ICON database update
Our IOM3 Library Team explain to members where IMMAGE has gone and how to use the new ICON library catalogue which has replaced it.
Some members needing information on mineral deposits, mining, mineral processing or extractive metallurgy have been confused to find that IMMAGE, our library database of the past forty years, appears to have vanished from our website since last summer. Don’t despair, this isn’t a result of the pandemic or dire policy changes but, on the contrary, one of the benefits of our having finally been able to include the other subject areas of the library in our online provision. All the IMMAGE records have been transferred to ICON, our new library database introduced last autumn, where minerals and mining members can still search for the topic of their choice, read the informative abstracts, order photocopies or borrow books – and there are improvements too! Member access is no longer through a single portal, so you can set up personal alerts for whatever new records are added in your subject area (see our user guide for further details).
Indeed, the only thing about IMMAGE that has been abandoned is the old subscription service. ICON is now free not only to members but to all website users, so please spread the word among your colleagues and contacts. It provides an extremely useful point of access to the technical literature of the minerals industry since 1979 that is held in the former IMM library, with a selection of our older records (1894-1979) being added from the card catalogues as and when we have time. For non-members, the full text of articles may still be purchased from the library subject to copyright legislation and in-situ library access is also available on payment of a visitor’s fee. For members, this is your library and we are delighted for you to make full use of it – the only small charges are to recover some of our costs if you wish to order loans or photocopies by post/email or to scan/photograph particular documents when visiting the library.
Have a look around, members can start by simply keying in a phrase such as “cobalt deposits”, “sublevel caving”, “bastnaesite flotation” or “loparite chlorination” in the search box (add the name of a particular country if you wish, e.g. “cobalt deposits Morocco”) and see what we have.
Do contact the Library Team on the button below if you want more advice on a particular search, for enquiries regarding loans, photocopies, library visits, setting up your account or the system in general.
