The University Libraries lunched a new discovery interface this week. The interface, called DiscoverySearch, is based on a piece of software from AquaBrowser a leading vendor in the library marketplace. DiscoverySearch looks deceptively simple, but it offers a very powerful way to find and access books and other materials listed in the University Libraries’ catalog. The beauty of DiscoverySearch derives from faceted searching. Following a keyword search, often a huge number of items display. With DiscoverySearch, the search results can easily be refined. For example, if a search on engineering mechanics pulls up one-hundred books but you just want electronic books, a click on a facet labelled electronic books changes the results to e-format only. Other facets such as date, topic, series, and author work in much the same way. A word cloud on the left side of the screen helps you locate other related materials that may be of interest. It’s very nice and will improve your productivity. http://ab.lib.ua-net.ua.edu/
Month: October 2009
Mobile Web Arrives
Did you know that you can access e-journal content licensed by Rodgers Library over the Mobile Web? The iPod Touch (from Apple) is ideal for this purpose. The iPod Touch, using Wi-Fi, easily connects to the Internet. Get productive, go Mobile!
Kindle Readers Ready Monday
A new service featuring Kindle e-book readers (from Amazon.com) is set to launch on November 2. Rodgers Library will circulate Kindles preloaded with a selection of popular reading on a broad range of science, engineering, and nursing topics, plus a few titles of general interest.
Kindle and Kindle DX units will be available for check-out. Kindle units and the titles they contain are listed in the Libraries’ catalog.
• Currently limited to faculty, staff, and students
• Available for check-out from the Circulation Desk
• 2 week check-out period
• No renewals
Look: http://www.kindle.com. Enjoy!
Searching for Older Articles in Biology
Want to search for an older paper in biology? Say a paper written by George H. Denny, the man of Chimes himself? The database BIOSIS Previews indexes the biological literature back to 1926 and covers it to the present.
Click on databases in the left dark grey margin on the Rodgers Library web page. Then click on B then BIOSIS Previews.
Search
Denny George H OR Denny GH in Author
Click on the Search button.
You get
Title: Cholinesterase activity of human leucocytes
Author(s): DENNY, GEORGE H.; HAGERMAN, DWAIN D.
Source: SCIENCE Volume: 123 Issue: (3205) Pages: 987-988 Published: 1956
The BIOSIS full text button leads you to a version of the journal Science we don’t have. However if you use the electronic journal list or the online catalog to search for the journal Science , you will find that we get the electronic journal Science for 1956 in the JSTOR database. What luck!
Of course, you can also search for new articles on biological topics.
Standards for Technology and Commerce
When standards are needed by engineers, they commonly turn to ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials), ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and ISO (International Standards Organization). Standards from other organizations can be handy as well. Since it’s hard to anticipate what specific standards are needed for a project, the library subcribes to SAI Global’s Standards Infobase. This database provides access to over one million standards issued by organizations from around the world. Standards are essential for commerce and technology. Login to the standards database at: http://bit.ly/fawwi
ASME Conference Proceedings Expanded
ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) publishes the proceedings (full text of papers) from about 30 of its conferences each year. Many volumes are found in the Rodgers Library book stacks, but newer content is online. This summer Rodgers Library subscribed to the ASME Online Archive for conference proceedings back to 2002. To access the proceedings login to the ASME Digital Library at http://www.asmedl.org