Friday 16 December 2011

Mid Term Review of National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2008-2013

 The difficulties in the Irish economy form the main backdrop to implementation of the
National Access Plan since publication in July 2008. The ongoing social and economic
challenges we currently face have been well-documented, and although other developed
countries throughout the world are facing similar challenges, our circumstances as a small
island with an open economy, along with the consequences of imprudent lending and
speculation practices in the majority of our main banks have made the road to recovery
particularly challenging.

http://www.hea.ie/en/Publications#2011

Wednesday 14 December 2011

New Sustainable Design & Research in Engineering and the Built Environment Journal Launched

A new engineering journal has been launched The SDAR* journal is published by CIBSE Ireland and the School of Electrical Engineering (SEES) in DIT. It is supported by Airtricity and produced by Pressline Ltd. 

 The journal is a result of continuing collaboration between the professional organisations, industry and academia. It emphasises the need to move from ideologically based sustainable engineering to  proven low energy solution solutions. It is a vehicle to increase research in engineering to meet the modern challenges posed. There is a strong spine of proven industry solutions as well as well as significant and worthy contributions from students, graduates and researchers in academia. All papers are heavily evidence based with deep analysis and critical reflection. They are peer reviewed by an expert reviewing panel. The intention of CIBSE is to increase applied research in the industry whilst taking the fear out of the word  research for working engineers and companies. The intention for SEES is to provide opportunities for research students to gain access to data and link with the industry experts in this field to enhance the quality of their programmes and research in engineering of the built environment.
Available Online at:  http://eleceng.dit.ie/sdar/ 

Almost a quarter of people aged 16-74 in the EU 27 have never used the Internet

Internet access and use in 2011:
For many people today it seems difficult to live without the internet, however a decreasing, but still non-negligible, part of the EU population has never used it. In the EU27, almost three quarters of households had access to the internet in the first quarter of 2011, compared with almost half in the first quarter of 2006. The share of households with broadband internet connections more than doubled between 2006 and 2011, to reach 68% in 2011 compared with 30% in 2006. During the same period, the share of individuals aged 16-74 in the EU27 who had never used the internet decreased from 42% to 24%.
 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/

Tuesday 6 December 2011

NUI Maynooth Neuroscientist discovers link between ADHD and the ciradian body clock

Dr. Coogan, a neuroscientist based at the Department of Psychology NUI Maynooth, has published the results of a study linking Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults to the circadian rhythm, commonly referred to as the body clock.  The study shows a direct link between the 24 hour body clock and the symptoms of ADHD.  It opens the door for a possible therapy for the condition, currently usually managed by an expensive medication regime.

http://communications.nuim.ie/press/06122011.shtml

 Baird, A. L., Coogan, A. N., Siddiqui, A., Donev, R. M., & Thome, J. (2011). Adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is associated with alterations in circadian rhythms at the behavioural, endocrine and molecular levels. Mol Psychiatry. doi: http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp2011149a.html

Emerald Engineering eJournal Collection

 The Emerald Engineering eJournal Collection comprises online access to the abstracts and full text of all the journals within Emerald’s engineering, materials science and technology portfolio. Sixteen of the journals in the Emerald Engineering eJournal Collection are listed in Thomson Scientific (formerly ISI) and unique in their field with authors and subscribers from some of the world’s leading institutions and organizations.

 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/eng/database.htm

Tuesday 29 November 2011

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban 2011, will bring together representatives of the world's governments, international organizations and civil society. The discussions will seek to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached at COP 16 last December.

http://unfccc.int/2860.php

Life Science Analytics Reports (Company Profiles)

Need Company Information for your Research? 
 Life Sciences Analytics Reports are available from the Business Source Complete Database. The database can be selected from the Library Database A-Z, then select the “More” tab and choose “Company Profiles” 

Life Science Analytics is a biomedical data company that provides corporate intelligence and research products to life science companies and financial industry professionals

 

Monday 28 November 2011

Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters

The Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) was approved and accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 18 November 2011 in Kampala, Uganda. SREX integrates expertise in climate science, disaster risk management, and adaptation to inform discussions on how to reduce and manage the risks of extreme events and disasters in a changing climate. The report evaluates the role of climate change in altering characteristics of extreme events; and it assesses experience with a wide range of options used by institutions, organizations, and communities to reduce exposure and vulnerability, and improve resilience, to climate extremes.

Latest Additions to NUI Maynooth ePrints and eTheses Archive

http://eprints.nuim.ie/cgi/latest

‘Animals on Earth for 450 million years less than we thought’ – NUI Maynooth scientist ‘Cambrian Explosion’ significance verified

 Animal life as we know it on earth has been around for a third less, that is 450 million years less, than conventionally understood by science – that’s one of the findings of a leading team of international multidisciplinary scientists including NUI Maynooth’s Dr. Davide Pisani and published in this month’s Science magazine.
http://communications.nuim.ie/press/251120112.shtml

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Home: we all have a date with the planet !

 We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU&feature=share

Friday 11 November 2011

The road to fraud starts with a single step

 The extensive academic fraud of Diederik Stapel has rocked science. Social psychologist Jennifer Crocker traces the destructive path that cheats follow.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111109/full/479151a.html

Thursday 10 November 2011

The Vibes of Ireland

Concept: In this experiment, approximately four million Tweets originating from Ireland were collected between September 21st and December 14th 2010. Tweets are short, information-rich messages that people around the world (including Ireland) post to Twitter. I mined Twitter and built algorithms that tagged the Tweets as being positive, negative or neutral. In doing this, I created a very accurate picture of how the emotions and moods of people in Ireland change and fluctuate over time.
 See more at: http://thevibesofireland.com/

CIA following Twitter, Facebook

In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day. At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-cia-following-twitter-facebook-081055316.html

SCIENCE WEEK 2011 AT NUI MAYNOOTH COME ALONG - THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Monday 14 November
Guitar versus Laptop: how to fit Musical
Instruments into your Computer (lecture)
Dr. Joe Timoney, Hume Building LT2, 7.30 pm - 8.30 pm

Tuesday 15 November
Survival of the Sexiest: why Females want a Mate with a good Sense of Humour, a brightly coloured Tail and nice Antlers(lecture) Dr. James McInerney, Hume Building LT2, 7.30 pm - 8.30 pm

Wednesday 16 November
Chemical Weapons in the War on Disease (lecture) Dr. Malachy McCann, Hume Building LT2, 7.30 pm - 8.30 pm

Thursday 17 November
Observing New Worlds with Space Observatories
(lecture on exoplanets) Hume Bld, 7.30 pm - 8.30 pm
Astronomical Observations Science Bld, 8.30 pm - 10 pm

Friday 18 November
Experience Science First-Hand! (open labs:hands-on experiments for all ages) Callan and Science Buildings, 6.30 pm - 9 pm
Astronomical Observations Science Building, 8 pm - 10 pm

Saturday 19 November
National Science Museum (exhibition) St. Patrick’s College, 2 pm - 5 pm

http://deansoffice.nuim.ie/science.shtml 

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Linking SciVerse Scopus and Engineering Village

 What’s the link between a SciVerse Scopus abstract and Compendex? How do you get Scopus author details via Engineering Village? Find out with this short video.
You'll also learn how to:
  • Link from the abstract in SciVerse Scopus to the corresponding Compendex record in Engineering Village complete with hyperlinked controlled and uncontrolled term.
  • Link from the abstract record in Engineering Village to SciVerse Scopus to see the list of references and details about the author(s), in addition to the list of citations which was already available.
http://trainingdesk.elsevier.com/videos/linking-sciverse-scopus-and-engineering-village

Creating FootNotes using Word & EndNote Web

I've been getting quite a few queries about EndNote Web and FootNotes so here's how to do it.
To create a bibliography with footnotes and a bibliography:
1.From the EndNote Web toolbar in Word choose a bibliographic style by selecting “Format Bibliography.”
2.In Word, position the cursor in your document where you want to insert the reference.
3.From the Word “Insert” menu select “Reference” and “Footnote.”
4.The “Footnote and Endnote” window will open, click “Insert.”
5.From the EndNote Web toolbar select “Find Citations” represented by a magnifying glass icon.
6.Search for the reference you want to cite.
7.Select the reference and click “Insert.”
8.To cite a specific page number, select “Edit Citation” from the EndNote Web toolbar. Select the relevant cited reference and add the page number. Click the “OK” button.



Hope this helps !

Thursday 27 October 2011

Samhain, Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the scary side of ARTstor

Samhain, Halloween and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) are coming. Find out what these celebrations have in common, and celebrate the season with thousands of suitably macabre images from the ARTstor Digital Library from
 http://library.nuim.ie/database

Wednesday 26 October 2011

College students' social networking experiences on Facebook

Millions of contemporary young adults use social networking sites. However, little is known about how much, why, and how they use these sites. In this study, 92 undergraduates completed a diary-like measure each day for a week, reporting daily time use and responding to an activities checklist to assess their use of the popular social networking site, Facebook. At the end of the week, they also completed a follow-up survey. Results indicated that students use Facebook approximately 30 min throughout the day as part of their daily routine. Students communicated on Facebook using a one-to-many style, in which they were the creators disseminating content to their friends. Even so, they spent more time observing content on Facebook than actually posting content. Facebook was used most often for social interaction, primarily with friends with whom the students had a pre-established relationship offline. In addition to classic identity markers of emerging adulthood, such as religion, political ideology, and work, young adults also used media preferences to express their identity. Implications of social networking site use for the development of identity and peer relationships are discussed.

The full text of this article is available from the Science Direct Database
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397308001408
Tiffany A. Pempek, Yevdokiya A. Yermolayeva, 
Sandra L. Calvert, 
College students' 
social networking experiences on Facebook, 
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 
Volume 30, Issue 3, May-June 2009, 
Pages 227-238, ISSN 0193-3973, 

Subject Librarian Drop-in-Clinics

Are you struggling to find information for your assignments? Need help with your dissertation?
Do not know where to begin?
Just cannot cope with referencing?
Not sure when to paraphrase and when to quote?
Why not come to a drop-in clinic?

The Subject Librarians are commencing drop-in-clinics at the Library beginning this Thursday in SR2 from 12.15 to 1.15.

Each Subject Librarian will have their own clinic and we begin this week with Ciarán Quinn the Subject Librarian for Science and Engineering.
Ciarán will be available each Thursday at this time.

If the time isn’t convenient you can also contact Ciarán for an individual consultation at 7086151 or ciaran.quinn@nuim.ie

A full timetable of these sessions will be made available shortly.http://library.nuim.ie/news/subject-librarian-drop-clinics

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Improve your academic writing skills at the Writing Centre

The NUI Maynooth Writing Centre has been established by the Centre for Teaching and Learning to support student academic writing. The Writing Centre is based in Rye Hall and co-located with the Mathematics Support Centre. The Writing Centre offers free, friendly, non-judgemental writing help to any student, undergraduate or postgraduate, regardless of course, degree or level. Students can drop in on their own or in groups to work with tutors on course work or material/topics with which they may be having trouble. Students may also book one-to-one appointments to discuss their writing with peer tutors. In addition, the Centre offers writing workshops, supports writing groups, engages in discipline specific work and carries out research.
http://ctl.nuim.ie/student-learning/writing-centre

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Germany returns skulls to Namibia

 Hundreds of Namibians have welcomed home the skulls of 20 of their ancestors that were taken to Germany for racial experiments more than a century ago.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1004/breaking23.html

Thursday 29 September 2011

Monday 26 September 2011

ArXiv Turns 20

Last month, arXiv turned 20 years old. ArXiv is an electronic preprint server widely used by physicists, though it has expanded to include articles in other fields such as mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics. 

http://arxiv.org/

(Source:https://blogs.libraries.iub.edu/libchem/2011/09/06/arxiv-turns-20/)

Wednesday 21 September 2011

SciTopics

Distilled, authoritative and up-to-date
information for researchers on
scientific, technical and medical
topics.http://www.scitopics.com/

Friday 2 September 2011

Space junk at tipping point, says report

Scientists in the US have warned Nasa that the amount of so-called space junk orbiting Earth is at tipping point.
A report by the National Research Council says the debris could cause fatal leaks in spaceships or destroy valuable satellites. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14757926

Wednesday 31 August 2011

eBooks and Audiobooks on EBSCOhost

eBooks and Audiobooks are now searchable on the EBSCOhost platform (which includes Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete,Psych Info) , providing a single source for discovering journal and book content. Noteworthy eBook features include:
  • Search and view eBooks on the EBSCOhost platform
  • Browse eBooks by subject area and by latest added to your library's collection
  • View eBook Table of Contents from search Result List
  • Navigate to eBook chapters or sections directly from Result List and Detail Record
  • Search within an eBook for specific terms, yielding a list of hyperlinked pages
  • Create notes that are associated to eBook pages
  • Optional download capabilities and user-selected checkout duration
  • For eBooks with a limited number of users, place a hold and view your place in line

Monday 15 August 2011

Discontinuation of SciFinder Client Version

From September 1st, 2011, the client version of the SciFinder Database (produced by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) a division of the American Chemical Society) will no longer be available. From this date, you will only have access to the web version of SciFinder.

The web version of SciFinder allows you to use SciFinder through your web browser. You do not need to install software and it will work on any computer with Internet access on or off campus. You must create your own SciFinder account first and you may need to change the settings on your web browser.

Contact Ciaran Quinn  the Subject Librarian for Science and Engineering if you would like to have access to the web version of Scifinder Scholar. I can arrange registration for you. Once you’ve registered, you can access via the SciFinder link on the Libraries A-Z of Databases.

If you are an existing user of the Client Version of SciFinder  you will also need to convert your files to the web format.  You can do this using the sfr to akx Conversion Tool accessible at https://scifinder.cas.org/utils/sfr2akx/

RoboEireann, Robocup Open Challenge Winners 2011

RoboEireann, Ireland's Robot Soccer team from NUI Maynooth, was victorious this year in the Open Challenge competition at Robocup 2011 held in Istanbul, Turkey.http://communications.nuim.ie/press/19072011.shtml

Monday 18 July 2011

Academic Earth

Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education. Includes many free online lectures covering a variety of subject areas.
http://academicearth.org/

Wednesday 13 July 2011

New Book Drop Service Outside the Library

Have you seen the new bookdrop facility at the entrance to the Library building? This great new service enables you to return your library material outside of our opening hours – late at night, early in the mornings and on Sundays. Simply drop library material into the blue bin and we will return them on your account when we next open. If you have any queries relating to this new service please ask any member of staff.

Europe lines up hefty science-funding hike

Like many governing bodies, the European Union (EU) has entered an era of austerity, with one striking exception: scientific research. Under a proposal released on 29 June by the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, spending on research and innovation would rise by about 45%, from €55 billion (US$80 billion) over the current 2007–13 period to €80 billion in 2014–20.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110706/full/475014a.html

Nielsen Releases Women of Tomorrow Report

Women’s control over spending decisions coupled with their gains across the working world and politics, point to women of tomorrow being in a position to exert more influence than ever.  Nielsen, a leading provider of insights into what consumers watch and buy, today released findings from a study that identified spending and media habits of women across continents. According to the study, which spanned 21 developed[1] and emerging[2] countries, while women across the globe are stressed, women in emerging markets are more stressed than those in developed countries.  And, while women across countries surveyed believe they have greater opportunities than their mothers, women in developed markets believe their daughters have the same level of opportunity.

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/press-room/2011/women-of-tomorrow.html

Thursday 23 June 2011

Science Week 2011 Theme: The Chemistry of Life

The theme for Science Week Ireland 2011 is ‘The Chemistry of Life’, demonstrating the importance of chemistry to our everyday lives—from the atoms that are the building blocks of nature to the chemistry that creates lasting bonds between people.http://www.scienceweek.ie/theme_2011.asp

Friday 17 June 2011

UM Brain Implant Could Turn Thoughts Into Movement

A brain implant developed at the University of Michigan uses the body's skin like a conductor to wirelessly transmit the brain's neural signals to control a computer, and may eventually be used to reactivate paralyzed limbs.http://www.topix.com/science/electrical-engineering/2011/06/um-brain-implant-could-turn-thoughts-into-movement

Astronomers Discover Giant Black Holes at Edge of Universe

Astronomers have been peering farther and farther into space, and back in time, using the world’s most powerful telescopes to detect galaxies billions of light years away that existed when the universe was just a fraction of its current age. But detecting the giant black holes thought to lurk at the centers of those galaxies has proven much more difficult.http://opac.yale.edu/science-engineering

Record Food Prices Linked to Biofuels

Reports from the WTO and USDA show that corn supplies are influenced by biofuel subsidies and mandates.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37848/?ref=rss


Wednesday 15 June 2011

EndNote Web enhancements and resetting your roaming access



Thomson Reuters
Now available – new EndNote Web enhancements

  • Firefox® 4.0 - Web interface and plug-in now work seamlessly.
  • Safari 5.0 - Web interface is optimized.
  • Web of Knowledge users: To restore access to styles, filters and online connections, log into Web of Knowledge (on campus or via proxy) and select "My EndNote Web" on the top menu to access your account. This resets your roaming access for one year (see the roaming access help topic for more details). You may need to do this from a computer on campus for this to be effective.
  • Track your roaming access on the new Account Information page on the Options tab.

Monday 13 June 2011

Oxford Reference Online Premium - Whats New May 2011

 This update further extends Oxford Reference Online's wide ranging academic content, with extensive new titles on marketing, with A Dictionary of Marketing, and media and communications studies, with A Dictionary of Media and Communications. In addition, literature content has been enhanced with Oxford titles dedicated to Charles Dickens, with The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, and the Brontës, with The Oxford Companion to the Brontës. Look out for more author Companions later in the year! In addition to the new titles, there are also new editions of The Oxford Companion to Music (an online-only edition commissioned especially for Oxford Reference Online), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and A Dictionary of Saints.

http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/whatsnew_may2011

Thursday 9 June 2011

Elements added to periodic table

Two new elements have been added to the periodic table, years after they were first discovered.
Elements known as 114 and 116  were officially recognised by a working group from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), after the experiments where they were seen were successfully repeated.
The elements are formed by bombarding one element such as plutonium with another, like calcium, and hoping that they will fuse to form a new element. These new atoms only exist for a brief moment before decaying, making their difficult to prove.
IUPAC has only now decided there is enough evidence to put the existence of the elements beyond reasonable doubt, despite element 114 being first observed in 1999.
The elements are temporarily named ununquadium (IUPAC code for one-one-four-ium) and ununhexium (one-one-six-ium) while the scientists who discovered them propose formal names.
The Russian scientists are reported to be considering Russia “flerovium” for 114, after the scientist Georgy Flyorov, and “moscovium” for 116 after Russia’s capital.
Naming new elements after famous scientists is an established practice, with several heavy elements bearing names such as Polonium, Americium and Einsteinium. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0609/breaking26.


Friday 3 June 2011

Update your Author Profile data with the new SciVerseScopus Author Feedback Wizard

Author profiles can be updated quickly and accurately using the new SciVerse Scopus Author Feedback Wizard: Authors are presented with a series of options that they may either select or deselect in order to inform Elsevier of the changes they would like to make. Author profiles can be merged and documents removed if they are incorrectly assigned. To check your author profile and what articles are acredited to you search on the Scopus database available through your Libary.

Thursday 2 June 2011

IARC CLASSIFIES RADIOFREQUENCY ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AS POSSIBLY CARCINOGENIC TO HUMANS

Over the last few years, there has been mounting concern about the possibility of adverse health effects resulting from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by wireless communication devices. The number of mobile phone subscriptions is estimated at 5 billion globally. Full Story at http://www.who.int/en/

Wednesday 1 June 2011

"Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents"

 Four experiments investigated the ability of a border collie (Chaser) to acquire receptive language skills. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Chaser learned and retained, over a 3-year period of intensive training, the proper-noun names of 1022 objects. See the Full Text Article at Science Direct.

"Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents"
 John W. Pilley, Alliston K. Reid, 
 Behavioural Processes, 
Volume 86, 
Issue 2, 
February 2011

Monday 30 May 2011

The Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A special online edition of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Chemical Education (JCE) features a collection of mysteries based on the famous Sherlock Holmes detective series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but with a chemistry twist. Titled The Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the series features Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion, Dr. Watson, as they use chemistry to solve a wide range of mysteries. The journal's first virtual issue coincides with the observance in 2011 of the International Year of Chemistry.

Wednesday 25 May 2011

MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. For example:

Biological Engineering Design: This course illustrates how knowledge and principles of biology, biochemistry, and engineering are integrated to create new products for societal benefit. It uses a case study format to examine recently developed products of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: how a product evolves from initial idea, through patents, testing, evaluation, production, and marketing. Emphasizes scientific and engineering principles; the responsibility scientists, engineers, and business executives have for the consequences of their technology; and instruction and practice in written and oral communication. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biological-engineering/20-380j-biological-engineering-design-spring-2010/

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

It is well known that people don't always 'speak their minds', and it is suspected that people don't always 'know their minds'. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology.
This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Tuesday 24 May 2011

An Introductory Guide to Refereeing

The Institute of Physics have produced a booklet guiding those new to the refereeing process entitled "Introduction to Refereeing ". Contents include: An introduction to the peer review process, how to write a referee report, and ethical issues. Its available at http://images.iop.org/referees/

Thursday 19 May 2011

Scientific Reports — a new era in publishing

Online and open access, Scientific Reports is a brand new primary research publication from the publishers of Nature, covering all areas of the natural sciences — biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences.http://www.nature.com/srep/marketing/index.html

Tuesday 17 May 2011

JURN Directory

http://www.jurn.org/directory/

3,000 links to selected arts & humanities ejournals.  Journals listed are either free (open access), or offer significant free content.

Microsoft Academic Search

http://academic.research.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Academic Search is a free search engine for academic papers and resources principally in the field of computer science, developed by Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing. The database consists of the bibliographic information (metadata) for academic papers published in journals, conferences proceedings and the citations between them. It covers more than 7 million publications and 5.8 million authors as of October 2010, with weekly update since November 2009.

Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications

This new report investigates the drivers, costs and benefits of potential ways to increase access to scholarly journals. It identifies five different routes for achieving that end over the next five years, and compares and evaluates the benefits as well as the costs and risks for the UK.http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/heading-open-road-costs-and-benefits-transitions-s

Monday 16 May 2011

Oxford Reference Online Premium-May update

This update further extends Oxford Reference Online's wide ranging academic content, with extensive new titles on marketing, with A Dictionary of Marketing, and media and communications studies, with A Dictionary of Media and Communications. In addition, literature content has been enhanced with Oxford titles dedicated to Charles Dickens, with The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, and the Brontës, with The Oxford Companion to the Brontës. Look out for more author Companions later in the year! In addition to the new titles, there are also new editions of The Oxford Companion to Music (an online-only edition commissioned especially for Oxford Reference Online), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and A Dictionary of Saints. http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/whatsnew_may2011

Thursday 12 May 2011

EBSCO host Mobile and New iPhone App

EBSCOhost Mobile is an excellent way to make the most of your online resources from EBSCO (Business Source Premier, Academic Search Complete, Psyc Info. etc.) accessible from the library at http://library.nuim.ie/database/a-z

EBSCO's new app is free, and offers the convenience and rich functionality that enables users to:
  • Choose which databases to search
  • Limit results to full text or peer reviewed
  • Sort by relevance or date
  • Retrieve full text results in HTML and/or PDF formats
  • Save results for offline access at a later date
  • Email results to self or others
  • View cover flow display of results
To get started, simply click on the EBSCOhost iPhone/iPod Touch Application link at the bottom of the EBSCOhost screen and follow the instructions.

Library of Congress launches ‘National Jukebox’

http://www.library.ie/2011/05/11/library-of-congress-launches-national-jukebox/

The Library of Congress in the USA has launched a ‘National Jukebox‘:
Developed … with assets provided by Sony Music Entertainment, the National Jukebox offers free online access to a vast selection of music and spoken-word recordings produced in the U.S. between the years 1901 and 1925.
The collection includes lots of recordings of Irish interest, not least many by Count John McCormack. Here he is singing Thomas Moore’s Believe me if all those endearing young charms.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Latest Release of Literature Online from ProQuest

http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/infoCentre/whatsnew.jsp
Literature Online, is a fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 330 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Graduate Information Literacy Module

http://www.informationliteracy.ie/

This course was funded under the Higher Education Authorities (HEA) Strategic Innovation Funding (SIF) Programe. The content was developed by Subject Librarians in the participating Universities: NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Zinc as a cure for the Common Cold ? Find out more from the Cochrane Library via the Wiley Online Library

http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/index.html
 Zinc administered within 24 hours of onset of symptoms reduces the duration and severity of the common cold in healthy people....

New IEEE Standards Dictionary Online:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/dynhome.jsp

The IEEE Xplore digital library is a powerful resource for discovery and access to scientific and technical content published by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners.

IEEE Xplore provides Web access to almost 3-million full-text documents from some of the world's most highly cited publications in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics.

The content in IEEE Xplore comprises 151 journals, over 900 conference proceedings, more than 3,400 technical standards, over 400 ebooks and 200 educational courses. Approximately 25,000 new documents are added to IEEE Xplore each month.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Web of Knowledge Live Training May 2011

http://wokinfo.com/training_support/training/livetraining/

iPhone Application

iPhone Application

EBSCO’s databases (which inc: Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Psyc INFO, Psyc Articles) now offer a free app to ensure that iPhone and iPod Touch users get the most from searching premium EBSCOhost database content, provided courtesy of your  library.
EBSCO’s new app is free, with access to download instructions available from the bottom of EBSCOhost screens. The convenience and rich functionality of the app enables users to:
  • Choose which databases to search
  • Limit results to full text or peer reviewed
  • Search a library’s catalog
  • Sort by relevance or date
  • Retrieve full text results in HTML and/or PDF formats
  • Save results for offline access at a later date
  • Email results to self or others
  • Automatically save the 25 most recent searches
  • Cover flow display of results
Click the link at the bottom of anyEBSCOhost page to email yourself the key to the app and get started.

Thursday 21 April 2011

MyRi (Measuring your Research impact)

An Open Access toolkit to support bibliometrics training and awareness
http://www.ndlr.ie/myri/index.html
A collaborative project of four Irish academic libraries producing a set of materials to support bibliometrics training.
The project was funded by the Irish NDLR.
All materials are available on Open Access under Creative Commons license, enabling you to select, edit and re-package them to suit your local needs. More about the project...

Friends of Medieval Dublin 13th Annual Symposium

http://fmrsi.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/event-friends-of-medieval-dublin-13th-medieval-dublin-symposium-21-may-2011/

DEATH & DYING

THIRTIETH IRISH CONFERENCE OF HISTORIANS

http://irishconferenceofhistorians.com/

The appropriateness of key performance indicators to research in arts and humanities disciplines.

 Ireland’s contribution to the European Debate from the Royal Irish Academy http://www.ria.ie/our-work/policy/research-assessment.aspx

Legal Rights of University Contract Workers

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0418/1224294912578.html
2010 SCOPUS News

New Titles on Safari

http://proquestcombo.safaribooksonline.com/whatsnew

Research evaluation should be pragmatic, not a choice between peer review and metrics

Responding to the growing momentum of movements, such as DORA and CoARA, Giovanni Abramo argues for a more nuanced balance between the use o...