Drexel subscribes to GeoRef and AltPressIndex through OCLC Firstsearch currently, but access to these databases on the OCLC Platform will no longer be available after July.  We have current trials to versions of these two databases from Proquest.

GeoRef on CSA Illumina (Trial)
The GeoRef database covers the geology of North America from 1669 to the present and the geology of the rest of the world from 1933 to the present. The database includes references to all publications of the U.S. Geological Survey. Masters’ theses and doctoral dissertations from US and Canadian universities are also covered. A subscription to the GeoRef database also includes access to the GeoRef In Process database (so both databases can be searched at once) and a link to the GeoRef Preview database on the AGI web site.
This trial runs through May 31, 2010

Alt-Press Watch (Trial) via Proquest

*Alt-Press Watch is like AltPressIndex, but includes full text for all of the indexed material
Alt-Press Watch™ showcases unique, independent voices from some of our nation’s most respected and cited grassroots newspapers, magazines, and journals. The database features over 670,000 articles from more than 210 publications, offering a wide range of unfettered, critical coverage of the news. All of these varied alternative and independent presses are presented in 100% full text, allowing researchers total access to regional, rural, and metropolitan perspectives on local, national, and international issues. Providing an alternative to corporate controlled media, the Alt-Press Watch database presents big stories from small sources.
This trial runs through May 31, 2010.

Enjoy!

Proquest now offers Digital Microfilm options for a handful of their newspapers — it is basically PDFs of microfilm rolls that are accessible to any authorized Drexel user without having to use the microfilm reader!

Drexel has a trial to all of Proquests offerings, but of particular interest is the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.  Both newspapers are currently only offering 2008 content in digital microfilm, but 2009 content will be added as corresponding months of microfilm is released.

Check out Drexel’s trial here: http://innoserv.library.drexel.edu/record=e1000841~S9 Available through May 13th, 2009.

Proquest announced last week that the president of Bowker (who provides us with Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory and Global Books in Print) has been named the Proquest Chief Operating Officer under a new agreement merging the Bowker and Proquest companies.  See the full press release here.

According to our Bowker representative, Bowker will still be operating as an independent company for the foreseeable future, with no discernable changes to their current projects, including their AquaBrowser faceted search product and their adaptation of Library Thing for Libraries.