- There is now over 20% more content, including:
- Brief biographical profiles of all current leaders
- Government histories
- Extended economic overviews
- Recent historical economic statistics
- Global economic overview
- Thematic essays on subjects of topical interest
- New detailed line maps for all 192 countries
- To accommodate this extra material, SYB 2007 was published in a larger format, ensuring that this classic reference product continues to offer information with clarity and ease.
- In addition the price of the print also includes a licence for single concurrency access on a single LAN. This gives access to the full text online, providing users with enhanced search and browse functionality and regularly updated content.
2. Why have you changed SYB?
- We’ve been careful to preserve everything that’s best about SYB’s 144-year history: the selection, organization and rigorous verification of the facts to create a one-volume resource of unmatched scope and authority remain unchanged. The main reasons for this change are:
- Size and scope: we physically could not add any more pages to the previous format, and every year we had to lose some valuable information to make room for new material
- Accessibility: SYB has traditionally been used as a key tool by reference librarians, but we feel strongly that an institution should have the option of making the content available more widely to any user who needs it
- Currency of information: making the book available online means that we can give readers access to the database as we update it throughout the year, an enormous benefit in a world where a country’s political and economic landscape can change overnight.
3. Why are you not just selling SYB online?
- Print and online resources coexist happily in libraries, each being useful in different ways for different purposes for different users, and this model takes a hybrid approach to realize the benefits of both.
4. What is the difference between SYBWorld and SYB online?
- SYBWorld and SYB online differ in a number of significant ways:
- Content: because of the space restrictions we faced in the old format of SYB, we created SYBWorld as a separate subscription product containing substantially different, expanded material. SYB online contains all the content of the new expanded print SYB; it is effectively SYB online. However we have also retained in the new online product a substantial amount of archive material, including a week-by-week chronology back to 2000, biographical profiles of past leaders and city profiles.
- Platform: SYB has now moved onto a more robust online publishing platform (used by other major publishers such as OUP and Taylor & Francis), which allows more powerful services to users such as access to user statistics at any time. NB user statistics will be made compliant with the new COUNTER standards for reference works by the end of 2007.
- Interface: with the new platform comes a new easy-to-use interface with powerful search and browse functionality.
5. How will the online registration and access work?
- Each book has on its cover a sticker printed with a unique registration code. You need to enter this code on the homepage of this website (www.statesmansyearbook.com). If you have purchased more than one copy of the book, you can enter additional registration codes, which will give you concurrent access for the number of books that you have purchased. Once the code has been recognized, you can set up your institution’s account. There is also an option to upgrade to a site licence giving unlimited access for an additional fee, calculated according to FTE.
6. Is access governed by the IP address of the computer that accesses it?
- Not in all cases, the basic licence which comes with the book will be restricted to concurrency on a single LAN, but institutions can purchase site licences to allow remote access to an unlimited number of users via IP range, password or soft-referral, depending on the institution’s preference. Site licence fees are determined by FTE.
7. How can I purchase a site licence?
- When you visit www.statesmansyearbook.com you are offered the opportunity to submit a site licence request online and our sales staff will confirm the price according to the size of your institution and/or concurrency requirements. An institution can choose to upgrade its basic single concurrency access on a single LAN to a site licence at any point during its term of subscription.
8. How much will it cost to upgrade to a site licence?
- The price of an upgrade varies depending on the type of institution and FTE, with discounts for each print copy of SYB purchased by the institution: contact us for full details.
9. Is access open ended or will it only run for one year (requiring further payment if extended)?
- Basic single concurrency access to the online edition will run from activation of the account until the end of the edition year. For example, if a customer registered for SYB Online in August 2006, their access would expire in August 2007. If they didn’t register their registration code until December 2006, their access would still expire in August 2007. If a customer upgrades to a full site licence, then their access will last for 12 months from the date of the upgrade.
10. Where can I go for help?
- In addition to these FAQs we also have a dedicated support team here at Palgrave Macmillan to answer requests for support. Please email sybinfo@palgrave.com
11. What happens if I forget my user name and password?
- There is a facility to email a password reminder to the email address of the account administrator.
- The basic online access provided with each copy of the book allows single concurrency on a single LAN. This means that only one person at any one time can be accessing SYB Online, and only on the specified LAN.
- LAN stands for Local Area Network. The access that comes with the book is restricted to a single Local Area Network with fewer than 256 computers.
13. What is a Class C network?
- A Class C network is a network of up to 256 computers.
14. What is a proxy server?
- A computer that allows machines on an institution's network to make indirect requests for client applications, such as websites. All requests from the network for connections, files and resources are filtered by the proxy server, which can also act as a firewall. The effect for a web-based application such as SYB Online is that only a single IP address is visible for the entire network being served
15. What is IP authentication?
- IP authentication is where the access control system checks the IP address of a request to view the site, and if that IP address is registered to an account the user is taken to the logged-in page automatically and their user statistics added to the appropriate account. The most common alternative is user-name and password access.
16. Which operating system does SYB Online work on?
- SYB Online is designed as a standards-compliant, accessible database to be usable by all commonly used operating systems on both PCs and Macs. The optimal platform for visual issues and usability is Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP.
17. Will it work with other browsers aside from Internet Explorer?
- Yes, supported platforms include Mozilla Firefox 1.5, Safari 2.x and 1.x (Macintosh), Opera 8 and Netscape 8. Other platforms can be expected to be usable in many cases, often with a simplified appearance, due to the graceful degradation designed into the system.
18. Do I need cookies active?
- Yes.
19. What is the best resolution to set my screen to?
- 800x600 or above
20. What’s the time limit on a session before time out?
- If a user does not log out at the end of a session, the session will time out automatically after 20 minutes of inactivity to free up access for other users.
21. Is Boolean search available?
- Yes