Electronic Information Update

Library Web Site

Using the technical skills of several college assistants, the library is completely overhauling its WWW Internet site (http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/library/). Our goal is to make this home page an integral part of our delivery of information services which will keep you up-to-date with library hours and news, deliver more library services electronically, and serve as an academic gateway to the Internet. We encourage you to bookmark this site and periodically check it for future developments.

The Internet gateway goal is being partly addressed by a link on the library's home page, Selected Internet Research Sites, a window onto the Net for academics. A sample category is Booksellers Online which includes Amazon.Com (http://www.amazon.com), a bookseller whose database is comparable to Books in Print. Two other valuable categories, among Selected Internet Research Sites, are Internet Subject Directories and Reference Collections Online, which include descriptions and links to sites such as the Argus Clearinghouse, providing topical guides to Internet resources of research value (http://www.clearinghouse.net); the Librarian's Index to the Internet (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/); Thorplus: Purdue University's Virtual Library (http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/vlibrary/); and The WWW Virtual Library (http:/www.fisk.edu/vl/).

Full-Text Trial

All CUNY libraries have been taking part in a free trial of a full-text journal system, known as First Search, via the Internet. First Search is a product of the Online College Library Center (OCLC), a vendor of various electronic services to libraries. The full-text journals cover a wide range of disciplines and include some specialized resources such as Disclosure Corporate Snapshots and NetFirst (a database of annotated references to selected Internet resources). This is the fourth full-text system CUNY libraries have tested. The goal is to choose an Internet full-text journal system, available to all CUNY library users, to be funded by the CUNY Office of Library Services. We invite our users to try First Search at no charge through November. When you log into the system, you will find that not all categories are searchable, because we are only testing categories with full-text information. For a list of available databases, choose All Areas. Access the system from any CUNY Web station, without a user ID or password, at http://www.ref.oclc.org:2000/FSIP. From a non-CUNY station use the URL: http://www.ref.oclc.org:2000 (authorization number: 100-143-990 and password: prxg5taxx). E-mail your comments about First Search to guwcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu.

New CD-ROMs on the Cohen Lan

Cohen Library has recently added volumes three to five of the five-volume Cross-Cultural CD database, to its Local Area Network (LAN). Cross-Cultural CD is a series of full-text files extracted from the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). It provides anthropological information for 60 different societies around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. We have also added SIRS Government Reporter which contains selected, full-text government documents published by numerous federal agencies, departments, and commissions. This system also includes hundreds of full-text U.S. Supreme Court decisions, historic documents (such as the Federalist Papers), the Congressional Directory, and the Federal Agency Directory.

Guy Westmoreland