Two new collections of full-text journals have been added to our JSTOR content: Arts & Sciences Complement “The Arts & Sciences Complement is intended to offer participants a method to seamlessly add journals related to the core Arts & Sciences I, II, III, and IV Collections. For the Arts & Sciences Complement, journals may be focused in any of the more than thirty arts, humanities, and social sciences disciplines covered by JSTOR. Our aim is to introduce important titles that we were unable to include in earlier collections and to capture journals that cross discipline boundaries. A minimum of 150 titles will be included by the end of 2008.” Biological Sciences “The Biological Sciences Collection will include at least 100 titles when it is completed in 2007. This collection brings together the twenty-nine journals available in our existing Ecology & Botany Collection with more than seventy titles new to JSTOR. Coverage in this collection offers greater depth in fields such as biodiversity, conservation, paleontology, and plant science, in addition to introducing new areas such as cell biology and zoology.” Both collections currently including dozens of journals, some going back to the beginning the of the twentieth century. See the complete list at the links above. –Derik A Badman

The Factiva database, a product of Dow Jones and Reuters, is now available in the Library’s package of databases. It can be found on the Library Home Page, under “Find Articles”, in the alphabetical list, in the business subject menu, and in the list of new databases. The most important component of the database is the full-text of the Wall Street Journal, but that is only one of 1500 global and local newspapers, 3200 magazines, 500 newswires, 160 media programs, and thousands of Web sites included in Factiva. The database provides company background information from Reuters for more than 42,500 companies. The database is fully searchable by source, company name, industry, region of the world, and time period, using nine different language interfaces, and content is available in more than 20 different languages. An excellent (and brief) online tutorial is available. One important note: The databases is licensed to Temple University Libraries for only SEVEN (7) simultaneous users. This is a significant addition to the Library’s resources, and an important source for business news and information. In addition, the database includes many resources in other disciplines, with numerous journals in the fields of health care, tourism and recreation, sports, the arts (music, film, dance, crafts, literature), agriculture and forestry, and the media, all with global coverage. —Barbara Wright

Temple University Libraries has recently begun access to the retrospective files of indexes that were once mainstays of many American academic libraries: Readers’ Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective (1907-1984) The Readers’ Guide is important because it indexes citations to general audience magazines before the 1980’s–which is about when most electronic databases begin their earliest coverage. There are 50 periodicals indexed from 1890 to 1899 and an increasing numbers after that. Humanities & Social Sciences Indexes are indexes of more scholarly periodicals than those covered in the Readers’ Guide–a selective number of titles chosen by boards of editors and librarians over the years that fit the criteria of being both important to their respective fields and likely to be held in most academic libraries. These indexes continue today as Humanities Abstracts and Social Sciences Abstracts, to which Temple University Libraries maintains access. In their present form, they are both useful for guiding students to limited sets of well-regarded scholarly periodicals. —Rick Lezenby

More new resources:

— International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP) IIBP Full Text includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from scholarly journals and newsletters from the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean, and full-text coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. Coverage is international in scope and multidisciplinary–spanning cultural, economic, historical, religious, social, and political issues of vital importance to the Black Studies discipline.

— AGRICOLA PlusTextThe largest online source of key agricultural journals AGRICOLA Plus (AGRICultural OnLine Access) is an extensive bibliographic database of citations to the agricultural literature created by the U.S. National Agricultural Library. It is the definitive agricultural database, providing abstracts and indexing, and full text for hundreds of resources with coverage beginning 1970. The citations describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines. ProQuest Agriculture Journals covers a wide range of agriculture-related topics, such as:

• Animal and veterinary sciences
• Plant sciences
• Forestry
• Aquaculture and fisheries
• Farming and farming systems
• Agricultural economics
• Food and human nutrition

— RISM: Répertoire International des Sources Musicales = International Inventory of Musical Sources “The International Inventory of Musical Sources (RISM) is an international, non-profit joint venture which aims to comprehensively document the world’s musical sources of manuscripts or printed music, works on music theory and libretti stored in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections. The organization, founded in Paris in 1952, is the largest and the only global operation that registers written musical sources. RISM documents what exists and where it is stored.” “RISM series A/II: “Music manuscripts after 1600″ is the most comprehensive annotated index and guide to music manuscripts produced after 1600. Fifty years of careful research and joint initiatives sponsored by RISM brings together among others more than 551,000 records by over 19,500 composers into one database which can be easily searched. The manuscripts are found in over 750 libraries and archives in 31 countries…”

— African American Biographical Database The African American Biographical Database (AABD) brings together in one resource the biographies of thousands of African Americans, many not to be found in any other reference source. These biographical sketches have been carefully assembled from biographical dictionaries and other sources. The collection contains extended narratives of African American activists, business people, former slaves, performing artists, educators, lawyers, physicians, writers, church leaders, homemakers, religious workers, government workers, athletes, farmers, scientists, factory workers, and more–both the famous and the everyday person.

More new electronic resources for the New Year:

• Biblical Archaeology Society Archive: The BAS Archive contains the editorial content of each issue of the bimonthly magazines Biblical Archaeology Review (1975-2003), Bible Review (1985-2003) and Archaeology Odyssey (1998-2003), as well as five books published by the Biblical Archaeology Society.
• World Development Indicators: Provides direct access to more than 600 development indicators (full list of indicators), with time series for 208 countries and 18 country groups from 1960 onward.
• Oxford Digital Reference Shelf : 10 more e-books have been added to this collection. They are individually searchable or accessible through our new Oxford Reference Online service.
  • Encyclopedia of Evolution
  • Encyclopedia of Global Change
  • Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
  • Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
  • Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
  • Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
• Smithsonian Global Sound: Includes the published recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival audio collections of Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. It also includes music recorded around the African continent by Dr. Hugh Tracey for the International Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University as well as material collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American Institute for Indian Studies. Recordings can be streamed (requires Macromedia Flash Player and Windows Media Player [PC] or Macromedia Flash Player [Mac]) at either 22kbps (default) or 64kbps. Users can create their own playlists after free registration.
• Encyclopedia of African American Society: This two-volume reference work details the ways in which the tenets and foundations of African American culture have given rise to today’s society. Approaching the field from a “street level” perspective, these two volumes cover topics such as rap music, sports, television, cinema, racism, religion, and literature, among others.
• Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices: Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices presents detailed information on current religious practices around the world, with an emphasis on how religion impacts the daily lives of its followers. Entries cover everything from central doctrines and sacred texts to dietary customs and significant holidays. The three-volume set explores 13 major religions, plus 24 sects, and spans Asia and Oceania, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. Also includes 300 illustrations, belief tables showing how individual religions are unique and what they share with other religions, a glossary, maps, a cumulative index, and much more.

All these items are listed and linked on our new New Electronic Resources page.

More new databases have been added to the libraries’ collection. We’re a whirlwind of purchasing activity:

Oxford Reference Online: Oxford Reference Online includes well over 100 subject and language reference sources from Oxford University Press, including many titles from the Oxford Companions Series. Includes bilingual dictionaries, an illustrated dictionary, timelines, maps, and numerous subject specific reference books in many different areas.

This is a great resource for starting research or getting basic information on a huge variety of topics.

Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA): The LLBA abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences. The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Complete coverage is given to various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical linguistics. Abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,500 serials publications are included, as well as abstracts of books, book chapters, and dissertations. Coverage begins in 1973. (Updated monthly)

Criminology: A Sage Full-Text Collection: Criminology: A Sage Full-Text Collection is a searchable collection of bibliographic records with links to the full text in PDF format of 23 journals published by Sage and participating societies. The collection covers subjects such as Criminal Justice, Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile Justice, Corrections, Penology, Policing, Forensic Psychology, and Family and Domestic Violence.

Urban Studies: A Sage Full-Text Collection: Urban Studies & Planning: A Sage Full-Text Collection is a searchable collection of bibliographic records with links to the full text in PDF format of 12 journals published by Sage. Seven of the journals are available in their totality, from volume one to the present. The collection covers subjects such as Anthropology, Economic Development, Economics, Education, Environmental Science, Planning Pedagogy, Planning Practice, Planning Theory, Policy Analysis, Political Science, Public Administration, Regional Geography, Regional Science, Residential and Community Development, Social, Spatial, and Cultural Dynamics, Sociology, Urban and Regional Planning, Urban Culture, Urban Geography, Urban Policy, Urban Politics, and Welfare Economics.

–Derik A Badman

A number of new databases have been added to the libraries’ collection. Below are links to the resources and descriptions from our website. [text by publishers]

—African-American Newspapers: 19th Century: Part 9: This enormous collection of African American Newspapers contains a wealth of information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s, and is rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion. They also contain large numbers of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience. This is an additional module that covers The Christian Recorder, Jan. 1883-Dec. 1887.

—Index Islamicus: The Index Islamicus database indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. It is produced by an editorial team working at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, established to transmit knowledge about Islamic and Middle East studies, which have tradionally been part of the curriculum of SOAS. Records included in the database cover 1906 to the present.

—Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts: LISTA indexes more than 600 periodicals plus books, research reports, and proceedings on subjects such as librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, and information management. Coverage begins in the mid-1960s.

—MasterFile Premier: Access granted from AccessPA, this is a public library version of Academic Search Premier(ASP). It includes 729 unique full-text titles not covered in ASP.

—PAIS International and PAIS Archive: PAIS indexes national and international public policy information from journal articles, books, conference research reports, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed. PAIS International covers materials from 1972 onward, while the Archive extends coverage back to 1915. PAIS contains some foreign language material but all index entries and abstracts are in English. Since PAIS tends to cover topics that are, have been or may become the focus of legislation it is particularly germane for students in the departments or schools of business administration, history, economics, law, political science, social administration, criminal justice, sociology and geography and urban studies, American studies and, African American studies. PAIS is a good choice if peer reviewed journals and or primary sources are needed to fulfill research requirements. [text by Susan Golding]

—Physical Education Index: Since 1970 Physical Education Index has been covering peer-reviewed journals, report literature, conference proceedings, trade magazines, patents, articles from the popular press, and many other publications relevant to the field of physical education. Physical Education Index provides citation information and abstracts to journal articles about physical education and related disciplines (sports, sports medicine, dance, coaching, fitness, motor learning, etc.) from 303 core scholarly journals and numerous other publications. (Updated monthly)

—Scopus:
(This is a year-long trial.) Scopus is an abstracting and indexing database covering over 14,000 titles in the scientific, technical, medical and social science literature. Coverage extends as far back as 1966. Cited references are searchable from 1996 onward. Subject Areas covered by Scopus: Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Engineering: 4,500 titles; Life and Health Sciences: 5,900 titles (100% Medline coverage); Social Sciences, Psychology and Economics: 2,700 titles; Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences: 2,500 titles; General Sciences: 50 titles.

—Worldwide Political Science Abstracts: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. It currently monitors approximately 1,500+ titles for coverage, of which 67% are published outside the United States.

We now have access to Latin American Women Writers from Alexander Street Press. When completed it will contain approximately 100,000 pages of prose, poetry and drama by women writers from Mexico, Central, and South America. In this prototype version there are about 4200 pages of prose and poetry. Drama will be added in the next release.