Elaine B. Adams, Librarian
Subject Areas: Physics, Astronomy
UCLA Science & Engineering Library (SEL)
Los Angeles, CA  90095-1598
(310) 825-2649
(310) 825-9570 Fax
ebadams@library.ucla.edu

Cathy Wilson
Operations Supervisor, Physics Collection

INSPEC Trial for New Vendors
Please consider this is an invitation from California Digital Library to test the database INSPEC on  search platforms from three different vendors, Axiom from IOP/Institute of Physics, UK,  Ovid technologies, andLANL from the Los Alamos National Library Research Library.  INSPEC and all CDL-hosted databases will be transitioned to new alternative vendors, andwe invite you to participate in the trials that have begun this month. Access information on the vendor test accounts is now available at http://www.cdlib.org/about/test-accounts.html.  Click on INSPEC to see access information for the three respective vendors.  Note that for LANL access, you will need to register (separate link provided).  Approval of registration takes less than an hour and is IP-specific.  Axiom is searchable in "standard" service with no registration, but registration is required for the "enhanced" service.  Ovid should work from any UC/UCLA IPaddress for the trial, however, an alternative login/password is provided as backup.

You may search one, two, or all three vendors.  Afterwards you are asked to complete a short survey about your search experience at http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/2734/databasesurvey.htm.  Remember to identify the database and vendor at the top of the survey in the box provided!  Clicking on "Submit Survey" at the end will send your response directly to CDL.

We appreciate your aid in helping us make an informed decision on the future of this physics/electrical engineering/computer and information technology database.  Please note there will be new search enhancements for INSPEC through these test vendors, e.g., "numeric" files with the capability to restrict or limit search results by various numeric classes, such as temperature ranges.  And there is the capability to export bibtex (Tex/Latex) formatted citations with two proposed vendors. If you have any questions or wish to send me comments directly, I will try to answer them or forward them to someone at CDL who can respond.

Background
Why is this trial necessary?   During the next two years both MELVYL catalog and the California Digital Library system, which hosts several indexing and abstracting databases, have to be fundamentally changed, since neither is technically or economically sustainable.  There are two major initiatives.  First, the underlying technology of the MELVYL catalog is being replaced.  CDL has negotiated a contract with Ex Libris to purchase its ALEPH 500 integrated library system software for use in maintaining MELVYL catalog.  The Ex Libris system is currently in use by 3 million users in 43 countries.  Recent customers include SUNY/the State University of New York system and Harvard University Library.  CDL is pleased to purchase this particular system, selected after a rigorous evaluation process involving library staff fromall UC campuses.

Librarians and staff from all UC campuses are also involved in planning for the migration to the new catalog.  Faculty and student input will be sought at critical junctures.  The new MELVYL should be available by spring 2002.It will run in parallel to the current online catalog until the end of the year.

The second major initiative, driven by the first, is the one we seek your help with this month.  It is a transition in the way the databasespresently hosted by CDL are handled and presented.  You will be accessing these databases through new vendor interfaces, so they will look different and may have different search features.  In addition to INSPEC, there are 20 other affected databases, including BIOSIS Previews, Current Contents, GeoRef, History of Science and Technology, and MEDLINE.   The transiti of the CDL-hosted journal databases will also be completed by December 2002,with a generous period in which parallel systems will run. Teams of UC librarians are analyzing the strengths and limitations of different vendors, and we invite you who use these databases extensively to help us in this evaluation.

Background information and updates are available at the CDL What's New Website at http://www.cdlib.org/news/whatsnew.html.