Friday, July 23, 2010

Changes to the research databases line-up

Since 2008, the UFV library has benefited from government funding for a database collection, known as the Undergraduate Foundation Collection (UFC). The UFC databases were shared by K-12, public and postsecondary libraries. This funding has now ended and the UFC has moved to a library-sustained model.

Two databases from this collection will be continued: Academic Search Premier and Business Source Premier. A number of other databases will be discontinued. As of July 26, the following links will be removed from our web site:

  1. Masterfile - Covers all subject areas, with a public library focus. As an alternative, use MAS Ultra, Academic Search Premier, or Canadian Business and Current Affairs
  2. Kids Search - For Grades K-5
  3. Novelist and Novelist K-8 - Reader's Advisory tools; try the Readers Advisory Link Farm for help finding good reads in your favourite genre
  4. Canadian Reference Centre - Canadian information from magazines, newspapers, reference books, with a public Library focus. Use Canadian Business and Current Affairs or Canadian Newsstand as an alternative
  5. Consumer Health Complete - As an alternative, use Health Source: Consumer Edition

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we welcome your feedback and comments. If you need assistance with using our research databases, please Ask a Librarian.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hey... what happened to Database StartSearch?

If you're accustomed to using Database StartSearch to search multiple databases at once, you're probably wondering what happened to it.

The software we were using, dbWiz, was developed by the library at Simon Fraser University. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, they have decided not to continue developing this software, and it will not longer be available for use in the very near future.

But the news is not all bad...

We are in the process of upgrading our current Guides to Research, as well as developing a number of new ones, using software (called Libguides) that allows us to integrate database search boxes directly into the guides. We can configure these search boxes to search several databases at once, and the benefit of this is that the databases you're searching are the ones that are most relevant to the topic or discipline covered by the guide. Some of these new guides are available now, and all of our current Guides to Research will be converted to this new format and software by September.
As always, we are here to help you with your research ... just Ask a Librarian.