VIVA Announcements

Update on Usage Data from Wiley InterScience

Wiley Interscience has provided some information about recent fluxations in usage of the Blackwell titles. They say:

“We would like to provide you with an update about Usage Data on Wiley InterScienceand in particular the effect of some changes which were implemented by Google which would have affected your usage data during May and June 2009. In addition we would like to inform you about some differences in the way Google indexes Wiley InterSciencecompared to how it indexed Blackwell Synergy. You may find that these search engine activities have had an effect on the usage data for ex-Blackwell journals this year compared to last year for your institution.”

The complete message is available here: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=r91xgst08pzoa34uuwp5&u=6965834&f=h

Updated Title List from SFX

The latest VIVA title list from SFX is available here: http://www.vivalib.org/collect/documents/VIVA_SFX_title_list_090617.xlsx

STAT-USA Cancellation and Task Force

On March 5, 2009, the VIVA Steering Committee approved the Resources for Users Committee’s recommendation to cancel Stat-USA, effective May 1, 2009. This decision was made only after extensive negotiations. We sincerely regretted the lack of lead time, but pricing for a one-month extension to continue the service through the spring semester was deemed to be too costly.

As planned, RUC established a task force to assist VIVA member libraries and their patrons find the government information directly from the government sources. To assist users in locating some of the resource available in STAT-USA, the Task Force created a LibGuide, available here:

http://guides.lib.virginia.edu/VIVAstats

Members are also reminded that U.S. Federal depository libraries in Virginia have access to STAT-USA. A list of Federal depository libraries is available here: http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/public.jsp.

If your library is a Federal depository library and you have not yet received a password for STAT-USA, information about obtaining access is available here: http://www.fdlp.gov/outreach/partnerships/268-statusa-access

Please join us in thanking the STAT-USA Task Force members for their work on this project:

Tara Cassidy
Virginia Community College System

Gerry Gill
Government Documents Librarian
James Madison University

Barbie Selby
Virginia GPO FDLP Regional Librarian
University of Virginia

Alan Zoellner
Government Information Librarian
College of William & Mary

OCLC’s New Record Use Policy

There has been some discussion of this policy among library consortia. Some resources that have been recommended for reading are:

Current guidelines:

http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/records/guidelines/default.htm

The new policy (with FAQ):
http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/

The Wikipedia entry…
http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/OCLC_Policy_Change

And make your own comments:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=c0hILWPafv97EDbNiRXXjg_3d_3d

For an ongoing analysis:

http://nylink.org/SL/index.php/archives/tag/worldcat-record-use-policy

Enjoy!

Mergent Horizon Training (Online), March 4 & 5, 2009

Online training for Mergent Horizon will be held on March 4 & 5, 2009. Complete information is available here: http://www.vivalib.org/committees/ruc/training/mergent_horizon_march09.html

Mergent Training

Join the VIVA Resources for Users Committee and Mergent for a training session on the Mergent Online and Mergent Horizon Business databases.

Mergent Online is the authoritative source for information on over 10,000 US companies listed on the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ exchanges, 20,000 non-US companies representing 95% of the non-US global market capitalization, 8,000 inactive companies which have been merged, acquired etc., and over 1 million privately held companies. Mergent Online includes financial information, annual reports, executive biographies, and historical information outlining merger and acquisition activity and extensive bankruptcy and reorganization details.

Mergent Horizon is a detailed industrial classification system that maps companies to their core lines of business and captures relationship exposure to their suppliers, partners, customers and competitors.  By classifying companies according to their products and services, Mergent Horizon allows for true comparables by providing information that helps students understand a company and its competitive position in the marketplace.

Hands-on workshops for VIVA librarians will be held in Harrisonburg, Radford, Williamsburg, and Alexandria. Each session will begin at 10 AM and will last approximately two hours. Registration information is available here: http://www.vivalib.org/committees/ruc/mergent_training.html

Mergent Training

VIVA is convening 4 regional training session for the Mergent Online and Mergent Horizon products. The sessions will be –
Tuesday, November 18 – East Campus Library, James Madison University
Wednesday, November 19 – McConnell Library, Radford University
Thursday, December 4 – Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary
Thursday, December 11 – Alexandria Campus Library, Northern Virginia Community College

The sessions are free and open to all VIVA members, but travel costs will be reimbursed only for members from the public institutions. Look for registration information and other details soon.

Mergent Business Databases

Mergent Online and Mergent Horizon are available to all VIVA public colleges and all private colleges participating in the pooled funds program. The RUC Training Subcommittee, chaired by Pat Van Zandt, is planning regional training sessions to take place this fall.

EBSCOhost Collection database list available

A PDF “flyer” with names and descriptions of the databases included in VIVA’s EBSCOhost Collection is now available at: http://www.vivalib.org/collect/documents/EBSCOflyer080721.pdf

Fiscal Year Usage Statistics

The VIVA usage statistics for fiscal year 2008 (July 2007 - June 2008) are now available on the VIVA Usage Statistics webpage (http://library.gmu.edu/vivasafe/index.html.)