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New to the library website is GeoScience World. This is a free index produced by several geoscience societies and institutes, allowing users to search many different journals. For more information on this resource, see the "More Information" page at http://library.wlu.edu/details.asp?resID=902.
The 2006 Virginia GIS Conference will take place at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia on October 23 and 24. Presentation proposals are due by June 15. For more info, visit http://www.rvarc.org/vagis.
A copy of the announcement is available on my office bulletin board.
Biochemical Journal is celebrating 100 years by providing full-text open access to all issues at http://www.biochemj.org/bj/toc.htm.
This journal is published on behalf of The Biochemical Society by Portland Press. Many of the recent issues not only provide PDF format for viewing, but also EESI-View, a new way to view journal articles. Older issues provide PDF.
I am opening up discussion of the JSTOR Journal Project. If you did not receive the email about this project, please contact me. A list of the Science Library's JSTOR journals is available at http://odtaa.wlu.edu/periodicals/JSTORListAll.asp thanks to the hard work of Cindy Morton and Wendy Richards. This list includes the titles' links in the Annie catalog, coverage in JSTOR, coverage in other electronic formats, and coverage in print. If we are able to discard these volumes, we could save well over 200 feet in shelf space. That gives us room for growth of our other periodical titles that are not available in JSTOR and for new subscriptions.
Original email:
Dear Science faculty,Many of you have heard of, or perhaps observed for yourself, the space issue in the Science Library. A healthy library is one that has plenty of room for growth, and we are quickly running out of room. This problem is especially serious in the bound periodicals section on Upper Level 4. The lack of shelf space on this floor will soon make it impossible to acquire new periodical titles as well as continue to receive our current subscriptions.
However, there is a solution that will save shelf space while continuing our current subscriptions. JSTOR, an online journal archive, has the made the back issues of many journals available in a high quality electronic format. Most of these journals have the electronic archive available from the start of publication.
To save shelf space, a logical solution is to discard these print volumes in favor of the electronic archive that JSTOR provides. We will still keep the print version of these titles for five years, since they are not archived in JSTOR until five years after publication. (Read more about JSTOR's "moving wall" at http://www.jstor.org/about/movingwall.html.) This means that you will still be able to come to the library and read the latest print issue of your favorite journals as always, and direct students to these journals as well. The Annie catalog and the Periodical Finder both reflect our electronic access to these journals, so access to the archives are just a few clicks away. As many of you know, JSTOR has an excellent interface for locating volumes and/or issues of journals and locating particular articles within that volume/issue.
A list of the Science Library's JSTOR journals is available at http://odtaa.wlu.edu/periodicals/JSTORListAll.asp thanks to the hard work of Cindy Morton and Wendy Richards. This list includes the titles' links in the Annie catalog, coverage in JSTOR, coverage in other electronic formats, and coverage in print. If we are able to discard these volumes, we could save well over 200 feet in shelf space. That gives us room for growth of our other periodical titles that are not available in JSTOR and for new subscriptions.
Please take a look at this list. I will open a discussion on the Science Library Updates blog so that you may comment and ask questions about this project. I would like to address everyone's concerns before embarking on this project, but I believe it will be a solution that everyone will feel confident in.
Sincerely,
Mary Abdoney
Another open access journal has been launched: Biointerphases. Edited by Michael Grunze (University of Heidelberg), and with an editorial board including premier scientists, this will likely become another pioneer in the open access movement. Biointerphases is published by AVS.
From the journal's homepage:
The Biointerphases journal provides an interdisciplinary platform for scientific exchange among the biology, chemistry, physics, and materials sciences communities. It offers a discussion forum for rapid dissemination of scientific theories, results, and interpretations. Biointerphases serves as a global vehicle for the biomaterials interface community as well as a platform that encourages dialog between scientists and the public with respect to cogent policy issues.
I have posted a survey, that will only take a few moments to answer, that will give you an opportunity to tell me how you use the Science Library. The results will show where our weaknesses are as well as our strengths, and will provide a starting point to make improvements. The survey will be available until May 10 at 5 p.m. To take the survey, follow this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=862252010596. The results are completely anonymous, so please answer as accurately as possible.
You will need a password to take the survey. Please contact me via email or phone to obtain the password.
Microsoft has developed some competition for Google Scholar: Windows Live Academic. Currently in beta, this service only covers physics, engineering and computer science. In my opinion, it is a better service than Google Scholar, but still does not meet the needs of those doing very comprehensive research.
However, the advantages are on target. A split screen allows the user to scroll through the results list on the left side, mouse over an interesting article, and preview that article in the right side of the screen. This prevents a lot of "linking out" of the results list. Also, there is the option to create RSS feeds for specific topics or authors, so you can be alerted when a new item comes online.
Reviews on the product are available here, here, and here.
Below, some of the explanatory text on the Windows Live Academic home page:
What is Windows Live Academic?Windows Live Academic is a new addition to the Windows Live Search family of services that allows users to search through academic information. Currently, users can search content in academic journals in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics. We will be adding more subject areas in the near future, based on user feedback and demand.
What content do you have in your index right now?
Academic search beta, as of launch date, has deep content in three fields: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics - with more than 6 million records from approximately 4300 journals and 2000 conferences.
Why don't you have content from all fields?
Academic search has launched in a beta version so we can receive feedback from our users - ultimately allowing us to introduce a product that will provide the best possible user experience. We understand that for researchers to have a productive search experience, they need to search a comprehensive index in their field of study. Therefore, we decided to launch our beta version with journal content from Computer Science, Engineering (mostly electrical and electronics), and a good selection of Physics journals. We believe that ourdeep index in these chosen fields will serve the needs of our users well, so they can give us the feedback we need to improve the search experience. After launch, we will add content in phases from more subject areas. Our goal is to have the most comprehensive, largest academic index possible.
This looks like something that students will start using, just like Google Scholar, whether it offers quality information or not. It's always best to be aware of what is available so that we know how students use resources, so take a look.
I now have a del.icio.us page. For those who don't know, this is an organization / portable bookmark / sharing tool for Internet websites. With a free account you can "tag" websites to share with others or to visit later from any computer.
I have a del.icio.us page at http://del.icio.us/WLUSciLibrarian. It contains things related to libraries, science libraries, open access, and things that I'm thinking about adding to the Science Library's list of electronic resources. If you want to see what I'm looking at, click on the "website_additions" tag. You can also recommend websites to me that you would like to be considered for addition.