The Natural Science Reference Librarian blog

Welcome! You are reading a post on my new Natural Science Reference Librarian blog. Until now, I have been adding posts to this blog in order to get the feel of blogging, but have not actively told faculty and students about this blog. But, now it's time to start spreading the word about it.

I am the WMU Libraries' new science librarian, and am also the liaison to the Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Geosciences departments and the Environmental Studies program. My office is behind the Science Reference Desk in Waldo Library on WMU's West Campus.

My goal for this blog is to provide another means of communication between me and WMU students, faculty, and staff in the departments and program I "liaise" with.

So, in the future, how do you access this blog? You can:

1. see the blog at the blog web site or
2. seethe blog at the parallel blog site on the WMU Libraries site or
3. subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog and have new posts sent to you.

If you're wondering what is an RSS feed and why it is useful, take a look at a brief blurb on the Science Magazine web site called "Using RSS Feeds," and another, called "What is a web feed?," on the Nature web site. You can also email me or call me at 387-5142.

I hope to post roughly once a week information about science resources available through the library. But, that is simply a goal, and this blog is an experiment. If you have any suggestions for this blog, feel free to let me know.

SciFinder Scholar E-Seminars

Throughout January and February, CAS will be holding several e-seminars titled "SciFinder: Exploring New Enhancements in the Web Version of SciFinder." The e-seminars will demonstrate new enhancements to SciFinder Scholar's web version. Sign up for the e-seminars at the CAS e-seminar web page. The e-seminars will be held on:

• January 23
• January 27
• February 3
• February 17
• February 24
  

and on each of these days an e-seminar will be held at:

• 8:30 AM
• 9:00 PM
• 1:00 PM
• 8:30 AM
• 3:00 PM.
  

How does the e-seminar work? You sign up with CAS -- the organization that runs SciFinder Scholar -- at least 24 hours in advance of the webinar. At the scheduled time and date you go to a web page address provided by CAS, log in, and then watch and listen to the webinar. During the webinar, you see a SciFinder Scholar search screen as a person actually does searches while demonstrating the new features. You can hear demonstrator's comments as well as see the mouse arrow move, results lists appear, etc. From the web page you are logged into, you can also instant message questions to the demo team and receive replies back during the webinar.

Why would you want to sign up for this e-seminar? First, CAS puts together a good e-seminar experience. The people demonstrating the new features are very knowledgeable and understand how scientists use the database.

Second, because CAS is adding new features only to the web-based version of SciFinder Scholar, not the client-based version. The web-based version is accessed through the WMU Libraries' web site, whereas the client-based interface is downloaded from the Libraries' web site to individual's computer. Since you will not have access to the new features if you are using the client-based version, it would be useful to see what other features you could have access to and learn how to use them. There is a learning curve for anything new, but learning and using the most up-to-date version of a database makes sense.

If you currently use the client-based SciFinder, or use the web-based but want to learn more about it, give an e-seminar a try.