Made Possible By Your Support!
| Fogler Library is committed to acquiring and enhancing access to databases and other information finding aids for the University community. Within the constraints of financial and licensing restrictions, we strive to make as much information available through electronic means as we can. For the last several years, however, discrepancies between our library acquisitions funds and the prices charged by information vendors have made it difficult to purchase access to databases on our own. We have relied heavily on cooperative and consortium arrangements in order to subscribe to them. |
| During the past year, several units on campus have contributed funding towards subscriptions to library materials. As a result of this financial support, we are very pleased to able to offer all members of the University community access to several new databases. The newest additions to our electronic collections include the premier finding aid for dissertations and theses, plus a variety of databases of interest to researchers, instructors, and students in engineering and the physical sciences. |
| Digital
Dissertation Abstracts Like its print counterparts, this database indexes graduate dissertations and theses from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. Coverage extends from the first U.S. dissertation--accepted in 1861--to doctoral dissertations accepted last semester. The database also provides citations for selected master's theses (not including University of Maine theses) from 1962 to present. Digital Dissertations includes complete abstracts for all doctoral dissertations published after 1979 and for master's theses published after 1987. The full text of dissertations written at the University of Maine since 1996 is also available online, in PDF format. The database subscription is funded in part by the University of Maine Graduate School, and its use is restricted to students, faculty, and staff of the University of Maine. |
| GeoRef A product of the American Geological Institute, GeoRef indexes and abstracts over 3,400 journal titles on geology and geophysics, as well as books, theses and dissertations, reports, maps, and conference papers. It corresponds to several print indexes, including Bibliography and Index of Geology. Our CD-ROM version of the database also incorporates an electronic edition of the GeoRef Thesaurus, a list of geological descriptor terms useful in constructing search statements. GeoRef covers literature from 1785 to present for North American geology, and from 1933 to present for the rest of the world. The database is currently located on a stand-alone workstation near the Science & Engineering office. It is updated six times a year. Subscription to this long-awaited CD-ROM is supported in part by the Department of Geological Sciences. |
| CCINFOweb Seven databases comprise this product of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). Our subscription to the set is possible because of partial funding from the University of Maine Department of Environmental Health and Safety. Use of the databases is restricted to students, faculty, and staff of the University of Maine. |
| Canadian enviroOSH Legislation contains the full text of Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial legislation on topics such as environmental protection, chemical exposure limits, hazardous materials, motor vehicle safety, workers' compensation, pesticides, forestry, transport of dangerous goods, noise levels, and radiation. A "Legislation Updating Service" enumerates acts and regulations that are in progress or proposed, amendments, and repealed legislation. The database is updated when new legislation and amendments come into effect. French-language text is available for national legislation and for the provinces of Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec. |
| Four of the databases consist of full-text profiles of chemicals. MSDS includes the full text of over 96,000 Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), comprehensive yet succinct summaries of health and safety information about individual chemicals. FTSS (Fiches Techniques sur la Sécurité des Substances) includes the full text of over 52,000 French language MSDSs. CHEMINFO is a collection of over 1,300 chemical profiles produced by CCOHS. The profiles detail information on health and safety hazards, handling and storage, toxicology, and reactivity, and list a bibliography of supporting literature. RTECS (Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances) contains over 130,000 extensively referenced toxicological chemical profiles compiled by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Profiles include reproductive, mutagenic, and tumorigenic data as well as other information on toxicity. All of these databases are updated quarterly, although individual profiles may be updated less frequently. |
| The remaining two databases
provide access to literature on occupational and workplace health and safety.
HSELINE,
produced by the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive, indexes and abstracts over 250
journal titles (mostly European), and other materials, back to 1977. NIOSHTIC
is a similar database compiled by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health. It covers over 160 journal titles, plus other items. NIOSHTIC emphasizes
U.S. materials from 1973 to date, but includes selected references to older
material--sometimes over a century old-too. It also indexes a fair amount of
"gray" literature, including unpublished technical reports and the personal
files of several researchers. Both databases are updated quarterly. JB, NC |
Sci-Lites 8(1)
Science & Engineering Center
Sci-Lites is edited by Nancy
R. Curtis, Science & Engineering Librarian
© 1998-2001 The University of Maine · Page created December 1998; updated December 2001