America History and Life / Historical Abstracts

Dear /Historical Abstracts/ and /America: History and Life/ subscribers,

Celebrating 50 years of reference publishing in 2005, ABC-CLIO embarked on a multi-year
program to upgrade and enhance /Historical Abstracts/ and /America: History and Lif/e.
With a redesigned interface and over 1.2 million entries and 330,000 full-text links,
these landmark resources are more than ever the first place to begin any search in the
area of history.

A beta version of both databases will be available to you as of Thursday, December 1,
whereby you can choose to access either the existing database or the beta site version,
for the entire month of December. We think you, and your patrons, will be pleased with
the new look, navigational ease, and enhanced research capabilities available within the
beta site version. The option of using either the existing or the beta databases will
last throughout December, before the newly enhanced version becomes the sole access
option for both /Historical Abstracts/ and /America: History and Life,/ on Monday,
January 2, 2006.

The following enhancements will be accessible to you via the beta site version on
Thursday, December 1:

* *

* * New interface
* will allow users to get to the information they need quickly and
* easily, with fewer page downloads and fewer mouse clicks A
*combined simple and advanced search screen *allows the user to
control the display of search fields and search results
* * New pop-up help tips
* * assist the user in constructing successful searches *New
retrospective coverage
* from JSTOR journals dating from 1838-2005, resulting in an
* increase of nearly 78% in full-text links by project’s end *New
search history functionality
* * records search criteria, allowing users to rerun previous
searches *New expand and collapse record functionality
* streamlines the process of viewing results by displaying and
hiding abstracts at the click of a mouse * *

*Other useful enhancements –*

* A *new Export to Citation Manager* feature will allow the user to
save results directly to EndNote, ProCite, or Reference Manager
* New setup functionality for non-OpenURL resolvers, *permitting
linking to non-OpenURL catalogs*
* A *User’s Forum* will provide technical and database content
support and a place for discussions related to the databases
* *Full-text links to over 330,000 sources*, including ProQuest’s
Dissertations and Theses Database

You will receive another announcement before the beta version databases actively switch
over to being the sole database access option for /Historical Abstracts/ and /America:
History and Life/, on Monday, January 2, 2006. We are confident that you, and your
patrons, will find the redesigned interface and enhancements welcome improvements and an
even more helpful resource. Your comments and feedback are always welcome.

Best regards,

The team at ABC-CLIO
130 Cremona Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
1-800-368-6868