Our aim in making test releases available is to allow you to try out the new facilities they provide, and (we hope) give us constructive feedback before they are finally released to the world. To try out a test release, at the main EDINA menu, instead of entering 1, 2 or 3 to select Biosis, Palmer's Index, or PCI respectively, enter 1test, 2test, or 3test. If a test version of the database in question is currently available, then you will invoke it; if not, you will receive a message saying that no test version is currently available. At the time of writing, test versions of Palmer's Index and PCI are available.
PCI: The command 'O Options & Limits' has now been replaced by two commands 'O Options' and 'L Limits', which should improve navigation through the interface.
Palmer's: The Palmer's Index database now implements all the Limits listed on the main Search Menu.
Browsable lists: A 'browsing' facility has been added to the test versions of both interfaces. When you are specifying a main search from the Search Menu, or setting a Limit, you can browse through the values indexed in the relevant field of the database records. Thus, for example, if you were defining an author search in PCI, you can now browse through the list of all the authors known in the database. This makes for much greater control and precision while searching the database.
Browsing is invoked by use of the @ symbol. For example, if you are defining an author search, specifying smi@ would result in a screen giving you an alphabetically ordered list of names in the author field starting with 'smi'. You can then choose the name or names that you would like to use in your search, and by pressing the Return key, your choice gets added to your search query. If you give a @ symbol on its own (i.e. without any word stem), the list of values displayed is from the start of the indexed values for the field.
To get the full flavour of this new facility, you do need to try it. Please do so, and let us have your comments.
Clearing Limits: A facility has been added which makes it possible to "clear" a Limit definition. Previously one could only switch a Limit 'off' or 'on', or redefine it.
RAPID contains summary information on ESRC-funded research activity and on associated publications and other products, linking these through an award reference number. RAPID allows the Council's staff to answer topic-based queries from academics, the press and from Government (including Parliamentary Questions). The database also gives policy-makers, academics and information workers across the social sciences access to a valuable source of information about current and recent research.
Information on research and associated 'products' can be searched in many ways: by title, subject, abstract, institution for awards, and by title, author, journal, conference, etc. for conventional and non-print publications.
Research award information is updated monthly from the ESRC administrative database, and covers funded activities from April 1985 onwards --- some 5,300 awards.
Information on publications and products comes from the award holders themselves, partly in response to postal surveys conducted by the Edinburgh RAPID Team, partly through ESRC End-of-Award Reports. RAPID currently holds details of some 40,500 publications and is updated several times per week. 'Publication' is used in the widest sense of the word, ranging from conventional publications, such as books and pamphlets, book chapters, articles and conference papers, to audio-visual material, computer software and computer-readable data sets.
RAPID is hosted in BASIS and currently has a menu-driven interface. The service is due for a facelift with the installation of a World Wide Web interface.
RAPID is free-of-charge and requires no registration. Access details are given below. Information on how to search is available from the RAPID web page at EDINA or from the RAPID Team in Edinburgh (rapid@ed.ac.uk). We would also welcome your comments.
The members of the RAPID team are:
University of Edinburgh
Peter Burnhill (Project Director)
Heather Larnach (Database Manager)
Andrew Bevan (Project Officer)
Anne Donnelly (Project Assistant)
Helen Kerr (Project Assistant)
Zsuzsana Eglestaff (Project Assistant)
ESRC Swindon
Iain Jones (Policy and Evaluation Division)
Peter Linthwaite (Policy and Evaluation Division)
Now that EDINA has moved from 'development mode' into 'full service mode,' the JIBS User Group Committee and EDINA have decided to invite the wider user community to take part in a structured 'interface wish-list' process.
The purpose of the wish-list is to help us identify and prioritise user requirements and expectations for the look, feel and functionality of the interfaces for BIOSIS, PCI and Palmer's Index to The Times. Moreover, the exercise will also give users and their representatives an understanding of the feasibility of having their suggestions implemented.
Discussion will take place on the LIS-JIBS-users mailing list, and the process will be coordinated by the JIBS User Group, with Betsy Anagnostelis (betsy@rfhsm.ac.uk) acting as coordinator. The User Group will prioritise comments according to frequency and will discuss with EDINA the feasibility of implementing requests made by the users. Having identified requests which are feasible, the User Group will request a vote on the wish-list via LIS-JIBS-users and will then pass the results on to EDINA. EDINA will broadcast a response to the final wish-list (including suggestions for a timetable) on LIS-JIBS-users, EDINA-all, and LIS-link. It is expected that the wish-list will be compiled for voting on early next year.
| i | If you would like to take part in this discussion, please subscribe to lis-jibs-users by emailing | |
| mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk | ||
| with the message | ||
| join lis-jibs-users firstname lastname | ||
| Leave the subject line empty. | ||
So how do the two services differ, and where do they overlap?
Both services cover English and European language journals in the social sciences and the arts and humanities. We have not carried out a detailed comparison of journal title coverage between the two services, but they can be expected to coincide to a high degree. (It is important to keep in mind that PCI is still in the process of being published.)
The most significant difference between the two services, for most users, will be time coverage. BIDS ISI covers journals from 1981 onwards, whereas EDINA PCI covers journals from their beginnings to 1990. When Chadwyck-Healey, the publishers of PCI, embarked on their ambitious project, they did so with a view to offering users an invaluable addition to BIDS ISI, which would complement, not rival it. The nine-year overlap in time coverage provides a generous 'safety net' and adds to the convenience of use. Users interested in older publications, and literature from the recent past (up to 1990) will turn to PCI; those who need references to the most recent publications and the latest articles will use BIDS ISI.
There are also some structural differences between the databases which influence the way in which you can search them. Users can search in both services by title and abstract keywords, author, and journal title. An important feature of BIDS ISI is that it allows for citation searching. PCI is not being published with this purpose in mind. Instead, EDINA PCI will eventually give access not only to bibliographic details of articles, but also to the journals' tables of contents.
"Sounds great," I hear you say, "but my subject area requires that I know about research across the decades, and I don't want to have to have to log on and off two different data services to get the information I need." Log on to the EDINA Gateway and select 3 to search PCI and email yourself (or print) the relevant results; then choose B from the EDINA Gateway and 'jump' directly to the BIDS Gateway where you can log on to search SSCI and A&HCI. When you have finished searching BIDS and you exit, you are automatically taken back to the EDINA Gateway. Thus you can make efficient use of two of the complementary services available to you from the UK electronic library.
Why W? Well, because desktop Web browsers are easy to use, and effectively free: end users like the point-and-click graphical interface and academic support staff like the ease of support. But it has not been easy for the national bibliographic data services to provide web search facilities, at least not in a way that allows users to build interactive search queries, and make inquiries across several physical database files hosted in the powerful BasisPlus text management software that is used by EDINA and BIDS.
Why Z? Well, because the Z39.50 network protocol offers a strategically important way to link BasisPlus to the Web: an economic and versatile route to search and retrieve records from one or more databases, without having to use search commands particular to the database software. The Z client opens up a session with the Z server, which then 'translates' commands into the language specific to the database software. This provides the inter-operability in the distributed client/server environment required for the UK electronic library.
Some problems exist: end users want to use the Web browser on their desktop (eg Netscape), not a special Z39.50 client; the language spoken by Z needs to be translated into something that Web browsers can respond to and display; and BasisPlus does not yet have a full service Z39.50 server.
So what have EDINA and the Data Library been doing to solve these problems? First, as part of a collaborative project with BIDS and COPAC, we have been looking at the OCLC SiteSearch software, which contains the Newton search engine, a Z39.50 server, and WebZ, a W to Z gateway, which acts as a Web server and a Z client. We have used SiteSearch to provide experimental Web access to PCI, and this is currently being field-tested. Second, we recently took delivery of the source code for a test release of a Z39.50 server for BasisPlus. We intend to use this to allow WebZ to connect to PCI in BasisPlus, a prelude to providing Web-based searching for all EDINA bibliographic data services.
EDINA is also building upon the advances made in SALSER, with its concurrent searching of WAIS-indexed files. During the coming months, SALSER will be ported into OCLC SiteSearch. This opens up the possibility of giving users the means to discover an article of interest in PCI or BIOSIS and then to find the location of the relevant journal via SALSER.
All this is to state that we have a real interest in W and in Z: both are important in developing the UK electronic library.
| Q: | I would like to activate a batch of user ids, but when I log on to EDINA, I cannot see the Registration Database as one of the options. How do I get into the Registration Database? |
| A: | EDINA site representatives are given a special user id to access the Registration Database. This includes the letters 'srp.' In order to get access to the Registration Database, you must log on to EDINA using this special user id. (If you log on to EDINA using an ordinary user id, the Registration Database option will not appear on the EDINA gateway menu.) |
EDINA services are:
For BIOSIS, the Periodicals Contents Index and Palmer's Index to The Times, licence agreements must be obtained from Eduserv Chest (email chest@chest.ac.uk) and a subscription fee must be paid. Individual users must also register.
For UKBORDERS™, there is no fee for academic institutions within the UK, but a licence agreement must be signed (email edina@ed.ac.uk) and individual users must sign an End User Licence.
SALSER and RAPID are completely free services, with no subscription fee. No licence or prior registration is required.
| i | If you need help or further info, contact the members of the EDINA User Services Team: | |
| Dawn Griesbach: | documentation, webmaster | |
| Katia Hazelton: | registration, EDINA helpdesk | |
| Margarete Tubby: | outreach and training | |
| URL: http://edina.ac.uk | Email: edina@ed.ac.uk | |