Online library

UD's electronic library is open 24/7. In one of the major campus changes of the last decade, University students, faculty and staff can browse a wide range of scholarly and general interest journals and newspapers at virtually any hour of the day or night, using their computers at home, at the office or in the classroom. Not only can they search the 7,000 electronic full-text journals and newspapers available through the Library, they can comb special library networked databases for an article, searching thousands of journals at one time.

"While still supporting the traditional book, the print-based library is being transformed into the electronic library, especially the journal literature," says Susan Brynteson, May Morris Director of Libraries.

"We are shifting from traditional print to electronic-on-demand delivery," Gregg Silvis, assistant director for library computing systems, says, adding that the change is possible because of UD's extensive computing network in classrooms, faculty and administrative offices and student residence halls.

Today, students and researchers who enter the Library are greeted by overhead signs directing them to rooms full of computers that give them access to DELCAT, the University's online catalog system, the library networked databases and the Internet. More than 200 public workstations in the Library allow access to the Internet, including the library's web site [http://www.lib.udel.edu], itself a powerful tool for tapping into a vast array of information resources.

The web site links to subscriptions maintained by UD's Library to thousands of electronic journals and newspapers, to library networked databases and to special subject web pages developed by the library staff for all disciplines in which the University offers degrees. Each subject page, [http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/internet/index.htm], includes "The Best of the Net" feature, which leads the user to guides developed by the library with hot links and descriptions of the best web pages throughout the world.

"The University of Delaware Library, as part of its role in organizing electronic information, has used its staff and resources to organize these subject-oriented web pages," Brynteson says. In addition, professional librarians continue to assist students, faculty and staff in person, on the phone, by e-mail and by creating online guides and information resources.

The number of databases available to the University community through the library has increased sixfold in the last four years alone. There now are more than 170 databases, covering every subject from folklore to business to chemistry. More than 50 of these databases provide full text of entire articles from thousands of publications in all subjects.

Other databases provide references and article abstracts. Recently, the library became one of only 200 institutions to subscribe to the Web of Science, a multidisciplinary database of 8,000 of the world's leading science, social science and arts and humanities journals. This database covers 25 years of these journals, and a service for requesting articles online is available.

"The Web of Science adds unmatched power to research efforts," Craig Wilson, assistant director for library collections, says, "since a user can easily search the research literature."

Since July, a new collection of services available via the library web site has enabled faculty, staff and students to keep informed through e-mail when the latest articles appear about a particular research topic in thousands of scholarly journals and to automatically receive entire online journal articles and information about that topic. The new "Alerting Services" web page created by the library provides a central way to learn about and sign up for the alerting services from dozens of major publishers.

DELCAT, the online catalog, gives users the call numbers and locations of the more than 2.4 million volumes held by the library. In addition, the library is home to 420,000 government documents, 10,000 videocassettes and films and 3.1 million items in microtext. Searching by call number allows students and staff to browse the shelves electronically, and searching by keyword retrieves all DELCAT records containing any specific word or combination of words.

Under the direction of Dina Giambi, assistant director for library technical services, electronic and print materials acquired by the library are ordered and cataloged online.

In addition, students, faculty and staff also can keep track of their library accounts through the library's web site, and books can be renewed by Touch-Tone telephone.

Secondary school students in the state of Delaware also benefit from the new electronic library world. Under a state-funded partnership, the University of Delaware Library manages the UDLib/SEARCH program, which has provided more than 20 online journal and encyclopedia databases and related teacher training to Delaware public high schools and middle schools since 1997.

"More than 58,000 students in Delaware public middle schools and high schools now have access to full-text databases with thousands of electronic journals," says Sandra Millard, assistant director for library public services and program director of UDLib/SEARCH.

The University of Delaware Library continues to be a member of the Association of Research Libraries, a prestigious, by-invitation-only membership organization composed of the largest libraries in North America.

Adding to its national standing, the Library, over the last decade, has made several major additions to its Special Collections [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ ud/spec]. New acquisitions include the congressional papers of U.S. Sens. J. Allen Frear Jr. and John Williams and former Rep. and Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper; the Frank W. Tober Collection on literary forgery; Sir Joseph Gold's world-renowned collection of the work of Samuel Beckett--noted Irish author, critic and playwright; the Herlihy map collection; and many manuscripts and papers of Paul Bowles, American expatriate, author and composer.