Finding Nobel Laureates' Research with "Author Finder" Feature

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.


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Trial Database with Environmental Compnent

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

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

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!