Thursday 30 April 2009

Research Councils UK publish report on Open Access

A recent RCUK report on Open Access has implications for research grant awards and holders and the publishing of research findings.

In response to the study, the Chief Executives of the Research Councils have agreed that over time the UK Research Councils will support increased open access, by:

building on their mandates on grant-holders to deposit research papers in suitable repositories within an agreed time period, and;

extending their support for publishing in open access journals, including through the pay-to-publish model.

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/news/090422.htm

RCUK is now beginning an implementation process through a number of cross-Research Council working groups. They recognise that there are many issues to consider and will liaise fully with all interested parties, including the academic community, publishers, and organisations such as JISC and the Research Information Network.

Wednesday 22 April 2009

Best Science writing on blogs

Recently reviewed in the New Scientist (11th April 2009) "The Open Laboratory: the best science writing on blogs 2008" edited by Jennifer Rohn, poses some interesting questions on science blogging

"There are many highly entertaining pieces here, but also some less than engaging ones. Too many are mini-lectures, with no narrative or personal angle to sustain your attention. This kind of writing works for readers interested in specific areas, but will never draw a wider audience.
If these pieces really do represent the very best science writing on blogs, I'm afraid I have to agree with science blogger John Hawks: "If we're going to compare the entire blogosphere with The New York Times, in terms of how much is worth reading for the average non-professional interested in science, the blogosphere is worse by an order of magnitude."

What's your view?
Thanks to Mary in the Sherpa team for flagging this.

Trial of Reaxys - possible replacement for Crossfire Beilstein/Gmelin

We currently have Reaxys on trial for a month until mid-May - see below for how to log on. Reaxys combines Beilstein, Gmelin and a chemistry patent database and is searchable by structure or reaction. There are ongoing discussions for a national deal with Reaxys as an alternative to Crossfire.

We should appreciate your feedback on the new system. The publishers are keen to get chemistry researchers' views to aid in the development of the new search interface and their contact details are below. The library are of course also interested in order to inform our decisions regarding renewal of the licence later this year and we should appreciate receiving your comments to this blog posting.

Please find below the information you will need to access Reaxys:
Web address: https://www.reaxys.com/
License start date: 15.04.2009
License end date: 15.05.2009
On campus use only (through ip address).
Note: a detailed description of the technical requirements (including supported Java environments) is available. Please check the page “About Reaxys” first before you start working with Reaxys.
In order to successfully evaluate Reaxys you are recommended to participate in the Reaxys orientation webinar. Please register at: webinars@reaxys.com
For further assistance and information on Reaxys, please consult the Help section within the product – this tab is visible no matter which page you are in. Within Help you can then access the Release Notes section - home>customer support>release notes. This area explains which functions are currently available and what will be coming shortly.

The publishers say "Reaxys is continuously being developed and adapted according to the needs of our customers. Your feedback is highly valued and will be fed back into further development, ultimately producing the best possible end result.
If you have any questions about this or need additional support or want to let us know your experiences and improvement ideas, then please don’t hesitate to contact us on the address below."


Europe and Africa
E-Customer Service
Tel: +49-69-5050 4268
Fax: +49-69-5050 4213
E-Mail: nlinfo@reaxys.com

Thursday 16 April 2009

Periodic Table of Videos - an oscar winning performance

Professor Martyn Poliakoff of the University of Nottingham has launched a periodic table of videos, illustrating each element. You can see him discuss the project in more detail on YOUTUBE

Adding RSS Feeds to this blog via Internet Explorer



Did you know that you could follow feeds and updates to this blog in Internet Explorer? From this blog page click on the

'Subscribe to: Posts' link/Icon located at the bottom of the page or on the right hand side as you scroll down, select 'Atom' from any list of options presented. You will be automatically subscribed to the feed and be updated as new posts are added to this blog.

To follow your feeds or updates click on your Feeds folder, located alongside your favorites in your favorites centre (star icon on your IE toolbar) and select the feed/update of interest.

For more information on adding RSS Feeds via Outlook or IE see: http://office.microsoft.com/client/helppreview.aspx?AssetID=HA101595391033&ns=OUTLOOK&lcid=1033

Adding RSS feeds to the Blog via Outlook 2007


Did you know that you can set up a feed to this Blog from Outlook 2007 which will enable you to receive any new messages posted via your Mailbox?

To follow feeds in Outlook 2007:

Find the RSS Feeds folder, right click on it, then left click on Add a new RSS feed and key in

http://nottinghamsciencelib.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

For more information on reading your feeds/updates via Outlook 2007 see: http://office.microsoft.com/client/helppreview.aspx?AssetID=HA012299441033&ns=OUTLOOK&lcid=1033

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Trial of Martindale on Medicines Complete

We have recently set up a 90 day trial of Martindale: the complete drug reference on the Medicines Complete service. We currently subscribe to Martindale online through Micromedex to are comparing the two platforms. We should be very pleased to have your views on which you prefer.

We have added the trial to the eLibrary Gateway or alternatively you can connect directly via the link below:-

Martindale home page: http://www.medicinescomplete.com/mc/martindale/current/
Martindale demo: http://www.medicinescomplete.com/publications/martindale/MartCD35.htm

On campus access will be through ip address without the need for a username and password. Off campus you may login through the new Shibboleth or Institutional login option with your normal University username and password.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Henry Stewart Talks

The University has taken out a one-year subscription to the Henry Stewart Talks, a comprehensive series of specially prepared animated audiovisual presentations and talks by world leading scientists in the subject areas of biomedicine, life sciences and imaging. Some Nottingham academics have contributed to the series.

The talks can be accessed via the eLibrary Gateway

We would be very interested in receiving feedback to help us decide whether to continue with this subscription.

Thursday 2 April 2009

Responding to the challenges of a changing economy

The RIN (Research Information Network) have produced a briefing at:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/Scholarly_books_journals_at_risk.pdf
which encapsulates the problems that Universities such as ourselves are facing in maintaining book and journal provision in the current economic difficulties.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Free Access to US Standards

Dinah has just come across this US site which offers FREE the full text pdfs of standards from the National Bureau of Standards and Bureau of Minesetc...http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/techreports/Pages/browselist.php?s=browse&by=publisher.

Their plan is to gather and digitize the following materials from National Bureau of Standards (Now NIST):

Applied Mathematic Series
  • C 13.32:Basic Radio Propagation Predictions
  • C 13.31:Building and Housing Publications
  • C 13.25:Building Science Series (two related titles)
  • C 13.29/2:Bulletin
  • C 13.3:Circular (three related titles)
  • C 13.4:Handbook
  • C 13.11:Letter Circulars
  • C 13.16:Mathematical Tables
  • C 13.20:Miscellaneous Publications
  • C 13.10:NBS IR (Interagency Reports)
  • C 13.58:NBS Report

Special Publications

  • C 13.10:NSRDS-NBS (National Standard Reference Data Series)
  • C 13.38:Scientific Papers

Technical Notes

  • C 13.46:Technologic Papers
  • C 13.8:
So the resource is likely to grow. Link to the resource via the webaddress above or via the Elibrary Gateway under General; Standards

British Library Roadshows - Service Updates for Researchers

British Library will be running roadshows for those in higher education in various locations throughout May 2009

Five roadshows will takeplace in Manchester, Nottingham, Dublin, London and Bristol with the aim of updating researchers on the future of the BL’s document supply services, the Electronic Thesis Online System (EThOS), the UK Research Reserve and Project Gateway.

For more information see: www.bl.uk/reshelp/atyourdesk/docsupply/new/heroadshows/index.html