January
2005
| In This Issue
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Newly
installed windows and door between computer
labs, looking into lab from help desk.
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New
Look and New Procedure for Computer Labs |
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Over
the break the two annex computer labs were united
by windows and a connecting door. The help desk
and the printers were moved into the smaller room.
Students should see the value of these changes during
computer training sessions; room to actually move
around. In addition to the physical changes there
were important changes to the network.
Beginning
this semester, use of law library computer labs
is restricted to current law students, staff and
faculty. To use PCs in the labs, you will need to
log in with your own username and password. Members
of the law school community recently received an
e-mail with this information, but if you have misplaced
it, there are instructions posted on each computer
for retrieving your personal password. Also, students
now have access to their own network storage space
which they can access from any lab computer. Be
aware that the PCs will automatically log out after
20 minutes of inactivity, unless there is a document
open with unsaved changes. So, save a backup copy
of your work to your network drive and be sure to
log out when you are finished. Computing Services
will be happy to answer your questions. Call 542-0895,
e-mail lawhelp@uga.edu
or stop by the newly remodeled computer lab in the
law library annex.
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New
Fulltext Database
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The
Making
of Modern Law provides digital images of every
page of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British
law published from 1800 through 1926. Full-text
searching on more than 10 million pages provides
researchers access to critical legal history.
In
addition to Basic and Advanced Search modes, you
can browse by author or title. To search in the
basic mode it's suggested you use at least two
or three search terms. By using more search terms
to narrow your search, you can locate documents
that fit your information needs better. Be specific.
When looking for documents about ancient Rome,
enter both of those words in your search query.
If you enter just Rome, your search may give you
essays that discuss modern Rome or Rome, N.Y.,
in addition to ancient Rome.
Under the Advanced
Search you'll find Fuzzy Search. Fuzzy search
settings can enhance your full-text search by
retrieving near matches on a term or terms. This
is a particularly valuable feature, in that it
allows you to locate a word or words within documents
despite imperfect matches in spelling between
the searched term and document content, a common
occurrence due to the variant/approximate spellings
found in documents of the era.
Three
levels of fuzzy searching are offered so that
you may fine-tune your search depending on how
closely you want to match your term(s): Low, Medium,
and High. The Low setting will expand your full-text
search results to include very near matches on
your term(s), e.g., a full-text search on “harbor”
with fuzzy search set at Low will return results
containing both “harbor” and “harbour.
The
High setting will expand your results to include
very broad matches on your term(s), e.g., a full-text
search on “harbor” with fuzzy search
set at High will return results containing “harbor,”
“harbour,” “Harper,” and
“Harben.”
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WebBridge
Added to Online Catalog |
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GAVEL, our online catalog, is the primary tool to
take advantage of our rich collection. Within the
past couple of years we've been working hard to
catalog all of our resources, print and electronic.
You should have noticed more links to the electronic
versions of our print titles and enhancements like
book-jacket images. Our most recent addition is
WebBridge.
WebBridge
uses smart linking capability, which links together
related information resources. When a user performs
an initial search the results are either a list
of choices (a browse list) or the record for a single
item. In both cases there is now a WebBridge search
box on the right side of the screen. For many searches
the list or the single item are all you need. But
when they are not satisfactory WebBridge presents
several other search options without the inconvenience
of going to a new web site and re-typing the search.
Carol Watson, Computer Services Librarian and guiding
force behind WebBridge implementation said, "I'm
enthusiastic about the implementation of WebBridge.
Students have access to so many different databases
that it's often difficult to know which one to choose.
WebBridge allows us to offer suggested databases
based on GAVEL search results."
WebBridge
presents slightly different options between a browse
list (above) or an item record (below). In the item
record notice that the searches for LegalTrac and
Google are drawn from the subject headings for the
item. The pull down list will include all of the
subject headings for each item. The Select More
Resources option provides easy searching of reference
sites such as Encyclopedia Britannica Online, online
bookstores such as Amazon.com
or Barnes & Noble,
article databases such as Academic Search Premiere
and JSTOR, and other catalogs.
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