JSTOR tech support writes,

On Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10, JSTOR will be performing site maintenance that requires a “read-only” period for these two days. During this scheduled maintenance, users will be able to search, browse, and access and download PDF files for content in JSTOR. They will not be able to save citations, reset passwords, create or update MyJSTOR accounts, or purchase articles.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your patience as we work to improve JSTOR.

If you have any questions, please contact a librarian.

Films on Demand is currently experiencing growing pains.  They are working on upgrading servers which has caused a slow down. The webpage will eventually load and you’ll be able to stream video, but you gotta be patient.  There are thousands of films in this collection and well worth the wait.  This slow loading could last the rest of this week, so please be patient. Sit back, start snacking on your popcorn or change your Facebook status to “waiting for Films on Demand.” It’ll pop up.

ARTstor just threw down!  It just claimed it IS Latin American studies.  Now, I don’t disagree that ARTstor is good for Latin American studies but it just seems like such a bold, in-my-face statement.  In response I figured I’d highlight resources that either are or could be Latin American studies.

Here’s the press about ARTstor that started it all:

Oxford is well represented with a number of resources, mostly of the encyclopedic and dictionary flavor.  Oxford Language Dictionaries offers English to Spanish and Spanish to English dictionaries.   Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States covers the Latin American experience outside of Latin America.  And finally, for Oxford, is the Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, which is interesting to flip through.

Finally, we have a few different journal and magazine indexes that focus on Latin American or Latin Americans that include articles in English and/or Spanish:

• Fuente Academica
• Clase and Periodica
• Informe Revistas en Espanol
• Ethnic Newswatch

So, while I appreciate bold statements, I just felt like I needed to show that while yes, ARTstor is Latin American studies, there are several other sources that can also make that claim.  In all fairness, I suppose, ARTstor never said it was the only or best source for Latin American studies.

Columbia Gazetteer has returned to us. Please enjoy.  It was down for 4 days.  I bet you missed it.  Here’s the previous post:

Since Thursday, August 11th, the Columbia Gazetteer of the World has been unavailable.  They are “experiencing a problem of unknown origin” and are hoping “to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”   We’ve all been there Columbia Gazetteer of the World.  We’ve all been there.  It will try to load, but nothing happens.  This post will be removed when the resource comes back.

Netlibrary, a collection of ebooks, has been completely overhauled.  It is now eBooks Collection.  While it still contains the same titles, how you interact with those titles is very different.

If, in the past, you had a Netlibrary account and created a bookshelf, well… I’m sorry to say all that’s gone.  Been wiped out when Netlibrary became eBooks Collections. In order to recreate your bookshelf, you’ll have to create an Ebsco account.  If you already have one from using any of the 30 other Ebsco products we have, you can use that username/password to access eBooks Collections.

In order to get the most out of this resource, you’ll definitely want to create an account.  That way you can create a folder with all your titles in it, print, email and export parts of ebooks, and take notes in them.  Also, with the new interface, some titles are downloadable to mobile devices.  If, on the left side of the screen it says download, then you may.  If not… bummer.

Just like in the old days (last week), most titles are for single use only, so you may encounter a message that looks like this:

No big whoop.  Just add that title to your folder and access it later.

All eBook Collections titles are in CLICnet, and that’s most likely how you’ll encounter these books.  So when you land on a book from CLICnet and want to use it, be sure to sign in or create an account.  Look in the blue bar at the top for 

Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about eBooks Collection.  There’s loads of help here and tutorial movies to watch.