Thursday, 2nd October 2003

Now Available: RLG's New Web-Based Union Catalog, Holdings from Many Research of Libraries

Resource of the Week
With so many new databases scattered throughout the site, we're going to limit "Resource of the Week" to just one item. Although ResourceShelf posted news about SMEALSearch (don't miss it) yesterday , this new resource is also worthy of ROTW placement.
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RLG's New Web-Based Union Catalog, Holdings from Many Research Libraries, Debuts on the Web
First things first...ResourceShelf has tracked the development of the RLG's RedLightGreen union catalog/database with a post over the past couple of years. Now, it's available for public use. Details follow. Many thanks to ResourceShelf friend, David Dillard, for letting us know that RedLightGreen is ready for use.
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RLG's RedLightGreen (formerly known as the Union Catalog Project) is now online. According to RLG Program Officer, Merrilee Proffitt, the database went live on September 22nd when word went out to four of RLG's 160 member institutions who are piloting the service. In the past two weeks via various RLG discussion lists word has begun to circulate about the RedLightGreen's availability.
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This union catalog searches bibliographic records from RLG's member libraries, archives, and museums around the world. RedLightGreen is home to over 130 million bibliographic records (42 million titles). You can learn more about
the development of this product by accessing background on the RLG web site.
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RedLightGreen was developed with the undergraduate student in mind. However, that doesn't mean it's not of use to many other types of researchers. It will remain available to the public at no charge for at least the next year. I'm sure those of you who watch the library database world closely will be closely watching this new product.
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Ok, that's the basic info but you need to check it out for yourself. Here are a few points before starting your own demo. RLG just released this resource so be ready for tweaks and changes.
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* The basic interface is a simple search box, what a student is used to seeing from any web engine. Actually the design of the entire interface looks very similar to popular web engines. This is no surprise. At the moment Boolean connectors cannot be used.
* An advanced interface is available allowing you to limit your search using one of 7 fields and by language at the moment. At the moment you can only search one field.
* Results pages are clear and straightforward. The right side lists hits (you can change the number returned on a page), title info, and star "ratings" of relevance and availability.
* The left side of a results list allows you to narrow your search (for example you can choose a better or a more focused subject heading, limit to an author, or limit by language) by simply pointing and clicking.
* Individual entries contain plenty of info. First, you'll get basic bibliographic info, a full entry (with subject headings) is just a click away.
* Searching on different subject that is associated with the material is a click away, right side of page.
* In addition to bibliographic material RedLightGreen also runs a search for the title using the Amazon.Com database and Google. Url's are not provided and in many cases the only thing you'll find are (via Google) are additional links to buy the book.
* A button (upper right) allows you to determine where the material is held. After selecting it for the first time you can set a cookie for the libraries most interested in.
* Searches for fiction material will also query the Online Books Page database at the University of Pennsylvania to see if a full-text copy is available on the web.
* Formatting a citation for a bibliography is very easy and can be completed directly from the database. According to RLG, this was a feature that was at the top of the list of services that undergraduate students wanted to have available. Simply click the format citation button (right side of page) a select the style required. MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and APA are available. You will need to register (free) to use this service.
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A Couple of Comments: I also hope that if RedLightGreen continues to add "open web" content to records they look to databases other than Google. I think adding links from the "Resources" section at Teoma would be very useful as would direct links to specialized searchable databases (see the SMEALSearch post below) if they are related to the search.

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