacation borrowing rights this year, please see below.

Please remember that (except if you are eligible for vacation borrowing) you should not take books away from Cambridge, especially if you are going on field work or on business trips for example - please return any books you have on loan from us first so that they are readily available for other readers.

Vacation borrowing for undergraduates

This academic year we are trialling vacation borrowing for undergraduates for the Christmas and Easter vacations. An email advertising this has been sent to your relevant CamTools course site.

Please see the library website at: http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/library/booksborrow.html for more information on how to borrow, return and renew books on loan from the Balfour Library.

How to access online resources when you are away from Cambridge (and you are still a valid member of the University)

The recommended route for accessing ejournals provided by the University remotely is as follows:
  • Go to the ejournals@cambridge website at: http://camsfx.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/cambridge/az
  • Enter the title of the journal you need (if it does not appear then there is no online subscription to it)
  • Click on the 'find journals by title' button
  • When you click on the name of the journal the Raven login box should appear
  • Enter your Raven userid and password and click on the 'Submit' button
  • You should then be taken to the host page for that journal and you can find the article(s) you need from there
  • (You only need to enter the Raven login once per session so you won't have to keep logging in and out each time you need a different journal)
You may well be able to get the full text of ejournal articles through searching PubMed or Google / GoogleScholar for example, but sometimes you may not necessarily be recognised as being a valid member of the University of Cambridge (it uses IP addresses of computers to identify you). You may therefore sometimes be asked for payment for the full text of an article or be prevented from accessing it, even when a subscription to the ejournal has been paid for by the University. The recommended route as above should guarantee you the access you are entitled to.

It is strongly recommended that you check the ejournals@cambridge website as above to see whether you will actually be able to access particular online journals remotely BEFORE you leave Cambridge. See also the eresources@cambridge website at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/ for access to particular databases. See the 'Access Route' link next to the journal or database title to check this. Some online journals are not accessible outside of the University network so you may wish to download or print off articles from these before you leave Cambridge.

Raven passwords

If you do not currently have a Raven password and think you may need one to access the Web of Knowledge or Scopus databases (to search scientific literature) or online journals and databases when you are away from Cambridge, you should apply for one following the instructions given on the University Computing Service 'How do I get a Raven password?' website at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/docs/faq/n5.html This page will also help you if you have lost your Raven password.

Troubleshooting ejournals access

Finally, if you are having trouble accessing ejournals and eresources remotely using your Raven password please see the guidance provided on the Central Science Library's 'Raven FAQs' website at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/CSL/ravenqanda.htm

Library Christmas and New Year closing dates

The Balfour Library will be closed from Saturday 25th December 2010 and will re-open on Tuesday 4th January 2011.

Thank you for your cooperation.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes,

Clair & Jane