Collection News, September 2007

• Access Science
• New Social Sciences Databases
• Eureka Databases move to Firstsearch
• Scifinder Scholar 2007
• New AgEcon Search Features

Access Science, the online version of the authoritative McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, has a new look and many new features.

Beyond up-to-date articles on more than 7,000 topics in the physical and life sciences, Access Science offers:

• more than 2,000 biographical sketches of scientists and inventors
• current news articles and video
• science q and a
• image and animation galleries on 100+ topics and phenomena
• tables and reference sources, such as guidance on scientific notation, the geological time scale and periodic table, and units, weights, and measures
• topical study guides on 20 broad disciplines, subdivided into dozens of specific subjects

Most Access Science articles offer a basic bibliography of recommended sources so make it your first research stop for your next science project.

With funding support from the School of Social Work, the Libraries are now able to offer online access to Social Work Abstracts, the comprehensive index to more than 450 social work and human services journals dating back to 1977. Produced by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the database provides citations and abstracts dealing with all aspects of the social work field, including theory and practice, areas of service and social issues and problems. Researchers seeking scholarly and professional perspectives on subjects such as therapy, education, human services, addictions, child and family welfare, mental health, civil and legal rights, economics and more will find Social Work Abstracts to be an indispensable resource.

Through the end of the year, the Libraries also have access to Public Administration Abstracts and Abstracts in Social Gerontology through the Ebsco interface. Each of these databases replaced the print publication of the same name and offers citations to publications from 2006-2007.

The Research Libraries Group (RLG), home of the Eureka searching interface, has merged with the OCLC system. resulting in the migration of several library databases to the familiar FirstSearch platform:

• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals offers journal article citations for more than 1,000 architectural and related design periodicals, published for the most part from the 1930's to the present.
• Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) indexes and abstracts art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealer's catalogs, and articles from more than 2,500 periodicals.
• Anthropological Literature (AnthroLit) includes citations to essays, books, and articles from over 1,300 journals in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and related areas.

The FirstSearch platform offers several convenient functions not available on the old Eureka system, including:

• easy direct export to the RefWorks citation manager
• links to UA holdings for journals and periodicals
• more advanced searching options

The latest version of SciFinder Scholar, the Chemical Abstracts search system, is now available for both Mac and Windows systems.

SciFinder Scholar 2007 features several enhancements, including:

• Categorize: view your search results by broad category such as Toxicology, Food, Medicine, etc.
• Combine: add together search results from substance, reference, or reaction searches.
• Export: create reports on chemical substances in MS Excel format.
• Explore: launch a new structure search by clicking on any substance in an answer set.

SciFinder Scholar must be used on the UA campus and requires special software.