Tracking the Elusive E-resource

Tracking the “Elusive” E-resource

For various reasons there are several Web sites to check for access to e-resources available to UCLA students, faculty, and staff. Below are links to comprehensive listings of licensed e-resources, including electronic journals. If there’s an e-resource that would be useful to you that UCLA has not licensed or to report an access problem, please contact an SEL subject specialist.

• Citation Linker helps you find a link to a publisher's Web site for locating a specific journal article
• Electronic Resources in Science and Engineering
• E-resources from the California Digital Library (CDL)
• UCLA Library Catalog check for “ONLINE ACCESS ” link
• Melvyl Catalog check for “Find a copy online” links
• Article Databases check for UC e-Links buttons
• Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory check for E and URL link
• Google
• Google Scholar

Other hints for successful “tracking”

• Check the publisher’s Web site for up-to-date information on available volumes. Many publishers are adding scanned images of their earlier print (paper) volumes.
• Caution: Holdings information for online resources in the UCLA Library Catalog may be inaccurate or out-of-date due to recent acquisitions of backfiles or changes in licensing agreements.
• Caution: Melvyl Catalog may not indicate UCLA has online access even though we do. (HINT: Try linking to another campus’s online access by clicking "show all links from other libraries"; sometimes UCLA users will have access as well; if it asks for a password, forget it.)
• Many article databases provide links to e-resources . For example, search UCLA’s version of PubMed to use this feature.
• IP address validation by licensed providers gives UCLA users access to e-resources from Google, Google Scholar, and Ulrich’s searches.
• UCLA users with valid UCLA LogonIDs can access licensed resources from home using UCLA's Bruin Online proxy or VPN (Virtual Private Network) servers.
• SciFinder Scholar now has a Web version which requires user registration for UC users. 
• Finding a journal from a reference (citation) sometimes requires knowing the full title from the abbreviated one. A useful resource in science and engineering is CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index). The CAS Source Index (CASSI Search Tool can be used look up abbreviations and confirm publication titles. Available searches include keywords from journal abbreviations, ISSN or ISBN, and CODEN.  Omit periods (punctuation) from journal abbreviations in searching this site.
• Other abbreviation tools are available at: Reference E-Resources - Acronyms and Abbreviations
• When searching the UCLA Library Catalog with abbreviated journal titles, replace periods (punctuation) with a question mark (truncation symbol), e.g. Ark? Kemi , and use a Journal Title search; a minimum of three letters is required before truncating.