Queen’s Library now has a subscription to ARBA Online — the online version of the print publication known as American Reference Books Annual.

Coverage is from 1997 to present and content is updated monthly.

Journal Citation Reports offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world’s leading journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data. By compiling articles’ cited references, JCR helps to measure research influence and impact at the journal and category levels, and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals. 

New functionality in JCR Web:

• Five-Year Impact Factor – Gives a broader range of citation activity for a more informative snapshot over time. For journals in subjects where citation activity continues to rise through several years, this allows more of their total citation activity to be included in a critical performance metric.
• Eigenfactor™ Metrics, comprised of the Eigenfactor™ Score and Article Influence™ Score, are designed to reflect the prestige and citation influence of journals by considering scholarly literature as a network of journal-to-journal relationships.
• Graphic Displays of Impact Factor “Box Plots” – A graphic interpretation of how a journal ranks in different categories.
• Rank-in-Category Tables for Journals Covering Multiple Disciplines – Allows a journal to be seen in the context of multiple categories at a glance rather than only a single one.
• Journal “Self Citations” – An analysis of journal self citations and their contribution to the Journal Impact Factor calculation.

For more information about JCR please visit: http://isiwebofknowledge.com/products_tools/analytical/jcr/

What is happening?
Starting the morning of Monday June 22nd, we will be installing a new release of the software which runs the QCAT catalogue, circulation and acquisitions system. Because the Queen’s catalogue is so large, we anticipate that the upgrade will require 3 days for complete installation, backup, checking and project sign-off.

How will this affect you?
During the upgrade, the regular QCAT catalogue, as well as all online circulation activities — including book renewal via the web — will be unavailable. (Please note that the Library website and other online services will continue to function normally.)

Alternate arrangements during the upgrade period
A substitute, “bare-bones” web catalogue will be linked to the Library website during the outage so that you can continue to have basic, searchable access to the Library collection. All circulation transactions, however, will have to be performed off-line by library staff at circulation desks.

We apologise for the inconvenience of QCAT and online renewals being unavailable for more than a few hours. The system upgrade is necessary, however, to keep QCAT running effectively and efficiently over the longer term.

Due to an unexpected data error problem, QCAT – the Queen’s library catalogue – is currently unavailable. Every effort is being made to diagnose and repair the problem as quickly as possible but we cannot give an “anticipated up time” at the moment.

We apologise for this inconvenience and ask for your understanding while system engineers do their best to get the catalogue back online as soon as they can.

The electronic version of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is now on trial until July 8, 2009. The 89th edition contains about a dozen new tables and five updated tables. It can be search by keyword, property and chemical structure using Marvin Sketch. Pages can be viewed in PDF format or as interactive data tables.

The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is one of the most heavily used resources in science and engineering. Feedback and comments may be submitted via the Library’s trial feedback form.

Often students don’t know where to begin to identify appropriate information for their research.  Ask us to create a subject guide tailor-made for your course!  Guides can be linked to from WebCT or MedTech.  See this example.

Mental Measurements Yearbook, produced by the Buros Institute, contains full text information about and reviews of all English-language standardized tests covering educational skills, personality, vocational aptitude, psychology, and related areas as included in the printed “Mental Measurements Yearbooks.”

Queen’s Library now subscribes to the online version of the The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition (2008), edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. To connect to the database, visit: http://library.queensu.ca/research/databases/record/6287.

“While some classic articles from the 1987 were retained, around 80% of the text was either entirely new or substantially rewritten to reflect the depth of change within the discipline between the editions. This new edition retains the inspiring tradition of bringing together the world’s most influential economists writing in their own voice on their areas of expertise, but in its online incarnation it has married this tradition with the benefits of a dynamic, updated resource serving the information needs of a new generation of economists.” (cf. Publisher’s product description)