The Library continues to provide access to an enormous range of print and electronic resources. New and notable resources include:
Gifts
It is a pleasure to acknowledge a second gift of children’s picture books from the collector Judy Toll. The Judith Toll Picture Book Collection now contains 512 books and is an outstanding resource for the study of visual art and literature for children as well as fairy tales. Prof. Liz Muther’s classes in these areas of study have made extensive use of the first installment. The books are easily found in the PZ’s on the fifth floor of the Hubbard stacks.
Acquisitions
Nature 1950 to present: The Library purchased the archive of the journal Nature back to 1950, a rich resource for scientists, historians, sociologists, and researchers of all stripes. Read, for instance, about “The British North Greenland Expedition, 1952–54: Scientific Results” in the April 12, 1958 issue.
JAMA 1894 to present: Another addition to the library’s growing e-journal collections, the archive of the Journal of the American Medical Association, provides a historical overview of major health, policy, and sociological issues. More than a century of astonishing change can be traced in JAMA’s pages, from the diagnosis of perceived women’s “disorders” to health insurance to the evolution of antibiotics.
U.S. Congressional Hearings Digital Collection: It is now possible to search the full text of published U.S. congressional hearings, 1824-2003, recently purchased by the Library and integrated into the larger Proquest Congressional database. Incredibly rich for just about any kind of public-policy research, the hearings document testimony from an extensive cast of characters summoned to Capitol Hill.
Chinese Newspapers Collection: No Chinese language skills necessary! The Library’s subscription to this database includes twelve English-language newspapers published in China, during the years 1832-1953. Includes the North China Herald, China Weekly Review, and the Chinese Recorder.
Piloting New Modes of Access for E-Resources
Bowdoin’s Library, along with 15 other college and university libraries, is collaborating with the University presses of Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia on an e-book access pilot. The pilot, which will run through 2016, provides access to most of the e-book content published by all three presses through an innovative pricing model. The goal of the project is to enable publishers to broaden approaches to content licensing for academic libraries. All of the e-books are available in CBBCat and OneSearch.
Science Direct Backfile Content Pay-Per-View Pilot Project: Over the past year, the Library has been experimenting with a pay-per-view access model for the pre-1995 journal content in the Elsevier Science Direct database. Researchers now see a Purchase PDF button, which enables instant access to the needed article at the Library’s expense. Without our having publicized this new access, Bowdoin researchers have downloaded almost 1,000 articles! We will evaluate the sustainability of this access model in terms of cost in the coming months.
For further information, please contact Joan Campbell, Collections Librarian, at 725-3285 or jcampbe2@bowdoin.edu.
