Introduction to the EDINA Bibliographic Services

1. Introduction to the EDINA Bibliographic Services John Murison Manager, EDINA Bibliographic Services

2. EDINA Bibliographic Services • EDINA bibliographic services are specialist Abstracting and Indexing services, geared towards particular subject areas • Most require institutional subscriptions, but are free to the academic end-user • Some are JISC-funded and negotiated via CHEST agreements • Many are additional services, provided by EDINA to the tertiary education community • Presented within subject ‘faculties’: • Agriculture, Environment and Life Sciences • Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences • Engineering, Informatics and Physical Sciences • General reference services

3. Bibliographic Services Development Strategy • Contribute to the development of the DNER • to take a leading role in the establishment of the DNER • to provide cross-searching and linking facilities, and service improvements, that enhance the accessibility and interoperability of resources offered in the DNER (5/99 projects) • Collection development • to sustain leadership in the provision of specialist bibliographic services • to offer JISC-funded and additional bibliographic services that complement existing services • Enhancement of services for learning and teaching

4. Agriculture, Environment and Life Sciences • BIOSIS Previews • Premier life sciences index, with abstracts • AGDEX • Agricultural index, with abstracts • CAB Abstracts • Natural resources index, with abstracts • ESPMD • Environmental sciences index, with abstracts

5. Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences • Art Abstracts • Visual and performing arts index, with abstracts • Art Index Retrospective • Visual and performing arts index (1929-1984) • EconLit • Economics index, with abstracts and some full text • PAIS International • Political and public policy index, with abstracts

6. Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences • Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts • Language studies index, with abstracts • MLA International Bibliography • Critical scholarship index of language, linguistics and literature • Sociological Abstracts • Sociology and related disciplines • Social Services Abstracts • Social work index and abstracts • Palmer’s Index to The Times • Index only, 1790 - 1905

7. Engineering, Informatics and Physical Sciences • Ei Compendex® [and Ei Page One™] • Applied engineering index, with abstracts • INSPEC • Physics, electrical engineering, electronics and computing index, with abstracts

8. General Reference Services • Ulrich’s™ International Periodicals Directory • Directory of information on selected periodicals and serials published throughout the world • SALSER (free service) • Union catalogue of serials holdings of Scottish University libraries, municipal research libraries and other research libraries and the National Library of Scotland

9. EDINA Links • Links to holdings and, where available, to full text services • Local site representatives consult end-users and arrange with EDINA to customise Links for individual institutions • Available in most EDINA bibliographic services • Will be developed further in the ZBLSA project, funded under 5/99, which seeks to develop a Z39.50 broker to locate serials and articles for use across the DNER

10. Using Bibliographic Services in Learning and Teaching Moira Massey EDINA Learning and Teaching Support Officer/Learning and Teaching Projects Co-ordinator

11. EDINA can: • Actively contribute to the development of the DNER for learning and teaching, by the provision of: • brokers that allow cross-searching facilities • brokers for the discovery of journal articles, holdings and full-text service • learning and teaching portal • Work with our site representatives, lecturing staff, LT staff and Subject Centres to: • Understand the L&T/information literacy/information skills agendas • Provide supportive materials • Enhance the service interfaces for use in learning and teaching

12. EDINA cannot: • Be expert in all the subjects covered by our specialist A&I databases • Be expert in learning and teaching issues • Act alone - we need your help!

13. The Under-Use of Bibliographic Resources in L&T • JISC reports find low take-up of bibliographic sources in learning and teaching and low levels of use among undergraduates • JISC provides funding for enhancing services to increase take-up in learning and teaching - Request for Proposals (RfP) projects and JISC 5/99 projects • Athens registration system prevents datacentres having access to user details • Therefore difficult for us to assess exact use of bibliographic services (different from geo-data services, which require registration with EDINA too) • However, information we do have also suggests under-use in learning and teaching

14. Why use bibliographic services in learning and teaching? “In the context of […reading lists and course packs provided for undergraduates], electronic bibliographic services seem to have little to contribute … But this ignores the status quo, and ignores both the fact that bibliographic tools can increase access to existing library sources, and that being able to use these tools is a useful skill for students to acquire. Spoon-feeding in the form of readers does not promote independence of thought.” [Zeitlyn D, David M and Bex J. Full reference available in notes]

15. Learning about bibliographic databases can assist in the development of: • Skills: • information/information literacy/critical thinking • becoming a self-directing researcher • evaluation, both of sources of information and individual information objects • Knowledge: • how information is structured in databases • the existence of numerous electronic information sources - including services that students could meet in the workplace • selecting databases according to fitness for purpose • comparing results from different databases in the same subject area • greater understanding of how to use library resources, and where to find print and electronic full-text resources

16. - and on a practical level, electronic bibliographic resources can be: • Used from home and off-campus locations • Used outside normal library hours • All you need - sometimes, services provide such detailed abstracts that undergraduates do not need to locate the original document • Supportive for undergraduate use of the Web - learning searching techniques really helps with using Web search engines more effectively - and learning how to evaluate your sources more carefully • Helpful later in life - learning about electronic bibliographic resources now assists in understanding the structure of databases later encountered in the workplace … and prepares for online, lifelong learning …

17. The Vision ... “As researchers, teachers and students increasingly look to the Internet for information, it is essential that high quality resources be provided in an environment that enables searches to be conducted conveniently and with confidence that suitable material is available, can be found and is accessible. This is a daunting task: in effect we look to a time when all the world’s scholarly and educational material will be available on-line. The JISC will lead this endeavour for the UK and this vision is a major strategic objective.” (Source: JISC draft strategy, 2001 - 2005. See handout for details.)

18. How the services could be used in learning and teaching • Research shows that library courses divorced from the classroom do not work well and don’t reach many students • Library staff can help, but the optimum solution seems to be incorporation of information skills teaching into the curriculum • For an example of use of bibliographic services in an undergraduate course, see: http://www.teaching-biomed.man.ac.uk/student_projects/2000/mnqc6rac/ • For a full discussion about the importance of information skills to students in HE, and the role that learning about bibliographic services can play in their development, see Information Skills in Higher Education: a SCONUL Position Paper, available at: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/publications.htm#1 • See handout provided in your workbook for further information

19. The Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1791-1799 and 1845 Barbara Morris, Digimap.Plus Project Manager/Helpdesk Co-ordinator

20. Summary of forthcoming service • New EDINA service, The Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1791-1799 and 1845, to be launched in January 2001 • Service suitable for learning and teaching and research uses • Keyword searching of 900 parish commentaries • Maps and tables • Short demonstration of old interface (currently being replaced)

21. Contacts EDINA Director: Peter Burnhill Email: p.burnhill@ed.ac.uk Manager, EDINA Bibliographic Services: John Murison Email: j.murison@ed.ac.uk EDINA L&T Support Officer/L&T Projects Co-ordinator: Moira Massey Email: moira.massey@ed.ac.uk EDINA web site: http://edina.ac.uk Tel.: +44 (0)131 650 3302 Fax: +44 (0)131 650 3308