Monday 30 March 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

Friday 27 March 2009

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

Wednesday 25 March 2009

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.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

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.

Thursday 19 March 2009

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/

Wednesday 18 March 2009

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

Monday 16 March 2009

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.

Thursday 12 March 2009

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

Tuesday 10 March 2009

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.

Monday 9 March 2009

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.

Friday 6 March 2009

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

Wednesday 4 March 2009

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

Tuesday 3 March 2009

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.