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I received an email recently from a Medical Librarian asking if RSS feeds could be generated from EBSCO databases.

Short Answer: Yes!

Longer answer: Yes…but EBSCO’s interface doesn’t make it easy or intuitive. Here’s a walkthrough.

First, click on “Sign In to My EBSCOHost”

Enter username and password, then click the “Login” button. (If you haven’t created an EBSCOHost account yet, create one by clicking on the “I’m a new user” link and create one.)

Next, enter your search terms:

Once you’ve got your search refined exactly as you want it, you’re ready to turn the search into a feed.

Click the “Search History/Alerts” tab

Click the “Save Searches/Alerts” link

Enter the Name and Description for your alert, and be sure to select the “Alert” radio button.

Select “No e-mail (RSS only)” and enter an intuitive subject line before clicking the “Save” button.

…and here’s the RSS feed you can copy and paste into your aggregator/reader:

More info from EBSCO:

• EBSCO Supports RSS Feeds
• Does EBSCO support RSS Feeds for Alerts?
• How do I create a Search Alert in EBSCOhost?
• How do I create a Journal Alert in EBSCOhost?
• Can I use the RSS feature on an existing Alert?

Note: Although I used EBSCO Medline for this example, generating feeds this way works for all EBSCO databases that use this interface.

August 30th, 2006 | Category: How to, Interfaces, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Vendors | Comments (2)

Via Biomedbiblog, an interesting item about a new service from Elsevier’s SCOPUS.

Scopus has announced that it is the first and only database of its kind to provide a fully customizable feature to its customers that enables users to search within selected repositories or subject specific digital archives within the Scopus interface.

This new feature in Scopus, Selected Sources, allows customers to choose from a list of institutional resources and special subject collections indexed by Scirus to be made individually searchable in a separate tab; in effect highlighting the best scientific information from the web to their users.

Furthermore, for the first time, librarians can request for their own institutes’ repositories and digital archive to be indexed and made searchable through the Scopus interface…

Read the rest here.

More details from SCOPUS directly (including a screen shot) are here.

August 24th, 2006 | Category: Interfaces, Search, Technology, Vendors | Comments Off

I have been trying out a trial access to EBSCO’s DynaMed for a few weeks, and have to say that I really like whole a lot about it. The new interface is a huge improvement over the previous design (much easier on the eyes), I’m finding a number of things I couldn’t find in UpToDate, and I really like the way articles are organized for easy browsing, searching, and skimming.

But here’s the thing that interests me most:

At the bottom of the Content panel on the left side of the page while reviewing an article is a link for Topic Comment.

Clicking this link takes one to a page with the following fields:

• Your Name:
• Your Title:
• Name of Institution:
• Date (autofilled)
• Subject
• Add my comment to this topic

…then there’s a comment field.

I really like the “social” nature of this feature. It appears that these comments can have two potential uses: either to provide feedback to DynaMed, or to offer your comments to other users.

From the Help section of DynaMed:

Comments

You can add your comments (questions, suggestions, information) to the database.

General Comments can be added from various DynaMed pages. Topical Comments can be added only from the Summary pages. You can indicate whether you want to make your comments publicly available by clicking on the radio button Add my comment to this topic. Topic Summaries and General Comments will be posted by the DynaMed editors.

I think I really like this. Not only does it show a vendor inviting perpetual conversation with the product’s users, but it leverages the expertise of the user base to enhance the product.

Related Links:

Recent conversation from MEDLIB-L regarding DynaMed

Review of DynaMed from the JMLA

August 16th, 2006 | Category: Technology, Vendors | Comments Off

As previously noted, EBSCO is now offering a Medline with Full Text product.

I asked my very helpful contacts at EBSCO for a trial of it and checked it out, making notes about how it compared to PubMed and OVID. I’ve never used an EBSCO clinical database before, but here are a few thoughts.

Search Interface
The EBSCO Medline search interface resembles very much the interface with which I am familiar from use of EBSCO’s MasterFile Select, with some additional limitters and filters:

• English Language
• EBM Reviews
• Review Articles
• Human
• Animal
• Gender
• Age Related
• Subject Subset
• Journal & Citation Subset
• Publication Type
• Languages
• Animals
• Also search for related words
• Also search within the full text of the articles
• Automatically “And” search terms

These are very similar to the filters available in PubMed via the Limits tab, but I find the PubMed interface easier on the eye and more intutive to use.

An OVID side-note:
On one occassion, it occurred to me that I would like our library’s users in nursing to have a limitter they could choose to check in OVID that would limit the search only to nursing journals. After a brief discussion with OVID tech support, they added this limitter to our hospital’s interface inside of a day. I’d be curious to know if EBSCO can create custom filters in the same manner.

Purchasing Options
But the biggest reason that our library won’t be switching to EBSCO from OVID involves purchasing options.

Our library buys access to OVID and a shared list of journals through a consortium, and adds titles ala carte that we want and aren’t purchased by the consortium.

If we were to switch to OVID, we’d have two options to choose from:

• EBSCO Medline with Full Text
  • 1,014 Full Text Titles
• EBSCO Medline
  • 179 Full Text Titles

My EBSCO sales rep tells me that titles are not available a la carte, so there’s no option in between these two numbers- and that’s a serious impediment for my library ever going with EBSCO Medline.

I really enjoyed checking it out, though- and can’t wait to check it out again when the search interface is improved and the purchasing options are more flexible.

August 15th, 2006 | Category: E-Journals, Search, Technology, Vendors | Comments Off

As has previously been posted, Damien Sherman of Elsevier’s Scopus took exception when I suggested (at Michael Stephen’s Tame the Web) that Elsevier was behind on RSS because the product he works on, Scopus, does.  Excited to see this, I asked if I could see Scopus' RSS features and feature them on my blog.

At my request, Damien promptly set up temporary access to Scopus so I could check out and review its RSS features here. It is appropriate to again thank Damien for this. This sort of open communication between vendors and libraryfolk serves the interests of both, and his willingness to do this will always positively color my perception of the Scopus team at Elsevier.  Marketing, PR, and Sales: Please take note of this.

What follows is a very brief review only of Scopus’ RSS features.

After going to Scopus and painlessly logging in and setting up my account with the credentials Damien provided, I got straight to searching. As soon as I entered my search terms and clicked the ‘Search’ button…

…I was presented with the query used and the familiar orange RSS button.

I clicked on the RSS button to be brought to a screen where I can name my feed:

When I clicked the Continue button, I got my very long URL for the feed (cut off here both for display purposes and to obscure the actual URL).

Next, I subscribed to this feed in BlogLines to see how the results would look:

Things I like about Scopus RSS

• The RSS feature is well-integrated in the search results page, and easy to find.
• Naming of feeds makes them clear and unambiguous when they appear in the aggregator.
• The RSS URL is created quickly and easily.

Things I’d like to see Scopus RSS do next

• The RSS items should contain, if not the full abstract, at least a few lines of it. Now, all that shows up in the aggregator is the hyperlinked title and a one-line description of the source. More detail in the item would allow the user to do some filtering without having to go to Scopus. This would save the user’s time (Ranganathan's 4th law, anyone?).
• The RSS feed contains ONLY the Scopus results, not the web results. Ideally, the user should have the option of whether to do one of the two, or both.
• RSS feed URL produced should be a live hyperlink, not just text. This lets users with many kinds of subscription tools subscribe more easily.
• More user documentation about how Scopus RSS feeds will work is needed. It isn’t clear, for instance, how often the search that generates the feed will be executed. Perhaps the user could select from a menu how often he/she would like the search to be executed and new results generated for the feed.
• Change the RSS button to the proposed standard.

Summary: Scopus is off to a good start with their offering search results as RSS feeds and should be applauded for having them. However, from the perspective of someone working towards SDI goals, its RSS features are not yet caught up to PubMed in usefulness.

This was the first time I’ve tried Scopus. Perhaps a reader who is more familiar with its use might like to comment further on either its RSS features or other feature that especially stand out? 

July 24th, 2006 | Category: RSS/Feeds, Technology, Vendors | Comments (3)

Damien was good as his word, and has quickly arranged for me access to Scopus so I can review its RSS features. Expect notes on them here within the next week or so.

For the record, I really respect Damien’s visiting and participating in library blogversations (Damien’s word, and I like it) and really appreciate his arranging for my access. This sort of open dialogue between vendors and libraryfolk can only serve to benefit the community as a whole.

July 19th, 2006 | Category: RSS/Feeds, Vendors | Comments Off

So you probably heard that EBSCO is now offering a full-text MEDLINE interface.

Anyone seen a demo yet?  Anyone using it?  I don't have a lot of experience with EBSCO except with MasterFile Select databases.  Any thoughts on what to expect from EBSCO Medline?

If one were to use EBSCO as a journal subscription vendor, would this Medline interface integrate and authenticate via IP?

Is it the same interface shown in this documentation(downloadable, virus-free .doc file)?

I would like to know more.  I'll hope to get around to asking my EBSCO rep for more info soon, but if anyone has more info or views, I'd love to hear 'em.

July 17th, 2006 | Category: E-Journals, Interfaces, Search, Vendors | Comments (1)

Damian Sherman has left a couple of interesting comments on the post at Michael Stephen's Tame The Web that contained my initial notes on RSS for clinicians.  I'll repost them here:

With regards to Mr Stephens comment on Elsevier being so far behind on RSS, that is not entirely accurate.

The Elsevier product Scopus offers RSS feeds on all searches (give or take), and Scopus indexes 15,000 peer reviewed journals.

I am a Scopus product manager so not entirely neutral, but we are proud of our features.

Scopus offers feeds on search terms to title and abstract fields and on journal title searches.

Scopus also offers libraries HTML feeds to post the XML to their own website.

Posted by: damien sherman | July 14, 2006 07:48 AM

Apologies, I should correct my previous comment, "With regards to Mr Stephens comment on Elsevier being so far behind on RSS".

It was David Rothmans who said it, not Michael Stephens. Sorry Michael…

Posted by: damien sherman | July 17, 2006 04:49 AM

I replied (also at Tame The Web, though not yet approved by Michael Stephens at the time of this writing):

Hi Damian!  My library doesn't currently use Scopus, so I can't address that directly.

But my library does have access to several medical journals online through Elsevier.  An example is American Heart Journal.  Logged in as a user, there's no feed in site/sight at it's current issue table of contents or "home."

Therefore, I stand by my criticism that Elsevier is behind on RSS.

Speaking of Scopus, I'd love to see what its RSS feds are like.  Damian, if you'd like to set up a time for that, I'd be pleased to feature its RSS capabilities on my own blog at http://davidrothman.net.

Best,

-David
david.rothman AT gmail DOT com

Just wanted to state that offer again publically on my own blog.  Damian, if you would like to show me how well Scopus dishes out the RSS, I'd be pleased to feature it here in a post. 

I think librarians should press vendors to deliver a great product.  Great products should be praised when they are good.  Scopus may be good.  The online access for American Heart Journal through Elsevier…not so much.

July 17th, 2006 | Category: E-Journals, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Vendors | Comments (6)

Subscription service renewal time is around the corner in our library, so this offering from BioMedical Digital Libraries was quite welcome and timely.

 I recently got my hands on a copy of E-Journals: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Building, Managing, and Supporting Electronic Journal Collections (How-to-Do-It Manuals for Librarians), a weighty tome that I've just started to wade through after reading about it in the Journal of the Medical Library Association

Anyone have other reading suggestions for resources to help one manage online subscriptions in a cost-effective manner in a small library?

July 13th, 2006 | Category: E-Journals, Technology, Vendors | Comments (1)