It never fails. Just when you think you’ve got the hang of searching a database, the vendor decides it’s time for a facelift! As you probably know, OvidSP is a search platform that UBC health information seekers rely on regularly, if not daily. And as of August 2nd, there’s a new look:

Many of the changes are cosmetic rather than functional, but there are some nice new features as well, such as the option to export your search history and citations as a Word file, or to organize your projects, saved searches, and eTOCs using MyWorkspace. And for those who were irked by the screen real estate taken up by the “Search Tips” box of the previous OvidSP version, rest assured that it’s now a thing of the past. We’re also waiting for Ovid tech support to implement some tweaks in the display that we hope will make your search experience more intuitive.

For more information about the new look, see the New OvidSP Features and Functionality: Side by Side Screen Comparison handout in OvidSP’s Resource Center.  Watch for instructional sessions in the fall, which will be posted on the library’s Instruction Centre. And of course, if you have detailed questions in the meantime about doing research in OvidSP databases, please contact your subject librarian. We’re always interested in your thoughts on this platform and other library resources.

The systematic search process can be pretty daunting, especially if it’s your first time. There are so many different databases, and potentially thousands of article records to gather and assess, never mind documenting it all or looking through lesser known sources, i.e. “grey literature”.

If you’re currently working on searching for a systematic review, or preparing for one, then I invite you to share share your trials and tribulations (or simply unload some of the anxiety!) by joining like-minded colleagues for an online class on how to get started.

This class takes place tomorrow morning, Tuesday, March 23 from 11 – 12:30.

Registration is available at:
http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/965

See you online!

Web of Science is a multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10000 journals and offers powerful search options, including:

• refining results by subject, author, source, year or country
• tracking how often an article has been cited and the articles that have cited it
• creating search alerts via email or RSS

Its companion tool, Journal Citation Reports can be used to find the impact factor of a journal to identify highly cited journals in a discipline.

This session is offered online. Please see: How to Prepare for an Online Class

1) Please register here: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/937

2) Click on the following link to join the class: http://67.202.226.156/launcher.cgi?room=WebofScience

If you need help once the class has started, please phone 604.822.4440

Over 1600 digital images from Cook’s Voyages to the South Seas are now available.

To find the images,  click on Artstor ,  then next to “enter Artstor digital library”, click on go.  Under Browse, choose “collections” and select “Cook’s Voyages to the South Seas: Natural History Museum, London”. This will show all 1647 images.

Just let us know if you’d like more help searching this collection!

Help us plan your space – Tell us what is important to you!

Click here to access  the short survey.

Not coming out to Point Grey Campus during the Mid-term Break?  Consider attending online library workshops put on by the Life Sciences Librarians between Feb 16-26.

CINAHL, the new Pubmed, Web of Science, Current Awareness tools, Finding Theses, Refworks and more are being offered.

For more details and to register go to:  http://tinyurl.com/libraryworkshops.

The latest changes to PubMed® involve a reconfigured Advanced Search page, the addition (or re-addition) of a Limits page with more flexible date options, and Limits and Clipboard links being added to the PubMed homepage.

For a summary of the changes, see: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/jf10/jf10_pm_advanced_search.html

In order to create space on the second and third floors of Woodward Library, we are moving a selection of low use monographs to Koerner Library, and serials with online equivalents to off site storage.

• Low use monographs are books that are at least 20 years old and have not circulated in the past 5 years. These books can be identified in the catalogue with the location Koerner Library – Woodward collection (floor 1), and you can still borrow them.
• Serials with online equivalents are journals for which there is an electronic version. To prepare for the move, UBC Library has purchased the ejournal archives for more than 800 titles from the following publishers:  Nature Publishing,  Annual Reviews, Oxford University Press, ScienceDirect, American Medical Association and Lippincott Williams and Wilkins (Journals@Ovid). For many journals, you’ll be able to access articles dating back to volume 1 from your desktop!

This is a large project, and we anticipate that there will be some record clean-up required. Please contact Sally Taylor or Greg Rowell if you have any questions or concerns about the move.

First day of the book move, starting at A (photo courtesy of J. Procyk)

Preparing books to move to Koerner Library (photo courtesy of K. Miller)

NRC-CISTI in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) has launched PubMed Central Canada, a free archive of life science journals. The launch of the search interface coincided with Open Access Week (October 19-23). This interface will allow users to browse, search and download articles from the repository, as well as learn more about PMC Canada, how the repository works, and CIHR’s Policy on Access to Research Outputs.

As part of the Year of Science Zine-a-Thon contest, Woodward Library is holding a zine making workshop on Monday October 26 at 2 pm in the McKechnie room.

Kelly McElroy, MLIS Candidate at SLAIS, GAA at Woodward Library and Zine writer will be leading a workshop on how to create a science zine.

For more information, see Invitation to Science Zine Making Workshop

Register here

picture from Flickr Colorado College Zine Collection