November New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for November is now available. It includes titles for Science and Engineering titles. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

SpringerImages database available on trial

SpringerImages offers more than 1.7 million images spanning science, technology and medicine, in an online collection of photos, graphs, histograms, figures and tables. Search captions, keywords, context and more, even jumping from image to source article. Users can create personalized image “sets” and export images for use in presentations or lectures.
Access the database through the eLibrary Gateway or, on campus, directly at SpringerImages and explore the potential for your research and teaching. Please feedback your views on this service to the blog or to the library staff.

Trial of Springer Materials - data for your research

We currently have on trial Springer Materials the Landolt Bornstein database, a collection of fully evaluated data relevant to the following areas of physical sciences and engineering.

• Particles, Nuclei and Atoms
• Molecules and Radicals
• Electronic Structure and Transport
• Magnetism
• Semiconductivity
• Superconductivity
• Crystallography
• Thermodynamics
• Multiphase Systems
• Advanced Materials
• Advanced Technologies
• Astro- and Geophysics

It covers physical and chemical properties for 165,000 substances and material systems. If you need data for your research try this resource. It's available until mid January from the link above or via the eLibrary Gateway.

Powder Diffraction File updated

We have just received the latest update of the Powder Diffraction File. This is now available on a standalone computer next to the enquiry point on Floor C of the George Green Library. Please ask in the team office next door if you require help with using this resource.

October New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for October is now available. It includes titles for Science and Engineering titles. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

ACS Journals Access Restored

Access to ACS Journals and Back Issues has now been restored. Access was blocked by the publisher last week due to inappropriate downloading/copying by a member of the University. Downloading excessive amounts of information from the database is clearly in violation of our licensing agreement with the ACS.
Excessive downloading is systematic, beyond normal use and printing of articles that would result from searching or browsing. It is usually the result of a user, or users, who are systematically, and/or automatically and very intentionally, downloading numerous articles from one or more journals.
A breach of our signed license agreements with vendors may result in ip address blocking and we can potentially lose complete access. In this case one individual's inappropriate activity inconvenienced researchers across campus and could have prevented us from continuing this license. Such cases may be investigated by the University to identify the culprits.
Please ensure that your use is within the terms of our licence

Free membership of the IMechE for undergraduate students

If you are an undergraduate student on an Engineering degree or on an engineering apprenticeship you are eligible for free affiliate membership of the Institute of Mechancial Engineers. Membership provides you with access to their library services, including access to ejournals, ebooks, market research reports and more. For more information, see http://www.imeche.org.uk/library

Staffing update

Following the permanent move of Chris Middleton to the the post of Head of Academic Services, Jenny Coombs has been appointed Library Team Leader for Science and Engineering. I have been working in this post for a year during Chris' secondment and I have very much enjoyed it and look forward to continuing to work with you all.

We are also pleased to welcome Debi McKeown, who joined us in the team in September as Senior Information Assistant. Debi works the first half of the week to job-share with Liz Day. Debi replaces Jane Maltby who is now employed full-time in the Greenfield Medical Library. Debi previously worked in the Hallward Library so brings with her a wealth of experience.

New interface for British Standards Online

The British Standards Online service has launched a new interface. Features include:

• a separated standard number and keyword search option
• Quick filter options, such as searching for current standards
• Options for refining by module, status, committee and ICS category
• Option to download up to 5 documents in one go as a zip file
• Browse options; by module or ICS classification
• Option to create notification lists at standard level or module and ICS level
• Advanced search options
• Links to news and newsletters

This is a significant improvement on the previous interface and the next stage for the developers is to focus on making the search engine more intuitive.

To access BSI, go to the eLibrary Gateway at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/elibrarygateway and click on the standards sub-category

Please contact the library if you would like more information or help

September New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for September is now available. It includes titles for Science and Engineering titles. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

SciFinder Open Session 9th September 10.30am

You are invited to an open session detailing recent enhancements to SciFinder particularly to the Web version which was launched last year. It is also an opportunity to ask questions of Vikki Vowles, our CAS contact. Please come along bringing your queries, suggestions and wants.
Wednesday 9th September 10.30 am Chemistry Lecture Theatre XI
The session will last about an hour including time for questions.
Hope to see you there.

August New Books Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for August is now available. It includes titles for Science and Engineering titles. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

Enhance your Research Rating - some tips on publishing your research

All staff and research postgraduates in Science & Engineering are invited to attend the following presentations to help enhance your research visibility and citation rating.
Wednesday 2nd September Pope Building A16
2.00 Support for Open Access Publishing at Nottingham
2.30 Web of Science features including Researcher ID, h-index and citation maps
3.45 Journal Citation Reports (impact factors, journal ranking, Eigenfactor etc.)
Refreshments will be provided
No need to book (unless you wish to reserve a space) or to attend the whole session.

July New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for July is now available. It includes titles for both Engineering and Science. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

Research postgraduates - please tell us your information searching habits

We are anxious to ensure that our training for new PhD students in Science & Engineering is relevant and up-to-date and would like to ask current research students what information services they really find useful in practice.

Please could you help us by completing a SHORT questionnaire (approx. 5 minutes) at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lGdePEZJBk8CCrzpVGrkHQ_3d_3d
We should be very grateful for your feedback by the end of August.
Thank you.

IEEE Xplore Mobile

IEEE Xplore Mobile (beta) has now been introduced and gives you the power to search articles in the IEEE Xplore digital library from any web-enabled phone. Just visit http://m.ieeexplore.ieee.org on your phone's browser.

June New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for June is now available. It includes titles for both Engineering and Science. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

Paying to publish for Open Access - RIN Guidelines

“The Research Information Network and Universities UK have produced a guide (March 2009) to provide advice on paying open access publication charges: that is, fees levied by some journals for the publication of scholarly articles so that they can be made available free of charge to readers, immediately upon publication. The guide also sets out recommendations for universities and other research institutions, publishers, research funders, and authors.”

New journals from the Royal Society of Chemistry

We have registered for the following new RSC journals during the periods of free trial access as listed below.

Energy and Environmental Science
Free online access available until December 2009
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/EE/Index.asp

Integrative Biology
Free online access available until December 2010
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/ib/index.asp

Metallomics
Free online access available until December 2010
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/MT/index.asp

Analytical Methods
Free online access available later in 2009 until December 2010
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/AY/index.asp

Nanoscale
Free online access available later in 2009 until December 2010
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/NR/index.asp

Polymer Chemistry
Free online access available in 2010 until December 2011
http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/PY/index.asp

2008 Journal Citation Reports released for the latest impact factors

The 2008 JCR contains more than 400 new titles, including more than 350 titles that will have their first published Journal Impact Factor.

The release of the 2008 Journal Citation Reports includes the first-ever update to the newly introduced Five Year Impact Factor and Eigenfactor™ Metrics in JCR Web. Eigenfactor™ Metrics use citing journal data from the entire JCR file to reflect the prestige and citation influence of journals by considering scholarly literature as a network of journal-to-journal relationships.
Connect to the JCR via our subscription to Web of Knowledge.
For more details about JCR see http://isiwebofknowledge.com/products_tools/analytical/jcr/

Enhancements to ebrary

ebrary is a large ebooks package offering access to ebook material in a variety of different subject areas.

Recently, ebrary has significantly enhanced its technology by improving its QuickView Reader, which does not require any software downloads or installations. Printing has also been added to quick view as well as integration with Endnote for easy citation management. Additionally, ebrary has enhanced its bookshelf feature. End-users can now email folders containing notes, highlights, hyperlinks, and bookmarks to peers.

Working from multiple workstations and frustrated without your favorites?

You are not alone........ me too!

In fact, at present, I am working from 3 PCs from two different campuses as well as working from home ocassionally - does this sound familiar?

If you are at home wishing all your favorites weren’t on your computer at work? Or vice versa? .... then check out Diigo or Delicious.

If you haven’t started using an online bookmarking tool, why not try one of these? Install the gadget on your toolbar, and then just click anytime you find a site you want to keep track of for later.

Services such as Delicious and Diigo also have the added benefit of allowing you to highlight what you find with your own notes. Great tools to consider using with students during research projects or to foster information literacies such as evaluating and anotating what's found.

May New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for May is now available. It includes titles for both Engineering and Science. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

Statement of Need for a National Chemical Database Service

The EPSRC has recently initiated a review of its current 'Mid Range facilities'. The Chemical Database Service (CDS) at Daresbury, which provides free at the point of access for all UK academics to important databases, is one of these facilities.

The CDS is a National service providing on-line access to up-to-date, comprehensive, high quality chemical databases and ancillary facilities. These databases provide the three dimensional structure, spectroscopic data and physical properties of molecules which are crucial to the understanding, enhancement and production of new materials and processes. The communities served by the CDS are very far reaching and include users from not only chemistry disciplines but also material science, physics, engineering and biological sciences, etc.

As part of the overall review process, the EPSRC has asked all relevant communities to prepare and submit a Statement of Need (SoN) drawing from the communities served by Mid Range Facilities rather than the organisations currently providing these services. In response, members of the chemistry community have put in place an electronic 'iPetition'. The purpose of this petition is to provide a mechanism for the UK academic community to register its support for continued access to the kind of database facilities currently provided by the CDS. It can be found at:- http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ChemicalDatabaseService/

Wolfram Alpha: a new search engine for factual answers

Wolfram Alpha is a new search engine which aims to answer specific questions with clear factual answers, rather than just a list of other websites such as Google might provide. I tried a few searches, some of which were not recognised but I did get answers to the number of cells in the human body and human average height. The latter gave me data in feet and inches, metres and even fathoms, plus a chart of height ranges.
The site was the idea of Stephen Wolfram who created the Mathematica computer program and it is expected to improve with use. So why not give it a go and help with the development of the database?
You may also be interested in the reference websites we have catalogued on the eLibrary Gateway under Science Reference. If you know of other useful sites in this category please share them with us through this blog.

New guide to Internet resources on Genetics and Evolution

Intute: Health and Life Sciences has just produced a booklet of Internet resources on Genetics and Evolution, which can be viewed at http://www.intute.ac.uk/supportdocs/geneticsbooklet.pdf Printed copies will be available in the George Green Library. This is the latest in a series of guides produce by Intute: Health and Life Sciences which offer a sample of the kind and range of resources held in their recently-enhanced online database of evaluated Internet resources biological sciences.

Free two month access to selected Sage materials science and engineering journals

Two months free access to a selection of materials science and engineering journals is currently being offered by Sage. Titles not currently included in our collections include:

·Adaptive Behaviour
·Food Science and Technology
·High Performance Polymers
·Indoor and Built Environment
·International Journal of Damage Mechanics
·International Journal of Robotics Research
·International Journal of High Performance Comp Applications
·Journal of Bioactive and Compatible Polymers
·Journal of Biomaterials Applications
·Journal of Building Physics
·Journal of Cellular Plastics
·Journal of Elastonomers and Plastics
·Journal of Fire Protection Engineering
·Journal of Fire Sciences
·Journal of Industrial Textiles
·Journal of Intelligent and Materials Systems & Structures
·Journal of Plastic Film and Sheeting
·Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites
·Journal of Sandwich Structures and Materials
·Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials
·Journal of Vibration & Control
·Textile Research Journal
·The International Journal of Structural Health Monitoring
·Waste Management and Research

By registering for this free trial, you will gain access to SAGE Materials Science & Engineering Journals until June 30, 2009.

Thanks to Susan Heaster in the Halward Library for flagging this.

SCOPUS now available + training

Information Services now has a subscription to SCOPUS, one of the largest abstract and citation databases of research literature, including over 16,000 peer-reviewed journals as well as details of conference proceedings, trade publications, book series and patents.

Coverage includes the scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature.

SCOPUS also provides tools to track and analyse research, of particular importance for the proposed requirements of the REF. The h-index within SCOPUS provides details of the most highly cited articles and authors and the citation tracker allows you to see research trends.

SCOPUS is now available via the eLibrary Gateway and the promotional site provides links to further information and tutorials.

A training event to introduce you to the database has been arranged for University of Nottingham staff and students on 27th May, 11-12, Room C15 Pope Building.
For room requirements, please could you email: Jenny.Coombs@nottingham.ac.uk if you are planning on attending the event.

Further help and support will also be available from your subject librarian.

April New Book Arrivals

A listing of all new book arrivals for April is now available. It now includes titles for both Engineering and Science. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Trial of EcoSal: a database for E coli and Salmonella researchers

EcoSal is an information service for researchers on E. Coli and Salmonella which aims to be a comprehensive archive of knowledge on the enteric bacterial cell. EcoSal is continually expanded, updated, and revised and comprises several hundred modules of information containing links to graphics as well as to active databases of primary research information.
We have this resource on trial for 30 days through April and would welcome feedback on the value of a subscription.

March Science Book Arrivals

A listing of new science book arrivals for March is now available. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

BioOne resource available on trial

The University has trial access to BioOne until the end of July.

BioOne provides access to over 150 bioscience research journals covering many aspects of biological, ecological and environmental sciences. A full list of titles is available at:

www.bioone.org/action/showPublications?type=byAlphabet

BioOne can be browsed or searched and is available at: http://www.bioone.org/ or via the eLibrary Gateway "General - ejournals" category.

Please have a look and send your feedback to your subject librarian or to this blog.

Royal Society of Chemistry journal articles enhanced

The Royal Society of Chemistry have initiated a project to give added value to articles in their journals. The enhanced HTML versions, marked with the new "Prospect" icon have extra features to improve the look and feel and also to aid analysis of the subject content. The features include mouseover popups of chemical structures and links to Chemspider and other websites for more details on compounds and subjects. To see examples of Prospect, connect to the latest issue of Chemical Communications and view the full HTML of articles marked with the Prospect icon.

Launch of two new F1000 journals

Faculty 1000 have launched two new titles to which we have access as part of our current subscriptions. F1000 Biology Reports and F1000 Medicine Reports publish commentaries by the world's top experts focusing on the hottest areas in biology and medicine. These areas are selected by the journals' Advisory Boards and on the basis of trends amongst the papers evaluated by Faculty of 1000 Faculty members. The biology commentaries put recent advances in context and summarise their importance, while the medicine commentaries also highlight recent advances that are likely to change clinical practice.

RESEARCHERS CAN YOU HELP?

Can you spare 10 minutes to answer an online survey? Do you ever need to access information as a non-member at libraries in institutions other than your own? If so, we would like your feedback on the obstacles you face. Following our previous successful survey we are undertaking further work, commissioned by the Research Information Network (www.rin.ac.uk). The survey is hoping to reach as many researchers as possible, across a range of disciplines. Your input will provide vital insight to these issues and how they may be resolved going forwards. You can access the survey from 9th February here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=P0bSrkj2fSX5dZx_2bbaMMWw_3d_3d
or email lburns@outsellinc.com.

February Science Book Arrivals

A listing of new science book arrivals for February is now available. To view click on the link "New Book Arrivals" on the right hand menu.

Use Impact Factors? Now try the Eigenfactor™

You may be familiar with the Impact Factor which uses citation data to assess and track the influence of a journal in relation to other journals. Impact factors can be found in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) at the Web of Knowledge.
Now the JCR has been upgraded with some new features including the new Eigenfactor Score.

The Eigenfactor Score measures the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year.
Like the Impact Factor, the Eigenfactor Score is essentially a ratio of number of citations to total number of articles. However, unlike the Impact Factor, the Eigenfactor Score:

• Counts citations to journals in both the sciences and social sciences.
• Eliminates self-citations. Every reference from one article in a journal to another article from the same journal is discounted.
• Weights each reference according to a stochastic measure of the amount of time researchers spend reading the journal.

For more information about the JCR enhancements see http://isiwebofknowledge.com/products_tools/analytical/jcr/

CALLING CHEMISTRY RESEARCHERS!

Can you spare 15 minutes to answer an online survey? The survey is investigating how you communicate with your academic colleagues, particularly in using digital methods. The survey is part of a study, commissioned by JISC, the Joint Information Systems Committee (www.jisc.ac.uk <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/> ), to understand methods of scholarly communications in your field, and aims to set up advocacy programmes to encourage the take up of new methodologies and technologies to improve the access to, use and re-use of content by UK academics.
The survey is hoping to reach as many researchers as possible. Your input will provide vital insight and you will have the chance to win a £40 Amazon voucher to thank you for your time. You can access the survey from 30th January here:(www.rsc.org/advocacy).

Would you be interested in taking part in a survey with a chance to win £200 worth of Amazon vouchers.

Over the last year, the University has been taking part in the JISC Observatory ebooks project (http://www.jiscebooksproject.org), a nationally funded project looking at the use of ebooks amongst students and staff at HE Institutions and how we can shape the future provision of course texts in e-book format. Students and staff previously undertook an online survey for the project, resulting in the University being the fifth highest repondent (out of 122 institutions).
JISC would now like participants to take part in an exit survey .

The survey is open to all, although the eBooks collections made available through the project remain as Business&Management, Engineering, Media studies, and Medicine.

Anyone participating in the survey will be entered into a prize draw for £200 worth of Amazon vouchers.

The survey can be accessed via the following links:
Students: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/observatory/students/
Staff: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/observatory/faculty/
An additional link has been provided from the Electronic Books collection on the eLibrary Gateway.

Digitisation of course notes

All short loan course notes held in the George Green Library have now been digitised.

You can now search for course notes through the Library Online Catalogue (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/unloc) and download a digitised copy. One paper copy will still be retained in the library.

This will provide more accessible course notes for students.

New ebooks trial - we welcome your feedback

We have a trial set up for the Morgan & Claypool synthesis ebook collection until 28 February 2009.

What is the synthesis collection?
SYNTHESIS is an innovative and award winning e-book library of Biomedical, Engineering and Computer Science that combines authoritative content with advanced digital delivery. The SYNTHESIS platform includes e-books covering electromagnetics and antennas, signal processing and communications, biomedical engineering, digital circuits and more general electrical engineering.

How do I access synthesis?
Synthesis can be accessed via the eLibrary Gateway (Search under titles for Morgan and Claypool's ebook collections)

Subscriptions
Subscriptions are based on 8 subject collections or the whole collection. To see the titles in each of the subject collections, click on the "browse our subject collections" link on the right hand side.

Useful feedback for us would be whether you find particular collections more useful than others and the value of the collection for library purchasing.

The whole site can also easily be searched using the "quick search" option at the top of the page.

Please could you feedback any comments, either by commenting within the blog, or emailing Jenny.Coombs@nottingham.ac.uk by 28 February.

Call for focus group participants for eBook project

Are you an engineering student or member of staff? Would you be interested in participating in a focus group to help formulate ebook publishing? If so, please read on...

The JISC e-Book Observatory Project (http://www.jiscebooksproject.org) is about exploring impacts, observing behaviours and developing new models to stimulate the e-books market, and to do all this in a managed environment.

The aims are to licence a collection of e-books that are highly relevant to UK HE course taught students, to evaluate the use of the e-books and to transfer knowledge acquired in the project to publishers, aggregators and libraries to help stimulate an e-books market.

Through statistical data and questionnaire responses, the University of Nottingham was identified as one of the higher users of e-books and has been asked to participate in the next stage of the project.

A team based at Aberystwyth would like to set up focus group interviews with academic staff and students in engineering who are users of the e-books in the MyiLibrary collection (engineering, business & management, media studies): http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/catalogue/myilibrary.aspx . These ebooks are available through our library online catalogue

The interview questions will be circulated beforehand, and the interviews will be recorded but quoted anonymously and so no institution will be identified. It is anticipated that the focus groups would be held sometime in February or the first 2 weeks of March.

If you are interested in participating, could you please contact Jane Maltby (jane.maltby@nottingham.ac.uk)

Survey: Researchers access to information resources

CALLING ALL RESEARCHERS!

Can you spare 15 minutes to answer an online survey? The survey is investigating some of the obstacles you face as a researcher when accessing licensed information resources, and how you overcome these obstacles. The survey is part of a study, commissioned by the Research Information Network (http://www.blogger.com/www.rin.ac.uk), to understand the nature and scale of limitations and barriers encountered by researchers when seeking to access such resources. The survey is hoping to reach as many researchers as possible, across a range of
disciplines. Your input will provide vital insight to these issues and how they may be resolved going forwards. You can access the survey from 12th January here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7Gm90P1n3aSLO87xHwvITw_3d_3d
Or email lburns@outsellinc.com

ticTOCs: keeping researchers up-to-date

ticTOCs is a new scholarly journal tables of contents (TOCs) service. It is free, easy to use, and provides access to the most recent tables of contents of over 11,000 scholarly journals. It can help you keep up-to-date with what's being published in the most recent issues of journals on almost any subject.
You can find journals of interest by title, subject or publisher, view the latest TOC, and link through to the full text of over 250,000 articles (where our subscriptions, or open access, allow), and save selected journals to MyTOCs so that for viewing future TOCs. Free registration is required to permanently save MyTOCs. ticTOCs allows the export of selected TOC RSS feeds to popular feedreaders such as Google Reader and Bloglines.

Advance Notification of Changes to Intute - Health & Life Sciences

In January, Intute: Health and Life Sciences (HLS) will be introducing a change to the presentation of subject headings on the HLS Home Page.

The Bioresearch and Natural History headings will be combined into a single new heading: Biological Sciences. The content has been combined and is cross searchable but the browse structure will remain the same (with some minor modifications). These changes have been informed by user feedback and an Advisory Group including academics and a librarian in the subject area and the Higher Education Academy for Bioscience. In addition, Intute has improved the content, adding hundreds of new resources in the biological sciences.

The change will take place on Tuesday 13th January 2009. The new URL for Biological Sciences will be http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/biologicalsciences/ The old URLs will be redirected to this new address.