Library Bulletin

May 1998

FULL TEXT IS HERE!
By Mary Doherty

Recently the library added a collection of 87 full-text journals to our suite of Ovid databases available on the campus network at Library workstations. Each database includes a different set of journals, but all cover the years 94/95 to the present. The new additions are: the Core Biomedical Collection (in four parts), the Nursing Collection and the Mental health Collection.

Full text can be searched on both the text and Web versions of Ovid.  However, the text version will not allow the patron to display and print graphics , IE.  pictures, tables, etc . The web version does have this capability. Tables and other graphics may also be enlarged in the Web version.

Strategies for Full Text Searching

1. Search terms entered in the Biomedical, Nursing and Mental Health Collections are searched by keyword only. Therefore, MeSH headings from the National Library of Medicine, are not processed as in Medline; rather, the terms may appear anywhere in the text of the articles searched in the new, full-text databases.

2. Links can be made to full-text of articles cited as references, as long as the cited journal is one of the 87 titles in our full-text databases.

3. The Table of Contents of individual issues of the journals included in the database may be displayed.

4. Links can be made from the full-text databases to the Medline or CINAHL citation of the article as indicated; conversely, full-text links may be made, as applicable, while one is working in Medline, CINAHL and PsycINFO.

5. Be aware that sometimes minor text items such as comments, addenda, etc. may not be included as a part of a full text citation.

Search Hints: If searching for a general subject, it is usually better to search in Medline, and then link to full text if it is available.  If searching for specific articles, or articles from a specific journal that is included on the full text database, then it is useful to go directly to the Biomedical, Nursing, or Mental Health Collections.

For more information on full-text be sure to check the "What's New" Column on the Library Web Page for more details.

Tired of photocopying your own journal articles?  Try the Library's Photocopy Service. The articles you need will be copied for you.  Fill in a brief form with the bibliographic citation and submit it to the Interlibrary Loan Office or the Photocopy Office. The cost is $1.00 per article plus 20 cents per page. Forms are available from either office or from Library Kiosk #1.

Members of the Interlibrary Loan staff pull the journals and books from the shelves and resolve any bibliographic problems.  The Photocopy Office does the copying and the billing.  Payment is due by check payable to Continental Copy Products, Ltd., by copy card, Research Requisition or cash.

Articles or books not owned by the Library will be acquired through Interlibrary Loan from other libraries.

Technical Services is, perhaps, the least visible and least understood department in the library.  This department, however, is responsible for managing the information resources from selection to acquisition to bibliographic control to conservation.  This process is accomplished through meticulously controlled mechanisms which give order to the library's collection.

Those charged with the intensive detail and followthrough of the Department are:

Virginia Taffurelli has a recent Master of Library Science degree (MLS, Pratt). She joined us in 1997 as an Assistant Librarian after working 17 years at the Gideonse Library, Brooklyn College, where she also earned her BA in English Literature. Virginia uses her wealth of experience gathered at Gideonse's Technical Services department to deal with her primary responsibility of bibliographic control of all information resources in the library.  Virginia is active in several professional organizations including the NY/NJ Medical Library Association.

Cheryl Perkins, with 11 years of service to the library, is certainly one of the longer standing members. She started as a Clerk One, and having passed the Civil Service's Clerk Two/Three exam, is diligently working toward appointment to Clerk Three.  She has consistently shown keen interest in computing and computer software, and she is frequently sought for her expertise on the finer details of DRA, the Library's integrated, automated system.  Cheryl is a member of the New York State Library Assistants' Association.  She is also currently working on her undergraduate degree through the CUNY system.

Doug Blackeller, who is working toward appointment as a Clerk Two, has primary responsibility for the daily check in, claiming of  lost or missing, and preparation of the Library's journals for binding. Doug is also an accomplished artist of the Surrealist school. His BA degree in History and Education (King's College, Briarcliff Manor, NY) usually animates his discussions on contemporary political and social issues.

Melicia Martin, Clerk Two, primarily assigned to Access Services, gives her valuable time to the department for six hours per week. Melicia deals primarily with Acquisitions and is responsible for electronically importing the appropriate bibliographic records of an item from an external, master database called OCLC,  to our local DRA database.

Mohamed Hussain joined the Library in 1990 as a shelver/page in the Circulation Department.  He then moved to Reference as an Instructional Support Associate within a year, and thereafter, to Systems and the Learning Resource Center. Mohamed has a Combined Honors BA in English and Dramatic Arts from McMaster University, Canada, and an MLS from Pratt Institute.  He is currently Assistant Director for Technical Services and Collection Development Manager.  Mohamed is also involved in professional organizations such as NY/NJ MLA.