2008-10-08T07:56:38Z Carolyn Bray, Danielle Johnson Copyright 2008, Carolyn Bray, Danielle Johnson SPHPBLOG Business Collection (Informit) delves into the issues affecting the business community in Australia and Asia Pacific, encompassing research from leading Australian and Asia Pacific universities as well as professional associations.

It covers broad business fields, including:

* accounting
* career development
* commercial law
* commodities
* corporate governance
* e-business
* economics
* employment
* human resources
* labour
* management
* marketing
* occupational health
* taxation
* unions

**Note: This trial allows users to browse and search accross all titles, however the full text is not available for this trial.
]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080929-164148 2008-09-29T00:00:00Z 2008-09-29T00:00:00Z

American song
Art Full Text
Art Museum Image Gallery (Wilson)
Dance in Video
Engineering Collection
North American Women's Drama
Smithsonian Global Sound
Theatre in Video
Twentieth Century North American Drama

We hope that you found the trials useful and the library welcomes any feedback from users who used the above resources. ]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080912-113031 2008-09-12T00:00:00Z 2008-09-12T00:00:00Z
• Scopus has 33 million records, with records dating back to 1889, and 14,000 journals.
• ISI has over 8,000 peer reviewed journals, and the Science Citation Index covers citations from 1900.

For researchers, be they staff or student, you now have access to two fantastic databases with some useful features. The following are just a few features.
• Both databases will show you the bibliographies of a chosen article, hyperlinked if available through their service. They will also tell you how often this article has been cited. Basic stuff, but still useful.
• Both databases have a function to show you in a graph format how many times an article has been cited by year, with the option to exclude author self citations.
• Both databases have a function which can analyse the impact of a journal. As in how influential is that journal, how many times are the articles within being cited?

Really then for me, the questions come down to the usability of the two databases. For many people it is a personal preference. So what follows are my personal observations and preferences . For me, it comes down to a visual aesthetic and an intuitive ease of use, and for that Scopus ticks those boxes. The initial search page lays out in an obvious and friendly manner some of the options open to you, which I might add are all readily available in ISI, just hidden under drop down boxes.

Here’s an example: I went searching for a friend of mine who has co-published some research and has written some letters to journals, but I didn’t know the names of any of the papers. I typed in her name, and then limited by country and city. The delimited results for V. Benson were then very few. I just had to look at the institutions with which I knew she was affiliated, and I found six results from her on Scopus within five minutes.

I really like the ‘spreadsheet’ like options for sorting your results on Scopus. Results columns are clickable to sort results, so there is a wider range in which you can view the records. Alphabetically by article title or author, or the most/least cited article, and of course you can sort by year. If an author’s name interests you, the name can be clicked to see everything in the database attributed to them. Without leaving your journal article results, you can click on tabs to see web pages and related patents. So easy!

Finally, I just want to say that while we have both subscriptions to both databases, use them both in your research. I searched for my friend, V. Benson, on ISI, and did find her published work, and once again found six results. However, there were three different articles in those results. Checking the co-author’s names, I have no doubt that these ‘other articles’ are my friend’s. So in the interests of a complete search, use both databases while we have them.

As I said at the beginning of this entry, Scopus is currently on trial until the end of January 2009, and to quote an old movie “ in the end, there can be only one ”. To assist in the choosing of the 'winner', selected users will be surveyed. So in the meantime, if you have opinions on either of these databases, write up your feedback in the comments.

To find these databases, click on the middle tab of the Library homepage, and scroll down to the A - Z list. Click on 'W' for World of Science or 'S' for Scopus .
]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080911-134639 2008-09-11T00:00:00Z 2008-09-11T00:00:00Z
Presenters spoke about a wide range of initiatives happening at your UB Library. Information Librarian Peggy Hsu talked about the BONUS+ borrowing scheme and the Library Virtual Tour.

Roger Clark, Acquisitions Librarian , enlightened us all on the benefits of EBL eBooks, and our Serials Officer, Julie Lasinger, explained how the new ERM module has allowed over 30 000 eJournals to be integrated into the library catalogue.

International Student Support Librarian Helen McCarthy (and her avatar alter ego) demonstrated the online tutorials, and Danielle Johnson, the Library Website Content Coordinator (and author of this blog entry!) discussed changes the recent changes to the Library website.


University Librarian Leeanne Pitman and Vice-Pesident Darren Holland introduce our speakers for the launch.


Attentive members of the UB community learn about the many new library services and resources available to them.

A clearly very happy bunch of presenters! (L-R:Julie Lasinger, Peggy Hsu, Roger Clark, Danielle Johnson, Helen McCarthy)

Thank you to all who took the time to come along and learn a little more about the work the Library has been doing. For those of you who missed out on attending the launch, you can find information and links to these various innovations discussed here on the blog. We also welcome you to contact us here at the Library to learn more about these fabulous new services and resources. ]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080829-151857 2008-08-29T00:00:00Z 2008-08-29T00:00:00Z
New Library website
LibNews@UB blog
Library virtual tour
Online tutorials
EBL eBooks
eJournals via the Library catalogue
BONUS+ borrowing scheme

A short presentation of each of these resources and services will take place in the Mt Helen Library Information Commons (Ground Level) on Friday morning. All welcome!]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080828-094215 2008-08-27T00:00:00Z 2008-08-27T00:00:00Z
If this sounds like you, then read on...

The virtual tour of the Mt. Helen Campus Library is a newly developed, fully featured, interactive map of all levels in the building. The user can examine the features on any floor, by running their mouse over the labelled areas. An image and brief description of that area is displayed.

The Mt Helen Library virtual tour is available on each individual collections entry linked from the Library Collections page, also accessible directly through the catalogue when you click on the 'Item Location' link.

You can also check it out here.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this blog...
]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080826-133137 2008-08-26T00:00:00Z 2008-08-26T00:00:00Z database trials up for viewing in the next few weeks;


American Song, Dance in Video, International Theatre in Video, North American Women's Drama, Twentieth Century North American Drama,

So if your studying dance, drama or song , or you are just curious check them out.



Also on trial is an encyclopaedia about all things to do with Japan called Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. You'll find concise informative articles on everything from A'ya koro to Zushoryo .



Alll these trials can be found on the UB Library webpage, just click find journals and databases link.]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080808-164251 2008-08-08T00:00:00Z 2008-08-08T00:00:00Z Art Full Text is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles from periodicals published throughout the world. Full-text coverage for selected periodicals is also included. Periodical coverage includes English-language periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, as well as periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, and Swedish. In addition to articles, Art Full Text indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals. Indexing coverage begins 1984; abstracting coverage begins with January 1994. The abstracts range from 50 to 300 words and describe the content and scope of the source articles. Full-text coverage begins in 1997.
Art Full Text produced by H.W. Wilson is on trial until August 20th, 2008. Accessible via the alphabetical listing on the find journals and database tab on the Library website at http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/ or the subject area Visual & performing arts.
Try it now and we welcome your feedback on this trial.]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080803-133122 2008-08-03T00:00:00Z 2008-08-03T00:00:00Z
Go to www.vatl.org.au/VATL/homepageVAT/web20.html to see Philip’s PPT presentation and the results for the Where are you @ With Web 2.0? survey, which provides a snapshot of the LIT community’s experiences and attitudes of doing librarianship in a Web 2.0 profession.
]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080730-114454 2008-07-30T00:00:00Z 2008-07-30T00:00:00Z
Over the course of four days, the intrepid group of 11 two-wheeled Librarians traveled through mud, rain and dust, visiting Libraries ranging from Maitland to Taree, Stuarts Point to Coffs Harbour.

Highlights of the trip were visiting the newly redeveloped Tamworth Library, seeing plans for what will be a beautiful new library in Armidale, and the Minestrone soup served up by the wonderful staff at Dorrigo.

A trip along the Oxley Highway, perhaps the best motorcycling road in Australia, was something to remember too - was that 70kmh we were doing, or 170??

Biblio Turismo is held once per year, with the 2009 run planned for early in the year, to take advantage of the longer days of summer. Roger will be there again, and if you are interesting in coming along, have a chat to him.

Want to know more? Check out http://www.biblioturismo.org/ and the Biblio Blog at http://www.biblio-turismo.blogspot.com/]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080730-113323 2008-07-30T00:00:00Z 2008-07-30T00:00:00Z
TV News indexes Australian television news, current affairs and selected documentaries from the free-to-air networks with links to the digitised video content in a compressed format. All individual stories from a particular broadcast are indexed with a detailed synopsis. TVNews is updated daily, with stories appearing on an evening news broadcast generally being available for access the next morning.

The video for each story or documentary is available in WMV format as a progressive download, allowing viewing to begin before the total video file is transferred. Items range from under 30 seconds for short stories, to over an hour for selected documentaries.

TV News is available via the "Find journals and databases" tab on the Library page - click on "T" in the alphabetical list of databases.

Why not check it out today?]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080724-101742 2008-07-24T00:00:00Z 2008-07-24T00:00:00Z UB Library has begun implementing the Ebook Library’s EBL Ebook collection database.

Using EBL’s unmediated lending model, UB Library is in the process of loading over 72,000 catalogue records for ebooks into our online Library Catalogue (OPAC).

The unmediated lending model offered by EBL allows the Library to load these records without purchasing the ebooks up front.

When the link in an EBL ebook catalogue record is followed to access an ebook, the Library is charged a “loan” fee, which is a percentage of the purchase price of the ebook. Once the ebook is “loaned” a third time, an automatic purchase of the ebook is initiated with EBL.

The implementation of this database allows UB Library to substantially increase the variety of it’s collection without a huge upfront cost, only paying for titles that end up being used by patrons. The EBL library covers a wide range of subjects, from Science, through the Humanities to Business, and will be a valuable supplement to core texts required by staff and students of UB.

If staff come across an ebook that they feel the Library should own outright, they can contact Library Acquisitions in the usual way to arrange for a purchase, thus avoiding any loans fees.]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080717-164305 2008-07-17T00:00:00Z 2008-07-17T00:00:00Z nursing and health students, the Joanna Briggs Institute database includes resources for evidence-based research and best-practice information sheets, systematic reviews, electronic journals and conference papers. Consumer health-care information is also available.

UB's membership provides access to:

-JBI Library of Systematic Reviews
-JBI Library of Evaluation Reports
-JBI Library of Best Practice Information Sheets
-JBI Online Journal Collection

Access the Joanna Briggs Institute database via the Library website.]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080714-110953 2008-07-14T00:00:00Z 2008-07-14T00:00:00Z New database Scopus™, is a abstract and indexing database, offering you access to 14,000 peer-reviewed titles from more than 4,000 international publishers.
Scopus is a multidisciplinary navigational tool that contains records going back to 1966, offering newly-linked citations across the widest body of scientific abstracts available in one place.
Coverage includes scientific, technical, medical and social science literature.
Scopus will assist UB researchers to demonstrate the quality and impact of their own research by identifying citations to their own work in the 15,000 titles indexed in Scopus.
To create search alerts and regular updates when your works are cited you will need to register with Scopus by clicking on the "Register"
link on the top right hand corner of any page.

List of titles indexed in Scopus at http://www.scopus.com/scopus/source/browse.url Scopus also includes a new feature called Journal Analyzer.
The Scopus Journal Analyzer allows you to select up to 10 journals in a specific field. The results are uploaded into graphs, making it easy to see how journals are performing relative to each other. The data displayed can also be limited to a shorter time period than the default from 1996 to the present.
Information on Journal Analyzer found at http://info.scopus.com/journalanalyzer/ ]]> http://www.ballarat.edu.au/aasp/is/library/blog/index.php?entry=entry080714-101415 2008-07-14T00:00:00Z 2008-07-14T00:00:00Z