Milne Library News

The library is now subscribing to several new databases: 

American Bibliography of Slavic and Eastern European Studies (ABSEES): Subjects include anthropology, the arts, culture, economics, education and geography. Sources indexed include journals, books, dissertations, online resources and US and Canadian government documents. No full text.

Environment Complete: An index to over 1660 journals in agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, geography, pollution and environmental law. Some full text.

International Bibliography of Theater & Dance FT:  An annotated databank of over 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries.  Contains full text for more than 120 periodicals and more than 100 books.

International Political Science Abstracts:  Covers almost 900 journals from 1989-present in the area of political science. Topics include method and theory; political thinkers and ideas; political and administrative institutions; political processes (public opinion, attitudes, parties, forces, groups, and elections); international relations; and national and area studies. No full text.

Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An index to literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Includes citations for books, journal material (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies). Also includes a Milton bibliography.

Left Index:  Has an emphasis on political, economic, and social issues. Covers the labor movement, ecology and the environment, race and ethnicity, social and cultural theory, sociology, art and aesthetics, philosophy, education, and globalization. Includes some full text.

The New York Times now offers online access to the full text of articles from 1851 to 1922, and from 1987 to the present. From the New York Times homepage at http://www.nytimes.com/, simply enter a search in the box at the top of the page, and in the dropdown box to the right select the time period you'd like to search. This service is free to all.

Milne Library offers access to the full content of the New York Times from 1851 to 2004 to all SUNY Oneonta users. Look for the link under Databases by Name (A-Z) on the library home page. For 2004 to the present, use Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. The advantage of the library access is that the 1923 to 1986 years are available, and that you can conduct a much more sophisticated search.

Reading for pleasure may seem a novel notion for students and staff as busy as those of us here at SUNY Oneonta. However, the library now has a collection of 400 books for the leisure reader in everyone. There are plenty of novels by authors like Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Kate Wilhelm, Alexander McCall Smite, John Sanford, and Margaret Coel. You’ll find mysteries, romances, suspense, action, and science fiction. The collection also includes popular non-fiction such as biographies (Mel Gibson, Billy Crystal, Bob Knight) and other current reads like “You’re Wearing WHAT? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation” and “The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics of George Bush.” Unlike the books in Milne’s collection, these special collection books have the book jackets with photos of the authors and blurbs describing the content, making it more like bookstore browsing.   

The collection will be changing over time as new books are cycled in to replace ones that have been on the shelves for a while. All of these books may be checked out for four weeks with your Oneonta ID.

Central Search is a search engine that lets users search multiple databases simultaneously from a single interface, commonly known as federated searching. Central Search can scan over 30 Milne Library databases including Academic Search Elite and JSTOR, as well as the library catalog and WorldCat. You can search all the databases at once, or select specific databases from the list. The results list links you directly to the article citation in the respective database.

This is an good way to conduct a broad search on a topic. And because the results are listed alphabetical by database, it’s easy to spot which databases have the most resources on your topic, leading you to the most appropriate databases to do an in-depth search on that topic. Serious research should not end with Central Search, since its search abilities are fairly simplistic and won’t allow the kind sophisticated searching you can do within a specific database. We’d recommend you try it, with the caveat that at present it’s inconsistent, quirky, and very spotty in the results it presents. We’d welcome your feedback on Central Search. Send an email to Ask a Librarian or call the Reference Desk at 436-2722.

Due to technical restrictions, not every database the library subscribes to can be included in the Central Search list. Lexis-Nexis is a noteworthy example. Consequently, it’s important to continue to refer to the Alphabetical List of Databases and the Subject List of Databases from the library’s home page.

Central Search can be found on the top of the Alphabetical List of Databases or at http://ma2pk9gl9z.cs.serialssolutions.com/.

Remember those old green paper indexes you used to have to use in elementary school (and maybe even in high school)? Those floppy-covered books were called the Reader's Guide to Periodic Literature and basically what they did was let you find articles in magazines like Time and Ladies Home Journal and National Geographic. Well, it's back, but this time without the cumbersome green books. The library now has access to an online version of these indexes from 1890 through 1982. This can be a very valuable resource for history, sociology, communication, and anything involving popular culture. This index does not include the full text of the articles, but ask a librarian and receive quick assistance in locating the articles.

Reader's Guide Retrospective 1890 - 1982