For Future Reference

Exciting relationships are popping up all over the place! EBSCO and NewsBank have teamed up to allow EBSCO users an easy link to NewsBank results through integrated searching, and Greenwood has announced that Blackwell's Library Services Division will be the nonexclusive agent for the sale of Greenwood's online databases, including Daily Life Online and American Mosaic.

Thanks to a partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Digital Newspaper Program just added over 73,000 newly digitized newspaper pages to its Chronicling America web site (www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica). This addition brings the total page access to more than 642,000 and the locales covered—California, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, DC—to nine.

Emerald, SAGE, and ebook provider ebrary have all partnered with Serials Solutions, a company that provides libraries with online access and management services. This comes only a few months after Serials Solutions announced its integration of Google Books with its 360 Link resource. And for the musically inclined, EBSCO has announced a partnership between Classical Music Library and RILM Abstracts of Music Literature that will allow students to hear the piece of music they are reading about. Who says love isn't in the air?

There's rarely a shortage of updates in the world of reference—especially e-reference—and this month is no exception. IngentaConnect, which provides e-access services for 23 million articles, has a revamped design and user interface. Four Facts On File databases have just been redesigned: Issues and Controversies, Issues and Controversies in American History, World News Digest, and Today's Science. The enhancements improve aesthetics, make for better organization and ease of navigation, and allow for advanced search options from each screen.

Also, if you haven't been to Ancestry.com lately, you'll be in for a few surprises there as well. Its new search interface offers numerous tools for advanced searching, including enhanced filters. It also redesigned the home page and added more customization and navigational tools. And fresh from just having added more than 40 new interactive tables, the science, technology, and engineering database Knovel introduces more ways to bring information to the patrons—the Knovel Search Widget, which can be embedded right on high-traffic pages, and the Knovel Toolbar and browser plugins, which add a Knovel Search tool directly to Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers.

As if Gale hasn't already given us enough fun stuff, soon we'll be able to play with Global Issues in Context, a new resource that will supply "global news and perspectives on issues and events of international importance." Because its content stems from 400 full-text news sources, magazines, and scholarly journals and it promises videos, podcasts, and interactive maps, you might even forget to take your lunch break.