Stanford now has access to the e-book collection of ebrary at http://stanford.ebrary.com

There are approximately 5,000 books in the collection, with additional titles expected soon. All titles are available for full-text searching, and there are no restrictions on simultaneous users. Viewing of pages is unrestricted in most cases, with any limits noted in advance. Printing and copy/paste actions require payment, typically 25 cents per page. Users who wish to print can set up individual accounts using credit card deposits.

Please note that you must download an ebrary plug-in to view the books (instructions on initial page). Technically, this is an interesting example of reading PDF documents not via the usual Adobe Acrobat Reader but by a specialized browser plug-in. Library public kiosk machines will have this capability when a new kiosk image is implemented by Academic Computing. There is also the option of further Stanford customization of the InfoTools links to other reference services. Technical Services is working with ebrary to bring direct links to ebrary titles into our OPAC records.

This is a new and developing service, so there is an opportunity to work on changes and improvements. If you have comments, please send them to me and I will pass them on to ebrary.

Trial access is available until February 27 for O'Reilly's Safari Tech Books Online (via ProQuest) at:
http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com

As specialists in information technology know, O'Reilly publishes many quality titles in its areas of specialization. More unknown are the usability, performance, and cost effectiveness of their new Safari e-books product. In addition to O'Reilly titles, Safari also offers titles from Sams Publishing, Que, Cisco Press, and other imprints. Pricing is based on a matrix of concurrent users and specific titles or categories selected, so there is both flexibility and complexity in any subscription decision.

The service should require no passwords, with access dependent only on Stanford IP address. There were some initial access problems on Safari's side; let me know if you encounter any difficulties. The AtoI Committee will consider Safari after the trial, so please send me any comments at pzarins@sulmail.

3. PDA Teleconference -- CE Opportunity February 6th!

The Stanford Library Staff Association (SLSA) will be hosting the Medical Library Association's "Sync or Swim: Managing the Flood of PDAs in Health Care." The objectives of the teleconference are:

• "to help librarians promote this technology for health care professionals
• highlight currently available handheld devices, software, and peripherals
• provide a framework for designing educational sessions, including specific
• "how-to" information
• demonstrate innovative programs that illustrate the potential of handheld technology for physicians and allied health professionals."

Participants receive 1.5 MLA CE Contact hours. For more information on the teleconference, see MLA's website, http://www.mlanet.org/ .

4. East Asia Library Records Converted to Pinyin Romanization

On 1/27/02, 47,536 Chinese catalog records of the East Asia library were updated in Unicorn in order to change their romanization of Chinese characters from Wade-Giles to pinyin.

The pinyin system is the international standard for the romanization of Chinese, and is now also the accepted standard for cataloging in North American libraries. The East Asia Library began using it in its new cataloging on 10/1/2000, but older records continued to contain romanization in Wade-Giles, the previous standard. These older records were converted to pinyin by RLG, using special software designed for this purpose, and then loaded into Unicorn in the past weekend to replace the earlier version. With the loading of these records, the East Asia Library's catalog records are now consistently romanized in pinyin, and Socrates users will no longer need to search in both pinyin and Wade-Giles in order to retrieve all relevant records. The Unicorn database still contains about 5,000 non-East Asia records that have not yet gone through such a conversion process. They will be converted within the next few months.

5. New Exhibit at Miller Library

A new exhibit is now available at the Hopkins Marine Station Library. It was put together by Stanford's archaeologist, Dr. Laura Jones. It is on the history of the marine lab site prior 1917 when Hopkins moved from Lover's Point to its current location. Half of the exhibit contains Ohlone/Esselen native American artifacts that were found in the greater San Francisco Bay area that probably originated from Hopkins. These include Olivella shells, abalone shells, and bird bones that have been made into beads, jewelry, tools, and flutes. The second half contains artifacts found at Hopkins that were from the Chinese fishing village that occupied the site from the mid 1800s until 1907 when it was burnt to the ground by an unknown arsonist.

If you are in the area, stop by and take a look.

6. Welcome Stu Snydman

I am delighted to announce that Stu Snydman is joining the Digital Library Program as Digital Library Projects Manager. As Projects Manager, Stu will work on identification, assessment, testing, implementation, and common infrastructure development for technologies and workflows in support of digital library projects.

Some of us first benefited from Stu's expertise in classes he taught while an Analyst and Instructor with ITSS from 1995 to 1998. Stu left ITSS to pursue a Ph.D. in the School of Education, and he will be continuing his dissertation work there. Most recently, Stu has been Technology Manager for the GATT Geneva Project. Geneva Project participants know well how indispensable Stu has been to that project's accomplishments. Stu will continue to work with the Geneva Project as part of his new Projects Manager position.

Stu will initially be using Green Library SSRC Room 123J as his office. His email address is snydman@stanford. I hope that both those who already know him from his previous Stanford roles, and those who have not yet had the opportunity to meet him, will join me in welcoming him.

SUL/AIR has no new positions this week.

For a complete description of other open positions within SUL/AIR, visit the Human Resources Web site at:

Human Resources Web site.