NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       DATE: 8/15/07 CONTACT : LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATION ASST., (413) 545-0162 LIBRARY ACQUIRES VALUABLE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES Amherst, MA – The UMass Amherst Libraries recently acquired access to many new electronic resources, which can be found at http://www.library.umass.edu/ by clicking on “Databases.” For more information contact a reference librarian through the Ask a Librarian Services (www.library.umass.edu) or your Library liaison at http://www.library.umass.edu/reference/liaisons.html.  Some of the highlights include: Black Studies Centeris a cross-searchable database to African American Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and more. The output can easily be exported to RefWorks, the library’s citation management system for UMass students and faculty.  It combines several resources for research and teaching in Black Studies, including Schomberg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals, and Black Literature Index.  This fully cross-searchable gateway to Black studies includes scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is an extraordinary full-text archive from the Thomson Gale organization, which consists of 150,000 printed volumes equaling more than 33 million pages of text. Use Eighteenth Century Collections Online to access the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. With full-text searching of approximately 26 million pages, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more. Some years ago, the Libraries purchased Early English Books Online; this will complement and extend that earlier acquisition in a profound and far-reaching fashion.  Derived from the English Short Title Catalogue, ECCO represents in published form the prodigious output of a century that witnessed the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. Historical statistics of the United States Statistics gathered by the Census Bureau from colonial times to near present. This is a scholarly edition, with introductory essays by experts, and a reworking and expansion of the data presented in earlier print editions. In addition, UMass Amherst Libraries has access to new statewide electronic resources.  Among the Thomson Gale products will be 13 periodical, biographical, reference and news databases covering an array of subjects and 23 Gale Virtual Reference library titles.  ProQuest CSA will be providing 12 Massachusetts full-text newspapers (some going back to 1980), and EBSCO, its’ Literary Reference Center. These resources will be available to all Massachusetts Regional Library System member libraries. All residents of the Commonwealth holding a valid library card from Massachusetts can also use these resources from any computer with Internet access. Springfield Republican Newspaper 1988 to present, available to Western Massachusetts cardholders. Massachusetts Newstand is a searchable full text database of several Massachusetts newspapers, The Berkshire Eagle, Boston Globe, Boston Herald and many others