The New Library Catalog is Here!

Time and innovation move rapidly in the streams of cyberspace, which is why it's startling to realize that until June 26, 2000 the Library had been using the same online catalog system for twelve years, the techie’s equivalent of a geological epoch. The University community’s increasing demand for networked, digital resources and more fully integrated access to the Library’s broadening spectrum of both traditional and cutting edge research materials triggered a five-year, campus-wide effort to inventory and evaluate the newest generation of library management systems. We needed to select one that could fully serve the unusually diverse needs of Cornell students and scholars at every stage of their research, a system that would grow with and incorporate future developments in the electronic delivery of information.

Though reliable and easy to use, our aging, text-based catalog could not limit search results to the holdings of a particular campus library, display medieval engravings from Cornell’s witchcraft collection, instantly connect to Congressional document repositories on the World Wide Web, or allow the renewal of books online. But all these options are now possible through Voyager, a library interface developed by Endeavor Information Systems of Rosemont, Illinois. Other major research institutions using Voyager include the Library of Congress, the University of Wisconsin, and the National Library of Medicine.

The new catalog is Web-based -- though there is also a plain-text, telnet version available -- and is designed to take full advantage of the World Wide Web’s graphical and hypertext capabilities.  Links to the Library’s ever-expanding array of digital resources, such as full-text periodicals, databases, statistical sites, and image archives, are now embedded in the records themselves, which means that you can connect directly from the catalog to a networked resource. Search result screens prominently display red “Networked Resource” icons so digital materials can be readily distinguished from those in other media.

There are now four different ways to search for Library materials: (1) exact title, author name, Library of Congress subject heading, call number, or journal title; (2) a guided keyword search that allows the combination of keywords in various relationships, (3) a free-text command search option, and (4) relevance keyword, which, like Web search engines such as AltaVista and Google, ranks search results. These new modes make it easy, for example, to retrieve only English-language translations of Flaubert’s works housed in Uris Library, or all the books on U.S. foreign relations in Olin which were published in 2000. While the system was designed to allow even the novice to begin finding materials with little or no preparation, we’ve provided brief tips on each search page that will help you get the most out of your searches.

Perhaps the most exciting component of the new catalog is what we call “patron empowerment.”  You can use the catalog’s Patron Info button to display a list of items you have checked out and renew individual titles instantly. The Requests button allows you to request recalls for titles checked out by someone else, place holds on books that are checked out, and page items shelved in non-public areas, such as the eighth floor of Olin.  In the future you can expect to see the catalog provide such features as online Library Annex requests and the serving of electronic reserve materials.

Remember that we are growing accustomed to the new catalog just as you are, and we realize there are still some adjustments that need to be made. Your comments and suggestions are essential if the Library catalog is to meet your needs, so please don’t hesitate to tell us what you think of it.

To link to the new catalog click here http://catalog.library.cornell.edu/

netLibrary: eBooks Come to Cornell!

Even if you haven’t curled up with your computer to read the latest Stephen King novel online, you probably have seen something about the advent of “eBooks” in the news. In keeping with our twin goals of providing new services and creating access to more digital resources, Cornell University Library (CUL) recently purchased hundreds of electronic texts from netLibrary, one of the largest collections of online books currently available. From a book on Shakespeare’s flowers to the latest Linux manual, you can browse, read, scan the tables of contents and even search the full texts of a wide range of scholarly volumes and reference materials in electronic form.

NetLibrary is actually comprised of three different collections -- the “Library Collection,” the “Public Collection,” and the “Private Collection.” The Library Collection contains over 800 titles, selected and purchased by a consortium of four academic libraries, from netLibrary’s growing inventory of thousands of copyrighted works, including an increasing array of university press books. Most of the titles in the Library Collection are fully cataloged in CUL’s new Web-based online catalog. A keyword search with the term “netLibrary” will bring up a list of all the titles currently cataloged. A link to the online text of each book appears to the right of the “Electronic Access” label on the catalog record. At this time, individual Library Collection titles are not included in the Library Gateway’s Networked Resources page, however, it does include an entry for the netLibrary Web site which has many powerful search features.

Containing over 4,000 additional items, the Public Collection is comprised of texts from Project Gutenberg and other public domain works, no longer under copyright, including speeches, government reports and valuable historical source material such as the papers of Thomas Jefferson. Classic works of fiction are also included from authors such as Bronte, Melville, Homer, and Shakespeare. However, they must be used with caution due to a lack of specific edition identity and textual authority in some of the Project Gutenberg titles. Many of the Public Collection resources are also freely available on the World Wide Web in various forms, but netLibrary has pulled them together into a collection with a common interface and powerful search features. Although the items in the Public Collection are not separately listed in CUL’s online catalog, you can gain access to both collections via the netLibrary Web site, which is listed in and linked from the online catalog as well as the Library Gateway’s Networked Resources page. The Private Collection contains the works available for sale from netLibrary.

NetLibrary’s eBook collections can be searched collectively or separately in “quick search,” “power search,” or “command search” modes. Searchable fields include author, title, subject, keyword, publisher, year, and isbn. Full text searching is also available for entire collections or individual titles. A search on the term “democracy” in a recent university press book titled Art and Society resulted in immediate links to nine sections of the text, most of which were not listed in the index of the book. The ability to quickly find occurrences of terms such as “education,” “family,” or “marriage” throughout the biographies of eighteenth-century women poets provides a unique tool for assessing common threads of background or influence within these women's lives. According to a recent New York Times review, “the new effort to build an electronic library is not about reading at all. It is about the power of electronic searching. With digital scanning, texts of works that may be decades old can be mined for those few morsels of insight that may enhance a research paper or help prove an argument.” (Lisa Guernsey, “The Library As the Latest Web Venture,” New York Times, June 15, 2000, sec. G, p. 1, col. 5).

Although you cannot yet load netLibrary texts onto your Palm Pilot, you can use any computer with Internet access to search and preview the eBooks for fifteen minutes at a time. When you “check-out” an eBook you have the option of reading it on or offline for two hours at a time. To adhere to copyright restrictions, you can only print from an eBook one page at a time. However, you first must register, or establish an “account” through the netLibrary Web site and select your own user name and password. Go to the Library Gateway, select the Networked Resources page and type “netlibrary” in the keyword search box. Click on the link that displays in the search results to go to the netLibrary site then click on “create account” near the top of the page.

Since netLibrary needs to recognize you as a Cornell affiliate when you create your account, you must use a computer with a Cornell “I.P.” address. If you are not using a workstation in the libraries or computer labs on campus you either need to access the Internet via Cornell’s EZ-Remote service or set the preferences on your Web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) to connect through Cornell’s proxy server. For information about EZ-Remote or the proxy server, contact Cornell Information Technology’s HelpDesk at 255-8990. Online instructions for the proxy server are also available at the following URL: http://www.cit. cornell.edu/kerberos/proxy/#how. Once you have registered and have your user name and password, you no longer need to be concerned about having a Cornell computer address.

Although eBooks have not yet created the complete revolution promised by the media over the last few years, online resources such as netLibrary do provide valuable information and research resources as well as a remarkable new service that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s also very convenient -- when you’re done with the book, you don’t have to carry it back to the library!

For more information or for assistance in using netLibrary, don’t hesitate to contact the Olin and Uris Library reference staff in-person at the desk, or by phone at 254-2907, via e-mail at: okuref@cornell.edu or through our new chat reference service at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/livehelp.html.

Nancy Skipper , Assistant Head,
Reference Services Division

Library Notices by E-Mail

One of the many new service enhancements brought about by the new library management system implemented over the summer (see article on new library catalog in this issue), is e-mail notification for overdue items, items requested and items available. We feel this long-requested service will greatly improve timeliness of notification. E-mail is now the official method of library notice delivery.  Paper notification has been discontinued, except for those faculty, staff and students without active Cornell e-mail addresses.

You will be able to receive library notices via e-mail if you read e-mail on CIT’s central e-mail postoffice system, typically accessed with Eudora, WebEmail or Travelers Mail; or you have used “WhoIAm” to route e-mail sent to your “NetID@cornell.edu” address to a departmental e-mail system or some other service. To check the current status of your “NetID@cornell.edu” address, go to the WhoIAm web site at http://whoiam.cornell.edu/. Note that you must have SideCar running to access this site. WhoIAm’s Electronic Mail Systems Preferences Form lets you choose whether mail sent to your “NetID@cornell.edu” address goes to the Cornell “postoffice” systems, to another e-mail service, or is returned to the sender as undeliverable. The Library strongly urges all its patrons to enable delivery of mail sent to a “NetID@cornell.edu” address.

If you need assistance with using WhoIAm to configure e-mail delivery, please contact your local technical support personnel or CIT’s HelpDesk (255-8990, helpdesk@cornell.edu).

Susan Currie, Head,
Access Services Division

Reference Home Page	Cite and Byte home page	URL:http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/citebyte/cb103.html Martha Walker, editor, Cite & Byte [rev. 10/13/2000] Lynn Thitchener and Ashley Lin, editorial assistants Olin·Kroch·Uris Libraries Reference Services Division
Library Home Page	E-mail the Editor