IBSS – supporting social science researchers Rebecca Ursell, IBSS Manager Jane Ferguson, Marketing Manager.

IBSS – supporting social science researchers

Rebecca Ursell, IBSS ManagerJane Ferguson, Marketing Manager

Introduction

• Background and main benefits

• IBSS coverage

• Support for IBSS users

• Searching on IBSS

Main benefits for researchers

• Over 2.5 million bibliographic records

• International coverage

• Weekly updates

• Historic coverage back to 1951

• High quality information

• Unique coverage

Background

• Established 1951- set up by International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation

• Since 1989 produced by London School of Economics and Political Science

• Funded by ESRC since 1995 - free to all UK HE & FE institutions

IBSS coverage

Core subjects

Interdisciplinary subjects

Supportingsubjects

International coverage

Current IBSS journals by region

25%

31%7%

22%

4%

6%2%

1% 2%

UK

Western Europe(excluding UK)Eastern Europe

North America

South & Central America

Asia

Africa

Middle East

Oceania

Types of material

• Journal articles (60%)– 2,800 titles regularly covered– 500+ irregular titles– 60% of titles published outside UK and US– Cover-to-cover indexing of scholarly journals

• Book reviews (30%)

• Books (8%) • Chapters (2% - but c. 5% for current material)

Selection of journals

• Serials Review Group of LSE Library (= 60% of journal coverage)

• Submissions from specialist institutions, including:UK: School of Oriental and African Studies; School of Slavonic and East European Studies; University College London; Institute of Commonwealth StudiesOverseas: Sciences Po Paris (over 400 French journals, mainly politics); German National Library Kiel; Japanese Sociological Society; Polish Academy of Sciences; Parliamentary Libraries of Hungary and Finland

• Suggestions from IBSS Editorial Advisory Board

• Requests from academics; submissions from publishers; IBSS editors’ recommendations

Support for IBSS users

www.ibss.ac.uk

IBSS resources

• IBSS subject guides and user guides

•Online tutorials (available in August)

•Lists of journals covered

•Case studies and examples of search strategies

• IBSS blog at www.ibssblog.wordpress.com

Searching on IBSS

•IBSS database currently available via service provider Ovid

•From August available via EBSCO

•For log-in details visit your institution’s Library website

New EBSCOhost 2.0 interface

New features:– “Simple” Basic Search – Four new search modes– SmartText Searching– New Result List Display– Article and Image Preview Feature– Collapsible Result List Panes– New result relevancy indicator bar

Advanced search

Results list (1)

Results list (2)

IBSS record

Basic search

New feature – images (1)

New feature – images (2)

Basic search (2)

New features – relevance ranking (1)

New features – relevance ranking (2)

Thesaurus searching (1)

Thesaurus searching (2)

Thesaurus searching (3) Geographic terms

Combining searches (1)

Combining searches (2)

IBSS contacts

• Content and coverage issues : [email protected]• Training and marketing issues: [email protected]• General queries: [email protected]

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences The London School of Economics and Political Science

10 Portugal Street, London WC2A 2HDtel: + 44 (0)20 7955 7455 fax: +44 (0)20 7955 6923

email: [email protected]