The Yale Libraries have debuted the new MyCopy service by Springer. Has your library? Library patrons can now order their personal soft cover books via MyCopy. Following the successful completion of the MyCopy pilot project, Springer has extended this eBook service to all academic libraries in the USA and Canada that have purchased Springer eBook [...]
I have a dream. And it could be easily enough achieved I guess. I would love to have a few ebook readers to loan out to my users. I know of a few libraries that offer Kindles in circulation, like Texas A&M and Princeton. Penn State and Sony recently announced a project where Sony donated [...]
In a report on a USF study, that I found a little disheartening, it was concluded that, while college students do use social media, they don’t use Twitter much and remain unaware of its use for business/professional purposes. So, they use it to connect with friends, but couldn’t care less about businesses, brands or organizations [...]
OCLC and Ebsco have announced an agreement that makes it possible for libraries that subscribe to both WorldCat Local and EBSCOhost services to provide their users with online access to the full text of electronic content. My system has a WorldCat Local beta installation (and several Ebsco products). Users who have tried the beta have [...]
McGraw-Hill announced a major revision of its Digital Engineering Library. The new site will be called AccessEngineering and the URL (http://accessengineeringlibrary.com) will be activated March 9th 2009. The new site will offer new features and enhancements, including: New graphical user interface: state-of-the art functionality streamlines access to content and reader New taxonomy book view: the [...]
Brian Scott Mathews over at The Ubiquitous Librarian made some very interesting looking into the underground market for academic materials via illegal file sharing sites like bit torrent. Apparently, his fictional research brought up big time reference titles like the CRC handbooks, the entire Referex engineering e-book collection, Harvard Business Cases, textbooks and tutti quanti. [...]
Library Journal just published its list of best 2008 sci-tech books. Something for everyone. (Thanks John Dupuis for the heads-up)
The USPTO launched the Peer to Patent Project in June 2007. The Project permits the public to actually take part in the patenting process by submitting prior art and commentary relevant to the claims of pending patent applications in certain classes. These classes are Technology Center 2100 (“Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security”) or Technology [...]
WorldWideScience.org now searches 52 databases and portals from 56 countries. The three latest resources are Sri Lanka Journals Online (SLJOL), Indonesia Journals Online (IJO), and the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN Document Server. WorldWideScience.org “is a global science gateway connecting you to national and international scientific databases and portals”. More content is always good [...]
Just that, US Department of Transportation materials have been added to Science.gov. It comprises 14 government agencies, including the DOT National Transportation Library (NTL) Integrated Search and more than 30 DOT websites. Major subject areas of highway and transportation engineering, statistics, planning, policies, and research. More content is always good news.
Springer Science+Business Media launched a new website called AuthorMapper.com. This free website is an “analytical online tool for discerning trends, patterns and subject experts within scientific research.” Currently, AuthorMapper.com searches over three million journal articles to deliver a variety of useful information. The current searchable content is from all Springer journals, and metadata from other [...]
Interesting article in the February School Library Journal on how school and children’s librarians self-censor themselves when it comes to buy potentially controversial titles for their collection. Working in a public university, I don’t have such qualms although I sometimes do wonder if some titles will elicit a reaction (so far, none). I’m more concerned [...]
The Association of Research Libraries’ Digital Repositories Task Force released its final report earlier this year. The Research Library’s Role in Digital Repository Services is freely accessible on the ARL website. It does not concentrate on content or technology but simply on the services in general. Important actions that research libraries should undertake include the [...]
Mike Elgan of ComputerWorld lists six reasons e-books are about to reach an unprecedented high. the economy the environment (or green living) a publishing revolution (or self-publishing) the rise in aggressive e-book marketing a rise in books written for electronic reading and the decline of the newspaper industry Elgan also mentions the Kindle/iPhone effect, where, [...]
Recently on the STS-L list, someone asked for good sources for book reviews in science and technology. As one of the reasons I started EngLib all that time ago was to create my own archive of interesting-things-to-know-and-remember, I will list the suggested items here by the various contributors to the thread (thanks to them). Choice [...]
As the first USF librarian at the Lakeland campus (now Polytechnic), I opened the USF Polytechnic Library in January 2007 and have developed its various services.
I've held positions as information broker, Internet consultant and academic librarian in Canada, the US and Europe.
A blogger since 2001, I've created and maintained several sites in, and outside, of the biblioblogosphere.
I'm active in SLA, and currently serve as on the boards of the Academic Division and the Florida-Caribbean Chapter.
