Natural Sciences Reference Librarian

Interlibrary Loan Down Thurs, Dec 15

2011-12-14T14:51:00.003-05:00

Alert on Interlibrary Loan log on page.

The Libraries' Interlibrary Loan services will be down for maintenance on Thurs, Dec 15 from 7am through the mid afternoon. There is currently a notice on the Interlibrary Loan log on page alerting people to this (image at right).

If you have any questions about this break in service, feel free to get in touch with me.

SciVerse NOT Down December 10

2011-12-02T10:48:00.002-05:00

As of Dec 8, the Dec 10 SciVerse outage has been postponed until early 2012. According to Elsevier, many people expressed concern about the timing of the outage in its impact on end-of-year research, exams, and other activities.

They will notify us later about the timing and duration of the outage, and I'll pass along their information as soon as I hear anything.

I've just heard from out electronic serials librarian that SciVerse will be unavailable from 7:30AM EST - 8:30PM EST on Saturday, December 10th. SciVerse is an integrated hub that is used to access Science Direct and Scopus. Direct access to these products should be unaffected."

So users will not be able to access the SciVerse hub during this time, but will be able to access the article databases Science Direct and Scopus. It being the end of the semester, and end-of-the-semester research projects due, this could be a impede some last minute research.

If anyone has questions about accessing article databases or journals in light of this service alert, feel free to email me or call me (269-387-5242), or contact the Science Reference staff.

New Nature Physics Subscription

2011-11-29T11:44:00.007-05:00

We now subscribe to the journal Nature Physics, and our subscription includes full text articles starting from volume 1 issue 1 (2005) to the present. If you are on campus, you can access the journal either by going to the Nature Physics website or via the Libraries website. If you are off campus, you will need to use the Libraries website to access full-text articles. If you try to access content from the journal website, the site won't recognize that you're part of the WMU Libraries' subscription and won't allow you access.

Here's a quick demo (about 40 seconds long) of how to access the journal via the Libraries website:

How to access Nature Physics from Libraries website.

New CrossRef DOI standards! What's a DOI?

2011-11-29T10:08:00.000-05:00

Electronic Science article with DOI.

On August 2, CrossRef changed its recommendation for how DOIs should be displayed. Now CrossRef recommends that DOIs include the prefix "http://dx.doi.org/" in addition to the DOI code. Before, it was standard practice to only display the code of a DOI.

But what is a DOI? It's a "digital object identifier," a
string of characters used to cite and to link to an electronic document. For various reasons, DOIs are more permanent and reliable than an URL -- DOIs are guaranteed to never change, unlike regular URLs.

And, how does this DOI code and prefix thing work? Here's an example. In the image to the above is from the online journal Science, highlighted is the DOI code -- 10.1126/science.1203659. That code in specific to that article. It can use used to cite the article. But if you were to type only that code into a web browser search box, nothing would happen. Instead, if you add the prefix "http://dx.doi.org/" to the DOI code, the DOI is automatically routed through an existing DOI resolver website, and then takes you to the electronic article.

Try it. Copy and paste or type the following character string into a web browser search box: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1203659

Now hit the "enter" key or the "search" button in your web browser. If you are using a WMU computer or a WMU wireless internet connection, it should take you directly to the Science article titled "Independently Evolved Virulence Effectors Converge onto Hubs in a Plant Immune System Network." If you are not using a WMU computer or WMU WiFi, you should be prompted to log in with your BroncoNet ID and password, and once you do, the article should pop right up.

But please note: if you are prompted to log in and don't have a BroncoNet ID and password (i.e., are not a WMU student, staff, or faculty member) you will not be able to access this article, even with the full DOI character string, unless you have a personal subscription or access to another institution's subscription to Science.

Why is that? Some electronic documents are accessible only if you pay the publisher or aggregator that own those documents. WMU Libraries pays for a subscription to the journal Science, so any student, staff, or faculty member has access to articles from this journal (within the scope of our subscription), including the article discussed above.

Another question you may have -- what is CrossRef and why do their standards matter? CrossRef is an organization that has a mandate to be "the citation linking backbone for all scholarly information in electronic form" and are the "official DOI registration agency for scholarly and professional publications." Over 3500 publishers and societies are members of CrossRef, including at least hundreds of of science-related journals and publishers. CrossRef in an important component in keeping the DOI system working.

CrossRef and DOIs. Who knew?

New Web of Knowledge Platform

2011-07-05T14:50:00.000-04:00

Detail of new platform.

As of July 17, all Web of Knowledge databases -- including Web of Science, Biosis Preview, and Medline -- will switch to a new default platform. The new platform will have a gray background, which will be easily distinguished from the soon-to-be old platform's bright green background.

The new platform will include additional search features, such as: (i) left-hand truncation, (ii) elimination of "stop words" list, (iii) "near" searches, and (iv) lemmatization.

Lemmatization option.

What will this mean for people using W of K databases? First, left-handed truncation means you will be able to use a search term like "*phosphate" to search for "monophosphate," "triphosphate," etc. Second, the database will no long ignore common "stop words," like "a," "b," and "of," so you can search for a phrase like "vitamin a" without the database automatically eliminating the "a" from your search. Third, after turning on the "lemmatization" feature, a search for "mouse" would also find "mice, and a search for "run" would also include "running" and "ran." Note: this feature is turned on or off by a small, easy-to-over-look drop-down menu at the bottom left of the search screen. Fourth, if you type in a search term like "glia near/5 skeletal" the database will search for articles in which the term "glia" is within five words or the term "skeletal."

Button to preview new platform.

Until July 17, users can preview the new platform by from any W of K database by clicking the "Discover the new Web of Knowledge" button in the upper right corner of the screen. This button takes you to a web page with a large orange button towards its top, which when click takes you to the new platform.

After July 17,the current platform (identified by the green background) will become the "secondary" platform, which you will still be able to access at webofknowledgev4.com until the end of the calendar year.

For information about additional features of the new platform, see the Thompson Reuters page describing them.

Biology Digest and GEOBASE Discontinued

2011-06-29T16:05:00.009-04:00

On June 30, our access to the article databases Biology Digest and GEOBASE will end. Since neither Biology Digest nor GEOBASE index article citations nor do they include full-text articles, we will not loose access to any journal content.

Currently, the library accesses both databases via FirstSearch, a service provided by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.). But since March 2010, OCLC has been phasing out article database services in order to focus on WorldCat, its global library catalog, and other Web-scale library services.

Although Biology Digest and GEOBASE soon will no longer be available, WMU faculty, staff, and students will continue to have other options when searching for biology- and geosciences-related topics. See our biological sciences and geosciences article database guides for database coverage in these subject areas.

New "image search" feature in Science Direct

2010-10-20T13:32:00.006-04:00

Science Direct has a new feature called "Image Search" which, according to SciVerse, allows users to search "an estimated eight million images (and growing) from both journal and book content published post 1994. "

The Image Search feature retrieves both photos and illustrations as well as data charts and graphs, and gives the reference to the article that contains the image.

To use Image Search, (1) open Science Direct database via the link on the libraries' "S" databases page, (2) click the "Search" link on the horizontal, green menu bar, (3) click the "Images" tab, (4) enter a search term in the search box and click "Search.

Learn more about this feature at SciVerse's Image Search web page, their Image Search fact sheet, or contact me.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

AGRICOLA's new Interface

2010-09-20T10:13:00.007-04:00

AGRICOLA is no longer available via the OCLC search interface. Now our AGRICOLA link on the WMU Libraries web site connects to the USDA National Agriculture Library's (NAL's) interface. Although the interface is different, the content available to search is basically the same.

The main difference with the new interface is how it performs searches. For example, the new interface Boolean operators (i.e., AND, OR, NOT) generally are not used, and multiple words are searched as a phrase. For more tips on how to search, see the Search Options: Simple Search or the Search Options: Advanced Search.

Curious about which journals are indexed in AGRICOLA? See the Journals Indexed in AGRICOLA page and browse the complete list or search for a particular title.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Web of Science Now has Direct Export to RefWorks

2010-09-16T14:42:00.005-04:00

Western Michigan University of Web of Science now can directly export citations from Web of Science to RefWorks, a citation management software.

A "Save to RefWorks" button (right) now appears on the search results page for users of the WMU subscription to Web of Science. The University Libraries asked that Thomson Reuters add the button to WMU's Web of Science interface, since the button will be added only if an institution specifically requests it.

With the new button, users now can export citations into RefWorks with one mouse click instead of several, separate steps.

What is RefWorks? It is a software -- available for free to all faculty, staff, and students at Western Michigan University -- that allows users to store and organize citations, store PDFs of articles and other works, and easily create formatted bibliographies.

How do you access it? There's a link to RefWorks from the Libraries web site -- go the the "R" page of Library databases, and scroll down the alphabetical list to "RefWorks" and click the RefWorks link.

For more info on how to use RefWorks, see our page of RefWorks screen cast tutorials, or contact me.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Standards Database Now Available

2010-09-02T15:16:00.005-04:00

The libraries now subscribes to IHS Standards Expert, an online database containing citations for over a million standards from over 370 standards organizations, ranging from the the Aluminum Association (AA) to the Wire Reinforcement Institute (WRI). The database can be searched by keywords, standard number, and organization.

Although this database allows users to conduct one search amongst many standards organization -- a great improvement -- users must contact our engineering librarian, Ed Eckel to obtain the actual standards.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Free SciFinder E-Seminars

2010-07-28T10:17:00.006-04:00

The fall semester if fast approaching, so it's not too soon to start thinking about honing your article databases searching skills for the upcoming academic year.

CAS is hosting in September two e-seminars on the article database SciFinder:

SciFinder Fundamentals Part 1: Basic Search and Analysis Techniques -- Tues, Sept 14, 2-3pm EDT
SciFinder Fundamentals Part 2: Basic Search and Analysis Techniques -- Wed, Sept 15, 2-3pm EDT

These e-seminars will cover how to efficiently use SciFinder's:

navigation features
literature analysis tools
literature review abilities
alert services
structure searching tools
reaction and preparation locating features
smart linking features
non-linear information gathering abilities

SciFinder -- an invaluable chemistry article database -- also contains conference proceedings, dissertations, technical reports, patents, substance records, formula, structures, and reactions.

Both experienced SciFinder users as well as novices would benefit from these e-seminars. I've attended several CAS e-seminars and found them very helpful -- instead merely giving a tour of what buttons to click, the presenters use relevant, real life research examples in thoughtful, innovative ways, which just happen to highlight useful SciFinder features. I highly recommend them and encourage anyone that searches for chemistry literature to sign up.

To register for these *free* e-seminars, go to the SciFinder Training Calendar at http://sfcalendar.cas.org/.

As always, if you have any questions about this, feel free to contact me at carrie.leatherman@wmich.edu.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Climate Change Books Reviewed in "Science Express"

2010-05-28T14:12:00.015-04:00

In this week's Science Express*, an essay review by philosopher Philip Kitcher highlights eight books about climate change. Kitcher's review is a worthwhile read, as are the actual books themselves, all published in 2009 0r 2010:

Climate Change Science and Policy, by Stephen H. Schneider, Armin Rosencranz, Michael D. Mastrandrea, and Kristin Kuntz-Duriseti.
The climate solutions consensus, by David E. Blockstein and Leo A.W. Wiegman. Waldo Library, General Stacks Call Number: QC903 .B54 2010
The Lomborg deception : setting the record straight about global warming, by Howard Friel; foreword by Thomas E. Lovejoy. Waldo Library, General Stacks Call Number: Q175.37 .F75 2010
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming / Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway Erik Conway.
Politics of climate change, by Anthony Giddens.
Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate, by Stephen H. Schneider.
Storms of my grandchildren : the truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity, by James Hansen ; illustrations by Makiko Sato. Waldo Library, General Stacks Call Number: QC981.8.G56 H365 2009
Why we disagree about climate change : understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity, by Mike Hulme. Waldo Library, General Stacks Call Number: QC981.8.C5 H825 2009

The library currently owns four of the books (those with the title hyperlinked to its library catalog record). As for the other four that we don't own, I placed an order for them today. :-)

If you know of any other books that they library should add to its holdings -- on climate change or any topic in the natural sciences -- feel free to place a request or contact me directly.

* Note: Science Express is an online feature of Science Magazine in which the editors of Science select each week several papers for online publication *four to six weeks* before they appear in print. You can access the current week's Science Express articles at the Science Express web page.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Wiley Interscience to be Replaced by Wiley Online Library

2010-04-27T10:44:00.005-04:00

The Library currently has a subscription to Wiley Interscience -- a database that contains articles from about 1200 journals, mainly focusing on the sciences. On Saturday, July 24, the Wiley Interscience interface will be replaced by a new interface, Wiley Online Library.

According to the Wiley Online Library website,
the new interface will be "easier to navigate, more intuitive with a modern design."

For more information about the upcoming change, see the FAQs page, or view screen shots of the interface on the Wiley Online Library Facebook page (!).

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Earth Day and Library Resources

2010-04-21T17:07:00.007-04:00

Earth Day seems like an appropriate day to feature a few of the library's many environment-related resources.

Environmental Studies Subject Guide. Its main page includes links to thirteen article databases provide coverage of this multidisciplinary topic.
Included in this subject guide is the databases Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, and a search for "earth day" results in 102 references, in an interestingly wide array of documents.
NewsBank, a newspaper article database with worldwide coverage, now has a "World Environment - Earth Day" special report. It includes current and historic articles covering this year's Earth Day, its history, environmental issues around the world, and other related topics.

Interested in other environmental-related library resources? Contact me at carrie.leatherman@wmich.edu.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Large Hadron Collider - Basic Resources

2010-03-31T16:22:00.008-04:00

Yesterday CERN's Large Hadron Collider began colliding subatomic particles. When the collider began operating, it was the culmination of about sixteen years of planning, construction, and great anticipation.

If you're wondering about the history of this collider project, the science behind it, or what physicists are trying to find out by using the collider, there are resources at the library to satisfy your curiosity.

A library catalog search for the keywords "large hadron collider" retrieves nine items specifically about the collider, ranging from print books to electronic books to government documents on microfiche. These items are a great place to start when researching the Large Hadron Collider project.

Asides from these specific nine, there are many, many more books, articles, and other resources in the library related to the Large Hedron Collider, particle accelerators, and particle physics. For more information on finding these resources, contact the Science Reference Department or me directly.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

LexisNexis Environmental Now in Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management

2010-03-18T13:55:00.008-04:00

Looking for the article database LexisNexis Environmental? It has been absorbed by ProQuest-CSA and is now part of the Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management database within ProQuest-CSA.

You can access this database from the Libraries' Environmental Studies Article Databases page -- just as you did Lexis Nexis Environmental. Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management is the first database in the list.

*** View my parallel blog on WMU Libraries' Web site ***

Electronic Library Resources and Turkey

2009-11-25T13:24:00.015-05:00

Okay, today's post is only loosely related to natural sciences, but it does highlight some great electronic library resources, especially two that might come in handy for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

WMU Libraries have several items with "cookery (turkey)" as a subject, but two of these resources may be of special interest on the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. The first, titled Let's Talk Turkey: A Consumer Guide to Safely Roasting a Turkey, a pamphlet put out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is part of our Government Documents collection in the library. By clicking on the web link included in Talk Turkey's catalog record (see record detail above), you can access the PDF version of the pamphlet. This resource is an example of how U.S. Government Documents are increasingly available online.

The second item is Wild Turkeys: Hunting and Watching. Haven't gotten your Thanksgiving turkey yet? Why not skip the grocery store and instead let this resource show you how to get your turkey the old fashioned way. Wild Turkeys is an e-book -- an electronic version of the book that is viewed online.

To check out and read the book, you click on a web link in this item's library catalog record (see record detail at above), which takes you directly to the e-book viewer. This viewer has many features, such as a hot-linked table of contents (TOC) that allows you to click directly to book sections listed in the TOC, and a feature that lets you search for, and go directly to, keywords in the book text.

The WMU Libraries have many e-books on various topics available through the library web site. For an overview, see the Electronic Books Guide on the Libraries' web site. I'll talk more about effectively using electronic library books in future posts.

Meanwhile, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

New SciFinder Scholar Features

2009-11-11T15:41:00.011-05:00

SciFinder now has three interesting new collaboration features: Tags, My Connections, and Comments. All three are Web 2.0 features of sorts, allowing SciFinder Scholar users to interact within, and add content to, the site.

The Tags feature enables you to add specific references in SciFinder Scholar to a "tagged" list that is saved by the database and can be viewed, even after you close the research session during which you tagged the reference. This is a lot like SciFinder Scholar's Saved Answer Set feature -- but with a twist. The Tags feature allows you to invite others at your home institution to share tags. In other words, any faculty, staff, or student at Western Michigan University could invite any other WMU faculty, staff, or student to share Tags. Once you share Tags with someone, the two of you can access each other's list of Tagged references.

You can invite others to share by using the second new feature, My Connections. This feature allow you to send invitations to share your Tagged list, to respond to others that have invited you to share, and to view the list of people with which you are already sharing.

The last feature, Comments, allows you to attach comments to specific reference in SciFinder Scholar. While you can view a list of all of the reference you have tagged, oddly, you can only view references with comments if that reference is also tagged.

I've played around a bit with these new features, and they look like they have a lot of potential for researchers working in groups, professors or TAs using reference as instruction materials, or anyone that simply wants a easy way to share a reference.

But, there two thing to keep in mind. First, as of this post, SciFinder does not allow you to make a Tag "group" in which only certain people on your My Connections list can see only certain Tagged references. This means that once you are set up to share tags and comments with people, you can see *all* of each other's tags and comments. Second, you can only share with people at your home institution, i.e., people that are associated with the same SciFinder Scholar subscription. Perhaps SciFinder will expand this feature so anyone using the database could share tags and comments, but for now, this is not the case.

For more information about these and other new features, contact me or see SciFinder's How to Use New Features publication.

*** Have you seen my parallel blog on the University Libraries site? ***

Finding Nobel Laureates' Research with "Author Finder" Feature

2009-10-08T17:29:00.005-04:00

The 2009 recipients for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry were announced yesterday. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology), Thomas A. Steitz (Yale University), and Ada E. Yonath (Weizmann Institute of Science) were awarded the prize for "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."

The Nobel Prize web site links to three researchers' home institution web pages, from which you can access a list of publications of Ramakrishnan and Yonath, and even the full text of many of the articles.

But, you also have access to many of these publications through library article databases (for example, Web of Science), with the accompanying database features such as:

Direct links to the research articles' cited works
Links to articles that have *cited* the researchers' articles
Links to other related articles
Ability to export article citations to a citation management software like RefWorks or EndNote

So, how do you find the Laureates' works in an article database? It can get tricky. For example, in Web of Science, there are five authors with the last name "Ramakrishnan" and the first initial "V." But if you try the Web of Science "Author Finder" feature (see image above) you can limit an author search by subdiscipline and home institution much more easily that if you entered this information into the "Search" or "Advanced Search" screens.

Questions about finding the Laureates' articles or the "Author Finder" feature? Let me know.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Trial Database with Environmental Compnent

2009-09-25T10:21:00.010-04:00

The WMU Libraries has a trial subscription to the Global Issues in Context database (password: "trial"). This database is produced by the same company as the GREENR, another trial database I wrote about yesterday.

Both databases have a similar format -- a focus on news, background information, primary source documents, commentaries, statistics, and and videos -- although different subject emphasis.

Since Global Issues in Context has an environmental component (the image and links circled on the screen shot to the right), I would like to know how students, staff, and faculty in the WMU natural sciences departments think these two databases compare.

Do you think that...

(1) subscribing to both GREENR and Global Issues in Context would be redundant
(2) we should subscribe to GREENR -- subscribing to only Global Issues in Context would *not* provide enough environmental resources
(3) Both databases are wonderful and needed
(4) Neither stands out - we already subscribe to all of the environmental article databases you need
(5) Other: _____________________________________

Please let me know what you think.

The trial ends Friday, October 23.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Try Out Environmental Database

2009-09-24T09:18:00.012-04:00

The WMU Libraries are trying out GREENR, an online database that includes materials -- news, background information, primary source documents, commentaries, statistics, and and videos covering renergy systems, healthcare, food, climate change, population, and economic development -- about environmental issues.

The database's content and organization is quite different than a typical article database, and we in the libraries are trying to decide if it's worth subscribing to. Please take a look at it and let me know what you think.

Faculty, is this a resource that you would for your research? Students, is this a database that you would use for assignments? Instructors, is this a resource you would suggest your students use for projects? Let me know.

The trial subscription ends ~~Wednesday, September 30~~ Friday, October 23.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Tips for New Catalog

2009-08-13T16:46:00.006-04:00

Just this afternoon we added a new "tips" section on the search page of our new library catalog. We've had, for a good part of the summer now, search buttons on the library home page for both the new version of the library catalog and the "classic" version (highlighted with those purple arrows in the image above).

All the same materials are still in the catalog, you just now have a slightly different tool to use to find them. And, now you have a more fleshed-out tip sheet to help you use this new tool.

Questions? Let me know!

New Library Catalog to Roll Out June 24

2009-05-21T13:52:00.005-04:00

On June 24, the WMU Libraries’ Catalog is getting a new look, as well as some new features.

The new interface has a cleaner look, and allows users to search by title, author, etc., as with the current catalog. Users will be able to search in the new catalog version by type of material and material location more easily. A search in the new catalog will produce a list of titles as well as a hot linked list of topics, authors, languages, formats, etc. Clicking on anyone of these links narrows your search results, a very clean and organized way of finding what you need.

Also exciting is the new catalog’s emphasis on discovery, with a “More Like This” feature, and Web 2.0 features, like tagging, that allow users to add subject tags to materials in the catalog.

A beta version of the new catalog is available for use right now. We'd love to have your feed back about it now and even after the June 24 roll out. Give it a try.

Meanwhile, the familiar "classic" version of the library catalog will also be available, but after June 24 it will not be the default version of the catalog.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Chemical, Biological, and Physics Abstracts on the Move

2009-04-02T13:56:00.006-04:00

As electronic article databases have become the research tool of choice for students and faculty, we've noticed in the Science Reference Department that our paper article abstract indexes get less use with each passing year. Since these paper indexes get such little use, and since we always need more room in the library, we will be moving the Biological, Chemical, and Physics Abstracts out of the library and into to a storage building on campus in the next week.

So, how will this move impact your library research? Very little, for two reasons. First, the content of the paper indexes is available in electronic article databases available through the libraries' web site. Here are the paper abstract indexes and their "equivalent" electronic article databases.

Biological Abstracts -- Biosis Previews
Chem Abstracts -- SciFinder Scholar
Physics Abstracts -- Scopus

Second, if anyone has a research need that requires the paper abstract indexes, they will still be accessible! Anyone can request a particular volume(s) from storage. The library catalog record for each of the Abstracts will soon list "Storage" as their location, and will have a "Get this Item for Me from Storage" link to an online Storage Material Request Form. Simply fill in what specific volumes you need and submit the form electronically.

And as always, if you have any question about accessing materials in storage, or any other questions, feel free to contact me.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Trial Database: National Technical Reports Library

2009-03-09T09:58:00.008-04:00

The WMU Libraries is trying out a new electronic database, the National Technical Reports Library, or NTRL, which contains technical reports produced by federally-funded organizations. The trial subscription for this database will go on through March 31. We'd appreciate your feedback about the database.

The NTRL contains technical reports produced by a variety of organizations, such as the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and covers a wide range topics, including biology, medicine, chemistry, natural resources, earth sciences, and environmental pollution.

The database has a search interface like most other electronic databases -- the "advanced search" page allows you to search for a word or phrase within the title, abstract, and author name, product number, or accession (i.e., report) number.

But it has another valuable search feature. You can search for reports by the agency that generated the report, by subject, and by year -- simply chose an agency, subject, or range of years from lists on the advanced search page. You can also select a specific year to search within.

Most reports in the database have an abstract and, especially recent reports, are available as a full text PDF file.

In addition, NTRL allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed of technical reports in a particular subject area. (For more information about RSS feeds, see my Jan. 21 posting.)

Please take a look and the database and give us your feedback by filing out an online evaluation.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Subject Guides for Your Department

2009-02-20T10:32:00.008-05:00

Did you know that there are biological sciences, chemistry, environmental studies, and geosciences subject guides on the Libraries web site? And, that the subject guides list and *link* to the Libraries article databases especially relevant to your field of study?

Here's how you can access these subject guides...

Go to the Libraries web page
Hover your mouse over the "Research" link (on the left side of the tan navigation bar at the top of the screen)
Move your mouse down to "Subject Guides" and click
From the alphabetical list, click which ever guide you want to use

The library has over eighty subject guides. In addition to linking to relevant article databases, these guides also link to handbooks, dictionaries, patents, government information as well as other useful information.

Knowing where these resources are centrally located can save you time and effort.

Take a look at the subject guide relevant to you. Tell your students about it. If you have any questions or suggestions of other resources that should be included in the guides, feel free to let me know.

*** View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site ***

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin

2009-02-11T16:32:00.014-05:00

February 12 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who theorized that evolution was driven by natural selection.

We have at Waldo Library many of Darwin's published works, including various editions of Darwin's "big four" : The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animal, The Origin of Species, and Voyage of the Beagle.

Also here is a list of all the works by Darwin in the library's holdings. You can also create this list by searching in the library catalog for "Darwin, Charles" as the *author.*

We also have many books about Darwin. You can create this list by searching in the library catalog for "Darwin, Charles" as the *subject heading.*

***View my parallel blog at on the WMU Libraries site***

The Natural Science Reference Librarian blog

2009-01-21T14:15:00.023-05:00

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

2009-01-14T10:40:00.013-05:00

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.

Great Lakes Compact, NewsBank database

2008-12-08T10:15:00.004-05:00

The Great Lakes Compact, signed by the president on Oct 3, 2008, goes into effect today.

The Compact itself has not gotten gotten much coverage in the scientific literature, but there has been a fair amount of coverage in the U.S. newspapers.

The library has a database called NewsBank that allows users to search for hundreds of local and national newspapers at once, and a search for the term "great lakes compact" resulted in over forty relevant news articles.

To use the NewsBank database...

Go to the library main page
Click the "Databases A-Z tab (located in the middle of the screen)
Click the "N" in the range of letters highlighted in black
Scroll down to "NewsBank NewsFile" and click the link
Type in whatever term you'd like to look up, and click the "search" button

This is a great way to search many newspapers at once. One downside is that it usually takes a couple of days for articles to be indexed, so your search results probably won't include articles published on the day of your search.

List of journals by subject and discipline

2008-12-05T11:38:00.003-05:00

Did you know that you can view of list of journals that the library subscribes to, arranged by subject or discipline? You can, and here's how...

Go to the main page of the library's web site
Click the "Journals" tab -- the third tab atop the outlined box about in the middle of the page
In this outlined box, click the "Journals organized by research discipline" link -- this opens a web page titled "A - Z List of Journals, Magazines and Newspapers at WMU."
In the "Category" menu on this web page, select one of seventeen subject areas, and then a subcategories within that area.
Click the big red button marked "Go."
A list of the journal titles appears below the menu of subject areas!

On top of that, each of the journal titles is hotlinked to a list of (a) the volumes the library has in print and (b) a link to access the journal electronically (if available).

And as always, you can always contact me or contact the library for help with this.

Testing new library catalog

2008-12-03T16:20:00.002-05:00

The WMU Libraries are testing a new library catalog that, we hope, will be easier to use. But to determine how well the new catalog works our library web master, Michael Whang, and one of our librarians, Sheila Bair, need faculty volunteers for a study they are conducting.

All volunteers would need to do is to search in the old and new library catalog for answers to six questions. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.

You can view a brief library web page about the study.

If you are interested, contact Michael at michael.whang@wmich.edu or Sheila at sheila.bair@wmich.edu.

Scientific Style and Format, 7th edition

2008-12-01T16:30:00.001-05:00

Waldo Library has just acquired the most current edition of the science writing style manual Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. Shelved in Science Reference area, this style manual is a valuable resource for anyone writing a scientific paper or book for publication.

CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences Abstracts

2008-11-12T16:08:00.000-05:00

WMU Library users will have access to a trial subscription of CSA Illustrata: Natural Science Abstracts until Nov 30, 2008. Users can search this database for tables, figures, charts, and other illustrations within scholarly articles. Subject coverage: 2000+ journals in Agriculture, Biology, Education, Geography, Medicine and more.

Students and faculty, let me know if you think this database would be useful for your research.

Natural Sciences Reference Librarian

Interlibrary Loan Down Thurs, Dec 15

SciVerse *NOT* Down December 10

New Nature Physics Subscription

New CrossRef DOI standards! What's a DOI?

New Web of Knowledge Platform

Biology Digest and GEOBASE Discontinued

New "image search" feature in Science Direct

AGRICOLA's new Interface

Web of Science Now has Direct Export to RefWorks

Standards Database Now Available

Free SciFinder E-Seminars

Climate Change Books Reviewed in "Science Express"

Wiley Interscience to be Replaced by Wiley Online Library

Earth Day and Library Resources

Large Hadron Collider - Basic Resources

LexisNexis Environmental Now in Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management

Electronic Library Resources and Turkey

New SciFinder Scholar Features

Finding Nobel Laureates' Research with "Author Finder" Feature

Trial Database with Environmental Compnent

Try Out Environmental Database

Tips for New Catalog

New Library Catalog to Roll Out June 24

Chemical, Biological, and Physics Abstracts on the Move

Trial Database: National Technical Reports Library

Subject Guides for Your Department

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin

The Natural Science Reference Librarian blog

SciFinder Scholar E-Seminars

Great Lakes Compact, NewsBank database

List of journals by subject and discipline

Testing new library catalog

Scientific Style and Format, 7th edition

CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences Abstracts

SciVerse NOT Down December 10