Diamond, the online catalog of the Temple University Libraries, is now available through your mobile phone, PDA, or other small screen device (SSD). Say, “goodbye,” to those scraps of paper and stop hunting for pens that write (or a free computer). Now you’ve got your library in the palm of your hand! Just enter http://diamond.temple.edu/ into the web browser on your phone or wireless PDA, and click the “Text-only / AirPAC” link to check it out. Once connected you can search the library catalog from almost anywhere. Find a reference book without leaving your stuff. Renew that novel you’re reading while you’re in the coffee shop. Save your laptop for the hard stuff because seeing what we’ve got has never been easier at your library! — Byron C. Mayes, Head of Library Systems & Technology

I was asked about importing from Diamond, our library catalog, to RefWorks. It can be a little tricky, so I offer a few abbreviated steps:

1) When you’re ready to export the records from Diamond, you should select “End-Note/RefWorks” as the format from the list at the left.

2) On the right select “Local Disk.”

3) Click “Submit” and save the file to an easily accessible location.

4) Log-in to RefWorks.

5) From the “References” menu at the left of the RefWorks menu bar, select “Import”.

6) Select “EndNote View” as the “Import Filter/Data Source” and the “Database”.

7) If you want all the imported references to go into a specific folder you can select it next under “Import References into.”

8) Under “Import Data from the Following Text File” click on “Browse” and then find the file you just exported (probably called “export.txt”) and click “OK”.

9) Click “Import” at the bottom.

10) Your records should then be imported. You can view them by clicking on the “Recently Imported” folder link.

If you have any question, ask.

—Derik A Badman

The latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (Volume 52 Issue 40 Page A29) has an article titled “Toss Out the Index Cards” (free online) on bibliographic management software such as EndNote and RefWorks. The University has a license for RefWorks that allows free use by students, staff, and faculty. Follow the link and sign up to give the software a try. As an addition to the article I will note that many of the library’s article databases (including all EBSCO and OVID products) have the ability to automatically export citations into RefWorks with a simple click of the mouse (and a quick log-in to your account). If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. —Derik A Badman

A number of new features have been added to our EBSCOhost databases, including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, ERIC, MLA, PsychInfo, and ATLA. Here is a brief rundown on what’s new.

1) A dropdown list on the search screen enables users to change databases easily.

2) Results “clustering”:When your search results come up, you will see a column on the left side of the screen that lists the top ten subjects of your results. These links allow you to narrow your search to a more specific set of results. See the screenshot below for an example. A search in Academic Search Premier on (“economics” and “america”) brings up these results. Clicking on any of these will narrow the results to items that fit the original search criteria and are also categorized by the subject clicked. This is a quick way to narrow down your results to something more specific.

3) Search Alerts in RSS: EBSCO’s MyEBSCO features allows users to create accounts and receive search alerts, that is, notification when new articles or citations fitting the user’s search criteria are entered into the database. Traditionally done by email, these results are now available as an RSS feed. An orange icon link appears on the MyEBSCO “Search Alerts” part of the “Folder” (see screenshot). (For more on RSS see this article.)

4) Visual Search:A visual search groups results in nested circles according to subjects. It is an alternate way to search and navigate results (rather than a list). It’s hard to explain but easy to play around with. Just click on the “Visual Search” tab (it’s blue) at the top of any EBSCO database screen. The screen shot below shows a search on “economics” narrowed to “economic forecasting.”

5) Citation Output: When emailing or saving citations you can now have them in a few standard formats such as AMA, APA, MLA, and Chicago/Turabian–a time-saving way to add that citation or bibliography entry to a paper. If you have any questions about these features or would like more information or assistance, feel free to contact me.

—Derik A Badman

December 17th, the last day of the semester, will be the final day of operation for the 100-seat “Scholar’s Information Center” computer lab, which has been provided by University Computing Services for more than 14 years in Paley Library. This closure is part of the preparations being made by Computing Services in anticipation of the opening of the new TECH Center in January 2006. The space currently occupied by the computer lab will be returned to library use. As a first step, over 20 new library workstations will be installed, and laser printing will continue to be available. Additional plans are under development. Another 100-seat computer lab is located in Tuttleman Learning Center, adjacent to the library’s circulation/reserve area. Its 24/5 schedule of operation will change once the TECH Center is open in January.

Curious about what is new in the library? The library spends large amounts of money to purchase new materials both physical and electronic. While we will keep you posted with this blog on new electronic resources as they become available, we are now experimenting with a way to keep you informed about new books coming into the libraries. Our trial collection of new book lists, includes a list of all new books for the previous month as well as smaller lists for books in specific subject areas like Music, Film and Media Arts, and Religion, as well as new books at the Ambler Library. And don’t forget, if you want to keep up on specific topics, you can also set up new book emails. –Derik A Badman

You can now start your web-based research directly from all of the Libraries’ web services even if you’re off-campus. All you need is your browser and your AccessNet ID. Access to the Libraries’ restricted resources has never been easier! When you click on a link to a restricted resource in the Diamond catalog or anywhere on the Libraries’ web site, you’ll see the LibProxy login page. Simply enter your AccessNet username and password, — the same username and password you use for email or TUportal — click the “login” button, and search. Beginning August 29, JournalFinder will also be accessible this way. Your login will be valid until you end your session and close your browser. That means you only have to login once to search our entire selection of databases and ebooks. Off-campus users can still gain access to the restricted resources via TUportal or previous methods. If you use those, or are anywhere on campus, you won’t notice anything different. We hope you’ll find LibProxy makes your off-campus research much easier. If you have any questions, just contact Brian Schoolar, our Electronic Resources Librarian, at 215-204-3258 or jbrian@temple.edu. –Byron C. Mayes