Attention, all SciFinder Scholar users.....

If you use SciFinder Scholar on your own computer, take note! As of April 1, all users must upgrade to the most recent SciFinder Scholar release (downloadable from the library's SciFinder Scholar web page). More information is available over at the Chemistry blog. Questions? Please contact dbhelp@library.umass.edu.

Get all your ISEL news in one feed....

As astute readers may know, in addition to this main blog (ISEL Update), we also have blogs for several of the individual departments that ISEL supports (links are in the right-hand sidebar of this blog). As of this writing, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Engineering, Math & Statistics, Microbiology, Physics, and Veterinary & Animal Science have their own ISEL blogs containing news about information sources in those disciplines.

If you'd like to get updates from ALL ISEL blogs in one feed, rather than subscribing to them individually, you can now do so by subscribing to the following feed:

http://www.rssmix.com/u/10345/rss.xml

This uber-feed was created using a free tool called RSS Mix. RSS Mix lets you roll any number of individual RSS feeds together into one feed, which you can then subscribe to. Very handy!

We'll be adding blogs for more departments as time goes on...watch this space!

Web of Science's Science Citation Index now goes back to 1900

Recently, the UMass Amherst Library sent out a press release to announce new electronic resources. Here is one item, particularly pertinent to researchers in the sciences:

• Web of Science’s Century of Science makes available 850,000 older, twentieth century scientific journal items in one place for the first time from 262 journals. This comprehensive collection is fully searchable, with complete bibliographic data, cited reference data and navigation, and direct links to the full text. Century of Science provides comprehensive backfile and cited reference data from 1900 to 1944. This important tool allows researchers to discover which articles were highly cited during that time period, what journals they were published in, and trace a topic through over one hundred years of research literature.

This is actually just the extension of our Science Citation Index subscription back to 1900, a great thing, but not a separate title. So now you can find out that Albert Einstein's 1935 article in Physical Review, v. 47, no. 10, p.777-780, has been cited at least 2,698 times, and by whom!

Maxine Schmidt, new librarian at ISEL

Maxine Schmidt has joined the ranks of librarians at the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library at UMass Amherst, and we are very happy to have her. Maxine came to librarianship later than many, having earned a BA and MS in Geology at UMass, then going on to work in the public sector in environmental health. She completed her MLIS from Simmons College in May 2005. Welcome, Maxine!

Benchmarking Workshops in March

Update 3/8/06: All workshops are now open to all departments--no more separate sessions for sciences vs. social sciences/humanities! Also, 3 dates have been added--see below.

Anyone who will be involved with gathering benchmarking data for academic departments here at UMass Amherst is invited to attend one of several workshops in March sponsored by the UMass Libraries. Workshops will be held on:

March 13 11:00 am at the Science Library, 2nd Floor, Lederle Low Rise
March 14 3:00 pm in the Du Bois Library Room 1620
March 15 Noon in the Du Bois Library Room 1620
March 16 2:00 at the Science Library, 2nd Floor, Lederle Low Rise
March 27 Noon in the Du Bois Library Room 1620


Sessions will cover: how to efficiently and effectively gather faculty publication data for your own department as well as your benchmark institutions. Different sources and strategies can be employed to make this process as quick and painless as possible! Librarians Emily Alling and Steve McGinty will demonstrate some searching techniques using databases like Thomson/ISI's Web of Science and other discipline-specific resources.

Bring your department's indicators & benchmark institutions--there will be opportunities for hands-on practice and individual consultations. Follow-up appointments are also possible.

Please contact Emily Alling (ealling@library.umass.edu; 413-545-6740) or Steve McGinty (smcginty@library.umass.edu; 413-545-1871) for more information.

UMass Libraries' Fourth Annual Dinner with Friends

On Saturday, April 1, 2006, at 6:30 p.m., the Friends of the UMass Amherst Library will host the fourth annual "Dinner with Friends" in the new Learning Commons at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library on the UMass Amherst campus

The event features three notable authors from the area-Norton Juster, Sabina Murray, and Ilan Stavans, a champagne and hors d'oeuvre reception with Celtic harpist Sarah McKee, and a gourmet feast. Tickets are $125 per person or $200 for two (of which $90 is tax-deductible, $130 for two).

Last year, attendees and sponsors raised over $16,000 for the Library. This year, all proceeds will benefit the expansion of the Learning Commons.

View invitation flyer (PDF).

For more information, contact Emily Silverman at the UMass Amherst
Library at (413) 545-0995 or email friends@library.umass.edu.