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Open Access Journals

A new database that is available on the Library Website is the Directory of Open Access Journals. This database covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals with the aim to cover all subjects and languages.

• There are now 2,433 journals in the directory.
• Currently 714 journals are searchable at article level.
• As of today 119,344 articles are included in the DOAJ service.

Open Access Journals are peer-reviewed or editorial-quality journals that are freely available online. They define open access journals as journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. From the BOAI definition of "open access", they won't include a journal in the directory unless the users have the right to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts" of the articles.

Journals can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword. Once you get to the journal, you can browse by issue/year or even search some of the journals for a keyword in a particular article. These are online journals being made open-access by their publishers via their own websites, so the features and functions will vary.

Interlibrary Loan Tips

Following these tips can speed up the turnaround time for Interlibrary Loan Processing. What this means is Butler students, faculty, and staff can get books and articles sent to the Butler campus much quicker.

• Obtaining an ILLIAD Account.
• The home library should be selected with care.  Selection of home library should be determined by field of study, not the class hosting the instruction session.  A change to home library after an ILLIAD account is set is not encouraged.  Tracking requests after changes to home library is very difficult.  Rule of thumb: Science majors should generally select the Science Library and Liberal arts should  select Irwin Library.
  
  
• When creating a User Profile to obtain an ILLIAD account, you MUST use your Butler email address.  No other email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail) will be recognized.

•  Filing an ILL Request.
  
  
• File ILL requests directly from an electronic database (World Cat, EBSCO, etc.) whenever possible.  This limits mistakes made in entering information into the request.  Use the SFX Find It! button whenever available.
  
  
• Check the Butler Library Catalog and journal holdings in the Citation Linker before filing any ILL requests.  Databases are not always accurate in reflecting our holdings.
  
  
• Be discriminating when it comes to requesting items through ILL.  Even though students, graduate students, staff and faculty are not charged for the Interlibrary Loan Service, it can be very costly.  From the postage to send material to and from BU to the cost to paying copyright fees, a book or article may be as much as $30-$50.  When someone orders material and then never picks it up, or orders needlessly, it jeopardizes the standard of keeping this service free to all users.
  
  
• Please limit the number of dissertations you request.  Often there is only one copy available and most libraries will not loan them.

•  Renewing ILL Requests.
  
  
  • ILL materials can be renewed through your Interlibrary Loan Account. To log-on click on the ILLIAD link. Once in your account select VIEW/RENEW, and follow the directions.  Bookmarks detailing this information are inserted in each loan.  Not all ILL materials are renewable.  It is at the discretion of the lending library.  Renewals must be requested 3-5 days before the due date.

Visual Search in EBSCO Databases

The EBSCO databases have a cool new way to search for information. It's called Visual Search. "Visual Search allows you to search efficiently across broad subjects, and then returns a visual map of results, organized by topic."

You just search for a topic and you're given a visual picture of your search results, where circles represent related topics and squares represent actual articles. To move back (or up) in the map, click outside of a circle or square. Click on Top Level to view the entire map. You can even use the filters at the top of the map to limit or focus information by keyword, date, or publication name.

Click on the circles to focus on that particular topic. Then mouseover any square to get the citation info for its article. If you want more, click the square to view the information on the right side of your screen. You can even see whether the article is available full text.

To search visually rather than textually, just click the "Visual Search" tab at the top of any EBSCO database.

Printing PDF Documents

Just a reminder for all of you who print PDF files from Blackboard, JSTOR, Academic Search Premier, or other full-text databases that the library offers.

Be sure to click the Print Button that's in the PDF toolbar. Don't use the Print Button or File-Print function that's in the web browser. That way you'll actually get your document printed instead of just the frame at the top of the screen.

If you still can't get it to print correctly, try saving the PDF file to the Desktop or your H: drive, and then open the document from there and print it.

Butler Gets Britannica Online

The libraries at Butler University have just gotten a new online resource. It's the Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Britannica plus a whole lot more. One of the new features is the World Data Analyst, which gives you current and past statistics about countries around the world. The "Workspace" is also new, and allows you to save your research (articles you find, etc.) and come back to it later. Visit Britannica Online via the Databases page on the library website.

Completely updated for 2006, this award-winning reference site is now faster, easier to use, and full of new content specifically designed to meet the needs of university libraries. The foundation of Britannica Online (BOL) is the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the largest, most authoritative encyclopedia in the world. In addition to the encyclopedia, BOL includes:

• World Data Analyst - Britannica's exclusive database of current and past statistics on the countries of the world
• Gateway to the Classics - An extensive collection of significant works in literature, philosophy, history, and science
• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus - Completely integrated into the site and easily accessible
• Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Quotations - A lively collection of more than 4,000 quotations, both contemporary and classic
• Full-text journal and magazine articles from EBSCO and Proquest journals - more than 700 titles, hand-selected for college needs
• BBC & New York Times daily headlines - top stories from two trusted sources The Web's Best - a collection of Web sites carefully selected by Britannica's editorial department
• World Atlas - Access Britannica maps through this interactive resource
• Advanced search capabilities and Britannica's exclusive "Workspace," a research organizer.