Is the vLib project team stuck in hibernation? No, not at all! Fact is that still most subscription contracts are up for renewal at the turn of the year. In addition, a lot of electronic products are newly released or ceased; some resources are transferred from one publisher to another while others just disappear without any notice. Behind the scenes we are busy with keeping all systems up & running – and this is a lot of work!

Any big news for 2009? Actually not, but some minor changes may be worth noticing:

• The new Wiley contract includes all former Blackwell titles. Therefore, the number of Wiley e-journals available to all users in the MPG increased to more than 1.400 titles in total.
• On the other hand side, it wasn’t possible to extend the trial of Oxford’s e-Books collections (Oxford Scholarship Online, OSO and Oxford Reference Online, ORO) any longer. At this point in time, the trial won’t be converted into a regular subscription due to high price expectations by the publisher.
• INSPEC – the database for Physics, Electronics, and Computing – has been removed from the Ovid platform and is now available via the Web of Knowledge (WoK). Please notice that the WoK provides additional access to the INSPEC archive, launching the entire collection of Science Abstracts Journals dating from 1898 to 1968.
• Check the vLib portal to find a continuously updated list of new resources.

Happy new year!