Boston College Libraries Newsletter     ||    Faculty Publication Highlights  

A major goal of the Boston College Libraries is to support faculty research. Resources have been gathered and procedures developed in order to support the research process. What follow are brief descriptions of services and resources directly related to research activity, along with some links to the items described. These include sophisticated finding tools which help identify and locate articles, books, reports, and other types of data; faculty work space at O'Neill; and the availability of electronic communication with library staff. Information is also provided about the locating and borrowing of books at other libraries. Handouts are available which provide directions for accessing and searching various databases, directories of nearby libraries, and a bibliography of certain grant seeking aids.

Of course, the success of any program of this sort depends on the establishment of personal contacts. Please feel free to contact any of the Subject Specialists if you have questions or special research needs.

Boston College Libraries: Research Collections

The Research Collections pages provide an introductory overview of a range of resources held by Boston College Libraries, a member of the Association of Research Libraries . The resources are arranged by discipline/subject area. During a time of technological innovation in publishing and information delivery, the Boston College Libraries are developing a digital library of electronic resources essential to current academic scholarship and teaching. At the same time, the Libraries continue to add to the collections of books, journals, microforms, videos, and other kinds of materials which form the historic foundation of library holdings. Further information is available from the subject specialists who have helped build the collections and from the subject research guides available on the library web site.

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The B.C. Libraries' World Wide Web Site

A growing number of research resources and services are available on the internet. Subject Specialists are continuing to identify internet sites and point to them via the Libraries' WWW pages. Web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator can be used to locate a vast range of web sites, and to make direct access to off-campus computer databases such as library catalogs. The URL for the B.C. Libraries' site is:  http://www.bc.edu/libraries/. Also, check the links for Resources; these include links to

• Quest: Library Catalog CrossSearch Online Databases Electronic Journals Electronic Books Research Collections Research Guides Ready Reference
• Other Libraries

Elsewhere one may access Boston College Libraries' Digital Library Initiatives page which highlights new or existing digital services and research projects of particular importance to students and researchers.

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A Note on Research Strategy

Researchers should know how recent the information offered by any database is and plan accordingly. The following resources provide "early detection":

• WorldCat offers a great deal of current data regarding domestic publication; they contain bibliographic records for books published in the U.S. which are still in the publication process and have not yet reached libraries and bookstores.
   
• A number of databases (e.g. Quest, ingenta, ERIC, PsycINFO, and others) and collections of electronic journals (e.g. Cambridge University Press Journals, Oxford University Press Journals, and others) permit you to save a search profile/strategy.  These are automated current awareness services that result, depending on the type of profile or strategy, in book citations, in table of contents of your chosen journals or a list of individual article citations being e-mailed directly to your e-mail box. (More information on automated alerts.)

N.B.: Updating frequency varies from database to database; it can be monthly, quarterly, or even annually. When designing research strategy for an ongoing project, the researcher may want to consider how to keep up with information as well as to determine which resources provide the most recent information. Some resources allow the saving of search statements; saved terms or phrases can be run each time a database is updated. Call the appropriate Subject Specialist to find out about updating frequency and search saving features for any particular database.

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Remote Access

Most databases available through the Boston College Libraries are restricted to the Boston College community. In order to access these databases from off-campus, you need to log in as a verified B.C. community member. For further information, please consult: Remote Access Information.

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Quest Library Catalog

Quest is Boston College Libraries’ online catalog. A subset of Quest is the database FACP - Boston College Faculty Publications, a citation database of scholarly publications produced by Boston College faculty. Updated annually, FACP represents approximately 12,000 scholarly publications produced by full-time faculty members. Important features of Quest include:

• the ability to renew or view items on loan to review recall and hold requests to customize the way results are displayed;
• the ability to set up an alert profile, a service that automatically sends out an e-mail list of new library acquisitions according to your area(s) of interest.

Quest can be accessed by terminals and microcomputers on and off campus.  For more information please contact any Subject Specialist or O'Neill's Reference Desk (617-552-4472).The results of most searches in Quest are organized by publication date, with the most recently published titles appearing first. This may help you find the latest material in your research areas. The Advanced Search technique allows you to search by year of publication, by language of the text, by format (e.g. journals & newspapers, electronic journals, microform, musical scores, archives/manuscripts, musical recordings, kit, realia, graphic, sound recordings, maps), by specific library location at Boston College, by publisher name and place, and by a number of other possible qualifiers. Please consult the relevant help screens in Quest for further information.

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Electronic Databases

Numerous databases are available in the various B.C. Libraries, and increasingly on the Internet. Contact your Subject Specialist for the most recent information. Also, consult the Online Databases page on the B.C. Libraries web site for an alphabetical list and a Subject Index for the databases arranged by discipline/category. SFX is a feature of a growing number of Boston College Libraries' databases. SFX allows you to go from a citation in a database and view a list of services available for that citation. Boston College uses the name and icon for this technology. The current services offered on the Find It Menu include:

• Link to full text from a database or electronic journal collection. Check Holdings in Quest, BC's Library Catalog. Search for the Author in a database. Send Questions and Comments about Find It to a BC Librarian.
• Get the Find It Frequently Asked Questions.

Not all of these services will appear when you click the Find It link. It depends on the database that you are using.;
You will only see (Find It) links after you have searched a particular database.

Database CrossSearch: Manage and Search Across Databases
Now available on the Libraries' web site is Database CrossSearch, a product that will help you manage your favorite resources and allow you to search across multiple databases at one time. CrossSearch provides access to all of the Libraries' web-based databases currently found on the Libraries' Online Databases page. In addition, CrossSearch allows you to customize a list of databases, so that each time you sign-in, your list will appear within a My Resources List. You can browse databases by subject and search up to eight databases at one time.Whether you are researching psychology, art history, business, or nursing, CrossSearch will help you identify the appropriate resources for your research. You can search databases within CrossSearch by Author, Title, Subject, Year or All Fields. If you choose six databases to search, then all six will be searched at the same time and the results will be displayed for each database. You can select records and save them to your e-Shelf for up to 30 days, or you can e-mail or save records to a disk. CrossSearch also allows you to permanently save your search history, so each time you sign-in you can run previous searches that have been saved. For databases that are not searchable within CrossSearch you can connect to the database directly.

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E-Mail Alerts/Current Awareness

Set up automated alerts.A number of databases (e.g. Quest, ingenta, ERIC, PsycINFO , and others) and collections of electronic journals (e.g. Cambridge University Press Journals, Oxford University Press Journals, and others) permit you to save a search profile/strategy. These are automated current awareness services that result, depending on the type of profile or strategy, in book citations, in table of contents of your chosen journals or a list of individual article citations being e-mailed directly to your e-mail box. Particular mention may be made of Quest. Quest is Boston College Libraries' Catalog for all books, journals, CD-ROM, audio-visual materials and other cataloged items. It provides a Quest Alert feature that allows users to define a search profile.  Based on this profile, Quest automatically sends out an e-mail list of new publications that may be of interest to the user.Another important database providing an alerts feature is ingenta .  This database provides table of contents information (abut 19 million article citations) taken from over 27,000 current journals and magazines in a very diverse range of disciplines.  Journals are indexed within 24 hours of receipt.  Coverage is from late 1988 to the present and includes journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and the sciences.  The journals indexed encompass a broad range from popular to the more scholarly.

Some Useful Alerting Features in ingenta:Research Alerts
Research alerts are a subject and author alerting service where you can create up to 25 keyword or author search alerts. You enter the keywords or author names you want to search against and, on a weekly basis, ingenta runs your searches against any new content in the system and sends you the new citations by email.

Table of Content Alerts
Sometimes known as TOC alerts, table of content alerts allow you to receive by e-mail table of contents of new issues of your chosen publications as they are available on ingenta. One may select up to 50 titles per year.

Find further information about Quest, ingenta, and other databases and collections of journals providing alert features by consulting the guide for automated alerts.

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Online Database Searching

A number of online information resources which provide citations and abstracts of published literature, statistical tables, full-text of selected articles, directories, and business/financial data are searchable by professional library staff. Searches are performed after initial interviews with a librarian have determined the specific subject needs of the researcher. Contact your Subject Specialist for more information.

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The Boston College Institutional Repository

eScholarship@BC is a digital repository of scholarly material produced by Boston College scholars and researchers. The repository is a central online system that manages the storage, access, and preservation of a variety of materials, including working papers, preprints, postprints, and theses and dissertations. eScholarship@BC is currently a pilot project administered by the Boston College Libraries. Presently the libraries will be working with a small number of academic departments and research centers to demonstrate the capabilities of the repository, develop policies and procedures for participation in the repository, and develop a plan for a campus-wide rollout of eScholarship@BC.A key component of the eScholarship at Boston College initiative is the Libraries' commitment to and support for open access to scholarly literature. The Libraries are a signatory of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which defines open access as the "free availability on the public internet" of scholarly literature "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself." Open access benefits scholars by maximizing the visibility, influence, and benefit of their research. More details about eScholarship@BC is available at Background Information and Resources.

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Boston College Libraries and Scholarly Communication

BC Libraries are swiftly and enthusiastically expanding their digital and print resources. The dynamic library and information environment is extremely exciting and favorable to the promotion of teaching, research, and scholarship. There are also difficulties in solving some of the challenges posed by the greatly growing amount and cost of resources.  For an overview of some of these challenges, please see the BC Libraries blog Scholarly Communication News@BC. This site provides information updates for the Boston College community about developing scholarly communication issues, policy debates, legislation and innovative examples of dissemination/discourse practices, and is managed by staff of the Boston College Libraries. The Library welcomes contributors for both posting and commenting. If you are interested in posting please contact Brendan Rapple or Mark Caprio. Comments will be reviewed by blog moderators with respect to blog purpose and scope.

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Suggested Addendum to Publishing Contracts

Before signing a publishing contract, Boston College faculty, students and staff should consider carefully how the contract might later affect their usage of the published work in their teaching and research. It is important that Boston College authors retain the right to include the published work in a coursepack, to place it on their personal web pages and to post and update it in a scholarly e-print server. Frequently, however, the terms of a publisher's contract have access restrictions on work being used in such ways. Consequently, we recommend that all authors take care to assign the rights to their work in a manner that permits them to use the work freely, and permits their Boston College colleagues to use the work freely, in their teaching and research at Boston College. Accordingly, we encourage authors to request that the following "scholarship dissemination-friendly" addendum be added to their contracts:

"I retain the right to use this work, in whole or in part, in my personal teaching and research activities, for my colleagues at Boston College to use this work, in whole or in part, in their personal teaching and research activities. I also retain the right to post the work, in whole or in part, on my personal non-commercial web site as well as the right to post the work, in whole or in part, in free public e-print servers hosted by Boston College or by scholarly societies and associations."

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Online Request Forms

The Libraries' web site offers several electronic forms which can assist researchers in acquiring materials. The following forms can be accessed by choosing the Online Requests/Forms option under the heading Services We Provide on the Libraries' home page ):

• View/Renew Loans: A list of books, etc. currently charged out to you. Recall/Delivery Requests: A list of recall and delivery requests that you have placed. Interlibrary Loan Book Request: Complete this form to request materials via Interlibrary Loan.Interlibrary Loan Journal Article Request: Complete this form to request an article via Interlibrary Loan.Locate and Photocopy Request: Complete this form to request a photocopy of an article or book chapter. This service is available when classes are in session.  The cost is 20 cents per page. (Only available for items in O'Neill Library).Request Item from Law Library: Complete this form to request delivery of a book or a photocopy from the following remote libraries: NEDL, K-C, NRC or the Law Library.Ask a Reference Question: Complete this form to ask our reference librarians a question.Request a Research Consultation: Complete this form to request a research consultation with a subject specialist.Library Instruction Request Form: Complete this form to request a formal library instruction session.Request Data from ICPSR: Complete this form to request data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). 
• Recommend Library Materials: Use this form if you would like to recommend that the library purchase specific materials.

To have a book rush ordered or to have a book that is designated as "in process" in Quest rush catalogued, go to Rush Ordering/Cataloging below.

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Rush Ordering/Cataloging

Any book not yet purchased by Boston College Libraries may be ordered through the appropriate Subject Specialist, or by using the electronic form Recommend Library Materials (accessible after logging on to Your Quest Account link under the heading Services We Provide on the Libraries' home page). Use the "Additional Comments" box to request a rush order. You may ask to be notified when the title arrives or place an online request to have the item held for you upon arrival.

Quest may inform you that a certain title is "on order." When one accesses the Holdings information for the title, one may click "request" to ask that the title be rush ordered and that you be notified when the item arrives. If Quest informs you that the book is "in process," click on the "request" link on the holdings screen and follow instructions. This initiates a message that requests that the book be rush catalogued. The book should be available within 3-5 business days.

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Interlibrary Loan

One may request the Interlibrary Loan Office (3rd floor O'Neill) to obtain material not possessed by the O'Neill Library. Details of the book, article, etc. may be filled out in person at the ILL Office or by using an electronic Interlibrary Loan Form accessible on the InterLibrary Loan page. One may also initiate an ILL request from several OCLC First Search databases, WorldCat, a database of over 80 million items, being perhaps the most prominent. The Law Library processes borrowing requests for the Boston College law school faculty, staff and students.

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Bibliographic Citation Utilities

RefWorks
RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic citation management tool that assists users in creating personal collections of citations by easily importing references from online databases . These references can then be inserted into papers and RefWorks will automatically format the footnotes and bibliography in many different styles including MLA, APA, Turabian and Chicago. As a web-based product, RefWorks is available to users across various platforms including Windows, Mac, Unix, etc. and accessible from any workstation with an Internet connection. Read more about RefWorks.

Endnote
EndNote is a bibliographic mangement software program that assists users in collecting, organizing and presenting citations to articles, books, Web sites and more. Many databases can be searched remotely through EndNote using connection files , or a native database may be searched and the citation information saved to your desktop. These records can then be imported into your EndNote library using filters . Product information and support can be found on the EndNote web site.

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E-Mail

A quick and convenient method of on-campus communication is electronic mail or e-mail. It can be used to reach the Subject Specialists . You may consider using this mode for placing rush orders or sending messages concerning your research needs. For information on how to obtain an e-mail account, a faculty member can contact the Technology Consultant assigned to their department or area. Note: The University provides information about getting an e-mail account and setting up the necessary software -- access the IT Help Center and choose "Email" from the top bar.

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Grant Seeking Resources

The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) (x23344) searches an online database not available at O'Neill Library called SPIN. In addition, the Office of Sponsored Programs has a link to the Grant Writer's Toolbox , a collection of valuable links to help Grant Writers develop successful applications. OSP also provides a list of useful addresses and web sites for faculty looking for information on possible funding sources. Any thorough effort to identify the possible sources of research funding might make use of all these online services. Please contact any Subject Specialist to have a search done on relevant databases available at O'Neill. NOTE: O'Neill Library has numerous print publications which may assist you in locating potential funding sources.

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Boston Library Consortium - Member Library Catalogs & Borrowing Privileges

The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) Gateway provides access to the individual online catalogs of all the BLC members (Boston Public Library Research Collections, Boston University, Brandeis University, Brown University, Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MIT, Massachusetts State Library, Northeastern, Tufts University, UMass/Amherst, UMass/Boston, UMass/Dartmouth, UMass/Lowell, UMass/Medical, University of New Hampshire, Wellesley College, Williams College, University of Connecticut, and Boston College). This gateway may be useful after a WorldCat search. WorldCat can tell you what libraries may have a particular title. Then, by searching the online library catalog of the library which owns the item, you can check to see if it is available for borrowing.Faculty members requiring research materials not available at Boston College may receive Boston Library Consortium (BLC) cards which will enable them to borrow material from any of the BLC member libraries. The forms are at O'Neill's Reference Desk. 

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Boston Theological Institute

Another important consortium is that of the Boston Theological Institute (BTI). The collections of the BTI, consisting of over a million and a half in theology and cognate disciplines, constitute one of the richest theological library centers in the world. For more information about borrowing privileges contact Jonas Barciauskas (x24447).

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Other Libraries on the Internet

More than 50 library catalogs showing books and other materials of more than 400 Massachusetts libraries can be searched from the Massachusetts Library Information Network (MLIN) . Library materials held by most Massachusetts public libraries and by approximately 30 academic libraries are to be found in the online catalogs of the nine large automated resource sharing networks.More and more of the world's great libraries are making their catalogs available on the Internet.  The Library of Congress has a new web interface for its catalog.  The British Library Public Catalogue (BLPC) contains details of over 10 million books and other material covering every aspect of human thought from 1450 onwards. The Canadian Libraries Gateway provides a centralized window to Canadian libraries of all types and sizes. A web page of links to national libraries throughout the world is provided by IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Web access to other libraries around the world is available through LibWeb. National Library Catalogues Worldwide is a useful page for accessing scores of national libraries throughout the world. HOLLIS, the online union catalog of Harvard University Libraries, is a database containing records for more than 14 million of the diverse items in the collections of the Harvard libraries. (Harvard is not a member of the Boston Library Consortium).  

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Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program

The Reciprocal Faculty Borrowing Program (RFBP) is a program that allows faculty members of participating institutions borrowing privileges and on-site access to the collections of some of the most important research libraries in North America. To promote and facilitate scholarly research and communication among members of their faculties, the university research libraries that are members of the Association of Research Libraries and participate in OCLC (a nonprofit membership organization serving 41,000 libraries in 82 countries and territories around the world) banded together to provide this enhanced access.Materials may be used on the premises of the owning library or may be borrowed, depending on the policies of the lending library. Privileges vary from library to library and the lending library determines whether a user under this program will have on-site use and/or borrowing. With this privilege also come responsibilities. Boston College faculty visiting other institutions must observe the regulations of the lending library; return materials, in person or by mail, within the loan period established by the lending library; and pay all fines or other charges incurred due to late return or damage to materials If you are visiting another part of the country for research purposes and think that you might want to use an academic library in that area, stop by the O'Neill Library reference services desk for a list of participating institutions and more information. You must have an RFBP borrowing card, issued by Boston College, to gain access or borrow from a participating institution. For more information contact any Subject Specialist. The number of participating libraries is amost two hundred.

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Jesuit Library Passport Program

The libraries of the Jesuit institutions represented in the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) have joined together to provide a nationwide reciprocal borrowing program for the faculty of each institution. Faculty members have on-site access to the collective holdings of 28 Jesuit institutions. In addition, if a Boston College faculty member visits one of these institutions, the library will grant the visitor borrowing privileges. Before visiting, the faculty member must complete an AJCU Direct Reciprocal Library Borrower Form, available in the O'Neill Library at the main Circulation Desk. Then take the completed, signed form with you to the participating library, together with your Boston College photo ID. Please remember that borrowing privileges are determined by the host lending library and may or may not be similar to your borrowing privileges at Boston College.

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ICPSR

Access instructions and links to the ICPSR catalog.

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Virtual Data Center

The Virtual Data Center was developed to help faculty and students find and easily access data for both research and classroom work. The web site provides information about our data collection, support services for statistical analysis and descriptions and access information about statistical packages and data translation software. Support services are provided by library professionals and Academic Technology Support consultants. Support services include assistance in locating data, customized class presentations on finding data, technical support for data sub-setting for research or customized class assignments, data translation, statistical software access and Geographic Information Systems software and instruction. Faculty are also invited to recommend data for acquisition with the Boston College Statistical Dataset Suggestion Form. A unique feature of the Center is a new Statistical Data Catalog which includes key research datasets available at Boston College. Records include descriptions of the data, available formats, documentation and direct download links whenever possible. Coverage includes U.S. and International data. While the catalog is expanding to support all disciplines, current datasets primarily support the areas of economics, finance, health care, education and social and economic indicators.

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