The University Libraries have acquired access to the full backfile of the Compendex Engineering Index on the Engineering Village web site. Since its founding in 1884, the Engineering Index has covered virtually every engineering innovation from across the globe. Together with the current Compendex file, the database will eventually offer 120 years of records --more than 1.8 million records-- when complete.

Using the Compendex backfiles, you can locate references to engineering breakthroughs including the foundations of modern aviation, the internal combustion engine, telecommunications, computing, and much more. Use the backfile to locate historic references including the following:

AERONAUTICS
Wright. - Some Aeronautical Experiments. Wilbur Wright. An interesting illustrated address reviewing the difficulties met and the work of various aeronauts, and giving an account of experiments made by writer. 8800 w.Jour W Soc of Engineers - Dec 1, 1901.

As of January 2004, the backfile contains records dating to 1964 and holds approximately 300,000 records which have never before been available electronically. Complete file years will be added weekly; over 900,000 records and file years dating from 1945 will be available by the beginning of February 2004. Files will continue to be added until the completed file is made available in early April 2004.

You can search the backfiles together with or separately form the post-1970 data by selecting from the drop-down list for dates to be searched.

Ebsco now offers Communication and Mass Media, a rich resource for research on all aspects of speech, rhetoric, debate, broadcasting, and media studies. This database originated with the merger of two popular resources in the fields of communication and mass media studies:

• CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association, NCA). CommSearch offered bibliographic and keyword references to 26 journals in communication studies, with coverage extending to the inaugural issue of each -- some from as far back as the early decades of the 20th century. It also included cover-to-cover indices of NCA’s six journals (from their first editions to the present), and abstracts from their earliest appearance in NCA journals. Many students still refer to this resource by the name of its print editor, "Matlon."
• Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Pennsylvania State University). Provided citation coverage of over 40,000 articles related to mass media and published in over 60 research journals, as well as major journalism reviews, recent encyclopedias, and handbooks in the area of communications studies.

In addition to these two indexes, Communication & Mass Media Complete offers full text for over 200 titles and contains citation coverage for additional sources.

SciFinder Scholar, the Chemical Abstracts database, has released a new version of its client software for 2004. Current users can upgrade previous versions, and new users can download the software, by visiting our SciFinder info page.

Some of the new features in Scholar 2004 include:

• Limit Structure Searches by Substance Classes
• New Refine Options for a set of substances
• Find relevant reaction information faster
• Get reactions from a substance answer set

Find out more about the features of SciFinder by visiting the Chemical Abstracting Service (CAS).

The Grove Music Online (New Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians) and the Grove Art Online (Grove Dictionary of Art) have received recent makeovers, in addition to dozens of new or updated articles. Visitors will find easier and more consistent navigation at both sites, as well as extensively revised help and information pages.

The latest content updates for Grove Music include dozens of new digital music examples 20 articles on medieval composers and theorists, including Guilielmus Monachus, Guillaume de Machaut and Perotinus. Works lists for 71 articles on contemporary composers have been expanded and updated. Among the most significant composers to have had additions to their works-lists are: Elliot Carter, Peter Maxwell Davies, John Adams, Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, John Harbison, and Steve Reich. Grove Art has recently updated 216 articles on Northern Renaissance figures and topics, as well an improving links to images in the Bridgeman Art Library.