LANL Research Library Newsletter - January 1999


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Library Without Walls selected by Elsevier Science for Advanced Technology Partnership

Capitalizing on the Research Library's success providing access to electronic journals, Elsevier Science has selected the Library Without Walls (LWW) program to be an Advanced Technology Partner. Under terms of the agreement, LANL will receive all ~1,200 Elsevier Science electronic journal titles beginning with 1995 publications. The agreement will bring 684 new journal titles to the Lab research community, at an estimated LANL savings of over $917,000.

The LWW will develop and support the capability to provide licensed access to the Elsevier titles to other members of the NM Library Alliance, beginning with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Access to the Elsevier titles for LANL researchers will be provided through links in our citation databases, as well as through the journal browse application. ScienceServer LLC has been selected to provide the journal server application, which will manage roughly 700 GB of Elsevier data when fully loaded. The LWW team expects to have the full Elsevier files available in the Spring.

Rick Luce
Return to the Table of Contents

Desktop printing

With the increasing number of full text items available at the desktop, some of our library customers are having difficulties printing longer items. Here are some tips that we have found to be useful. The entire document is first downloaded to one's computer. Only after the last page has been received is the first page sent to the printer. If one's computer lacks sufficient internal memory, the download will not be completed and only the pages received will be printed. Another variation on this problem is that the file size being sent to the printer may be too large for the printer's memory and printing will not occur, or the printer will hang.

Some suggestions to overcome this include increasing the memory on your own computer so all incoming pages can be downloaded, switching to a printer with greater memory, or printing out the document 10 pages at a time. You may have noticed that some sites give a choice of formats such as PDF, HTML, or text. If one format will not print, select another.

Remember that PDF files require a PDF viewer installed on one's computer. The laboratory standard for viewing electronic documents is Adobe Acrobat Reader, v. 3.0, and this version can be downloaded at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html. This is free-ware on the WWW; please contact your local systems folks or CIC-2 at 7-HELP for more information.

Likewise, Postscript files require a Postscript viewer installed on one's computer. GS View v.5.01 has been installed on all library computers so these files will now print. GS View is available for downloading at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/.


Public terminals in the library will be upgraded in the near future. This will improve printing for our customers in the library.

Information about LANL Information Architecture Standards can be found at http://www.lanl.gov/projects/ia/stds/ .

Jeane Strub
Return to the Table of Contents

How are scientists using journals?

In a recent issue of the Journal of Electronic Publishing, researcher Donald King has made several interesting points based on over 30 years of research in the area of scientists and their reading habits. (http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-02/king.html) We know that subscribers to the Library Newsletter are avid readers and thought you might be interested in some of King's conclusions:

The two factors that have lead to the current high prices of sci/tech journals are 1) the journals have high fixed publishing costs and few subscribers and 2) inflexible pricing policies have lead to a 50% decline in personal subscriptions over the last 20 years. The result has been an increase in library subscription pricing that greatly exceeded inflation to make up for lost revenues.

University-related scientists authored 75% of all articles in 1995.

Non-university related scientists read an average of 106 articles per year during the 1994-1998 period. These are typically from 17 journal titles.

Journals are read by scientists more than other types of publications. Reasons are: research (75%), current awareness and education (58%), teaching (41%). Consequently most journal reading takes place within six months of the journal's publication.

Because recorded knowledge is doubling every 15-20 years a scientist graduates from college with only a fraction of the knowledge needed throughout a career. They must continue to read or fall seriously behind in their subject area.

Scientists who read more tend to get more awards and special honors. Non-university high achievers read 50 to 65% more than their peers.

Trends: The lack of older titles/articles in electronic format will affect readership as scientists become more accustomed to desktop access. Electronic articles are more easily disseminated and may become more widely read. Electronic publication of journals with small audiences may find increased readership when articles are "linked" via electronic indexes, citation lists or through bibliographies.

Donna Berg
Return to the Table of Contents

Electronic journals from University of Chicago Press available

The Research Library now has electronic access to University of Chicago Press journals, which include Astronomical Journal, Astrophysical Journal, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and American Journal of Human Genetics.

The full text of articles from these journals are also linked to our citation databases which include BIOSIS, DOE Energy Science and Technology, INSPEC, and SciSearch at LANL.

Carol Hoover
Return to the Table of Contents

New chemistry journal

The American Chemical Society has launched the Web Edition of Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry, which will be free of charge through February 1999. Visitors to the Web Edition site will have advance access to the full-text articles slated for publication in the first print issue, including a perspective article on the history of combinatorial chemistry. The JCC Web Edition can be accessed through http://pubs.acs.org/jcc .

Carol Hoover
Return to the Table of Contents

New Mexico Library Alliance expands membership

The New Mexico Library Alliance has added the Air Force Research Laboratory and the UNM Medical Library as full members, joining founding members LANL, Sandia, UNM, NMSU and NM Tech. New Associate Members of the Alliance include: Naval Research Lab; NASA/STI program; Santa Fe Institute; Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute; and University of Nevada (Reno and Las Vegas).

The Alliance is organized to enhance access to scientific and technical research information for researchers in the Alliance scientific and technical community.

Rick Luce
Return to the Table of Contents

Staff activities

Library Director Rick Luce gave the keynote address, "Communicating Science in the Next Generation: Implications for the Evolving Digital Library" at the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) annual conference in DC. While in Washington, Luce also gave presentations at the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) and at the Faxon Innovations seminar.

Return to the Table of Contents

SciSearch� at LANL search tips

The format of the SciSearch� at LANL Tip of the Month is being changed and will be replaced by a Collection of Search Tips. The previous Tips of the Month have been reorganized for easier use. Users are invited to submit ideas (mailto:jstrub@lanl.gov) to add to the new Collection of Search Tips.

Jeane Strub
Return to the Table of Contents

Research Library January Training Schedule
Date Session & Description Time
1/6 Research Library Tour 1:00-1:30
1/6 Introduction to Electronic Library Resources 1:30-2:00
1/11 SciSearch� Alerting Service 1:00-1:30
1/13 Finding Addresses and Phone Numbers on the WWW 1:30-2:00
1/20 Research Library Tour 1:00-1:30
1/20 Introduction to Electronic Library Resources 1:30-2:00
1/21 InfoSurfing: Basic Web Searching Strategies 2:00-4:00
1/28 Grants & Funding on the WWW 1:00-1:30

Classes are free. Pre-registration is appreciated. Register by email to library@lanl.gov or by calling the Library Service Desk at 7-5809. Please include your name, Z#, and the date and title of the session in your message.

Special classes and orientations can also be arranged; call 7-5809 for more information.

Susan Heckethorn
Return to the Table of Contents


Newsletter Editorial Team: Donna Berg, Helen Boorman, Jack Carter, Lou Pray, and Kathy Varjabedian.

To receive electronic notice of new issues of the Research Library Newsletter, sent at the beginning of each month to your e-mail address, do the following:

    subscribe lib-news end

The name and e-mail address of the Library member who contributed an article appears at the end of the article. If you have comments or further questions, please contact that person. If you have general questions or comments about the Newsletter itself, please contact the Newsletter Editor, Kathy Varjabedian.

Return to the Table of Contents

Newsletter home page | Research Library
L O S   A L A M O S   N A T I O N A L   L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University of California for the US Department of Energy
Comments/Questions   Copyright � 1999 UC   Disclaimer
4 January 1999 KV
URL: /libinfo/news/1999/9901.htm