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September/October 2006: Issue 132
Notes and NewsLSTA Funds Online Resources for Libraries in Arkansas
Thanks to the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), UAMS and other libraries in the state may access many online resources “for free.” The funding administered by the Arkansas State Library provides online materials for school, university, and public libraries throughout the state. Among the resources provided for 2006/2007 are the following:
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary Unabridged Online
OCLC’s WorldCat -
A database containing the holdings of many thousands of libraries
Several EBSCO databases -
Including Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition and Academic Search Elite containing full text of several thousand journals.
These are tax dollars well spent!
Try out these and other databases on the UAMS Library’s website.
If you have any questions
Please contact Mary Hawks, Collections Management Librarian
Stay current with RSS
This is a new way to be alerted when a website is updated. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The name is based on the simple coding that is used for the feed that is produced. For journals, this may be a new issue and TOC or an announcement from that journal or publisher.
According to UAMS campus IT, use of RSS readers would be within policy as long as one is reading feeds from sources such as journals and e-versions of print newspapers. It should not be used to connect to live streaming from a video or stock market source.
RSS readers can save you time by providing just one place to check for whether selected sources have new information on their websites. You do not have to go to each website to check, and you do not have to wait for a scheduled email alert. There are several ways to access the news from a reader, and each reader offers its own particular method: email alerts, accessing a reader you have installed on your computer, accessing a web-based reader.
Many of our subscribed journals provide RSS feeds. The feeds are usually marked RSS or sometimes XML. A few of the publishers/journals are ACS (American Chemical society), Blackwell, New England Journal of Medicine, NIH press releases, and International Journal of Epidemiology.
You must have software to receive the feeds from your chosen sources. Much of this software is free via the web, though there are also fancier fee-based versions. Here are some websites that explain RSS and offer links to downloadable readers: