Electronic Highways

Our Catalog Gets a Facelift

This semester marks the advent of a new era in searching the University Libraries catalog (<http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/bison> and select "Connect Via the Web"). The catalog, which reflects the holdings of the UB campus libraries, now is available with an "experimental" Web interface. Don't be fooled by the word "experimental"-the entire catalog, reflecting the Libraries collections of more than 3 million items, is there. The experiment is in the innovative way the catalog was given its "facelift" by Libraries "systems guru" Mark Ludwig, in partnership with CIT, IBM and SofTouch Systems Inc.

Now, catalog searching is a point-and-click affair with no need to remember those pesky title, author, subject heading and keyword commands (although, for you command diehards, we offer a "command searching" option). The catalog also offers a template for constructing complex keyword searches and every type of call-number search you can think of. Plus, for the first time ever, World Wide Web URLs, which are becoming more and more commonplace in our catalog records, now are linkable. In other words, if an item, such as a journal, is available in cyberspace, you can click on the URL to retrieve it directly from the catalog.

Perhaps most exciting is the introduction of online UB course reserve material. UB students can identify course reserve material via the catalog and as an extra bonus are able to view reserve articles and book chapters from the convenience of a computer workstation. See "Finding and Printing Online Course Reserve Materials" <http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/help/reserve.html> for more information on this student-friendly catalog option.

Feel like you want to stick with the old catalog a bit longer? No problem! Just telnet to bison.cc.buffalo.edu. Though we think you'll find the new Web gateway to the catalog easy to use. If you do try it, do not hesitate to let us know what you think. We will be making many improvements and enhancements in 1999, and we will be happy to add your suggestions to the list.

For information on the implementation of our new catalog Web front-end, contact Mark Ludwig (uldmjl@acsu.buffalo.edu). For more instructions on how to search the Web catalog, as well as to give us feedback, contact libweb@acsu.buffalo.edu. Please note that our catalog is available for searching by all, regardless of whether one is affiliated with UB or not-all you need is a telnet or Web connection.

-Gemma DeVinney and Don Hartman, University Libraries