PennLIN offers new services to students

PennLIN, the Penn Library Information Network, has a new gateway to expand student resources on the Internet, which will be available for use Wednesday. The gateway will allow students to access library services from terminals in locations other than University libraries. Franklin, the University on-line catalog, has been available on the Internet for the last few years, but only a list of titles in the University library system were in the program. "We talked to a group of undergraduates in a panel discussion about what they wanted to see on-line," said Joseph Zucca, executive assistant to the vice provost and director of libraries. "It's now just a matter of getting the word out [that the material is there]." Now on-line is the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Not only does this allow students to find simple definitions on the Internet, but they can also perform single and combined term searching. For example, searching for the combined term "Chaucer and women" will retrieve the 31 known quotations that include the word "woman" by Chaucer. Another resource currently available on PennLIN is the LEXIS/NEXIS database. This full-text service provides access to newspaper, magazine, wire service and Supreme Court reports. "We really want everyone to start using this and realize the power of the resources," said Patricia Renfro, associate director of Public Library Services. "We are going to be holding a lot of workshops and there are a lot of people who can help at the library reference desk." Some of the other services available are a complete Medline medical database from 1966 to the present, the Dow Jones/News Retrieval service, which includes market quotes and other business information, and the English Short Title Catalog (ESTC) which contains English language material from 1473 to 1800. The new gateway has been in a test mode since August and has been available on a limited basis. Officials have praised the system and are anxiously awaiting student responses. "We really want a lot of student feedback," Renfro said. "It helps us decide where to go next [with the system]."