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More content into WorldWideScience.org

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 news [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 16th, 2009 | Comments Off

DoT added to Science.gov

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.

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 16th, 2009 | Comments Off

AuthorMapper by Springer

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 [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 14th, 2009 | Comments Off

The dirty little secret of self-censorship

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 about [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 13th, 2009 | Comments Off

ARL Digital Repositories Task Force releases its final report

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 following:
• [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 11th, 2009 | Comments Off

Library cats

I’ve just finished Dewey : a small-town library cat who touched the world, loaned to me by my student assistant. It’s a quick, easy read.
It made me wondered though about cats in academic libraries. So I started looking and found this map listing library cats around the world. It’s produced by Gary Roma, who once [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 11th, 2009 | Comments Off

Revolution of the e-books

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, finally, some readers are really catching on.

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 9th, 2009 | Comments Off

Using Twitter in libraries

Phil Bradley wrote a post on his blog about the possible uses of Twitter in libraries.
My library has an account on Twitter (@usfplib). I simply feed the RSS of the library’s blog into it. Since my blog covers events, people, new resources, hours, services etc. I’m pretty well covered. I’m wondering though if it would [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 9th, 2009 | Comments Off

NewsShow app installed

I’ve added the Google NewsShow app for a spin (right hand column, below the cloud). Let’s see what it comes up with. Not surprinsgly, I specified keywords that have to do with academic/university libraries.
Thanks to my DH for his help with the installation.

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 6th, 2009 | Comments Off

Call for Proposals – Brick and Click

The 9th Annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium is now accepting proposals. Deadline is March 3rd and the Symposium will take place in Maryville, MO November 6th 2009. Topics accepted are far-ranging and basically cover anything addressing the needs of both on-ground and on-line students and faculty in an academic library.
I presented at Brick and [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 6th, 2009 | Comments Off

ACRL early-bird tomorrow

The early bird rate for the ACRL conference in Seattle is ending tomorrow, February 6th. Keynote speakers are Naomi Klein, Sherman Alexie and Ira Glass. Don’t forget to register!
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that those who cannot attend in person can register for the Virtual Conference, with synchronous and asynchronous sessions.

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] February 5th, 2009 | Comments Off

Presentation pressure

Are we librarians too hard on ourselves when it comes to presenting?

Flash mob rave at the library

As seen on FaceBook (thanks H.D.) and Youtube:

On Dec. 9th, 2008 in order to break up the stresses of fall semester exam week, UNC students flash raved their Undergraduate Library. Without warning to those that were unaware, hundreds of students packed the library lobby and brought it hardcore for over 8 minutes.
That looked like a [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] January 27th, 2009 | Comments Off

Off to Savannah

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Savannah, GA to attend the SLA Leadership Summit. Keynote speaker is Stephen McGarvey.
I will also officially start my term there as Chair of the Information Technology Division. It will be my first visit to this Southern Belle of a city and I’m really looking forward to it.

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] January 12th, 2009 | Comments Off

Sources for sci-tech book reviews

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
Science
Nature
American Scientist
BioScience
The Scientist
New [...]

by Catherine Lavallee-Welch [ Full Article ] January 12th, 2009 | Comments Off

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