Beta Sites Showcase a Host of Innovative New Features for AIP Journals
AIP provides a stream of new developments to please tech-savvy researchers
AIP journals have benefited from the great strides we've made recently in advancing our Scitation hosting platform's ongoing C³ development initiative. These changes, evident in the journal's beta sites, are in large part due to the incorporation of a new Polopoly web content management system and a MarkLogic content server. With these core components in place, we're able to exploit the limitless potential of an engineered-for-XML infrastructure that can turn granular markup structures into meaningful content services, reduce discovery and reading time, and dynamically connect similar concepts and expose related content without user interaction.
To facilitate discovery, a new table browser allows subscribers to view all tables and figures in an article directly from the abstract. Article abstracts also feature a related articles browser, currently displaying up to 50 articles. Soon all articles will be shown, along with a count. We've also expanded the traditional abstract presentation to include several full-text components – the article's acknowledgements section and an article outline based on the article's section structure.
In this same vein of facilitating discoverability, Scitation C³ has upgraded journal tables of contents, bringing more information to the forefront and creating functionality that allows users to work with journal data in new ways. These "Smart ToCs" enable the user to harvest citations, preview abstracts with a mouse click, and hide content that isn't of interest.
Our XML infrastructure has allowed us to make numerous other enhancements, including greatly improved visual rendering of inline math directly in the browser. Other XML-enabled features include the ability to click on an author's name in any display to open a search widget to find additional articles from that author in the journal, and in Scitation, SPIN, Scitopia, Google Scholar and PubMed. By the same token, highlighting a term within an article will produce a list of articles containing that same term.
We've also added greater utility to the search functions of our journal beta sites, with more options and better controls to explore returned content with faceted results, based on article type, topic, author, keyword, PACS, journal, and publication year. Faceted search helps researchers find information quickly by presenting them with a set of "filters" to refine search results.
Also new is a real-time institutional mapping interface that reveals institutional connections to research, providing geolocational context to where the author who performed the research is based. It also displays popular topics and recently published articles by the author in the journal.
All these new AIP journal features follow close on the heels of other enhancements we've made in just the past few months, such as mobile editions for our journal homepages, and our new iResearch app, which allows users to browse journal articles and save PDFs locally to their iPhone or iPod touch. We're proud of this body of innovative work and we're working on more enhancements for our journal websites when these beta versions go live this spring. To access the beta sites and preview the new features, simply click on the "Browse" tab of any AIP journal and follow the beta link.
AIP UNIPHY UNVEILS A SLEEK NEW GRAPHICAL INTERFACE AND ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY
Discover the significant upgrades we've made to our rapidly growing networking site for physical scientists
When we launched AIP UniPHY in September, we truly believed we had a service that would not only fill a void we perceived in professional scientific networking, but also capture the imagination of researchers. Now, four months and more than 15,000 registered members later, we certainly feel we've succeeded – even beyond our own expectations. To keep the momentum going, we've unveiled Release 2 of the website, which sports a more streamlined and user-friendly interface, complete with a new layout, new graphics, and a range of powerful new features.
In case you're not familiar with AIP UniPHY, it is a first-of-its-kind networking platform for physical scientists that is prepopulated with profiles of individual scientists based on their publication history. The website enables researchers to connect with over 275,000 colleagues from more than 100 countries. They can discover the research each of these individuals has conducted and follow a web of connections showing each coauthor with whom the investigator has worked. AIP UniPHY also reveals with whom each of these co-authors has collaborated.
Developed in partnership with Collexis Holdings, Inc., a leading developer of semantic technology and knowledge discovery software, Release 2 of AIP UniPHY incorporates substantive changes, including a CV section where researchers can display their professional profiles, complete with education, work histories, and current research interests.
To improve functionality on the AIP UniPHY site, we've introduced additional features, including a "People you might know" feature, which lists researchers that have collaborated with one's co-authors, plus the ability for users to recommend articles to other members, upload photos, and link to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Delicious.
Today's generation of scientists entering research in university and corporate and government facilities has grown up using Web tools, such as instant messaging, blogging, and social networking. We want to give them these same tools as their need and desire for them inevitably spills over into their professional lives. AIP UniPHY is just one of the tools we can now place at their disposal.
GET ACCESS TO NEARLY 90,000 PAPERS FROM AIP'S PROCEEDINGS SERIES
Ask us today about a free 60-day free trial for your institution
AIP began the Conference Proceedings series in 1970, and it's been just over a year now since we made our entire 1,200-volume series (proceedings.aip.org) available online. This archive is impressive not only for the breadth of material that is available electronically – more than 88,500 papers – but also for the newly re-designed website that is now home to the proceedings. The new site is more user-friendly and offers greater accessibility.
As with our journals, you can track AIP proceedings usage with the Scitation Usage Report Service, which can be found in our Scitation Library Service Center. Here, you'll also find Excel and tab delimited files with complete bibliographic data for each volume, plus permanent links for each.
We plan to publish over 130 titles in 2010 and coverage will encompass a broad range of fields, including astronomy and astrophysics, atomic and molecular physics, biophysics, geophysics, materials science, mathematical physics, nanotechnology, nonlinear and statistical physics, nuclear and particle physics, optics and lasers, plasma physics, polymer science, quantum physics, and more.
In 2010 we moved the series to tiered pricing to make it more affordable to a larger number of institutions and, in fact, the rates most institutions pay this year have actually decreased. Tier assignments are the same as for AIP journal subscriptions.
Your patrons already know the value of AIP journals, and now we want to make it easy for you to complement those titles with AIP Conference Proceedings. To see if our proceedings volumes are right for your collection, you can register for a 60-day free trial simply by contacting bshriver@aip.org. We hope you'll take us up on our free trial offer for these information-packed volumes.
From the Stacks
Jeff Bond is the Science Reference Librarian at Texas Christian University. Jeff earned his MLS from Emporia State University and a BS in Mathematics and a Bachelors of Music Education from Kansas State University. Jeff is the editor of the Texas Library Association's Reference Roundtable Newsletter, and the Chair of SLA PAM Division's Publisher Relations committee. He was named as one of ALA's 2010 Emerging Leaders. We wanted to talk with Jeff about some of his experiences with social networking and Web 2.0 tools at TCU.
We enjoyed your poster on TCU's "Ask-a-Librarian" IM service a couple of years ago. How much is it being used by students and faculty, and do you have any changes in store?
We started the IM service in February 2008, allowing our patrons to contact us through a Meebo chat box, or by using Yahoo, Google Talk, or AOL IM accounts. It also allows users to text message us. By far, the largest percentage of chat transactions has been through the Meebo chat box. We placed the chat box on our Ask a Librarian web page, but also have the chat box in our OPAC, which appears any time a user gets no results from a search. As expected, the usage of the IM service varies significantly with the academic calendar, with the fall semester being the busiest time. The service has been heavily used.
We are planning major changes to our IM service, to take place later in the spring semester. We are planning a move to the LibraryH3lp system. We are especially excited about two features of LibraryH3lp: being able to transfer chats between librarians, and being able to monitor a chat queue from more than one computer simultaneously. Because we normally monitor the IM service at the reference desk, the latter feature will help to eliminate gaps in coverage during shift changes at the desk.
The North Texas 23 Web 2.0 Roundup sounds like a really neat way of bringing librarians up to speed on social networking tools. Can you tell us about its inception and what you learned conducting it?
23 Things programs have been around since 2006, starting with the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. Since then over 1,000 libraries and library consortia have implemented this type of program. 23 Things programs offer an opportunity for library staff to learn various Web 2.0 technologies in a fun, relaxed, hands-on environment.
In spring of 2008, the TCU Library held a 23 Things program for its staff, and I was one of several librarians involved in the management of the program. In the spring of 2009, North Texas Library Partners (which administers the North Texas Regional Library System) had heard about our program at TCU, and asked if I would lead a similar program for librarians across northern Texas. North Texas 23: A Roundup of Web 2.0 Technology was launched in May of 2009. Before long, over 300 librarians from over 100 libraries in northern Texas had registered! Each of the participants started a blog and learned a variety of Web 2.0 tools along the way, including Facebook, Twitter, and blogging, but also many others.
As one can imagine, it took a large group of leaders to manage a program of this size. Over 20 librarians volunteered time to help with the program. Time management and people management skills are vital to the success of this type of program. Leading this program also forced me to step into the shoes of people who might be learning a new technology for the first time. Sometimes the learning curve of a new skill is steeper than originally perceived.
What other technologies are you interested in at the moment?
This spring I hope to launch a group of interconnected resources targeted to students, which would incorporate YouTube, blogging, Facebook, and other technologies. I'm interested in building a community of users and raising student awareness of library services and resources on our campus.
I am also very interested in library mobile websites and mobile database interfaces. I remain interested in QR codes, which are two-dimensional bar codes, and how libraries and universities can best leverage this technology in conjunction with mobile devices. The TCU Library has had a mobile site since 2003.
Lastly, I am interested in course management systems (CMS) such as Blackboard and eCollege. The TCU Library is raising its presence in eCollege, which is the CMS we use here. There is a lot of potential to connect with students through such systems. I think it is very important for libraries to consider what new technologies have the most potential for their clientele! Not every new technology will succeed, but through experimentation, libraries can determine which emerging technologies best match their users' needs.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL REFERENCE DATA EXTENDS BACKFILE TO 1972
We recently completed digitizing the backfile for Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, and it now extends back to the first issue published in 1972. In 2010, online subscriptions include articles published from 1999 to present, however, you can add the extended backfile to your subscription for an additional charge of only $140. To upgrade your JPCRD subscription to include the extended backfile, please contact our customer service department at subs@aip.org or 516-576-2270, or in the U.S. and Canada, call toll-free 1-800-344-6902.
RAISE THE VISIBILITY OF YOUR COLLECTION
AIP offers an array of materials that you can use to promote awareness of your subscriptions, including posters, flyers, reference guides and copies of emails we send to our authors. We have created a repository for these materials on our website at http://librarians.aip.org/promote/ where PDF versions are freely available for download. If you would like us to send you printed copies, please contact Bruce Shriver at bshriver@aip.org or 516-576-2623.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE TRIALS OF AIP JOURNALS
For more information, please contact Bruce Shriver at bshriver@aip.org or 1 516-576-2623.
LINK TO REFERENCES FROM ALL AIP JOURNALS BACK TO VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Now your patrons can access links spanning 80 years of seminal physics research
We're happy to let you know that live links are now in place for references in all AIP journal articles going back to the very first issue of each. This final stage of an ambitious initiative brings the total of linkable references to the backfiles of AIP journals to nearly 4,000,000. The initiative incorporates reference links that extend as far back as 1930 – the year AIP published the debut issue of Review of Scientific Instruments.
Linking to a vastly greater volume of scientific literature and to A&I services – such as ISI, CrossRef, Inspec, PubMed, arXiv, Scopus, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), and Dialog – provides researchers with expanded access to logically related articles and allows them to easily move from a reference to the abstract of a cited journal article. Quite often, these articles are located on a different server and are published by a different publisher.
One important byproduct of the project is that once these links became operational, AIP was able to send the reference sections to CrossRef to register the metadata and have Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) assigned. CrossRef, acting as a type of digital switchboard and effecting links through DOIs, enabled AIP to establish inbound and outbound links with a wide range of other publishing platforms.
SEE US AT THESE UPCOMING EVENTS
| CONFERENCE | LOCATION | DATES |
|---|---|---|
| AAAS Annual Meeting | San Diego, CA | Feb 18 - 22 |
| American Physical Society March Meeting | Portland, OR | March 15 - 19 |
| American Chemical Society 238th National Meeting | San Francisco, CA | March 21 - 25 |
| Materials Research Society Spring Meeting | San Francisco, CA | April 5 - 9 |
| UKSG Annual Conference | Edinburgh | April 12 - 14 |
STAY CURRENT WITH WHAT'S HAPPENING AT AIP
Subscribe to AIP Library Matters
Subscribe to AIP Library Matters and we'll send each quarterly issue as soon as it's ready. We'll keep you abreast of new AIP products and services, industry initiatives, upgrades to our Scitation hosting platform, and include an interview with one of your colleagues on a topic you're sure to find interesting. To subscribe or to modify your existing subscription, or, read past issues of AIP Library Matters, go to http://librarians.aip.org/newsletter.html. If you have any comments about this newsletter, please contact Bruce Shriver at bshriver@aip.org or 1 516-576-2623.
