Author: Brian Quigley
ProQuest downtime June 30-July 1
Research databases on the new ProQuest platform will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance from Saturday, June 30, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. to Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 7:00 a.m.
This outage will affect a number of our databases including the following (partial list):
- Agricola
- Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts)
- Earthquake Engineering Abstracts
- Environmental Science and Pollution Management
- ERIC via ProQuest
- GeoRef
- Historical Newspapers
- Oceanic Abstracts
- PAIS International
- PsycInfo
- Sociological Abstracts
Access to these databases on the legacy ProQuest and CSA Illumina platforms will not be affected. These legacy platforms will continue to be available until August 1, 2012.
Transportation Studies Library closed through July 27
Due to construction, the Institute of Transportation Studies Library will be closed through July 27.
HathiTrust digitized books in OskiCat
You may have noticed a lot more online books in OskiCat recently. The library has begun loading HathiTrust records for digitized versions of public domain items into our catalog. When the project is complete, there will be over a million new records in the catalog. You can find these in OskiCat with a keyword search on hathitrust.
Public domain means that the items are not protected by copyright. U.S. government documents and works published before 1923 are examples of items in the public domain. All users can view the full-text of these books online. UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and students can download the whole book (PDF) by logging in with your CalNet ID. This service is possible because the University of California libraries are partners in HathiTrust (pronounced “hah-tee”), a national project to create a shared archive of books scanned into electronic format.
Nature editor-in-chief says open access is inevitable
The Guardian published a very interesting article Friday on a speech by Nature Editor-in-Chief Philip Campbell, in which he called open access to research inevitable. In addition to making research more accessible to readers and scientists, open access would also open up the literature to text and data mining. He noted: “In the future, there will be text mining and tools … that need to get into that literature – I see that as a key part of the future and it’s hard to see how that could work without open access.”
Read the whole article on The Guardian website:
Open access to research is inevitable, says Nature editor-in-chief
OskiCat and proxy server downtime on June 2
The following services will be unavailable from 1 a.m. through as late as 4 a.m. on Saturday, June 2, while we perform scheduled maintenance:
- OskiCat, the UC Berkeley library catalog (including searching, request, and renewal functions).
- UCB call number and availability information in Melvyl.
- Melvyl Request login and My ILL Requests.
- The library proxy server for accessing licensed electronic resources (VPN will still work).
Libraries closed on Memorial Day
All the UC Berkeley libraries will be closed Monday, May 28 for the Memorial Day holiday.
Melvyl, OCLC downtime May 19-20
All services provided by OCLC, most importantly the Melvyl catalog, will be unavailable during system maintenance from 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 through 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 20.
For a list of the databases affected, search “OCLC” in our Electronic Resources finder.
Re-envisioning the Library: Your opinions wanted
What do you want from your library?
The UC Berkeley Library is considering many changes to hours, services, and library locations. We want to know what is important to you and to other Cal students, faculty, and staff. It only takes a few minutes.
For more information on “Re-envisioning the Library” and to take the survey: http://tiny.cc/ucblib
ProQuest, CSA downtime May 5-6
Research databases branded ProQuest, CSA Illumina, and Chadwyck-Healey will be down for maintenance from 7 p.m. Saturday, May 5 until 7 a.m. Sunday, May 6.
This outage will affect a number of our databases including the following (partial list):
- Digital Sanborn Maps
- Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts)
- Earthquake Engineering Abstracts
- Environmental Science and Pollution Management
- ERIC via CSA
- GeoRef
- Historical Newspapers
- PAIS International
- PsycInfo
- Sociological Abstracts
Extended hours for finals
The Moffitt Library and Gardner (Main) Stacks will remain open continuously for a 24-hour study hall beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday, April 30. These extended hours run until 7 p.m. on Friday, May 11.
The science and engineering libraries will maintain their normal hours during finals. For current schedules of all libraries on campus, see our Library Hours.