Spring 1996
MLA Bibliography, published by the Modern Language Association, is the index to critical articles in journals and books about literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. It covers 1963 to the present, and is updated 10 times per year. The database provides access to over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide, as well as books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies.
PAIS Decade, a public affairs index, covers the most recent 10 years of citations from the publications PAIS Bulletin, PAIS Foreign Language Index, and PAIS International in Print. This database indexes and abstracts articles, books, government documents, conference proceedings, book chapters, and statistical directories related to topics in business, government, international relations, environment, health, demographics, public administration, and more.
SocAbstracts is the electronic version of Sociological Abstracts. It includes Sociological Abstracts (1963 to the present), International Review of Publications in Sociology (1980 to the present), and Social Planning/Policy & Development Abstracts (1979 to the present). Abstracts have been included since 1974.
To access FirstSearch from MELVYL®, type the command USE FIRST. When you are connected to the FirstSearch family of databases, select the appropriate area ("Arts & Humanities", "General & Reference", or "Medicine & Social Science"). Instructions will guide you from there.
Some specific journal pricing information provides further information on why many libraries
have had to cancel massive numbers of journal subscriptions during the 1990s (the average price of
a physics journal is now $1,355, with chemistry not far behind at $1,239). The median percent
change in the cost of journals from 1992 to 1996 is about 53%. The 1992-1996 per cent change
in serial prices for specific disciplines is:
| Business/Economics | 67.1% |
| Military Science | 66.4% |
| Technology | 64.7% |
| Engineering | 61.4% |
| Geology | 61.0% |
| Botany | 60.3% |
| Geography | 58.9% |
| Math & Comp Sci | 58.5% |
| Physics | 58.1% |
| Political Science | 57.4% |
| Biology | 56.9% |
| Psychology | 53.6% |
| Chemistry | 53.1% |
| Sociology | 48.1% |
| Education | 46.7% |
| Anthropology | 45.2% |
| General Works | 43.3% |
| Philosophy/Religion | 42.6% |
| Language & Literature | 38.1% |
| History | 36.6% |
| Music | 25.0% |
| Art & Architecture | 22.5% |
A study of journal costs by broad subject category found that the average price increase is also determined by country of origin as well as subject category. Prices of US journals indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index increased 32.9% over the past four years, while prices of foreign published journals increased 39.7%. The US prices for journals covered in Social Sciences Citation Index went up 49.5%, while foreign published journals increased 54.9%. Finally, the prices of US published journals indexed in the Science Citation Index increased 56.2%, while the prices of the foreign published journals increased 56.4%.
For more information on course related library instruction, call Janet Martorana at 893-8724, or send e-mail to Janet at martoran@library.ucsb.edu.
The World Wide Web is becoming a great resource for current government information, not only from the federal government, but from state, local and foreign governments and international governmental organizations. Government information on the web includes information about specific agencies and agency publications, full text of speeches and documents, and statistics. There is a major initiative in the federal governemnt to provide the majority of government information electronically within the next 2-5 years, and the California state government has also had an aggressive program to provide electronic versions of legislative information. There has also been an impressive increase in the availability of information from foreign governments and a diversity of international organizations such as the United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization.
Infosurf Government Information web pages provide convenient links to the wide array of government information at all levels. Check out the following sites, and contact the librarian responsible for each page if you have further questions about resources both on the Internet and in the Davidson Library:
There are three principal sections:
I. Teaching and Research -- Scholars' perspectives on the use of new media in teaching and research are presented here. Some of the topics include a list of style manuals from APA, MLA, and others on citing electronic resources, and sites devoted to academic and intellectual freedom. There is also information on copyright and fair use in the electronic environment.
II. New Publishing Methods -- Takes a closer look at specific technologies. Listed in this section are resources to aid in understanding the most significant methods of electronic information dissemination, including listserv archives, ftp repositories, gohper servers, and the World Wide Web. Featured in the Transition from Print to Electronic Formats section under New Publishing Models is a sampling of projects exploring the effects of new technologies on the economics of producing and distributing scholarly publications. Many of these projects are joint efforts between print-media publishers and academic libraries, to develop new models for pricing machine-readable texts.
III. Access Issues -- This section focuses on digital libraries and their influence on information and technology policy; selection of materials in electronic formats; the design of dissemination and retrieval systems, including current projects in cataloging and network design. Also addressed are archival issues such as preserving the scholarly record by digital means.
Finally, the New Horizons web pages offers links to UC Programs, Other Projects, Publications, Meetings, and Organizations. There is also a feature to search the entire web page as well as Alta Vista, Yahoo, and the other major search engines.
Scholarship, in the form of discussions, publications, and instructional materials, is blossoming across the Internet. New Horizons in Scholarly Communication attempts to gather the most substantive and worthy efforts in all phases of scholarly endeavor. The Librarians Association of UC invites your perusal, evaluation, and contributions in scholarship.
Your e-mail request for material at the Annex needs to include the correct call number, volume, year, pages, and title, as well as your name, library card number, and your status (academic, graduate, undergraduate, staff, or community borrower). All Annex materials are to be picked up at the Loan Desk.
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formatted by Madeleine Kempton
