Issue No. 36

April 2000

http://library.ust.hk/

OCLC Institute

Technology is revolutionizing how knowledge is created, disseminated, captured, stored, accessed, used, and preserved. Increasingly, businesses, governments, educational institutions, the general public, and many other sectors of society recognize that access to knowledge is key to success and even survival.

Recognizing this fact, the HKUST Library will host the first OCLC Institute in Asia from June 19 to June 21, 2000. OCLC is currently the largest information services provider in the world. Since 1997, their educational division, OCLC Institute, has held numerous programs for information professionals with the goal of promoting the evolution of information technology and services.

This particular seminar, entitled "Knowledge Management: Methods and Systems" has been designed to explore the intersection of this increasingly popular management trend with the Web and digital knowledge resources.

Topics will include components and characteristics of knowledge management, systems fundamentals, functional requirements, and systems performance.

The two and a half day seminar will incorporate lectures, group discussions, guided laboratory exercises and small group presentations. We expect good participation from librarians and other information professionals in this region.

COLLECTION SPOTLIGHT: Full-text Electronic Journals

With the evolution of the web, scholarly journals, once available only in print format, are moving rapidly into the digital realm. The technology and implementation of e-journals is now maturing, and is being more accepted by users. As a result, the Library's collection in this area is experiencing rapid growth.

The Library has recently obtained extra funds from the University Administration for the procurement of two premier databases. JSTOR is an outstanding set of full-text e-journals. Web of Science is a collection of citation databases which incorporate online links between the cited records and the full-text articles available from several of our e-journal subscriptions (we purchased 10 years' backfiles to the Web of Science - for more details, see the article on page 4).

Other recent additions include the Highwire Press, ACS Web Version, and Science Direct - Web Editions. All told, the Library is in the process of adding over 530 e-journal titles to the collection within a two-month time span.

In most ways, these e-journal titles are treated just like our print ones. They are included in the Library Online Catalog - and in its web interface you will find a link to connect you with our full-text online holdings. We also include these titles in the e-journals database on the Library web server (http://library.ust.hk/res/ejournals/).

JSTOR

JSTOR is an electronic archive of 117 core journals in 15 disciplines, mostly in the humanities and social sciences. It is a unique database, because it is the first electronic archive of journals going back to their first issues.

While the Library has about 70% of these titles in our print collection, as a young institution we have 10-20 years of backfiles. JSTOR goes all the way back to the first copy, and includes all but the most recent issues. In many cases its holdings date back to the nineteenth century.

Because these are electronic files, they have all the "bells and whistles" that e-journals can offer. This includes keyword/phase searching and fulltext viewing and printing capabilities to all files in the database.

Highwire Press

Another archival full-text journal collection being added is the one hosted by Stanford University Library's Highwire Press. Free access is now available to the backfiles of 52 titles with over 140,000 articles in medicine and life sciences. The current year's articles are not available for most of the journals. Some well-known titles including Molecular and Cellular Biology, Clinical Chemistry, and the Journal of Applied Physiology are available.

ACS Web Version

A total of 34 journals published by the American Chemical Society, including current issues and backfiles, are now available to our users. This collection includes some of the most important titles in the field, ranging from the Journal of the American Chemical Society to specialized titles such as Crystal Growth & Design.

Science Direct - Web editions

The Library subscribes to about 350 journals from Elsevier, mainly in the areas of science and engineering. Science Direct - Web Editions contains the electronic version of these journals including free full-text image articles for the most recent 9 months.
 

INTERNET: Searching Chinese Sources
國際互聯網: 搜索中文資料

隨著越來越多互聯網頁的設立，China.com或Hongkong.com 等新興的中文網頁日漸受到讀者注意，並且轉向利用它們來查詢資料。 對一般大眾化資訊如健康衛生，財務金融，旅行遊歷，消閒娛樂， 或潮流時尚產品，上述這些網頁確能提供許多有用的資料信息。 然而，要尋找嚴肅學術性質的資料，搜索引擎的先驅如雅虎中文 (Chinese.yahoo.com) 或AltaVista (Altavista.com)， 仍然是不可或缺的工具。尤其是當要找的是關於中國大陸的資訊， 搜狐 (Sohu.com)是很好的資料來源。

假定你需要尋找有關中國的環保資訊， 在China.com裏你不會有很大的收獲。嘗試閱覽搜狐的網頁， 關於這個主題，它有不少資料可供參考。在搜狐的主頁，挑選"科學與技術"。 在"環境科學"下面，分條列舉了"研究機構"，"生態學"，"環境法"， "環境工程"等項目。此外，它還提供連結到關於環保的綜合網集 (meta-sites)，和連接了國內，國外各個環境保護網站。退回主頁， 在"科學與技術"之下，選擇"科技期刊"， 從"環境與自然"可引領你到許多提供全文的中文期刊及雜誌， 包括"產業與環境-Industry and Environment"， 這是由中國科學院生態環境研究中心所出版的季刊。

除了瀏覽主題類別外，讀者也可以在搜狐主頁檢索中國環保的資料。 鍵入"中國環保"，會找到有關中國環保發展規劃，環保常識，環保機構， 環保產業和相關信息，環保論壇，環保教育，環保法規，環保標準等網站。

使用中文搜索引擎有一點必須要注意的，就是關於中文編碼的問題。 例如，利用搜狐尋找關於中國環保的資料，會找到十三條記錄。 隨即轉去搜尋雅虎中文，則一無所得，那是因為雅虎中文的中文編碼是大五碼 (Big5)，而搜狐用的是國標碼(GB)。想要知道應用那一種中文編碼來檢索， 在搜索之前，點啟View，然後打開Page Source， 查看頁內中文字元組合的中文編碼； "charset=gb"表示你必須以國標碼鍵入檢索字詞， "charset=big5"表示用大五碼。以大五碼"中國環保"搜尋雅虎中文， 應該會找到差不多五十個類目和兩百多個網站符合檢索字串。 大部分的網頁都可以循這方法找到它的中文編碼狀況。

不要忽略了AltaVista，儘管它主要是英語的搜索引擎， 然而它搜尋中文資料的能力比一些標榜中文的搜索引擎還要略勝一籌。 尋找"中國環保"會找到超過五百條記錄。雖然不至於全部記錄均貼切地相關， 但是為首的條目通常都相當合宜。例如"中國環境保護"就提供了連結， 聯接國家環境保護總局，還有其他關於中國環境的管理，狀況， 環境新聞及統計等資料。

搜索 AltaVista跟上述方法不一樣，你需要選擇用中文語言查詢。 揀選 "Language Settings"，然後選擇 Chinese (Traditional) 或 Chinese (Simplified)，點擊位於底部的"Set Language Settings"。 接著返回檢索螢幕。如果你需要常常尋找中文資料， 我會建議你把這網址放進"我的書籤"，方便日後使用。
 

MEDIA: Materials for the Division of Humanities & Social Sciences (fourth in a series)

One could spend hours exploring the Media collection because there is such a large variety of materials across these disciplines and in many formats. Here are a few of the gems...

Music: Media has almost 4,000 different titles in the audio CD collection. The chief area of collection is western art music (classical, opera, etc.) and jazz; but we also try to include representative works of music from all traditions. An example of an important series in this collection is the Complete Mozart edition (Media M3 .M897 4225002A) which consists of 181 discs in 45 volumes.

Music is always a very popular segment of the Media collection, and the new Music Appreciation course, GNED 101, is expected to encourage even greater use. Some musical works are also available on LD. Please be aware that while most musical works are in class "M", most videorecordings of ballets are in class "GV". Searching for music can sometimes be frustrating. If you want a work by a particular composer or artist, search for that person as an "author". If you seek a particular piece, enter the words in its name as a keyword search.

Arts: The collection has over 17,000 slides, mostly of artworks for student and faculty study. In addition, there are several video series that show the beauties of world famous museums like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Uffizi in Florence, The Louvre and Musee d'Orsay in Paris, and The National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Societies and Civilizations: Along with individual titles in numerous disciplines, we have several large series that cover a broad range of topics. The Western Tradition (Media CB245 .W47 1989 v. 1-26) covers western civilization from our anthropoid ancestors to the 20th century. In the broad discipline of Chinese culture and civilization there are two remarkable series. One is "中華文化講座" (Media DS721 .C575 v.1-97) a collection of seminars given by Beijing University professors in their fields of expertise, covering subjects as diverse as Chinese couplets, Chinese travelers to foreign lands in pre-modern times, the culture of Hutongs in Beijing, marriage customs of minorities in China, and much more. The other is the 40-volume "中國歷史" (DS735 .C5268657 1994 v. 1-40) which focuses on Chinese history from pre-historic times to the Republican revolution. Both of these series are in Mandarin.

This is just the briefest sample of what's available. Visit Media Resources and you will certainly find something appropriate to your research or interests.
 

WEB: Web of Science

Most indexes provide options for author, article title, journal title, and keyword searches. As their name implies, citation indexes allow you to search for article references and citations in other publications. This is especially helpful for tracing the development of concepts and ideas over time.

Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) are the two most well-known of these. Both cover the world's leading scholarly journals. SCI indexes 3,600 journals in science and engineering, and SSCI includes 1,700 journals in the social sciences and business. The Library has recently upgraded our SCI and SSCI subscriptions from CD-ROM to the online version on Web of Science (WOS).

The Web version provides many advantages: SCI on WOS covers 2000 additional journals; access is available from off-campus, and from all computer platforms; and the information is updated more frequently. There are also several significant interface enhancements, including searching by other cited authors, not just the first author; cross-database and multiple year searching; and the ability to sort by relevance, date, author, journal, or number of times cited. WOS also incorporates links to our Library Catalog and electronic journal subscriptions.

Those familiar with the CD-ROM product will note the absence of field dictionaries to increase the speed and accuracy of entering search terms by providing a selection list. These dictionaries are very useful when searching by author or institution name. The Library has requested that the vendor work to add them to WOS.

Web of Science from 1991 to the present can be accessed through the Library Web Server ( http://library.ust.hk/) under Featured Site or Library Databases, or directly using http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/wos.pl. CD-ROM backfiles of SCI (1980-1999) and SSCI (1981-1999) are still available on the campus network via the Library Online Systems.

If you have any questions about using WOS, please email lbonline@ust.hk/ or call 2358-6760 to speak with a reference librarian.
 

SYSTEMS UPDATES: Ovid and Searching the Library Catalog

Holdings in Ovid

Last month we activated an improved option for accessing holdings information in databases on the Ovid system. Now you can follow a web link at the top of the record display to search HKUST's Library Catalog and see if we have that journal, conference proceeding, or book in our collection. And if we do not, Faculty and postgraduates can still use the 'order' button to request a copy through Interlibrary Loan.

Searching the Library Catalog

Users now have the option of searching for a specific ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) in the Library Catalog. Another new feature is the combined "Author+Title" search option. Please tell us what you think of these.