Cite & Byte

[text only version]

Welcome Back

On behalf of the Olin·Kroch·Uris Libraries Reference Services Division, I'd like to welcome those of you who are new to Cornell as well as those of you returning from the summer break. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about O·K·U Reference and some of the services and programs we offer. Our most visible services are, perhaps, the reference and information desks in Olin and Uris Libraries. O·K·U is a large research library complex; the reference and information desks are staffed by highly-skilled reference librarians and information assistants whose role is to help you navigate through this complex and find the information you need quickly and efficiently. Do not hesitate to seek our help. In addition to walk-in service at our desks, the reference librarians are available for in-depth research consultations and assistance by appointment. We also offer reference service via telephone -- call 255-4144 -- and via e-mail at okuref@cornell.edu.

An integral part of our work, of course, involves the Olin and Uris reference collections. The collections consist of over 50,000 volumes of bibliographies, indexes, encyclopedias, handbooks, and other types of tools. We also provide access to hundreds of databases mounted locally or available through the Internet. In addition to reference materials, the Olin reference collection houses many United States government documents. We also serve as a United Nations depository collection and have a research-level collection of UN documents. If you would like to suggest a title for inclusion in the reference collections, contact the Reference Collections Coordinator, Suzy Szasz Palmer, at 255-9493 or by e-mail at sms5@cornell.edu.

The Electronic Text Center (ETC) is our newest service. Located in recently-renovated space, the ETC houses six workstations and a variety of full-text databases. The ETC is currently open Monday through Friday from 1:00-5:00 p.m. For further information, see the article on page three or contact Michael Engle at moe1@cornell.edu or at 255-1884.

O·K·U Reference also includes the Library's Map Collection. Housed on the lower level of Olin Library, this is a circulating collection of more than 200,000 maps, atlases, reference books and digital cartographic products. The map librarian and her staff are available to answer your questions and to help you identify and locate pertinent resources. They can help you to interpret cartographic materials, locate maps for classroom presentations, verify citations, and use a variety of digital mapping programs. The map librarian is also available for in-depth research consultations and assistance by appointment. For further information, contact the Map Librarian, Susan Greaves, at 255-9566 or via e-mail at sjg4@cornell.edu.

One of our most important services is instruction. The O·K·U Reference Services Division offers a variety of educational opportunities for students and faculty. Last year, we presented 349 sessions to 5,206 participants. A large number of the classes we teach are for courses offered as part of the Freshman Writing Program. We also offer sessions for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses. In addition, we offer workshops such as Humanities Resources on the World-Wide Web, Introduction to HTML, and Introduction to Nexis. We present these sessions in either our comfortable lecture/demonstration classroom in Olin Library or our state-of-the-art, hands-on electronic classroom in Uris Library. To schedule a session contact our Instruction Coordinator, Mary Ochs, at 255-7148 or via e-mail at mao4@cornell.edu.

As a division, we exist for you, the users of Olin, Kroch and Uris Libraries. If there is anything we can do to assist you or your students, to make your research more productive, or to develop new programs or services of interest to you, please let us know. Feel free to contact me at 255-3319 or via e-mail at pjc6@cornell.edu. For further information about our programs and services, please inquire at the Olin or Uris reference desks, the Map Collection, or check the Division's Web site at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/.

Paul J. Constantine, Head, Division of Reference Services
pjc6@cornell.edu

Introducing Electronic Reserves

Available at the beginning of the fall '97 semester, the electronic reserve system in Uris uses the latest in image scanning to provide electronic document delivery. Using software from Nousoft, Inc., the digital system allows students to find, view and print course materials which have been placed on reserve by instructors.

To find out if course materials are available in electronic format, students can search the course reserve index in the online catalog. Materials in the electronic reserve system include articles, class lecture notes, problem sets, sample exams and portions of books. Materials may be retrieved by searching by instructor name, course title and number, author, or title of the material. No copies of entire books are available in electronic reserve. These may still be checked out at the circulation desk.

Five public workstations are located in the north alcove of the Dean Room in Uris Library. The workstations are available all hours the library is open. Materials may be viewed for free but there is an $.08 per page charge for printing. The advantages of this system are the multiple access to materials placed on reserve and fast printing. Students can view a list of all the materials that have been scanned into the electronic reserve system and choose only those they want to print and those they want to view. The service is particularly helpful for large classes when a print copy of a required reading may be frequently checked out. The Uris Library electronic reserve system is currently a closed network system available only within Uris. We plan to offer electronic reserve via the Web at some point in the future.

For more information on the electronic reserve system, see our web page at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuaccess/er/ or call for a tour of the public workstations. You may call Carmen Blankinship at 255-9567 (cb16@cornell.edu), Susan Currie at 255-5069 (sac5@cornell.edu) or Carla Bahn at 255-1882 (ceb6@cornell.edu). Watch for updates!

Susan A. Currie, Head, Division of Access Services
sac5@cornell.edu

Electronic Text Center Update
New Services, New Software, New Equipment

The Electronic Text Center (ETC) is growing in staff expertise and electronic resources as we near the end of our first year of operation.

Group and individual instruction available. The ETC staff is available for group or individual sessions on using our electronic text databases, finding electronic texts on the Web, using TACT (text analysis computing tools) software for text analysis, scanning graphics and images for research and instruction, and digitizing text using OCR (optical character recognition) software.

We held our first group instructional session this summer during the Summer Linguistics Institute on using TACT software with modern French-language texts. We analyzed newspaper articles available from the 1995 Le Monde on CD-ROM. Each member of the class gained hands-on experience using TACT software.

We also provide consultations on the creation of Web pages and writing HTML. We have just acquired a computer screen projector that allows us to show any of our databases to a group. To schedule an instructional session or a consultation, contact Michael Engle at moe1@cornell.edu or 255-1884.

More electronic texts. Highlights from our list of databases on order include Monumenta Germaniae Historica, the Sagas of Icelanders, and HarpWeek, 1857-1865--scanned page images and subject indexing for Harper's Weekly. Our latest acquisitions include the remarkable Dead Sea Scrolls; Bible Works, a large set of translations and early versions of the Bible; and Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue, fifty-eight manuscripts and the tools to examine them. For a current listing of texts available and on order, see our Web page at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/cet/holdings.html.

New equipment. We have upgraded our Power Macintosh used for image scanning and OCR as well as the IBM Pentium computers used for accessing the e-text CD-ROMs. Susan Greaves, the map librarian, will be setting up geographic and mapping programs in the ETC this fall, expanding the range of research materials available for use in the Center.

The future. Digitized materials and electronic texts are being used more and more in teaching and research. Some students are now preparing electronic dissertations. Students, faculty, and librarians are marking up primary texts in SGML and constructing Web sites. Major projects are underway in the research community to digitize primary materials in the humanities such as letters and classic texts. I recently attended a week-long workshop on preparing DTDs (document type definition) and EADs (encoded archival description) and SGML markup at the University of Virginia to better assist people who are or will be marking up texts. We look forward to working with you in the Electronic Text Center, 106G Olin Library, to support your teaching and research in this time of change.

Michael Engle, Reference Librarian
moe1@cornell.edu

New Abstracts and Indexes Available Electronically

Over the summer, numerous new abstracts and indexes were added to Cornell University Library's growing list of networked resources available to our patrons. It is important to note that additional databases will be added to these offerings as the semester progresses. These databases provide citations to articles in journals and newspapers, as well as conference reports and some book chapters. Some of these databases are "linked" to the online catalog, and can immediately provide call number and location information.

To accommodate various computer resources, these databases are available in both telnet and Web-based formats. For a detailed description of the available modes of access see our Web page Networked Indexes and Abstracts. This page includes information to help you choose the access method most suitable to your computing capabilities and your research needs.

These databases cover an impressive range of subject areas, but do not represent all the valuable resources available to Cornell library patrons. Reference assistance is available at service points in Olin and Uris Libraries and via telephone and e-mail to assist you in determining the most effective resources -- online, on CD-ROM or in print -- to meet your information needs. We look forward to working with you and these useful new resources in the coming semester.

Martha Walker, Reference Librarian
maw6@cornell.edu