Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National LaboratoryLANL phone directorySearch LANL web site
go to the Research Library home pagego to Research Library Newsletter
Research Library web site map Gateway to personalized Research Library services Research Library catalog Research Library email, phone, mailing address and more Services available to Research Library customers Submit requests for articles, reports, books, and information What's new in the Research Library

  Newsletter
    January 2002


  Newsletter index



Research Library


 


January 2002

Table of Contents

American Geophysical Union electronic journals

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has announced the availability of institutional online access to their journals as of January 2002.

The price for providing LANL-wide online access will be 2.6 times the cost of our 2001 print AGU subscriptions. As a point of reference, our 2001 subscription to Journal of Geophysical Research was $5,800. 2002 electronic access for this journal will cost $13,444 with additional charges of $1,662 for a print copy.

The LANL Research Library finds the AGU institutional pricing policy to be extremely unreasonable. The prices that AGU demands for its journals will have a negative impact on the ability of most libraries to support the geoscience community, since most libraries will be required to pay for access at the same exorbitant rate as LANL. Already, libraries and institutions are refusing to accede to AGU unwarranted price increases.

Given that the price for electronic access to AGU journals will increase by 2.6 times their current rate for print, that access is also limited to buildings within a 5-mile radius of the library and that AGU refuses to negotiate the terms of their license agreement -- the LANL Research Library finds it very difficult to consider electronic access under these conditions.

The AGU subscription policy compares with what was considered unacceptable policy from the publishers of Nature. Last year Nature introduced a similar outrageous subscription model -- and after an intense campaign the library community convinced them to change their policy.

Additional information on the AGU institutional access policy can be found at http://www.agu.org/pubs/Institution_Info_2002.pdf. AGU's justification for library/institutional pricing can be found in EOS Nov. 20, 2001 issue on p.575. In short, library budgets are expected to pick up the major transfer in AGU production costs.

We know that our customers value the AGU journals, however we do not feel that your needs can be served by subscribing to these journals under these circumstances. We encourage our customers to express their opinions on the AGU institutional subscription policy. The contacts at AGU are below. Please include Carol Hoover (hoover@lanl.gov) as a courtesy copy of your email message.

AGU contacts:

AGU Director of Publications
Judy Holoviak
jholoviak@agu.org

AGU Publications Committee
Chair: George M. Hornberger
gmh3k@virginia.edu

AGU Executive Director
Fred Spilhaus
fspilhaus@agu.org

AGU titles affected by this policy:
Journal of Geophysical Research (all sections)
Geophysical Research Letters
Radio Science
Reviews of Geophysics
Tectonics
Water Resources Research
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G3)

Please feel free to contact Carol Hoover at the LANL Research Library if you have questions or comments.

Carol Hoover

New library web page on bioinformatics

To support the Genomes to Life efforts at LANL, Research Library staff have reviewed hundreds of related web resources in the areas of genomics, genetics, and bioinformatics.

The new Bioinformatics page contains over 40 links to databases and indexes, electronic journals, conferences, organizations, software, suppliers, news sources, job opportunities and other electronic reference publications.

Any additional suggestions for links to this page, please direct ideas to Lou Pray, lpray@lanl.gov.

Lou Pray

Library statistical highlights from the past year

As we review statistics for library products and services for the past year, we would like to spotlight some key facts and figures that may be of interest to Lab readers.

Last year the Library web server was queried over 875,000 times. The web allowed millions of interactions with our patrons, from e-mail that we receive from almost every country in the world to online chat teaching sessions provided by our “Ask A Librarian” virtual reference service.

The web allows the luxury of printing articles in your office from the electronic journals. This heavily used service now seems commonplace to our technical staff. During the last year LANL scientists pressed the “print” button over 220,000 times. The Research Library budget provides subscriptions to the e-journals you receive, as well as the databases. This budget also funds the skilled staff and computing resources that facilitate the access and design the interfaces that create ease of use of these products.

In 2001 we loaded over 1/2 million electronic articles on the Library’s servers. We also placed over 1,200,000 links enabling you to access articles both from the Library’s servers and worldwide, from publishers and societies. These links make it seamless for you to locate the information you need by matching the database entries directly to the article. Of the many databases provided for your use, about ten of the most popular provide this linking feature. To keep the databases up-to-date we added over 2 1/2 million citations to them, many of these are received daily. Over a million searches were keyed into the Library-sponsored databases, on every topic from anthrax to zeolites.

Although the Library is moving as quickly as possible to the electronic format, in 2001 we received 15,098 print journal issues, over 5,100 books and added over 78,000 print and microfiche unclassified technical reports to the catalog. These statistics add up to a very successful year of providing needed information to our primary customers to support their research and increase their productivity. If there are types of information that you need please send us an e-mail at: library@lanl.gov

Donna Berg

Additional subject areas added to MyLibrary at LANL personalization product

Two new disciplines, Bioinformatics and Materials Science, have been added to MyLibrary at LANL. MyLibrary at LANL allows you to create a collection of personal links to electronic journals, databases, and other web resources based on specific disciplines.

During the sign-up process you select an initial primary area of interest (specific discipline). This primary interest determines how your first Library in MyLibrary @ LANL is populated. You can then add more libraries with other associated areas of interest.

The other specific disciplines available in MyLibrary at LANL are:

Astronomy, Biology/Genetics, Business, Chemistry, Computer Science, Current News, Defense/Military, Earth Science, Engineering, Environment, Government, Grants and Funding, Health & Safety, International Affairs, Library Science, Mathematics, Medicine, Nuclear Information, Personal, Physics, Reports, Science (General/Popular), Social Sciences, and Standards and Regulations.

Lou Pray

New electronic journals from the Research Library

The following new electronic journals have been added to the library collection and are available from your desktop:

Biology
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=15344320
International Congress Series
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=05315131
International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=13896563

Environment
Fire Technology
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=00152684

General
International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=02512513
Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=15661679
L'Anthropologie
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=00035521

Mathematics
IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine
http://sciserver.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=1531636x

Eteam@lanl.gov

Search engines: A new year with new Google services

Does Google have a search box that can probe our secret desires? They must, for their newest service--now in beta mode--has discovered our “inner-shopper.” Google has just mounted all those catalogs that we’ve been receiving for the holidays. Yes, you can take them to the recycle center because they now live in your computer. Starting with 1,500 of our favorites Google has created a terrific site.

The Google Catalogs simple search page includes the characteristic Google search box. The remainder of the screen classifies the catalogs into broad subject headings, so you can browse the covers quickly in “Food & Gourmet.” A search from this page will look at ALL the catalogs, so you need to be specific.

The presentation of the results is innovative. On the left of your screen is an image of the catalog cover, adjacent is an image of the catalog page with your search terms enclosed in a tinted box. Beside this is an enlargement of the tinted box, with your search terms highlighted. The most relevant entries are at the top of the page. Our initial search for “snowflake flannel pajamas” gave us results that began with our targeted jammies and by the bottom of the page was showing us what was available matching the search terms flannel and pajamas. This is a fine way to present visual results quickly, and a click on any illustration brings the full page immediately to the screen. In the week that I’ve been watching this site they have added advanced search options, the ability to search past catalogs, and filtering options to allow searching specific catalogs or categories.

By starting at the main Google search page and choosing Advanced Search, you can now try some other new Google ideas. Scroll to the bottom of the ADVANCED SEARCH PAGE and you’ll discover a list that includes topic-specific searches such as: universities, LINUX, BSD Unix and Apple Macintosh.

Once again, Google makes us happy.

Donna Berg

 

Want to be notified of new issues?

To receive an email when each new issue of the LANL Research Library Newsletter is available, please enter your Z number or your email-address:

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

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.

 

 


Los Alamos National Laboratory