Encyclop(a)edias

I was just going through my email and noticed that UCR has canceled our subscription to the Encyclopaedia Britannic online. It this tragic? Probably not.

There is a lot of discussion in the academic world about Wikipedia and why it is such a pervasive source of information for students even though there is no guarantee that any of the information in it is really true. The answer is pretty easy actually...it is very easy to get to, it is free and in general the entries contain a lot of seemingly useful and valid information.

A lot of the information is valid. However it is not valid simply by virtue of being in Wikipedia, it is valid only if it is validated. Whenever you read a Wikipedia entry, take note of the sources of the information. All facts should have little numbers next to them and at the end of the entry, a list will show what source that information came from. A Wikipedia entry is only as good as its sources.

Does that mean that if it has good sources listed, the article is all true? No, because no one is actually responsible for checking that the information is actually in those sources. That is your job.

On the other hand... what options are there when you need a lot of information and you don't want to take the time to track down each fact that wikipedia offers you?

As a university student, you would probably not be able to get away with using the Encyclopaedia Britannica as a source in a research paper in any case...hence it not being a tragedy that we don't get it anymore. However, we do have a large collection of more specifically subject-related encyclopedias that might be fair game. Be careful with this however, some instructors are fairly anti-encyclopedia.

If that is the case, your best option for finding general information about a topic is to look for a book in Scotty. If books are also prohibited...well, that is for another entry...

MRS Proceedings Online

We have just completed negotiations for access to the complete library of MRS (Materials Research Society) Proceedings!

The MRS Online Proceedings Library features over 30,000 peer-reviewed papers presented at MRS Meetings. The proceedings papers can be viewed sorted by meeting by selecting a meeting from the list on the left side of this page. Proceedings can also be viewed sorted by topic.

These proceedings are available directly at: http://library.ucr.edu/go/mrs

Unfortunately, the way the site is arranged makes linking impossible from Google Scholar, UC-eLinks and Compendex, but Compendex does index the papers pretty well and a Google search works well for pulling up papers by title. Access is available from campus or from Web or client VPN.

I hope you are as excited about this as I am, let me know what you think! This is a fairly expensive package so we will want to have plenty of justification for continuing it in the future.

Michele

Tough times call for tough measures - Journal Cancelations

Due to economic factors of which we are all aware, we in the library are working hard to use our budget as efficiently as possible. With that goal we have been systematically reviewing our journal subscriptions and making some adjustments. For subscriptions which we get in both print and electronic format, we have been canceling the print. We have also canceled a few titles with very low usage. For some of these, the cost/benefit ratio amounted to $400-800 for each time an article was used.

Articles from canceled titles will be available for you via interlibrary loans and will come to you electronically in your email.

If you do run into a journal that has been canceled that you would like to have reinstated in better budgetary times, please feel free to let me know and I will keep a file.

Access Engineering Ebooks

Great News! We have another 256 electronic books! Due to the generosity of UC Davis and UC San Diego who paid our portion to participate, we have permanent access to 256 new engineering ebooks from Access Engineering (McGraw Hill). Books are included from all of the following areas.

Biomedical Chemical Civil Communications Construction

Electrical Energy Environmental Green/Sustainable Industrial

Material Science Mechanical Nanotechnology Optical

These books will eventually be included in Scotty. Visit Access Engineering!

Update: I removed the links above because we have a new access method for Access Engineering.

As usual, the easiest way to find online engineering books is to look in Scotty, and limit to Online. 

24 Hours at the Library for Finals Week

Don't forget that the Science and Rivera Libraries are open for business around the clock until the end of finals! The Libraries are great places to study and we hope to see you here!

A Lifetime of Library Fun!

Even though you are leaving the University, your learning will not stop and libraries will always be there for you when you need information. Here are ten pieces of information that will help you make the most of the libraries in your life...

1. As an Alumni Association Member, you will be able to check out books, not only at UCR but also at any UC.
2. If you are local to a research library, you can use their databases while you are in their library.
3. Most public libraries have interlibrary loans, just like you had here. Sometimes it is free, sometimes it has a minimal charge. The Riverside Public Library is part of the same Link+ network that we are.
4. Any U.S. Citizen can get a library card for the Los Angeles Public Library, and they have many (many) useful online resources. You just have to go there and get a card. (Road Trip)
   
5. A resident of any city in California can become a member of almost any public library in California.
6. Google Scholar is a pretty useful way of searching for authoritative information.
7. If you plan to go to grad school, get to know your library and librarian(s)
8. Many journals now provide open access to their backfiles.
9. The Riverside Public Library also has access to the O'Reilly computer Books.
10. You can always ask the UCR Librarians for help.
    

Scopus is Among Us

UC Campuses to Evaluate Scopus

Update: The UC Libraries have concluded their trial of Scopus and found that it does not add sufficient value to replace or augment the databases currently owned by the libraries.  Thank you for your assistance.
 



The University of California community will be trialing Scopus, a large, multidisciplinary research database, through February 28, 2010. Scopus was developed by the scholarly publisher Elsevier, and contains research literature and selected websites.

Overview:Scopus indexes, selectively abstracts, and provides citation analysis (since 1996) for nearly 18,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 4000 publishers (including ~1200 Open Access journals). Unlike Web of Science, Scopus also includes conference proceedings, trade publications, patents and over 431 million web pages. Although most comprehensive in the sciences, Scopus is currently expanding its coverage of the social sciences and humanities literature.

Features:

Alerts

Citation information (i.e. number of times cited)

UC eLinks support for access to full-text, call numbers, or Request

Evaluation:

During the Scopus evaluation period, members of the UC community are invited to consider its coverage and functionalities in comparison with similar databases. (e.g. Web of Science and Google Scholar). Given the current fiscal restraints throughout the UC system, it is unlikely that CDL or any of the UC Libraries will be able to provide access to multiple resources with duplicative or similar content after 2009. The UC Libraries will be actively soliciting feedback on Scopus from end users during the course of the access period.

Contact:

The librarian at UCR who is coordinating the systemwide evaluation of Scopus is Michele Potter who may be contacted at michelep@ucr.edu for additional information and feedback.

Inspec on ISI

On April 20th, Inspec is moving to the ISI (Web of Science) interface. We decided to move Inspec from the Ovid interface because it was the only database left on Ovid, and moving it to ISI makes it cross-searchable with all of the other ISI databases as well as giving it all of the great ISI features such as citation tracking.

For information about how to use this new Inspec visit the online help system.


If you have been using Ovid Inspec through your EndNote program let me know.

Thanks and enjoy.

Online Help is now 24/7

Don't panic. A librarian is now available to help you with your research emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sample uses:

• It is 4 am and you are trying to finish a paper that is due in 5 hours and you need to know the exact way to add a "see also" note to your in text citations.
• It is midnight during finals week and you need to know which libraries are open and how late.
• It is 6 am and you need to know how to get into an article from home

We have you covered. Simply click on the Ask a librarian button (similar to the one in this blog entry) and type in your emergency (er... question). You will be helped by the first librarian available. (If your emergency happens during more normal hours, you can use our librarian chat box on the left side of the libraries' Web site.

Phew.

Springer eBooks 2005-2009 Online

Remember that wonderful trial we had in the fall for all of the Springer ebooks. Due to the cooperation of all of the UC campuses, we were able to get permanent access. Since we are unable to purchase any books at his time, due to budget cuts, this couldn't have come at a better time.

20,000 Springer electronic books now available!

The University of California Libraries have purchased nearly every Springer ebook published in English and German from 2005 to 2009, including Landolt-Bornstein. The collection includes approximately 20,000 ebooks in the sciences and social sciences. This purchase builds on our existing access to Springer book series - such as Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Lecture Notes in Physics, and Topics in Current Chemistry - to greatly expand our ebook collections.


Each book chapter is available as a PDF file without digital rights management (DRM). These files can be downloaded, printed, and even transferred to a PDA or Kindle. Currently the ebooks can be found in Melvyl, Google Scholar and via UC-eLinks. Eventually they will be available in Scotty. You can also search or browse them directly at http://www.springerlink.com .

Books are available in the following categories:

* Architecture and Design
* Behavioral Science
* Biomedical and Life Sciences
* Business and Economics
* Chemistry and Materials Science
* Computer Science
* Earth and Environmental Science
* Engineering
* Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
* Mathematics and Statistics
* Medicine
* Physics and Astronomy
* Professional and Applied Computing


A few Springer ebooks are excluded from this purchase because they have been jointly published with another publisher. The Springer Protocols are not included in this collection.

This purchase will help the libraries to study the viability of ebooks, including such factors as preferences, behaviors, and usage. We will be soliciting feedback from our users regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the electronic format for their specific disciplines and formats.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact your librarian (me).

Ten Things You Need to Know about Google Books

10. Google books can be found by going to Google and selecting books from the "more" pull-down menu or by typing books.google.com

9. The people at Google are scanning an amazing number of books from academic libraries throughout the country and making them available completely searchable.

8. Some books have a limited "preview" available for viewing.

7. The Limited preview isn't very limited, and is often a fairly large portion of the book. Sometimes, you might get lucky and the entire chapter you need to read will be there.

6. Printing is disabled for the limited preview.

5. Books out of copyright are available to download and print. To find books that are downloadable, choose "Full view only" from the "Showing" option at the top of the page.

4. They now include magazines, such as Popular Mechanics

3. To find out if we own the book in the Library, click on the "Find this book in a library"

2. The advanced Search allows you to specify author, language, publisher, title, issn, isbn, subject and publication date.

1. Google books might be the very best place to look if you are searching for very specific and yet fairly authoritative information.

National Game @ Your Library Day

Okay, I have no idea who invented this (or why) but in honor of National Game @ Your Library Day, I have decided to put the fun in library (that doesn't really make sense, does it?)

Anyway. Who knew that we have a ton of video games in the library? We have some in the Multimedia library and some in the music library (Did you know we have a professor here who writes music for video games?).

I hereby pledge that when I finish playing Morrowind, I will donate it to the library. Of course it could take many months. ;)

Also, in honor of this day, I would like to share with you this very fun (remember that I am a librarian) game about the Library of Congress classification system. I scored 4400. If you can prove to me that you beat me, maybe I will give you a prize. :)

They say it's the same, but it's not the same

By now, you will have noticed that while you were away enjoying your summer vacations, basking in the sun on the beaches of Oahu, the Web elves took away your old comfortable UCR Library Home Page and replaced it with something...else.

Don't Panic. It will be okay.

For the most part, all of the changes were to the very top page. The menus on the left were changed slightly, mostly so that they would collapse and uncollapse based on the beta brainwaves (and mouse clicks) of the user. Honestly, wasn't it looking a little crowded over there.

The main part of the page has a lot more words on it. We are going to track how many times each of those words catches the attention of unsuspecting users and if they do not...well it might mean they get the axe. It's a dog eat dog world in the Web real estate game.

Honestly. I want to know what you think. You can let me know here, or you could do something actually useful and fill out our teeny, weeny survey.

I missed you all and I am glad you are back.

Springer eBooks

We have been working with Springer (a notable publisher in Science, Engineering and Medicine) to selectively acquire some of their books in electronic format.

In order to evaluate their products and our interest in them we will be able access their entire collections until December 31st. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

We like Springer because they are not charging a premium for electronic access, and they are fully downloadable (PDF). I hear they even work on the Kindle.

YAML (Yet another Mailing List)

Hello. How are you all doing today. I hope you are well.

I have a great idea. What if you don't use RSS and you don't want to miss out on my informative and mightily amusing missives.

Thusly, I have decided to start a mailing list for engineering graduate students (I know, I know, all of you undergrads are saying, "but what about us?" Wait your turn.)

In a brilliant flash of irony, I have decided to announce it here, which, unless you have bookmarked my blog or are an active RSS user, will do you no good.

I have to come up with a better plan.

If no news is good news, than what is this...

Bad news. We have no money. In a cosmic way. Zip, zero, zilch. I have not been able to purchase, more or less, a single book since January. Please tell me if there is anything important we are missing. I can't even stand to look at all of the lovely, informative, fascinating and unattainable expensive books I am not able to buy. If you have written something, edited something or read something wonderful from 2008 that we really should have...let me know.

I will be able to order direct requests until further notice.

Please bear with me. We still have ILL.

EndNoteable

How many of you have ever heard of EndNote? (show of hands).

Those of you who are already using it, happily and trouble free, can move on to the next post.

The rest of you...

I don't work for EndNote, I don't get any money from EndNote, I have no relatives who rely on EndNote's parent company ISI in any way.

However, it is probably one of the most useful pieces of software you could own as a graduate student, outside of Microsoft Office (or Open Office or Abio), and maybe IE/Firefox/Opera, and whatever specialized engineering software you use for your specific field of Engineering.

EndNote exists solely to help researchers like you keep track of all of the papers you have ever read and easily put them into whatever papers you write. It even works with LaTeX, if you push it hard enough. (since when has x been alloud to sound like "k").

To find out more about EndNote, visit the EndNote Shrine on our Library Home page.

If you ever need help with EndNote, I am here for you.

Google Scholarly

I think it is time that we had a little talk. I have heard that some people (I am not naming names) think that Google Scholar can do everything that our library databases can do, only easier and more...free.

While I truly love Google Scholar, and indeed anything free, I think you all should know a few things about Google Scholar.

A few things about Google Scholar

IP trouble

Many of you may know by now of the trouble we have been having with the new Engineering Building IP's. One by one our vendors are adding the new IP ranges to our authentication profiles, but it is not going as quickly as we hoped.

In the meantime, I would like to let you know that if you find a resource that does not recognize you as coming from UCR, you might want to try the campus wireless connection or the campus Client VPN. Plus we always love you see you in the library :)

Please feel free to contact me if you need any help.

A New Home for Inspec?

Amongst the UC Librarians, we are beginning to discuss the best possible home for the Inspec Database. Right now it is living off by itself on the Ovid Platform. However, many of you are likely more familiar with the EI Village Interface (which we use for Compendex) and the ISI Interface which we use for Web of Science.

When we put two databases onto a single platform, it becomes possible (usually) for us to "cross-search" them, or search them both at a single time. That is the case with Inspec. If we put it in ISI, we will be able to cross-search with Web of Science. If we put it on EI village, we will be able to cross-search with Compendex. Both have their advantages.

So tell me...

Would you rather have Inspec with Compendex or ISI? Or would you rather leave it on Ovid?