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Today's important announcement to the higher education committee may be of interest to list members. All comments are welcome. Gary Horrocks UKOLUG Committee (JIBS User Group Liaison) >Important Announcement for all UKHE students, staff, libraries, >and information services > >(apologies for cross-posting, but please forward to all >appropriate lists) > >***** Update on Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web >of Science. and the UK Higher Education Community ***** > >New Information Service > >The ISI service, which is currently hosted by BIDS at the >University of Bath is the most successful and longest running of >the subscription data services offered by the Joint Information >Systems Committee (JISC). ISI is used extensively throughout >the UK Higher Education community in both research and teaching. >The service has been operational for eight years and the current >contract expires in March 2000. CHEST has negotiated renewal of >the contract with ISI, on behalf of JISC, resulting in an offer >for ISI's new "Web of Science" service. > >Following extensive consultation with the user community, and >fully considering the implications of moving from the ISI >service to the new ISI Web of Science service, JISC agreed that >Web of Science should replace the current ISI service. > >The Web of Science is ISI's new interface that provides Web >access to the Science Citation Index ExpandedTM, Social Sciences >Citation Index., and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. (formerly >SciSearch, Social SciSearch, and Arts & Humanities Search). It >will also provide access to ISTP. (Index to Scientific and >Technical Proceedings). This is the same data provided under the >current ISI agreement. JCR. (Journal Citation Report) has been >confirmed as an additional option for Web of Science, and >discussions are continuing about Reaction CenterTM (part of the >ISI Chemistry ServerSM) and Derwent Innovations IndexSM. > >The new service will be available to all Higher Education >Institutions funded by HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW and DENI together >with a number of additional sites from the CHEST list. In >accordance with JISC's agreed policy on banded charging for >datasets, UK HEIs have been divided into three categories for >this service. These bands are based on those used for the JSTOR >service, with the small and very small HEIs combined into a >single group. All other sites on the CHEST list at >http://www.chest.ac.uk/chestsites.html will be treated as >large for the purpose of this service. > >The subscription costs for the Web of Science service will be as >advertised in JISC Circular 16/98 which was sent to all UKHEIs >in October 1998 (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub98/c16_98.html). The >subscription price of the current BIDS ISI service has to date >been subsidised by the JISC by approximately #1,500 per site per >annum. The subscription price of the new Web of Science Service >in 2000/01 has been set at the same level as the existing >service although Large sites will see an increase of #1,500 >because the subsidy will disappear. Medium and Small sites will >see immediate savings of #1,500 and #4,500 respectively. The >increase in costs and loss of subsidy has been phased to lessen >the impact on institutions. The Web of Science service will also >be available to Further Education institutions but the >subscription prices have not yet been determined. > >New Service Provider > >As ISI Web of Science is a completely new information service >requiring a different hardware platform and different support >from the service provider serving the information to UK higher >education institutions, JISC followed its normal policy of going >to tender for service provision. The successful bid came from >MIDAS at Manchester Computing, University of Manchester who will >host the ISI Web of Science service. The service will be >provided by a close collaborative partnership of MIDAS, the John >Rylands University Library of Manchester (JRULM), and the >Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Library. > >The University of Manchester has provided high quality computing >and information services to the UK Higher Education community >for nearly 30 years, and will be able to mount ISI Web of >Science alongside the 40 datasets currently hosted at MIDAS. >These include Beilstein Crossfire, JSTOR, the UK Census and >COPAC plus a variety of additional strategic research and >teaching datasets. MIDAS is also very experienced in providing >training, user support, and large-scale computing resources for >the UK academic community. This coupled with the extensive >information and ISI database experience of the JRULM >and MMU Library is designed to ensure continuing high standards >of service delivery for UK HE. > >The Transition > >The ISI Web of Science service at MIDAS will commence in >September 1999 and the old and new services will overlap until >July 2000 to allow a period of transition and training of users. >Sites will be required to pay the new subscription rates with >effect from 1 April 2000 or thereafter. (This will give current >subscribers access to both the old and new service). A >demonstration service comprising five years of data, updated >weekly, is currently being offered by NISS. Current subscribers >to ISI can use it at the following WWW address: >http://wos.niss.ac.uk/> > >Through its consultation with users JISC is acutely aware of the >importance of helping higher education institutions to manage >this transition period. In addition to support staff based at >MIDAS, JRULM, and MMU, close discussions are being held with the >JIBS user group to ensure appropriate additional support is made >available for this all-critical transition year. > >Don't wait until the end of the transition year to begin using >ISI Web of Science at MIDAS! There are very good reasons to >begin as soon as possible. First, there is normally a great >increase in usage of the ISI service at the beginning of the >academic year. The levels of use anticipated for this September >and October are too high to be supported by the existing >hardware platform at BIDS, thus users may be able to access the >new Web of Science service at MIDAS more >easily this autumn. Second, ISI has expressed its willingness >to respond to user feedback about the new Web of Science >service. The earlier feedback from users can begin to arrive at >MIDAS, the faster we can feed this information back to ISI. > >Finally, JISC would like to join users in thanking BIDS for all >its hard work in providing an excellent ISI service for the last >8 years. We look forward to BIDS and MIDAS working together, and >with the user community, to ensure a smooth transitional period. > >Further Information > >from JISC (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/): >Alice Colban, CEI Secretary, [log in to unmask], (0117) 931 >7257 >Alicia Wise, Collections Manager, [log in to unmask], (0171) >848 2556 >Jane Williams, Head of JISC-Assist, [log in to unmask], >(0117) 954 6850 > >from MIDAS (http://www.midas.ac.uk/): >Julia Chruszcz, Head of National Services, [log in to unmask], >(0161) 275 6100 >Ross MacIntyre, Project Manager, [log in to unmask], (0161) >275 7181 > >from JRULM (http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/) >Diana Leitch, Deputy Librarian, [log in to unmask], (0161) >275 3737 > >from MMU Library (http://mmu.ac.uk/) >Gill Barry, Deputy Librarian, [log in to unmask], (0161) 247 >6101 > >Or see details of the contract with ISI on the CHEST website as >they become available: >http://www.chest.ac.uk/datasets/isi-wos/contents.html >____________________________________________________________ > >Alicia L. Wise [log in to unmask] >Collections Manager >Joint Information Systems Committee >Information Services & Systems >King's College London Tel: (0171) 848 2556 >Strand Fax: (0171) 848 1777 >London WC2R 2LS Mobile: (0411) 376 256 >UK >_____________________________________________________________ > ************************************************ Gary Horrocks Library Services Guy's, King's & St. Thomas' Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences Weston Education Centre Cutcombe Road, London, SE5 9PJ Tel: 0171 848 5557 Fax: 0171 848 5550 http://www.kcl.ac.uk/medlib ************************************************ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%