New Library Gateway

The Cornell University Library Gateway is a new World Wide Web site which was designed to provide a unified approach to finding information about the Cornell University Library and to selecting and connecting to our diverse and growing constellation of networked electronic resources and services. The Gateway provides a single pathway to many resources important for your research, including the Library's online catalog, the full text of many journals, statistical data files, and online encyclopedias and other reference sources, just to name a few. The Gateway is the best place to go to identify and connect to over 100 electronic periodical indexes subscribed to by the Library, some of which provide the full text of articles as well as citations to articles in print journals.

For your convenience, services such as renewing books, requesting purchases, placing interlibrary borrowing requests or asking reference questions are made available online, through the Library Gateway. You can also use the Gateway to read about the Cornell University Library; to find library hours, maps, news and schedules of events; to learn about our instruction programs or request a class; or to discover information about digital projects and collections being developed by the Library. Last, but not least, the Gateway enables you to connect to the wealth of information available in World Wide Web sites created by the individual libraries at Cornell.

You can find the Library Gateway at the following World Wide Web address: http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu. The Library Gateway also has its own button on Bear Access. Those of you who were familiar with the variety of library electronic resources developed over the last few years will recognize the new Library Gateway as a blending of Bear Access, the former Cornell University Library Web site and the Mann Library Gateway.

While the Library Gateway works best with the Web browser Netscape 3, it is also functional with Netscape 1 or 2. For computers without Web browsers, the telnet (text only) version of the Mann Library Gateway provides access to many, though not all, of the resources in the new Library Gateway. The telnet Mann Library Gateway has a button on the non-Web library workstations (red menu screen) or is available at the following address: telnet://albert.mannlib.cornell.edu (type "gateway" at the login prompt).

Buttons in the left frames of the Library Gateway will always be present to help you navigate, at any time during your search, among a variety of choices. The Gateway can be thought of as a single front door to a digital library with service desks on every floor.

The Cornell University Library Catalog link is at the top of the array to make it easy for you to connect and find records for books, journal titles and other serials, as well as holdings information for library materials in a variety of media.

Networked Resources is, in a sense, a database of databases. It contains titles, descriptive information and links to over 1,000 electronic resources which are available to you through the computer network. The search screen for Networked Resources, which is automatically displayed in the right frame of the Gateway, provides a variety of methods to help you identify resources appropriate for your research. You can then use the link which is contained within the record for each resource to connect to it, and perform the search you want -- as in the case of a periodical index, or extract the information you need -- as in the case of a numeric file or a full-text document. In addition to searching by topical or title keywords, you can browse general subject categories, a list of new resources, a list of frequently used databases ("Greatest Hits"), or an alphabetical list to identify resources of interest. With both browsing and searching you can limit your search to a particular type of resource. Currently there are six: catalogs, indexes, full text, audio-visual, numeric, and spatial.

About CU Library contains links to the Cornell University Guide, individual library Web sites and library hours, news and other general information.

Services leads you to information about circulation and reserve, interlibrary loan, reference, instruction and collection development. Right from the Gateway you can request a renewal, borrow a book, or connect to "Booksout" or the course reserve system.

Help provides assistance on numerous general and technical topics from "What is the Library Gateway?" to "What does the 'Can't find Application' message mean?" Help pages are provided on printing and downloading, and links are available to connect you to database searching guides. Take a look at the FAQ (frequently asked questions) for lots of useful information about library research, in general, as well as pointers on using the Gateway.

More help is only a click away on the bottom of most Gateway pages which have our standard "Ask a Librarian" links. You can use an online form to ask a reference question, report a technical problem or make a comment or suggestion to help us improve the Library Gateway. If you prefer to call, the reference desk directory is also provided there. As with most information technology, the Gateway is a work-in-progress and we welcome your questions and opinions.

Workshops have been developed to introduce the new Library Gateway and show you how to use it effectively. The workshop, which includes time for hands-on practice, is being repeated at four different times:

Our Spring Instruction Program

The Olin Kroch Uris Reference Services Division offers a wide variety of instruction programs to assist students, faculty and staff in using the resources of the Library. The amount and variety of information now available is astounding. Learning to identify appropriate information resources and to assess the quality of the information found are important skills for students. Perhaps the most important skill we can give students is the ability to think critically about information. We offer our programs in the hope that we reach many students, providing them with these skills. This semester, as we unveil the new Library Gateway, we will offer several workshops to introduce this new means of access to electronic resources. See the article on the new Library Gateway for dates and times.

This spring we are also hoping to bring more upper-level undergraduate classes into the library for instruction sessions. Often a major research paper can be easier for students if they get a jumpstart on their library research by receiving instruction from us. This is particularly true if students are being asked to use complex resources, such as government documents, primary sources, statistics, or complicated databases such as the citation indexes. We can also better help students at the reference desk if we see their assignments ahead of time. If you are an instructor and are planning to give your students a major research project, we would appreciate seeing a copy of the assignment. (This is particularly true for large classes.) Just send it to me in 109 Uris Library or send it as an e-mail attachment to me at ajc5@cornell.edu.

Our successful Internet Workshop Series will continue this spring. You will find the schedule inserted, and the Web address for the registration form is on the schedule. If you want to learn to create Web pages, our four-part series of HTML workshops may be just what you need. Starting with the basics, and covering layout, tables, forms, frames, and other topics, these workshops give you the tools you need to build your own page. Although almost everyone is familiar with the Internet and the Web, not everyone is proficient at finding what they are looking for on the Web. Our Web searching class can build your skills to better utilize what is "out there" on the Web. A major component of our program is our instruction for Freshman Writing classes. Although many freshmen attended one of our classes during the fall semester, our spring classes will focus on the Cornell Library Gateway, and thus will present new information for all of the freshmen. As always, if you are interested in scheduling an instruction session, please contact me early to reserve the time you want.

If you have questions about any of our programs or would like to schedule an instruction session for your class, please contact me at ajc5@cornell.edu or 255-7148.

Tony Cosgrave, Instruction Coordinator
ajc5@cornell.edu

Research Consultants

A service of Olin reference and an offshoot of our instruction program is our research consultation service. Often at our busy reference desks the librarians can't take the time to work with you on a complex and lengthy research question. If you are just starting out on your thesis or other library research, you can set up an appointment with one of the librarians to spend an uninterrupted hour looking at your research interest and reviewing pertinent resources. To schedule an appointment, use our form on the Web at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/consult.html or call me at 255-7148.

Tony Cosgrave, Instruction Coordinator
ajc5@cornell.edu

LEXIS-NEXIS UNIVerse On The Web

In recent years, Lexis-Nexis has become a favorite resource for students searching for the full text of newspaper articles, the transcripts of radio or television broadcasts, company profiles, Supreme Court cases, or statutes from the fifty states. Those familiar with this resource know that users have had to come into the library and ask the reference staff to sign them onto one of the dedicated workstations with a password. This has restricted both the hours of use, and the number of users we could accommodate. A great resource, with very limited access.

Beginning this month, Lexis-Nexis is now available as a new Web-based product -- LEXIS-NEXIS UNIVerse. Access is available to Cornell students, faculty, and staff from any web-capable computer. You can locate LEXIS-NEXIS UNIVerse through the Library Gateway, or use the direct link to their home page at http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe.

Full-text materials are available -- the database contains more than 1 billion records, with 9.5 million added weekly -- by searching one of the following categories: Top News; General News Topics; Company News; Industry & Market News; Government & Political News; Legal News; Company Financial Information; Country Profiles; State Profiles; Biographical Information; Reference & Directories; General Medical & Health Topics; Medical Abstracts; Accounting, Auditing, & Tax; Law Reviews; Federal Case Law; U.S. Code, Constitution, & Court Rules; State Legal Research. Dates of coverage within each category vary -- some files go back a hundred years, others only a few; many are updated daily.

Whether you have used Lexis-Nexis in the past or not, you'll want to take a look at the new LEXIS-NEXIS UNIVerse. The search interface is completely different in the Web-based product, so no familiarity with the previous system is needed to begin searching the new system. We think you will find the new interface user-friendly, with plenty of online search help. In addition, the Olin Kroch Uris reference staff will be offering workshops throughout the spring to introduce you to this new resource. Please check the workshop schedule in this issue of Cite & Byte or on our homepage, http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/, for dates and times.

Suzy Szasz Palmer, Reference Collections Coordinator
sms5@cornell.edu

Reference Home Page	Cite and Byte home page	URL:http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/citebyte/cb81.htm Martha Walker, editor, Cite & Byte [rev. 3/5/98] Amy Blumenthal and Mark Siegal, editorial assistants Olin·Kroch·Uris Libraries Reference Services Division
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