The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine
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September 1992 - Volume 9:1 [Printout | Contents | Search ]
By Stephen Lehmann and Bob Walther Although computers have long held out the promise of a "library without walls," too often computer systems have walls of their own-- invisible, electronic walls, perhaps, but nonetheless barriers to effective utilization of the library's rich new information environment. Over the July 4 weekend, the Penn Library unveiled a new, more integrated information system--a powerful new instrument for scholarship at Penn and an enhanced platform for the further expansion of the Library's electronic resources. It provides radically transformed access to the Franklin/PennData system, including:
Accessing the Franklin/PennData SystemNow most terminals in the Library system offer complete access to both Franklin and the PennData files. At the database selection menu, simply enter the label FCAT to search the Franklin catalog or one of the three PennData labels - MEDL for Medline, PSYC for PsycInfo, or INFO for ABI/Inform. This menu is also accessible from campus computers connected to PennNet and from off-campus via modem and through the Internet (see the sidebar below for remote access information).Access to the PennData files continues to be restricted for contractual reasons to Penn faculty, staff, and students, but no longer requires a special account number and password. Instead, simply enter your social security number, which the system then checks against the Library's patron database. (Entering your social security number is not necessary for FCAT use.) If you have not borrowed materials from a Penn library recently, your patron record may have expired. You may ask at any departmental library or Van Pelt Circulation to verify your status and update your record. By integrating the PennData files into the Franklin system, we have been able to enhance access and search/display functions. Unfortunately the current software does not yet support the downloading of entire sets of citations. The Library realizes that many of our users need this feature, and the next upgrade of our system software, scheduled for the first quarter of 1993, will support continuous downloading along with a much-improved print capability.
Linking journal citations to Library holdingsUntil now a library's catalog and the various discipline-based abstracting and indexing tools have been separate and structurally unrelated. This has been a given of library research. In our new system the catalog and electronic indexes are linked: When you identify a journal article in one of the PennData files--presently PsycInfo, Medline and ABI/Inform--a message on the screen will tell you whether the Library owns the journal in which the article appears:(Screen capture) Note: If the Library does not own the journal, there will be no "Held by library" message. The command ho will call up the location, call number, and the Library's holdings for the journal. You enter ho and the system responds: (Screen capture)
Browing the Library shelves electronicallyA new command, c= , has been added to Franklin to allow users to search a call number and view a display of items with adjacent call numbers--that is, those books and journals that are "on the shelf next to" the one selected. Starting with any call number, you can move backwards and forwards at will. This browse feature gathers together in call number sequence all the Penn libraries' collections insofar as they are entered into Franklin (currently about 70 percent of the total and growing).
Using uniform commandsPreviously the good news that a new computerized information resource was available was often offset by the bad news that yet another set of commands had to be learned. In the "new" Franklin/PennData a common search/display language is used across the entire system, whether one is searching FCAT or one of the journal databases.
Searching across databasesIf you wish to identify both books and journal articles on the same subject, you need to enter the relevant search terms only once to run them through each database in turn.Looking for books on neuropsychological aspects of dyslexia in FCAT, for example, you might begin: k=dyslex? and neuropsych? The system will respond with a list of the books found under those keywords. To re-do the same search in PsycInfo, enter cho psyc to choose the PsycInfo file. Then enter r to display (review) previous searches and receive the following message: (Screen capture) Now enter s1 and the system responds with PsycInfo results: (Screen capture) To run the search once again, this time through Medline, enter the sequence cho medl followed by s1: (Screen capture)
More databases in PennDataThe Library plans to add two more major databases to PennData this fall. The first will be a combined file of six indexes produced by the H.W. Wilson Co.: Readers' Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Index, Humanities Index, Applied Science and Technology Index, Art Index, and Essay and General Literature Index.The second new database will be ISI's Current Contents. This is a file of the tables of contents for roughly 6,500 scholarly and research journals in all subject disciplines. It is designed as a "current awareness" tool, a six-month rolling file with weekly updates. We plan to mount this file in December or January. As with all our other PennData files, the new databases will be linked to our Library's holding information.
Sidebar: The Library has simplified remote access to Franklin/PennData.
STEPHEN LEHMANN is the Humanities Bibliographer for Van Pelt Library; BOB WALTHER is Online Services Coordinator, Reference Department, Van Pelt Library.
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