Electronic Resources Committee

Meeting Notes

September 19, 2000

Attending: Ed Weismann, Phil Herold, David Block (chair)

1. MagPortal.com (www.MagPortal.com) This is a search engine for zines, some of which the Library has in full version, some of which are unique in their zine (freely available, electronic) form. Phil argued that this is a legitimate source of information, especially for undergraduates doing papers, and that having it available as an aggregator, with appropriate subject captions, would improve access. David noted that an earlier version of the service required individual password registration, which has precluded inclusion in the Gateway in the past. Phil and David will look at the new iteration of the site, and, if the registration issue has been resolved, make a request that this resource be added to the Gateway. WE HAVE SINCE LEARNED THAT MAGPORTAL IS NOT A ZINES ENGINE BUT RATHER IT SEARCHES A DATABASE OF CURRENT EVENTS ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS.

2. Microsoft Word Viewer Last spring ERC petitioned LMT to add review of helper apps for kiosk computers to its brief. Darcie Mersereau has made a request for Microsoft Word Viewer, which will make viewing of a number of resources (STAT-USA, for instance) more pleasant. It is our understanding that Word Viewer is a no-cost plug-in available at the www.microsoft.com site. If this is so, we will recommend to Desktop Services that this resource be added to kiosk machines. At the same time we will ask Desktop Services to update our knowledge of which helpers and plug-ins are currently installed.

   Minutes recorded by David Block

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