In response to a query about printing on DIALOG Web, Michael McCulley, Webmaster for Knight-Ridder, indicates that saving and printing requires a couple of extra steps. The frame that you wish to print or save must be activated prior to clicking the print icon or saving to disk. Always click on the record list prior to choosing to print or save. A new Print/Save Selected feature will be included in Version 1.1, scheduled for release this Fall. An article in the June 1997 issue of Searcher, p. 28, titled "Knight-Ridder on the Web: A Brave New World for Searchers?" was recommended by Lloyd Fletcher.
UNCOVER AUTHOR INDEXING
Shaun Hardy, Carnegie Institution, points out that UnCover does not index all authors of each paper, but has a 3-author per record maximum. His testing indicated that the 1st, 2nd, and *last* author were used but this could not be confirmed with UnCover.
IAU PUBLICATION CHANGES
Astronomical Society of the Pacific will assume publication of International Astronomical Union (IAU) publications starting in 1998. All Symposia, Transactions, and Highlights associated with the 1997 Kyoto General Assembly will be published by Kluwer. The institutional standing order list will not be passed on by Kluwer, so librarians may need to contact ASP to verify whether their institution is on the list.
INSPEC DISCUSSION
A query about searching INSPEC for various chemical compounds provided searching tips and sparked a discussion of INSPEC interfaces and pricing. The question was how to search La/sub 2/CuO/sub 4/ in INSPEC through FirstSearch. Joe Kraus suggested searching this in the title keyword field as the phrase: La w sub w 2 w CuO w sub w 4. Marlene Cummins mentioned that items of interest to astronomy librarians are available in INSPEC Matters.
One recent Search Corner article highlighted the PHP field (physical properties) and the list of astronomical designations acquired along with PHYS. Astronomical designations are available at: http://www.iee.org.uk/publish/inspec/astro_ob.html
PAM members seemed to feel that there was a need for a more flexible pricing structure for INSPEC. The recurring charges for access to the backfile were considered problematic and a one time fee for backfile access or purchase of the backfile for a flat fee were suggested as alternatives.
David Stern wondered if other organizations would be interested in joining Yale in a consortial arrangement for remote access to INSPEC via Silver Platter. INSPEC officials had indicated that consortial pricing offers perhaps the best INSPEC value.
ISI SEARCHING HINTS
Many suggestions were made for searching compound female names in ISI's Web of Science. Molly White provided some fine print from author help that clarifies ISI's position on author searching. If an author's last name includes spaces (e.g., de Ville, de los Rios), enter this name both with and without the space(s). Join the two versions of the name with OR. For example, enter DEVILLE* OR DE VILLE* for de Ville, DELOSRIOS* OR DE LOS RIOS* for de los Rios. If an author's name includes a nonalphanumeric character (e.g., O'Brian, Kroll-Smith), enter this name without the character. For example, enter OBRIAN for O'Brian, KROLLSMITH for Kroll-Smith. Other suggestions were searching under another author for the paper to see how the name is handled and searching for the first part of an author's last name with truncation, e.g., hainut*. Using a hyphen with a compound last name is advisable because ISI assumes the 'last' name given is an author's last name and all preceeding names will be abbreviated.
FACULTY LIAISON ASSIGNMENTS
Randy Reichardt inquired whether anyone knew of a study or statistics on the average number of departments with which one librarian usually has liaisons. Department liaisons for those responding varied from 1-10 departments per librarian. It was pointed out by respondents that other things besides number of departments needed to be considered. Factors might include size of institution, size of the department (number of faculty/students), what degrees are offered, match between subject specialist and assignment, and other responsibilities, e.g., running a library.
NUCLEAR PHYSICS ELECTRONIC
Gary Davidoff inquired as to how others are dealing with Nuclear Physics Electronic. The files are in Tex format and the figures are "tarred and feathered" (tar and gzip). What solutions are there besides uploading Tex?
Charles Early reported that the TOM Conversion Server converts files and URLs from any of a variety of formats into other formats. He has used it successfully to convert Postscript files to Acrobat; it claims to be able to handle Latex. Gary indicates that a freeware product for Windows 95 called PSView allows you to view/print Postscript files. It can be downloaded from http://www.iicm.edu/gorasche/psview.
Peter Boyce, American Astronomical Society, reports that PDF produces a ten-fold smaller file than Postscript and is much quicker to download and display. He states that HTML files are much smaller than PDF files and are much to be preferred for electronic journals. AAS stores manuscripts in SGML and derives the HTML version automatically from that archive. Mark Steinberger points out that HTML is not yet adequate to convey the content in math journals and MATHML is some time away. Tim Ingoldsby, AIP, argues that HTML, as presently evolved by competing browser developers, is a less stable format than PDF, Postscript, or Tex. AIP is working on HTML that includes special characters rendered as GIFs.
ELECTRONIC PREPRINT DATABASES
An offshoot of the Nuclear Physics Electronic discussion was comment on electronic preprint databases. Concern was expressed by Greg Youngen, U of Illinois at UC regarding the extent to which electronic preprints have worked themselves into the mainstream as a primary source of information. What happens if they are no longer archived? Marion Schmitz, Cal Tech, argued that even with electronic preprints, all versions of a paper must co-exist. She pointed out that lack of traceability removes accountability.
BOOK DEALER INFORMATION
An inquiry regarding dealers who are interested in buying old journals and books in the area of physics-astronomy-mathematics resulted in a list of ten dealers. Please contact John Grula if interested in getting a copy of the resulting list.
AAS CD-ROM VOL. VIII
Marion Schmitz, Cal Tech, reported problems in accessing the data on v.VIII of the AAS CD-ROM. It turns out that the data on this disk cannot be completely read with a DOS based machine. The production manager for the CD-ROM series, Kim Langford, University of Chicago Press, reports that all the contents of all volumes of this series are available at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AAS/cdrom.
ADVANCED PHOTON SOURCE
A newsletter published by the Advanced Photon Source, a third generation synchrotron radiation research facility at Argonne National Laboratory, is available to interested libraries. If interested, send name/address/contract information for your library to Mary Pietryga.
INTERNET SITES NOTED
Classified search tool for amateur astronomy: Expanding Universe: http://www.mtrl.toronto.on.ca/centres/bsd/astronomy/index.html
Journal of Electronic Publishing (free access through end of 1997)-Quarterly electronic-only publication from the University of Michigan Press covering all aspects of the field of online publishing: http://www.press.umich.edu/jep
CFHT Bulletin (published only in electronic form as of edition #36 (Spring 1997): http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/bulletins
For astronomists-how to refer to a source or designate a new one: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/how.html
Specifications concerning designations for astronomical radiation sources outside the solar system: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/iau-spec.html
Scout Report for Science & Engineering. Coverage of selected Internet resources covering topics in sciences and related fields such as math and engineering: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/sci-engr/current/index.html
Archives of LibLicense-l discussion group: http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives
Two sites for beginning amateur astronomers: Astronomy Magazine at http://www.kalmbach.com/astro/astronomy.html and Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston: http://www.jovian.com/atmob
New Internet search service: Northern Light: http://www.nlsearch.com
"Guide to Computer Science Internet Resources" by Michael Knee: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/97-summer/internet2.html
Report of the IAU Comm. 5 Working Group on Astronomical Libraries, prepared and distributed by Brenda Corbin: http://www.eso.org/libraries/iau97/libreport.html
ARTICLE NOTED
Adams, Mignon. "Scientific Journals Online: Five Emerging Models." Library Issues; Briefings for Faculty and Administrators 17 (July 1997).
BOOK NOTED
Turner, Ray. Library Patrons with Disabilities. San Antonio: White Buffalo Press, 1996. http://www.whitebuffalopress.com
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