Tisch Library is enacting a number of changes this semester, making surfing the library's Web site easier for students and adding extra material to its Web repertoire.
As of Feb. 4, students have been able to use their Tufts Webmail login information to access ILLIAD, the library's inter-library loan program, along with all Tufts electronic databases, such as WorldCat and JStor. In addition, students will no longer have to reenter the password when switching from one database to another.
Jo-Ann Michalak, the director of Tisch Library, called these changes "a move in the right direction for students."
On Jan. 30, the library implemented a research tool called a "federated search," which uses the program Research Pro. This new system allows students to search for a term within many databases all at once.
Students will only be able to use Research Pro to search the 50 most popular databases, such as Google Scholar and WorldCat. Limiting the number to 50 is a necessary move to keep the process simple, Michalak said. If all 500 databases were included in the federated search, the number of groups would make the search very complicated.
Tisch also added a new database to its online collection at the beginning of this semester. "Dissertations and Theses: Full Text," gives students access to a wide variety of scholarly works.
In addition, Tisch is adding issues from two journals to the Open Content Alliance (OCA), an organization for which 19 area universities digitize academic readings. After asking Arts Sciences & Engineering professors which journals they would most like to see digitized, Tufts decided to post two new journals, Revue des Deux Mondes and the Journal of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, which professors said would transform their teaching.
"Students increasingly expect to find everything on the Internet," Milachelek said.
She noted that while the addition of these two journals and the 1200 books was a positive move, it is unrealistic for students to think that they will be able to find everything they need solely using the Internet.
-by Christy McCuaig and Giovanni Russonello
