TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Research Library wins 1999 Federal Library/Information Center of the Year Award
• FlashPoint: new multi-database search tool
• DOE Energy Science and Technology at LANL has new interface
• Marty Blume speaks at Research Library Open House
• Center for Nonproliferation Studies databases
• MathSciNet
• New library service desk debuts
• Landolt-Bornstein free trial
• New electronic journals from the Research Library
• Search engine profile: New meta-search engine Alphasearch.org

The Research Library has received the 1999 Federal Library/Information Center of the Year Award. The award is presented by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) who foster excellence in federal library and information services through interagency cooperation, and the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK). These two agencies are headquartered at the Library of Congress and cooperate in organizing the annual competition. The Los Alamos Research Library was chosen from over 1200 eligible federal installations.

The purpose of the award is to recognize and commend outstanding, innovative, and sustained achievements during Fiscal Year 1999. The Research Library was recognized for its "single vision linked to sound quality business processes which brought about new levels of customer service, technology innovation and leadership and collaboration within the information commmunity."

Rick Luce, Research Library Director, commented: "This is tremendous external recognition of the outstanding progress and impact the Research Library and Library Without Walls has achieved during the past few years."

The award is currently on display at the new Customer Service Desk and Library staff encourage everyone to visit and share in our excitement and enthusiasm.

Donna Berg
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FlashPoint (/cgi-bin/z_sim.cgi) is a new multi-database search tool. Version 1.0 with a quick search module was released April 3, 2000. Webster's Online defines FlashPoint as "a point at which someone or something bursts suddenly into action or being." FlashPoint is the place to begin your information search.

The quick search module serves as a springboard to the appropriate database. The date range is preset to 1998 to the present.  What database has the largest number of hits for quantum chemisty?  Where is the journal Few body systems indexed?  What database contains articles written by J. Trewhella?

Version 1.0 searches the following Research Library databases: BIOSIS, DOE Energy, Engineering Index, e-Print arXiv, INSPEC, Science Server, SciSearch, and Social SciSearch. As you click on specific results, you enter the native environment of the database. You can then view records, mark records and download results.

An advanced search module will allow combining indexes and changing the date range searched. A beta version of this will be available in mid-April.

Please experiment with this new Library Without Walls/Research Library product. Send your comments and suggestions for new features to cic14-lww@lanl.gov

Frances Knudson
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A new interface and search engine is now available for DOE Energy Science and Technology at LANL  Features include:

Alerts - weekly email delivery of new information for searches of your choice Easy limiting by date, language, document type, and electronic format Phrase searching Sorting of results by relevancy ranking, date, author or title Ability to search individual author names with initials Links to both print and electronic research library holdings Ability to Mark All for printing, email or downloading

DOE Energy Science and Technology at LANL contains worldwide references to basic and applied scientific and technical research literature from the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors, other government agencies, and International Atomic Energy Agency sources. Approximately half of the references are from sources outside the United States; approximately 50% are to journal literature and 25% to technical report literature. The database has almost 4 million records covering the literature from 1974 to the present and is updated twice a month.

Kathy Varjabedian
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Marty Blume, Richard Luce, John Browne at the Open House

LANL Research Library co-hosted an Open House for Laboratory students and staff with American Physical Society (APS) editor-in-chief Marty Blume. Mr. Blume, one of the most influential individuals in physics publishing, spoke on the future of electronic publishing and new APS products currently available and in the works. Lab Director John Browne introduced Mr. Blume. The Open House was an opportunity to draw lab staff and students into the library for the talk and also to demonstrate our electronic products, such as the new Flashpoint multi-database searching tool.

Lou Pray
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The Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California is the world's largest non-governmental organization dedicated to the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. For several years the Laboratory has purchased access to CNS online databases (http://cns.miis.edu/dbinfo/index.htm), which are recognized globally as the preeminent open source research tools in the field of nonproliferation.

CNS combs tens of thousands of pieces of periodic and gray literature from around the world, using its multi-lingual staff to capture chemical, biological, nuclear and missile proliferation information that is reported sporadically in the West. Moreover, CNS has excellent international contacts that it uses to garner "insider" information from nonproliferation policymakers in dozens of countries, including Russia, India and Kazakhstan. Simply put, the Laboratory's subscription to the CNS databases provides convenient access to information that would be difficult to obtain via other sources.

On April 17 Lucinda Ivy of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies will visit the Research Library to provide a demonstration of the CNS databases and also to listen to user feedback as to how to improve the systems. All interested LANL employees are encouraged to attend.  Sessions will be held at 10:30 and 1:30 in the Research Library Training Room.

Susan Heckethorn
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Ever wonder why there are two reviewing journals/databases for the mathematical sciences?   Zentralblatt fur Mathematik und ihre Grenzgebiete was established in Germany with Otto Neugebauer as editor.  During the 1930s, an increasing number of mathematicians were barred from reviewing for the Zentralblatt due to the growth of German National Socialism.  The American Mathematical Society responded to this in the late 1930s by sponsoring a new international reviewing journal, Mathematical Reviews, and appointed Otto Neugebauer as its first editor.  Neugebauer was then at Brown University.

Mathematical Reviews and the current awareness journal, Current Mathematical Publications, have morphed into the electronic database MathSciNet (http://ams.rice.edu/mathscinet).

MathSciNet offers full and basic searching capabilities.  The full search option offers 10 search fields:  author, title, review text, journal, institution code, series, classification, MR number, reviewer, and anywhere.  It also offers browsing current books and journals by browsing the latest issue of Current Mathematical Publications. You can also limit the browse by Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC).   The MSC is now keyword searchable.  This facilitates determining a proper MSC code.

If you are looking for an mathematician’s address, you can search the Combined Membership List.  This list includes member information from the American Mathematical Society, the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

MathSciNet allows different presentations of the MR record.  One can view the record in HTML, PDF, DVI, Postscript, BibTeX, and MR citation.  The PDF view formats the TeX symbols.

Links to original articles are available from headlines and review pages at the icon “To Original Article”.  Publishers providing links include:  AMS, SIAM, Academic Press and others.  If we subscribe to the journal, the links should allow us access to the full text.

MathSciNet is always looking for new reviewers.  Send email to mathrev@ams.org

Frances Knudson
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	Our new Service Desk is completed. The new desk provides for better interaction with customers, as well as better sound control, lighting and ergonomics. Thanks to all our customers for your patience during the construction. Return to the Table of Contents