The University Library currently spends hundreds of thousands of pounds every year subscribing to electronic resources for use by the University’s staff and students. However there is currently no coherent way of determining the level of usage of these resources, so, to remedy this, Information Services is implementing a tool called RAPTOR which will be able to provide summary data on the levels of usage of these resources. In order to enable RAPTOR to gather complete information on eResource usage, it will be necessary for on campus users of these resources to log on to the Portal before accessing them.
A large number of the electronic resources the library subscribes to are freely available to anyone accessing them from on campus without requiring them to enter a username or password. This is known as IP Authentication as the service uses the IP Address (i.e. the location) of the accessing computer to determine the user is accessing from a subscribing institution and is therefore entitled to gain access to the resource without entering a username and password.
In order to provide off campus access to IP Authenticated resources, the University uses a system called “EZProxy” which enables off campus users to log on to the Portal and, if they are recognised by the portal as a member of staff or a student from the University, EZProxy then requests access to the resource on the user’s behalf, and, as EZProxy is located on campus and has a Stirling IP Address, the service will permit the off campus user access to the service on this basis.
From the start of 2013 Information Services intends to start gathering data on the usage of the electronic resources the library subscribes to and intends to use log on requests passing through the EZProxy server as one means to achieve this. In order to get a more complete picture of usage, however, it will be necessary to ensure that both on campus and off campus users gain access to IP Protected resources via EZProxy. The upshot of this will be that on campus users will also be required to log on to the portal before gaining access to IP Authenticated resources.
Users who have already logged on to the Portal in the current browser session, before accessing any EZProxy protected resources, will not be required to re-enter their username and password. So, for example, on campus users who have already logged on to the Portal in order to access Succeed, will not be required to re-authenticate when accessing electronic resources from within Succeed.
It is expected that EZProxy authentication for on campus users will be switched on at some point during the week before Christmas 2012 in order to ensure that complete electronic resource usage data is being collected from the start of 2013 onwards.
Michael White
EZProxy Administrator
ZETOC, the British Library’s electronic table of contents alerting service, will be upgraded on 15th November 2011. ZETOC provides information about over 28,000 journals and 45 million article citations and conference papers. It covers all academic disciplines and is available from the A-Z list of online resources.
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The upgrade to ZETOC will improve data accuracy, remove duplicate records and add abstracts from 1993 onwards. Previously abstracts were available from 1999 onwards.
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ZETOC Search allows researchers to search 45 million article citations and conference papers from 1993 onwards. It is updated daily and includes Stirling’s WebBridge icon to look for full text availability from our library.
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ZETOC Alert is a current awareness service for researchers. Simply select your favourite journals or authors or keywords from titles of articles and ZETOC will email you each time new data matching your requirements is added to its database. Alternatively you can register for an RSS feed.
The University of Stirling holds membership to BioMed Central. This membership covers the costs of publishing within BioMed Central’s 214 Open Access journals for our researchers.
You can view the University of Stirling’s membership page for details on submitting a paper and for a list of articles published in BioMed Central by our researchers in the last year.
The costs of publishing in SpringerOpen journals are also now covered by our BioMed Central membership. Visit the SpringerOpen website for more information and for a full list of their Open Access journals.
Subject Librarian
Information Services has invested in a replacement for our StirGate service. This new and improved service simultaneously searches many Library resources and offers a new, efficient way of searching for academic information. StirGate is available on and off campus from the A-Z list of online resources or from the Resources tab in the University Portal.
What are the new features?
- export your search results by email, or directly into RefWorks (read more about Refworks)Â
- save a search, or set up a search alert by email or RSS – great for keeping up to date on a topic
- limit your results using a wide range of filters to ensure relevancy
- book reviews
What does StirGate search?
There are two ways to use the StirGate service. The default is to search the Library Catalogue; the full text of 46,000 journals; electronic journal archives including JSTOR, Science Direct and Business Source Premier; subject specific indexes including CINAHL (health), EconLit (economics), IPSA (politics), ATLA (religious studies), PsycINFO (psychology) and the Citation Indexes from Web of Science.
Further results can then be added to your search by selecting the additional resources on the right hand side of the StirGate search screen. More resources will be added to this list in the coming weeks so if your favourite databases aren’t there yet, please check again soon!
Forthcoming developments:
- More databases will be available from the list of the right hand side of the results screen
- Additional databases will soon be available in the default search setting (to see a list of these resources run a search and click on the ‘database information’ link on the left hand side of the results screen)
- An app for mobile devices
- Customised versions of StirGate for specific subject areas
- STORRE (our online repository) and our Archives Catalogue will also be added to StirGate
Follow IS on Twitter @isstirling to keep up to date with new resources being added to StirGate.
We would like to know what you think about the new service, you can send us your views from within StirGate by clicking on the “give us your feedback” link, or email library@stir.ac.uk
Information Services is investing in a new search tool to help students and staff find quality information resources. This will replace our StirGate service.
This new toool will search simultaneously across many of the Library’s databases such as Web of Science, Historical Abstracts, CINAHL and Business Source Premier as well as our electronic journal and electronic book collections and the Library catalogue.
We aim to launch the new search tool in January 2011 and would like your help in selecting a name. Please let us know which name you prefer by voting in our online poll on the IS website before 5th January.
A new subject research guide for Environmental History has been produced by Library staff. This guide brings together a list of the major databases and journal archives of interest to those studying or researching environmental history as well providing a list of recommended websites. The research guide can be seen here. You can keep up to date with additions to the websites section of the guide by subscribing to the RSS feed.
ZETOC (the British Library’s Table of Contents alerting service) is ten years old this Autumn. This multidisciplinary search tool offers a current awareness service for researchers and is a useful way to keep up to date with what is being published in your field. ZETOC Alert allows you to register your topics of interest, or a list of your favourite journals, and receive an alert by email or RSS each time new research is published which matches your criteria. ZETOC is available from the A-Z list of Online Resources and more information about the ZETOC service can be viewed here.
Routledge publishing have compiled 65 free academic journal articles about the causes and impacts of the financial crisis. There are eight categories of article:
- causes of the financial crisis,
- financial crisis impact and management,
- regional focus on the financial crisis,
- learning from the financial crisis,
- the financial crisis as a crisis of capitalism,
- opportunities emerging from the financial crisis,
- globalisation, security and defence in hard times.
These articles can be accessed from www.tandf.co.uk/journals/access/politics-in-hardtimes.pdf
For other sources of journal articles on these topics visit our Subject Research Guides for politics, economics or management.
You can now read online or download the full text of articles, book reviews and reports from the journal Science. After our recent announcement about Nature (available from December 2005 to present), Nature Geoscience (available from January 2008 to present) and Apidologie (available from 2000 to present) we now have electronic access to Science (from 1997 to present).
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You know what to do:
Log on to the portal. Go to the Library catalogue link. Limit from Entire Collection to Journals. Type in the journal title. Then click on the link to the online resource.
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Happy reading!
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Elizabeth Andrews
Subject Librarian
You can now access articles online from the journals Nature, Nature Geoscience and Apidologie. Simply log on to your portal, search for the journals in the catalogue and click on the link.
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Elizabeth Andrews
Subject Librarian