Learning Futures Festival - Beyond Distance's annual e-learning conference

7 - 14 January 2010 - entirely online.

Key international thinkers and practitioners in the field in a programme of keynotes, papers and workshops.

More information and register online at: http://www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/festival

Scottish Science Hall of Fame - National Library of Scotland

The online exhibition.

With information about:

James Clerk Maxwell, John Logie Baird, Alexander Graham Bell, Robert Watson-Watt, Alexander Fleming, Joseph Black, James Hutton, James Watt, Lord Kelvin, John Napier.

Includes reading lists, other useful websites and places to visit related to the men above.

LHC physics results published. Open Access.

LHC physics results, from the ALICE Collaboration, have been published by Springer in the European Physical Journal C. The article is Open Access and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

Recently, another group working at the LHC, the CMS collaboration, prepared 23 articles describing the performance of their experimental apparatus. These are submitted to arXiv.org, and they will also appear as Open Access publications on the SISSA/IOP Journal of Instrumentation.


These articles are Open Access thanks to special agreements between publishers and CERN. An initiative called SCOAP3 aims to convert all the literature of the field to Open Access, without author costs (although costs via institutional library subscriptions to the journals would remain).

A budget envelope of 10 Million Euros/year is estimated for the operation, and over 65% of these funds have been so far pledged by partners in 23 countries (including the HE in the UK).

More here http://scoap3.org/news/news71.html

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MOBILE LEARNING 2010

Porto, Portugal, 19 to 21 March 2010
http://www.mlearning-conf.org/

Mobile Learning, a Retrospective Outlook

Since its inauguration in 2005, the IADIS Mobile Learning conference series has provided a forum to present, discuss and promote international mobile learning research.

Five years on, the IADIS Mobile Learning 2010 International Conference seeks to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of mobile learning research which provides a retrospective outlook of the field.

New AIP collaboration website for physical scienctists

AIP UniPHY, powered by Collexis High Definition Search, enables fast, accurate and extraordinary knowledge retrieval and discovery, and empowers individuals to search for and identify documents, researchers, trends, and new discoveries more quickly. AIP UniPHY provides intuitive interfaces through which researchers can network and share data.

UniPHY site

Requires personal registration.

Main Library - exam revision 24x7 opening

From 8.30am on Thursday 3 December the Main Library will be open 24x7 until midnight on Thursday 17 December. The IS Helpdesk staffed hours remain unchanged; self-services operate when the Helpdesk is closed.

Times Higher Education signed with Thomson Reuters for World University Rankings

Times Higher Education will make use of Thomson Reuters (Web of Science) data. Full press release "New data partner for World University Rankings" at:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=408881§ioncode=26

E-learning SIG: Technology enhanced learning – sharing innovations

10th December 2009,
Manchester Metropolitan University

The Centre for Learning and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Higher Education Academy Physical Sciences Centre are jointly organising an e-learning special interest group meeting to showcase some examples of innovation in e-learning. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from people actively engaging in e-learning innovation and will hear about the current drive to Open Educational Resources (OER).

For more details and to register online, please see the website:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/events/detail/2009/tel_sharing_innovations

Teaching problem solving: Beyond the single piece jigsaw

17th February 2010,
University of Edinburgh

A range of speakers including representation from the secondary sector will present their views and case studies of practices going on around the UK. the workshop is organised jointly by the IOP Higher Education Group (HEG) and the Physical Sciences Centre.

For more details (incl how to contribute short case study presentations) and to register online, please see the website:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/events/detail/2010/teaching_problem_solving

There is no registration fee for this meeting for those working in UK HE.

OER - Legal Matters - Webcast

Thursday, 5 November 2009 - 2pm to 4pm

to highlight and clarify relevant legal issues pertaining to the creation and dissemination of Open Educational Resources

More details are available here: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1150/OER--Legal-Matters--Webcast--051109.aspx

Will be available to view afterwards from the link to the webcast site from above URL.

JISC-legal will be presenting at the:
Open Learning Conference in Nottingham on the 25 November 2009.

RIN ejournal survey - Amazon vouchers

Researchers at University College London are undertaking a major study on the use of e-journals at a number of universities, including the University of Edinburgh. The first phase of the study analysed usage data from the ScienceDirect and Oxford Journals databases, and the results raised a number of interesting questions as to how scholars seek and use information.

The next phase examines user behaviour in more detail, focussing on the following subject areas:

-Chemical Engineering
-Chemistry
-Earth sciences (geology, geophysics, planetary sciences)
-Economics
-History
-Life sciences (including agricultural, veterinary and biological)
-Physics

If you are carrying out research in any of these subject areas we hope you will be able to complete a short (10 to 15 minutes) online survey. There is a prize draw for Amazon vouchers......

Direct to the survey

Intermediate Edinburgh University Library information page

Closes end of November.

Inspiring Teaching

11 November 2009
[EUSA with the University's support]
Teviot Building, Bristo Square

possible to attend either for the morning (11.00-1.45)
or the afternoon sessions (12.45-3.30).
or the walk-around displays by Schools (12:45-13:45 with lunch).

Contributions from EUSA 2009 Teaching Awards winners and nominees

Staff and students wishing to register for the Conference can register for the morning or afternoon sessions at:

http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk/EUSAUniversityConference2009.htm

Poster Presentations - Designing Effective Posters

A webguide maintained by University at Buffalo's Arts & Sciences Library staff.

http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/bio/posters.html

It "provides an inventory of print and Internet-based resources for guidance and instruction for the presentation of scientific and technical information in the form of a poster presentation".

JISC sponsored Roadshow - e-Research: 'What is it and how can it help me?

Tuesday 17 November 2009,
09:30 - 14:00,
Priorslee Hall, Telford Campus, University of Wolverhampton.
Free to attend

This JISC - sponsored roadshow, for researchers and those providing IT support services, will introduce the concept of e-Research and some of the tools, along with case studies from practitioners in various disciplines.

Places are limited.

To book your place please visit :
www.jisc.ac.uk/wolverhamptonroadshow

Searching ISI Web of Knowledge - Widgets, Gadgets - Additional Tools.

These Tools allows a user to conduct a Topic search across the ISI Web of Knowledge and easily perform an 'All Databases search' (which will be over the Web of Science databases, BIOSIS and MEDLINE).

Web Browser search extension.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The search extension allows an 'All Databases search' directly from the browser's search bar (N.B. only FireFox 2 and above and IE 7 and above are supported.)

Internet Explorer at: http://isiwebofknowledge.com/webtools/browsersearch/

Firefox at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11624

Note - there is also an add-on for Firefox that searches Thomson Reuters' Master Journal List at:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8749


The ISI Web of Knowledge Widget - Desktop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://wokinfo.com/wok/webtools/widget/

For an icon downloaded directly to your desktop for searching ISI Web of Knowledge. Search terms can be entered directly into the box.

call for papers - International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics

paper/abstract submission for The International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics: IMCIC 2010
(April 6 -9, 2010 - Orlando, Florida, USA).

http://www.2010iiisconferences.org/IMCIC

Deadlines and other details re submission at http://www.iiis2010.org/imcic/Submission/index.asp?vc=26

Authors of the best 10%-20% of the papers presented at the conference (included those virtually presented) will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.

Seminars - Research into Teaching and Learning

A new seminar series will run on the last Wednesday of each month between October and May, at 12.30 till 2 in the seminar room in Simon Laurie House, School of Education. Members of the University are welcome. For further information, contact Lindsay Paterson in the School of Education.

The seminars for session 2009-2010 are as follows; staff giving the seminars are in the School of Education except where stated otherwise:

28 October: Lyn Tett and Jenny Hounsell, "Support and progression issues for non-traditional students: some findings from the study of the experiences of students who entered the College of Humanities and Social Science directly from Further Education".

25 November: Ava Blass, Educational Coordinator, MSc in Translational Medicine. Title to be announced.

27 January: Rowena Arshad, "Teacher Education Students' Understanding of Social Justice Issues".

24 February: Siân Bayne and Jen Ross, "Researching teaching using virtual ethnography".

31 March: Charles Anderson, Kate Day and Hamish Macleod, "Evaluating a large-scale learning and teaching initiative : issues, challenges and strategies".

28 April: Zoe Williamson, final title to be announced, on the theme of "Becoming a researcher: the impact of self-study on practice".

26 May: George Meldrum and Catherine Morgan, a topic to be confirmed on cross curricular teaching and learning in science and geography.

Text Mining for Scholarly Communications and Repositories Joint Workshop

28-29 October
Manchester Interdisciplinary BioCentre,
University of Manchester.

The Workshop is being co-hosted by the National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM)and UKOLN.

The Keynote presentation titled "eScience and Semantic Computing" will be given by Professor Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft External Research.

A full Programme of international speakers and the registration form are available at http://www.nactem.ac.uk/tm-ukoln.php

Review of the Student Learning Experience in Physics

The Higher Education Academy commissioned a series of National Subject Profiles to cover the areas of Materials, Biochemistry Microbiology and Media and Communications.

The Physical Sciences Centre consider chemistry and physics to be such vital subjects that two subject reviews, one for chemistry and one for physics and astronomy, have been independently funded.

Find the reviews at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/home/projects/subjectreviews

NeSC newsletter

September 2009's issue at http://www.nesc.ac.uk/news/newsletter/index.html

Includes information about the e-Science Institute call for new Theme proposals and a summary of Jul09 StoMP (stochastic dynamical modelling for prokaryotes) workshop, when "microbiologists and physical and computational scientists joined forces to expose the inner workings of bacteria."

William Dick Memorial Lecture

Professor Richard Leakey will deliver this year's lecture.

Friday 18 September 2009, 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Assembly Hall, New College

Ticketed event.

RIN newsletter

The Research Information Network (RIN) August newsletter includes:

Keeping Research Data Safe 2 project which is inviting people to contribute to the data survey, if they have research datasets and associated cost information.

The RCUK Public Engagement with Research Team has announced the dates for the 2010 scheme aimed at supporting public engagement activities in National Science and Engineering Week 2010 (12-21 March). All seven Research Councils are involved in supporting the scheme, providing access for funds of up to £2,000 per project.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has published its annual higher education National Student Survey (NSS)

Also, Events and training courses which include

"Text mining hands-on course and training seminar", 5-6 October 2009, Cambridge,

"Vitae national research staff conference", 5 November 2009, London. "This national conference will enable attendees to consider the research environment and examine issues that impact on research staff across institutional and disciplinary barriers..."

Call for Papers - CCCT 2010

Call for Papers/Abstracts and Invited Sessions Proposals for
The 8th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT 2010
April 6 -9, 2010
Orlando, Florida, USA

website = http://www.2010iiisconferences.org/CCCT


Deadlines:
Papers/Abstracts Submissions and Invited Sessions Proposals:
September 30th, 2009

Authors Notifications:
November 16th, 2009

Camera-ready, full papers:
December 16th, 2009

Tribes of Science - Astronomers & Mathematicians

Radio 4's "Tribes of Science" was concerned with the astronomers at Jodrell Bank on Sunday so that's available to listen until next Sunday when it's Mathematicians at Isaac Newton Institute of Mathematics in Cambridge

Tribes of Science - The Astronomers

Centre for Research Collections - tours and talks for new session

Centre for Research Collections (CRC - which includes Special Collections, The University Archives and The Lothian Health Services Archive) is preparing for the coming academic year and would like to promote its collections and services to new staff and students.

CRC staff would be happy to arrange induction tours or formal presentations early in the new session. These can be arranged to take place either in the CRC (which is in the newly refurbished levels 5 and 6 of the Main Library in George Square) or talks can also be given to groups in their Schools .

To arrange a tour or a talk, please get in touch with your liaison librarian.

more about CRC at their webpages

Main Library - extended opening hours

Ground Floor of the Main Library, George Square, will be open to users on a self-service basis on Saturdays and Sundays this coming weekend (15h and 16th August) and for the subsequent 4 weekends of the Vacation in order to provide enhanced access to study space and other Ground Floor facilities.

This is in addition to the normal opening (access to all Floors) on Saturdays 10am to 1pm.

The following revised opening hours will apply:

Saturday 15th August, 22nd August, 29th August, 5th September, 12th September: Building open 10am to 8pm (staffed service 10am to 12.50pm)

Sunday 16th August, 23rd August, 30th August, 6th September, 13th September: Building open 12 noon to 8pm (no staffed service)

JISC Second Life guide helps lecturers teach in the virtual world

JISC's new guide to Second Life is written by lecturers for lecturers, to help others to use virtual worlds for teaching.

'Getting Started in Second Life' answers some common questions like how to set up in Second Life, what the rules of the world are, how to plan lessons and how best to help students use it effectively for learning.

The aim of the guide is to present the basics in order to help lecturers experiment, rather than them getting lost in mastering the detail of the virtual environment.

To download 'Getting Started in Second Life' or order a paper copy, go to http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/gettingstartedsecondlife

eLearning@Edinburgh conference

26th of August 2009
National e-Science Centre (NESC)

Speakers this year have been invited to highlight ways in which technology can support group working and peer engagement. The invited speaker is Megan Quentin Baxter (acting Director of Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine)

The provisional timetable and for booking: http://tinyurl.com/lh9u8x
(N.B. wiki is on planned downtime this morning so try later).

If you'd like to showcase your work and discuss it on the day, there is space for posters and/or demos for break times. These can be about any eLearning topic and the contact for this is Daniela Gachago.

CERN STUDY ON USE OF ARXIV CONTENT

CERN Library and OA staff (Anne Gentil-Beccot, Salvatore Mele, Travis Brooks) published at the end of June the study "Citing and Reading Behaviours in High-Energy Physics: How a Community Stopped Worrying about Journals and Learned to Love Repositories".

Report is in Arxiv.org at http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.5418

Analysis of citation data in the report demonstrates that free and immediate online dissemination of preprints creates an immense citation advantage in High Energy Physics, whereas publication in Open Access journals presents no discernible advantage.

In addition, the analysis of clickstreams in the leading digital library of the field shows that HEP scientists seldom read journals, preferring preprints instead.

changing Academic Practice: Implications for future Physical Sciences academics

Wed 4th Nov 2009
10:30-16:00
University of Oxford - Lincoln EPA Science Centre

A colloquium to bring together doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and junior and senior academics to discuss challenges etc for those wishing to pursue an academic career in physical sciences.

More details and registration at: http://www.physsci.heacademy.ac.uk/events/forthcoming

Making Web 2.0 Work for You - workshop

Wed 28th Oct 09
09:00-16:15
Leeds - The Old School Board

Focus on implications arising when teaching practice leaves the classroom/VLEs. Examples of practice on integrating new technologies and techniques into teaching.

More details and registration at: http://www.physsci.heacademy.ac.uk/events/forthcoming

Workshop for New and Aspiring Lecturers

Fri 30th October 2009 (noon) - Sat 31st October 2009 (1pm)
York - Best Western Monk Bar Hotel.

Delivered by physical science practitioners in a context relevant to chemistry, physics and related disciplines.

More details and registration at: http://www.physsci.heacademy.ac.uk/events/forthcoming

New Approaches to Old Physics - one day meeting

Wednesday 21st October 2009
10:30-16:00
University of Warwick

New contexts in the teaching of standard core physics. Aims to cover issues from all years of undergraduate teaching.

More details and to register: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/events/forthcoming

NeSC newsletter - digital astronomy

August 2009 issue at http://www.nesc.ac.uk/news/newsletter/August09.pdf

Front page for summary of Bob Mann's public lecture on "Next Generation Sky Surveys: Astronomical Opportunities and Computational Challenges".

Journal of Fluid Mechanics - online vol1 onwards

Our access to Journal of Fluid Mechanics digital archive (purchased this year) has been activated which gives us online access to this title from volume 1 onwards.

Please access the issues via the library's e-journal webpages which will be updated with the new holdings dates soon.

Library e-journal pages

Select the Cambridge University Press option of those available for Journal of Fluid Mechanics

UK Research Reserve (UKRR) - first members, incl UoEdinburgh, sign up

15 UK higher education institutions (HEIs) were accepted by the UKRR Selection Panel at its inaugural meeting. These first members include the University of Edinburgh.

Shared across the the 15 participating institutions, over 14k linear metres of material will be processed during this first tranche of activity.

More information from the UKRR website

For more information on the implications for EUL, please contact your Liaison Librarian

Bridging the Gaps - call for proposals (EPSRC)

The EPSRC are seeking outline proposals for their Bridging the Gaps call to help research organisations build a programme of activities that will stimulate creative thinking, across disciplines, reflecting institutional strengths and strategies.

They encourage applications that bridge the gaps between engineering and physical sciences (EPS) and other non-EPS research areas. In particular, they welcome proposals that include working with the social sciences and/or arts and humanities.

More information from the EPSRC website

Deadline for applications is 16 September.

Call for nominations for Biosciences Federation Science Communication Award 2009

Sponsored by Pfizer, this award recognises bioscience researchers from UK universities and institutes who make an outstanding and consistent contribution to communicating science to the public.

Awards categories are New Research (£500) and Established Research (£1500).

More information from the Federation's website

Nomination of researchers working in any sector of the biosciences, from UK universities or institutes, must be supported by a named representative from a Biosciences Federation Member or Associate Member Organisation by submission of a completed Nomination Form.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is 28 August.

Vitae researcher development conference 2009: realising the potential of researchers

8-9 September 2009,
Warwick

More information from the Vitae website

This conference will address strategic and practical implications of:
*sustaining the investment in our researchers in order to build research capacity and remain globally competitive;
*research and evaluation relating to the impact of researcher development and of researcher careers;
*the implementation of the Concordat, including the benchmarking process;
*the latest developments in policy relating to postgraduate researchers and practice to support researcher skills and career development.

Library Catalogue - no self-renewals early next week

The Library Catalogue is getting an upgrade next week. There'll be a period when only the Aquabrowser interface is available and when the catalogue's information is a little out of whack with the situation on the shelves.

It is expected that self-renewals on the library catalogue won't be possible midday Monday 27th July until the evening of Wednesday 29th July. The best idea would be to renew now, otherwise contact library staff.

More information on the library news pages

New look for the EJournal webpages

There has been a recent change in the way the library's e-journal webpages look. This is because we've changed to a different feeder database which, behind the scenes, will integrate better with the library management system and help us improve services.

The default presentation of the list is more streamlined than before. Select "Switch to Detail View" if you want to see, for all the titles listed, the years available and from which websites. Select the "i" for this information for individual titles.

There are no records for our electronic journals in the library catalogue but these will be coming.

More information on library news

There's also a known problem linking to Elsevier's Science Direct journal site from Web of Knowledge and other databases using "findit@Edinburgh". As with all links to journal full-text, double check whether or not you can get it from the library using the e-journal webpages and the library catalogue incase we have only have the journal/year in print.

As you can tell, it's a work in progress and we'd welcome comments or questions on it.

E-Journal web pages

mathematical content in electronic media - technical workshop

Wednesday 9th September
Open University, Milton Keynes

The one-day workshop will have three main themes:

1. Content related technical problems in supporting e-Learning in mathematics
2. Standards related to digitisation of mathematics research literature
3. Formulas and equations in otherwise non-mathematical content

Attendance is limited to about 30, and there are funds for travel and accommodation.

JISC and the OU are funding this workshop.

For more information, and to attend, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/uk-math-content-2009/web/home

Higher Education Academy’s Student Employability Profiles

The Higher Education Academy’s Student Employability Profiles have now been in use across the sector for almost five years and the Academy is following up on the outcomes, usage and success of the profiles with a short survey to inform the Academy’s future work in further developing the Student Employability Profiles, to enhance graduate employability through effective learning.

The Employability Profiles are available on the Academy’s website: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/employability/disciplines

The survey should take no more than 15 minutes: https://www.questback.com/thehighereducationacademy/sep/

Improving Student Learning (ISL) International conference

7th -9th September 2009,
Imperial College London

Improving Student Learning Symposia will bring together researchers into learning in higher education and practitioners concerned with improving their practice.

Participants, whether presenting papers or not, are invited to bring a poster presenting work they are doing which is concerned with improving student learning.

Registration is now open. Full details can be found on our web site:
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/isl/isl2009/index.html

Physics Community and Cooperation - GIREP-EPEC 2009 and PHEC 2009 International Conference

17th - 21st August 2009,
University of Leicester

Providing an emphasis both on modes of collaborative learning and on collaboration between institutions to share good practice and to enhance the student learning experience.

Registration is available online and closes 19th July. See the website for details: http://www.physics.le.ac.uk/girep2009/registration.shtml

Developing STEM education research practices

Thursday 9 July 2009,
University of Birmingham

Register via the link below to attend this workshop.

http://www.engsc.ac.uk/nef/events/developing-stem-education-research-practices.asp

Impact Factors - 2008 data available

2008 data for Journal Citation Reports is now available on the Web of Knowledge platform.

Access on- and off-campus (and to help sheets etc) from:

Library's A-Z Databases webpage

Web of Science also provides h-index figures. More about that from its own help pages.

More about citation analysis at:
Citing References, Cited Reference Searching and Journal Impact Factors

Main Library - ground floor café open

The café in the Main Library, George Square, is the first part of the ground floor to have been opened for use.

Its opening hours during June and July are Mon-Fri, 9am to 4pm.

Until the 1st of July access to the café will be from outside using the new external café doors.

Main Library - 1st and 3rd floor - stock moving

The current journals, newspapers, newspaper indexes and microfilms on the 1st floor of the Main Library in George Square are being moved to the 3rd floor between Monday 22nd June 2009 and Wednesday 24th June 2009.

However, it is expected, material will only be unavailable for the short time it is removed from the shelves, in transit between floors and re-shelved.

MESUR: MEtrics from Scholarly Usage of Resources

A recent Nature review of a PLoS ONE article resulting from research at Los Alamos's MESUR Project on citation and usage data analysis:

Butler (2009) Web usage data outline map of knowledge, Nature, 438, 135.
Bollen et all (2009) Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science, PLoS ONE 4(3), e4803
MESUR Project Documentation

Pretty plots suggesting that because practitioners read widely but do not publish frequently, citations in the literature under-represent the reach of humanities and social science journals,etc titles.

RIN - Paying for open access publication charges

Research Information Network and Universities UK have produced a new guide 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.

Paying for open access publication charges: Guidance for higher education and research institutions, publishers and authors

The guide also sets out recommendations for universities and other research institutions, publishers, research funders, and authors.

JISC have also published a report on the economics of open access publishing:
Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models Exploring the costs and benefits

Measuring up - the evolution of impact metrics

15 June 2009, London

Information from the seminar webpages

Run by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, this seminar will explore the evolution of impact metrics.

Research will be presented from the group responsible for the bibliometrics behind HEFCE's Research Excellence Framework (REF) pilot, and will conclude with a consideration of what future metrics might look like, particularly in those areas not currently well served by existing ones.

poster competition for early-career researchers

Research Councils UK is running Perspectives - a poster competition for early-career researchers. Open to postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers funded by the UK Research Councils.

More information at www.britishscienceassociation.org/perspectives

Finalists display their posters at the British Science Festival in September, at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Cash prizes are awarded by a panel of expert judges.

Deadline for applications is 8 May 2009.

Edinburgh International Science Festival - ASIMO

Festival this year includes:
appearances by Honda's robot ASIMO in the McEwan Hall 4th-5th April in conjunction with School of Informatics.
AISB talks at Heriot-Watt
Doing Astronomy from Scotland: The Scottish Royal Astronomers and Lord Crawford’s Treasure Trove of Astronomical Books

Full programme from the website

Research Information Networks' briefing on scholarly journals in the current financial climate

An outline of three points of pressure on academic library's budgets and what they mean for a University's community are given in:
The Research Information Networks' briefing on scholarly journals in the current financial climate

For an Edinburgh University Library perspective, see Papers 3a and 3c of:
the Library Committee meeting on 11th February 2009.

ID numbers for identifying authors

Following up a Lancet article an overview in Science 323(5922) p1662-1664 by Martin Enserink of numbering systems for authors entitled Are You Ready to Become a Number?

Mentioned are
Thomson Reuters' ResearcherID
CrossFire's ContributorID which is in a discussion phase and for which infromation is blogbased

CambridgeSoft Corporation seeks product reviewers

CambridgeSoft are in search of reviewers to put products to the test.

Of particular interest are comments on the newest release of ChemBIoFinder, BioOffice, BioDraw, BioAssay, BioViz, Inventory, E-Notebook, and ChemACX.

If you are interested, contact their reviews department at reviews--at--cambridgesoft.com.

Approved applicants will be eligible to receive free software in order to write the review. In addition, you will receive a free t-shirt if your story appears online or in print.

The above is from emailed version of:
CambridgeSoft newsletter Chem&Bio News

Third Science Learning and Teaching Conference (SLTC)

16-17th June 2009,
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

The aim of this national conference is to bring together practitioners in the teaching of science disciplines in HE to share their experiences, identify common challenges and an opportunity to share effective practice. The conference programme will include keynote lectures; short oral presentations; hands on workshops; posters and exhibitions.

Early bird registration deadline is 31st March 2009.

for more information at http://www.sltc.info/

Poster design

ISiskills directs you to a couple of courses and leaflet about poster creation. Search for poster.

Books exist in the library on scientific writing and communication and include poster creation. Some classmark areas which would be good places to browse:
QA1778, Q222, Q223, T11 [PE1408]

See also Flora Grabowska's, a librarian at US's Vassar College:
list of poster design sites
look to the left menu

History of the Book seminar - John Murray's Handbooks for Travellers

Barbara Schaff (University of Goettingen)
Friday March 27 (1-2pm)
5th Floor seminar room,
Edinburgh University Library

In the course of the nineteenth century, the Murray Handbooks were embraced by the British middle classes as exemplary manuals model for tourists, thereby helping to normalise a certain kind of cultured and educated travel practice. Amongst other things, the seminar on Friday will discuss John Murray's invention of the new format of the tourist guidebook and its long lasting cultural relevance. It will also address Murray's competition with Baedeker.

Barbara Schaff is Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at Göttingen University. In 2006-07 she held a Caledonian Research Fellowship from the Royal Society of Edinburgh at the Centre for the History of the Book for her research on the John Murray Handbooks.

GIREP-EPEC 2009 International Conference - Physics Community and Cooperation

17th - 21st August 2009, University of Leicester

The GIREP conference is held every two years and is an international event in the field of Physics Education.

Abstracts are invited for Paper Sessions, Posters, Symposia and Workshops. The deadline for submission is 25th April 2009. Please see the website for further details:

http://www.physics.le.ac.uk/girep2009/authors.shtml

Main Library will be closed on Saturday 28th March

This closure is necessary due to essential work to the Appleton Tower server room which will result in the loss of the network to the Main Library building.

Other Libraries (Darwin, Robertson, Law & Europa, Moray House) and Open Access Labs will be operating as usual on Saturday 28th March.

Information on opening hours of Site Libraries
Information on Open Access Labs

The Main Library will open with full services as usual at 12 noon on Sunday 29th March.

Talbot Rice Gallery - Wednesday Walkabouts at One

Desire Lines - Art on Campus
Wednesday Walkabouts at One
Next tour Wednesday 25 March at 1pm

Join a member of the Talbot Rice Gallery staff on a guided tour of the Desire Lines Art on Campus projects, and hear how each artist came to be located in their unique site.

These tours will run fortnightly throughout the exhibition starting on 25 February finishing on 17 June. Meet at the Information Hub at the entrance to Talbot Rice Gallery. The tour will take around 45 minutes. Bring appropriate clothing, as some of the tour will be outside. No need to book, just turn up on the day.

Call for submissions on: The teacher’s role, identity and presence in game-based learning

Mini Track at the 3rd European Conference on Game Based Learning,
FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences,
Graz,
Austria,
12-13 October 2009

Mini track on: The teacher’s role, identity and presence in game-based learning
Track chair: Hamish Macleod, University of Edinburgh, UK

Game-based and game-informed approaches to learning are often seen as powerful examples of student-centred and experiential learning. While this is an important emphasis, there appears a need to clarify the task of the teacher within such settings...

This call for papers and full details of the conference at http://www.academic-conferences.org/ecgbl/ecgbl2009/ecgbl09-home.htm

Free events on sustainable laboratories - University of Edinburgh 1st May

Free events on sustainable laboratories have been organised for academics, managers and technicians in laboratories. All feature Allen Doyle, founder of the award winning LabRATS initiative in the University of California, and have been organised by the HEFCE-funded HEEPI project.

Bookings can be made at http://www.eventlink.org.uk.

They are being held at the Royal Society of Chemistry, London (27/04/09), the University of Bradford (28/04/09) and the University of Edinburgh (01/05/09).

The London event focuses on laboratory operation, and deals with topics such as energy efficiency, green IT and waste management.

The Bradford event is mainly aimed at academics and focuses on using laboratory operations as a mechanism for teaching and learning about sustainability (e.g. HVAC systems as engineering case studies; experimental chemicals as a route into teaching green chemistry and life cycle assessment).

The Edinburgh event combines both.

Student Voice conference

Gerry Czerniawski and colleagues at UEL are putting on a conference on April 22nd at the Docklands campus on student voice. Guest speakers include Michael Fielding, Gill Mullis, Mick Waters, Pippa Lord and the event is being chaired by Wes Streeting (President of the NUS).
More information from http://www.uel.ac.uk/listeningtolearners/

NeSC - Workshop on Use Cases for Provenance

Workshop on Use Cases for Provenance
April 20, 2009
http://wiki.esi.ac.uk/UseCasesForProvenanceWorkshop
e-Science Institute
15 South College Street, Edinburgh

6th annual Problem Based Learning ( PBL) summer workshop.

The workshop is run every year by academic staff from the University of Leicester. This year it is being hosted by Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland and delivered by the team from the University of Leicester on 13th- 15th July 2009.

The PBL summer workshop is not discipline-specific covering arts and social sciences disciplines along side sciences, engineering, mathematics, IT, medical and health care fields. In recent years this event has welcomed participants from across the globe and across the disciplines.

More information from http://www.dkit.ie/leap

MIMAS - Web of Knowledge

MIMAS advise that all problems with the Mimas ISI Web of Knowledge service web pages due to hardware problems have now been resolved.

Members of the University of Edinburgh,please contact library staff if you have problems with the service.

Art Collective first artsci event this afternoon

Art Collective artsci series - first event
Art Collective has its first 'artsci' series event at the Edinburgh College of Art this afternoon (Mon 16th Mar)

The event is open to anyone and will be followed by a talk by conceptual artist, Joseph Kosuth, at the National Gallery (starting at 6).

Also.... The Place Project schedule is now available.

On Trial - two Chinese databases from Taiwan

EUL staff have arranged a free trial of two Chinese databases from Taiwan.

The trail period provides time for readers and library staff to assess the products. Please send feedback via Electronic Information Service Trials webpage where these services should soon appear. Or to your Liaison Librarian.

1. Taiwan Electronic Periodical Services (TEPS) http://www.airiti.com/teps/ec_en This is an on-line database offering the full-text of more than 700 Taiwan periodicals of different subjects in Arts, Humanities, Social Science. Science and Medicine. Interface in both Chinese and English.

Trial period: Mar 10 2009 ~ Apr 09 2009

2. National Palace Museum Online (NPM Online) http://www.airiti.com/npmoln/
An image database of Chinese Art. Interface in both Chinese and English.

Trial period: Mar 10 2009 ~ Apr 09 2009

History of the book seminar

Friday 13th Mar09
13:00-14:00
CRC seminar room
Main Library, 5th floor.

Dr. Paul Barnaby
"The Corson Collection: Edinburgh University Library's Scott Monument."

More information at http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/ebhs08_09.htm

USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission Annual Assessments for Nation’s Nuclear Plants

The USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued annual assessment letters to the nation’s 104 operating commercial nuclear power plants. All the plants continue to operate safely.

Plus Reactor Oversight Process (Individual Plant Performance Summaries)

e-Science Institute public lecture - Adding Semantics to Geographic Data Models

Adding Semantics to Geographic Data Models by Dr Femke Reitsma (Geography Department, Canterbury University) is open to all interested parties in academia and industry.

More about the lecture from http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/981

Date and Time: 16:00, 7 April 2009 (tea and coffee at 17:00)

Place: Newhaven Lecture Theatre
e-Science Institute
15 South College Street (Edinburgh)

Note that there is no need to register for this event - just turn up.

Web of Knowledge login problems

MIMAS, hosts of WoK, are having technical difficulties at the moment.

To get into WoK and the resources on it please go to http://www.isiknowledge.com

Select the first University of Edinburgh option from the list of home organisations.

More resources for finding academic physics literature by subject

The WoK entry from the above URL links to an access route which works. Supplied after "Still not working?" - select UK Federation from the options then UoEdinburgh etc.

MRC's research portfolio available online

The UK Medical Research Council's database is available online as a searchable database.

All funded projects and intramural programmes are in the database, each with a lay summary and scientific abstract.

Search the database, or browse by broad disease area, research type, location, organisation, MRC Board or grant category.

The portfolio has been online in a couple of previous incarnations, once via Community of Science and once on the MRC's own website, but both were withdrawn for a mixture of reasons.

Astronomy 2009 special issue of Physics World

Astronomy 2009 special issue of Physics World

To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy 2009, Physics World has devoted the whole of its March issue to the exploration of the cosmos.

The issue includes interviews with leading figures from the world of astronomy, who reveal what they think are the biggest challenges for the subject.

Other feature articles look at the search for exoplanets, the development of planetary exploration, the return to the Moon, astronomers' plans for extra-large telescopes, and the legacy of Galileo. We also showcase five iconic images from astronomy.

International Year of Astronomy, UK

Survey - Intute - £50 Amazon Voucher

PRIZE DRAW: A £50 Amazon Voucher will be awarded each week throughout March.

Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the very best web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners.

Ensure it meets your needs by completing this short online survey. It only takes about 5 minutes to complete.

http://feedback.intute.ac.uk/userfeedback

More free web-based resources for Physicists and Astronomers

Research-Teaching Links in the Physical Sciences: Politics and Practice

Wednesday 18th March 2009,
The Reinvention Centre,
University of Warwick

Undergraduate Research and the Research Teaching Link are currently hot topics. Autumn 2008 saw the publication of three major reports, from the Scottish QAA and from Professors Nigel Thrift and Paul Ramsden to the Minister, John Denham, that provide a clear political framework for 2009 onwards.

Lynda Thrift will introduce the event and Paul Taylor will talk about the work of the reinvention Centre at the University of Warwick. Tina Overton, Physical Sciences Centre, Ros Roke, University of Warwick and Simon Bates, University of Edinburgh, will discuss the impact of these reports.

The full programme is available on the website: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/physsci/events/detail/2009/rtl_mar_2009

There is no registration fee for this meeting for those working in UK HE and lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Case studies will be presented that highlight what is actually happening in Physical Science Departments around the country. If you would like to contribute a 10 minute case study presentation to the workshop, please contact Ruth Wellock, r.wellock - at - hull.ac.uk, with details of what you would like to present.

Create books from almost any MediaWiki wiki

PediaPress is a German company which for a cost will print in book format material sourced from wikis using MediaWiki software.

See their webpages for the widget and more information

Ebook survey - Amazon vouchers

JISC is conducting a major national survey to find out what students and staff think about electronic books. The "JISC User Exit Survey 2009" is now live.

The survey takes 10-12 minutes to do and all completed surveys will go into a draw to win £200 worth of Amazon vouchers !

The online survey is accessible to students at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/observatory/students/

The survey is accessible to staff at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/observatory/faculty/

There are links to ebooks from library catalogue records.
There is a subset of some of the available chemistry ones at http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resbysub/chem.shtml#chemebks including a link to the RSC ebook collection.

Re the survey, you need to know the following:

"You are under no obligation whatsoever to take part in the survey. Any information you give will be held securely and any findings will under no circumstances be revealed other than at a highly aggregated level. Data is being collected through a third-party, Survey Monkey, the privacy policy for which can be read at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/Monkey_Privacy.aspx"

The Influence and Impact of Web 2.0 on e-Research Infrastructure, Applications and Users

Five-day workshop 23Mar09 09:30 - 27Mar09 17:00 at the
e-Science Institute,
15 South College Street,
Edinburgh.

Day 1 - Web 2.0 technologies
Day 2 - Clouds
Day 3 - User/usability
Day 4 - User Applications
Day 5 - Tutorials and panels

See this link for the schedule and details of the event and how to apply to attend - http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/968/

Open Access Publications Policy through Senate

Open Access Publications Policy was agreed through the electronic Senate, and the minutes of the e-Senate were accepted 18th Feb 2009.

The Policy does not become mandatory until 1 Jan 2010. For this year, there is strong encouragement to deposit items.

The policy is available at
http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Committees/Senate/Meetings/200809/20090127/C4-OpenAccess.pdf

RIN 10 minute survey

The Research Information Network asks:

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.

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 - 6th March.
Access the survey.

Any answers you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and shared only with RIN in an aggregated format.