Physics Roundtable
The Physics Roundtable was held on June 9, 1997 at the SLA Conference. It was a well attended session, with between 40 and 50 librarians and vendor representatives. The session was moderated by Laurel Kristick.
The first topic of discussion was whether librarians assist in setting up desk top machines for using a library's electronic resources. Few librarians do this on a regular basis. Some librarians are establishing office hours in the departments for their subject areas, to answer faculty members' questions. New orientation programs were also discussed, including building into a seminar challenges to critical thinking skills.
The next topic was using funds from cancelled titles for document delivery. The Science and Technology section of the ALA web server has a discussion on this topic. Accreditation issues were brought up during this discussion, including whether accreditation teams are considering access vs ownership.
Also discussed at the roundtable was keeping up with faculty research topics and putting an acknowledgement on electronic resources, indicating the institution's role in making the resource available (e.g., that the library's subscription to the print version of a journal makes it possible for the user to access the electronic version).
Other Physics News
AIP Announcement
AIP announces next step in its online journal service: reference linking creates new research environment.
Version 1.5 of the AIP Online Journal Service (OJS) was launched July 1, 1997 for the journals Applied Physics Letters Online and JETP Letters Online. The remainder of the AIP's journals will upgrade to version 1.5 by January 1998. The OJS gives AIP journal subscribers access to a full-text online version of each print journal to which they subscribe, at no additional cost. Articles from each journal are in PDF format, beginning with the January 1997 issue. The OJS includes the searchable abstracts database, SPIN (Searchable Physics Information Notices).
Enhancements in version 1.5 include hyperlinked references, access to both SPIN and INSPEC databases, SPIN records back to 1975, new download options, additional links, and abstracts looking exactly like the print version.
Further information about the AIP OJS is available at http://www.aip.org/ojs/service.html
Return to Contents page
Created by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, August 6, 1997