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Interlibrary Loan upgrade
 Break out the bubbly! The Library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system* has been upgraded. Enhancements include: - A search box allowing you to search all completed, current, and pending requests.
- Ability to change your password without library staff intervention
- A menu on the side of each page, eliminating the need to "return to main menu."
* What is interlibrary loan, you ask? Material needed for research, but not available in the JHU Libraries can usually be borrowed from another library through ILL. Books typically takes from about 10 to 14 days, depending upon the item requested. Articles are usually much faster. Labels: New F07
The "new look" LexisNexis
 LexisNexis Academic has a brand new interface offering the following features:
- Ability to search major news, legal, and business documents in one search.
- A choice between seraching with natural language or LexisNexis terms and connectors. TIP: Library staff recommend choosing "terms and connectors" if you're familiar with LexisNexis segment searching, proximity operators, and truncation.
- Expanded company information (click on the Business tab and view the menu of choices under Company Dossier on the right hand side of the screen).
- A feature called Create a Company List that offers multiple ways to search for companies, filter, and download your results.
- Expanded country information (click on the Business tab and then click on Country Profiles on the menu of choices under Company Dossier on the right hand side of the screen).
- Improved download, print, and email options.
- Direct export to RefWorks by clicking on the small "book" icon.
- Hotlinks from within documents.
A brief Guide to the new LexisNexis Academic, created by the SAIS Library reference staff, is on the SAIS Library's Research Services page. If you need additional help, please stop by the Reference Desk, call us at 202-663-5901, or send us an email.
LexisNexis Statistical now offers direct links to PDFs for many of the U.S. government publications that are covered by the portion of the database labeled "Search Abstracts." Labels: databases, Lexis, New F07
In the glamorous world of research databases...
Some of our databases have undergone makeovers (err, moving to new interfaces) and there a few new ones too! Here are the details... America History and Life and Historical Abstracts, two databases covering publications (from 1954 to present) in the field of history, have moved from their previous sites to the menu of EBSCOHost databases. EBSCOHost offers the option of searching multiple databases at one time, but we recommend searching these databases alone or as a pair, so you can take advantage of the ability to limit your search to a historical time period. Look for the "Historical Period" search box on your search screen. Dissertations and Theses is the new name for Digital Dissertations, which offers direct links to full text (in PDF) for over 600,000 titles. The databses also offers the option of subscribing to an RSS feed to be notified when a dissertation matching pre-defined search terms is added to the database. Family & Society Studies Worldwide provides coverage of literature in the fields of family science, human ecology, human development, and social welfare. Coverage is from 1970 to present and includes professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, working papers, statistical documents, theses, dissertations, and other sources. Gender Studies Database covers gender-related scholarship from 1972 to present and includes professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses, dissertations, and more. There are links to some fulltext and to selected websites. Index to Jewish Periodicals provides references to articles in more than 160 English-language journals and is intended for students of Jewish thought and contemporary Jewish and Middle Eastern affairs. Journal coverage dates back to1988.
Political Handbook of the World provides comprehensive country profiles chronicling national history, government, and political parties, as well as profiles on intergovernmental organizations, development banks, and the agencies and specialized bodies of the United Nations.
Resources for College Libraries (RCL) is a selective core list of about 65,000 English language titles in all subjects ( both books and electronic resources). RCL aims to describe an ideal "core collection" for the library of a hypothetical college or small university that concentrates on the traditional liberal arts and sciences curriculum. RCL can be helpful when you are trying to identify some key works in a particular subject area, but should not be relied upon for an exhaustive search. Scopus indexes the health sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences literature. Some features to note: - Besides searching journal literature, Scopus also searches the general web.
- At the top of each results list is a display of the top journals, authors, document types, and subject areas from your results set, which you can add or delete from your search.
- Some records indicate how often they've been cited elsewhere in the database and some include lists of titles in the article's bibliography, with an indication of how often each of those titles has been cited. Links to the citing articles are included.
SocINDEX with Full Text is advertised as the "world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database." It contains full text for 397 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1908, 150 "priority" coverage journals, more than 720 books and monographs, and thousands of conference papers Labels: databases, New F07
It takes a village...
Becky Zook joined the Library staff as Circulation/Reference Specialist in May '07. A recent graduate of American University, Becky has three years of experience working in interlibrary loan and reserves in the AU Library.In addition to Becky joining the "front lines," the Library also has about 14 student assistants working at the Circ Desk this Fall. You'll get to know them if you are indeed reading your reserve books! Strategic thinkers that we librarians are, we occasionally shift Library staff to new jobs. Faith Hamby has moved into a position in Technical Services. That means cataloging, overseeing stacks maintenance, and many other duties that make SAIS Library run well. You'll still see Faith at the Circulation Desk at various times too.Labels: New F07
Questions about ERes? Course packs?
If you have any questions about ERes or are wondering about the School's policy toward course packs, please take a look the Freqently Asked Questions (FAQ) documents below. Both are in PDF.
Labels: ERes, policies
I could listen to you talk all day...
 It's a good Friday for news junkies. As part of our Economist.com subscription, you can download or stream a 10-minute MP3 called In This Week's Economist. It was pointed out by a SAIS student that the often-droll report is read by a man with a very nice British accent. Learn something and be comforted by his dulcet tones... ____________________________________________ Please note: JHU has been having some trouble with off-campus access to our Economist/EIU databases. Our colleagues in Baltimore hope to have the problem resolved by the end of September. We apologize for the delays. Labels: databases, technology
Best ERes Typos, v.1
Occasionally, something slips through the ERes staff's vise-like quality control. This week we had a good one: History of the Peloponnesian Ear
Although we liked that title as much as the real one, History of the Peloponessian War, we felt we should fix it. Funny we could spell Peloponnesian and not war?Files are scanned and loaded to ERes by Real Live Human Beings (!), so if you should ever come across an error, let us know. With hope, there will not be a Best ERes Typos, v.2!Labels: humor
We. Love. Free. Stuff.
 The U.S.-Korea Yearbook 2006 is now online for FREE!Here's the story of what this is and how it came to be:As part of the new Korea program at SAIS, a course was also introduced for the fall semester 2006: The Two Koreas: Contemporary Research and Record. SAIS students researched current issues in U.S. relations with North and South Korea under the direction of David Straub, a former director of Korean affairs at the State Department. In addition to conducting numerous interviews of U.S. government officials and other experts on U.S.-Korean relations in Washington, D.C., the students traveled as a group to Seoul in November to receive briefings from and conduct interviews with Korean government officials, scholars, and politicians. This inaugural edition of the U.S.-Korea Yearbook, covering the chief security, economic, and cultural issues in relations between the U.S. and the two Koreas in calendar year 2006, is the product of their research. Click on the cover image above to access a website created for the book.Labels: news, publications
SAIS Reports online now
 The September/October 2007 issue of SAIS Reports has just been released. Click on the image above for a PDF or check out the contents below:Labels: news, publications, SAIS Reports
Tips for Wireless access
Trouble accessing the wireless network at SAIS? Let's conquer it!If you have not registered your wireless card, you can do that now. If you have already gone through the registration process and are still having trouble connecting to the network, try the following in the order listed below. Try to connect after each step before moving on to the next one.- If you have a number of wireless networks set up in your system from various public locations (such as cafes or coffee houses), remove the ones you no longer need. Then, place the SAIS wireless network (standard) at the top of the list.
- Remove the SAIS wireless network and add it in again. The network name is standard and the WEP security key is abcdefabcdefabcdefabcdefab (cut and paste that!). You may have to restart your computer afterwards.
- Since you must log on with your JHED ID / password to access the wireless network, you must wait for the logon page to load. This can occasionally take some time and the authentication process can occasionally take some time as well. Both of these processes may, however, move quicker if you set your home page to a page that does not contain too many graphics or too much dynamic content (a good page would be Google's home page). In addition, using the Firefox web browser may help you authenticate a bit faster. You can authenticate with Firefox and then, if you choose to, go back to your preferred browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.).
- If you are still having trouble connecting, then you may have to update the driver software for your wireless card. You must first determine what type of card is installed in your system and then download and install the latest drivers. The drivers can be found from the card manufacturer's web site.
Still having trouble? Please consult with the SAIS IT staff in the Nitze Computer Lab or Sonny Singh in the Library. Labels: Firefox, SAIS tips, technology
"It looked like that?"
Have you ever tried the Internet Wayback Machine? It bills itself as an "archive of over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present. " All you need to do is type in a URL. It's fascinating!
SAIS Library Webpage, circa ye olde era of 2000:
Even more different is the SAIS Webpage, also from 2000:
click to enlarge if you want more detail Note that they also have an online museum of sorts: special features including a current one on September 11, 2001. Labels: technology
Bound and determined
Several students have asked us about places to get materials spiral bound. The SAIS Mail Room DOES provide this service now, for a fee. The mail room is run by our colleagues Pedro Matias and Jose Ortiz and is located in Nitze 401.Sorry, our photo choices for this post were not thrilling enough!Labels: SAIS tips
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