Comments for WatsINFO

Comment on Firstsearch – Active by Oleg Kreymer

Oleg Kreymer — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:27:56 +0000

According to OCLC, the LCSH authority file in FirstSearch is not currently being updated, it is incomplete. (Current file is available at http://authorities.loc.gov/)

Comment on Firstsearch – Active by Daniel Starr

Daniel Starr — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:52:44 +0000

The LCSH authority file is searchable in FirstSearch. Go to the advanced screen and click the “subjects” icon on the left side. I can’t imagine it will be used often, but if anyone wants to search WorldCat by subject it offers a way to see the authorized LC subject heading plus alternative terms. It also shows related terms that you can use to narrow a search.

Comment on End of an era: party for Sofia, Wendy, William, and Jenny Thursday May 3rd, 4:00-? by Andrea Puccio

Andrea Puccio — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:38:50 +0000

Just to put up some numbers William’s 998 count is at 744, and Jenny clocks in at 975!

Comment on Gale NewsVault – Active by Deborah Vincelli

Deborah Vincelli — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:48:31 +0000

NewsVault Interface Update:

From Jill Buckman: “All of the individual collections in NewsVault have stand-alone interfaces, as well as being available in NewsVault. We have no intention of retiring the stand-alone interfaces. NewsVault is an extra service we throw in for no additional charge, to give our customers all the benefits of cross-searching when they own more than one product.”

These stand-alone interfaces are the ones which can be accessed when one clicks on “Change Database” in the top menu: http://find.galegroup.com/menu/commonmenu.do?userGroupName=special_dvnw

Comment on A selection of Friends purchases now on Library Portal by Oleg Kreymer

Oleg Kreymer — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:41:24 +0000

Friends purchases posts are archived at this location: http://libmma.org/portal/selected-purchases-with-funds-provided-by-friends-of-thomas-j-watson-library/, which can be accessed via this Portal page: http://libmma.org/portal/about-watson-library/.

Comment on 2012 Innovative Enhancements Voting by Angela Washington

Angela Washington — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:23:28 +0000

Sorry about the Serials confusion, but in previous years I was told it wasn’t applicable anymore. Since that’s changed, I’ll update the post.

Comment on Gale NewsVault – Active by Karen Williams

Karen Williams — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:25:58 +0000

The new link in IE worked well. The interface is simple to learn and use and there is a good help page, if needed. The image quality is good and the ability to narrow results to “documents with images only” produced some fascinating results. A search for Julia Margaret Cameron yielded some beautiful photographs and accompanying articles. An advanced search for “fox talbot” and “calotype” produced a number of interesting articles, as did a search for “saint-gaudens”. The navigation to previous searches seems easy enough and I liked the feature of being able to narrow my search by publication section.
The Times Database, although it comes with a steep cost, has only a minimal annual cost. I think that it is well worth the expanded coverage and we would recoup our intial investment over 3 years.

Comment on Gale NewsVault – Active by Erika Hauser

Erika Hauser — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:18:03 +0000

Same here — I had no problems when using the new link.

Comment on Gale NewsVault – Active by Renee Watson

Renee Watson — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:01:08 +0000

I tested again with the new trial link http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/special_dvnw?db=DVNW and now had no problems with the site hanging or crashing. Searches and other navigation were fast and clean. I tested twice during the day, both times on Internet Explorer.

Comment on Gale NewsVault – Active by Renee Watson

Renee Watson — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:21:22 +0000

After Deborah first expressed concern about the trial hanging and crashing, I went back to do some more testing. I was using the Nolen desk computer (a slow ref period there) and IE. I tested on and off for about 90 minutes.

As I had found before, the initial searches were quick and the print quality of the documents generally excellent.

The problems came when I tried to modify or revise a search, or when I tried to get back to the full result list after looking at an individual result.

At one point I clicked on the Revise button in Search History. It took a full two minutes to bring back my original search (that is, original search without my collection limits) and then the system hung. I had to restart the trial. The same thing happened 10 minutes later. Some actions just took a very long time.

Originally I was very impressed at the amount of material available and the ability to search it in one shot and I glossed over the “glitches” as probably one-offs. On further testing I realize that the interface as I have tested it on IE would be too problematic to use.