Solar dish scales down - project of MIT students

Sustainable Futures - from environmentalresearchweb - Aug 14, 2008

Solar dish scales down

A group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, has developed a small, easy to make, cost-efficient solar dish that might be mass produced by the company they have set up, RawSolar.

The dish consists of a 12-foot wide, mirrored parabola that concentrates sunlight by a factor of 1000. Attached to the dish's centre is a coil of copper tubing 12 foot long that has water running through it. When the dish is pointing directly towards the sun, the water in the coil instantaneously heats up to form steam. This is because the sun's rays converge onto the copper coil, providing intense energy. The steam comes out of the far end of the tube under the dish.

Led by Spencer Ahrens, the students hope that RawSolar will one day mass produce the dishes. They could be set up in large arrays to provide steam for heating, industrial processes, generating electricity, or even air conditioning.

The beauty of the new dish lies in its size – it is smaller than conventional dishes and so requires less support structure, which means it costs less, too. It is also robust (it has already survived a thunderstorm), uses easily-available, off-the-shelf parts and was made by hand, explains team member Matt Ritter.

The structure was based on a design by Doug Wood, an inventor based in Washington state. Wood patented key parts of his design – the rights to which he has now signed over to the MIT students – and says that Ahrens' team has made significant improvements to the original patterns. "They really have simplified this and made it user-friendly so that anyone can build it," he explained.

The students made their solar dish by riveting aluminium tubing to a steel crossbracing. Strips of mirror were then fixed to this frame and the coil collector at the top of the tube painted black.
The MIT team says the system could produce heat from steam for lower costs than that from oil or natural gas.

"I've looked for years at a variety of solar approaches, and this is the cheapest I've seen," said MIT Sloan School of Management lecturer David Pelly, in whose class this project first took shape last autumn. "And the key thing in scaling it globally is that all of the materials are inexpensive and accessible anywhere in the world." Pelly adds that the technology could scale without subsidies – a first in the solar dish world.

Epigenetics on Nova scienceNOW

I've been trying to catch Nova scienceNOW (yes, that's how it's written) on PBS with that engaging host, astronomer and American Museum of Natural History researcher, Neil deGrasse Tyson. It's one more way to keep up with new developments in a range of sciences, and to see what merits the attention of the mainstream. Last week, there was a piece on epigenetics, (a repeat show, I think) which I had never heard of (so shoot me), or at least it had never registered with me. Fascinating stuff illustrated with why identical twins can develop such disparate lives - one getting a life-threatening disease when the other doesn't - we're finally unravelling how gene expression works.

There are some resources about epigenetics on the site linked above, including a video of the segment from the show.

SciFinder now available on the Web.

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) now offers SciFinder on the web after many years of providing access via the locally installed client platform. To connect to SciFinder on the web the user must fill out a one-time registration form setting up an individual account with a username and password. Note that the user will need to be on a computer with a UMass IP address; off campus users will need to go through the library’s SciFinder page so that they can be authenticated.

The UMass Amherst Library has purchased access to SciFinder for 6 simultaneous users; only a limited number of simultaneous users can use either the web or client version, so please remember to logout when done.

For more information visit the library page about SciFinder.

For a comparison chart between SciFinder Scholar and the web version of SciFinder visit the Swain Libraray News blog at Stanford University.

New Piece of Climate Change Puzzle Found In Ancient Sedimentary Rocks by UMass Amherst Researchers

Press release from the UMass Amherst Office of News & Information.

July 23, 2008
Contact: Steven Petsch 413/545-4413

AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have added a new source of carbon dioxide to the complex climate change puzzle by showing that ancient rocks can release substantial amounts of organic matter into Earth’s rivers and oceans, and that this organic matter is easily converted by bacteria to carbon dioxide, which enters the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.

“Sedimentary rocks contain the largest mass of organic carbon on Earth, but these reservoirs are not well-integrated into modern carbon budgets” says Steven Petsch, a professor of geosciences. “Since we need to know the budget of the natural carbon cycle in order to determine human climate impacts, this information will lead to more accurate climate modeling.” The research was conducted by Petsch and UMass Amherst graduate student Sarah Schillawski.

In a study published in the July issue of Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Petsch and Schillawski focused on black shales from Kentucky. Black shales are rich in a type of organic matter called kerogen that contains carbon. Kerogen can turn into oil and natural gas when the rocks are heated. The first step was to determine how much organic carbon could be released from the rocks by simulating the weathering process in the laboratory.

Samples of the shale were placed in glass columns, and the effects of weathering were duplicated by running water through the samples for one year. Kerogen is thought to be difficult to dissolve, but the results of the column studies showed a slow, sustained release of organic matter from the rock. Over the course of one year, the rock samples had lost approximately 0.3 percent of their total organic carbon.

The next step was to determine whether this hard-to-digest organic matter could be broken down by bacteria into carbon dioxide. Using common bacteria found in natural waters, including the Quabbin Reservoir, Petsch found that essentially all of the dissolved organic matter in water from the column studies was rapidly degraded by bacteria over a period of nine days.

“This was the most surprising finding in the study, since these bacteria are adapted to digest organic matter from things like leaves and acorns, which is similar to carbohydrates consumed by humans,” says Petsch. “The presence of microorganisms capable of using kerogen may have significant implications for the global-scale cycling of carbon and oxygen.”

Petsch has also studied the release of carbon from sedimentary rocks by soil bacteria, which is another way that ancient carbon can be converted into carbon dioxide. “We have found outcrops of the New Albany Shale, which is usually black, that have turned a light brown color as bacteria consume carbon where the overlying soil meets the weathered rock,” says Petsch.

According to Petsch, the bottom line is that the release of organic material from sedimentary rocks contributes approximately 2 percent of the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere each year. While this may seem like a small amount, it is another piece of the puzzle that can be used when determining how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades.

Replacing Roofing, Siding, is a Golden Opportunity to Lower Energy Bills says UMass Amherst Researcher

Press release from UMass Amherst News Office on advice from Professor Paul Fisette, Department of Natural Resources Conservation.

July 25, 2008
Contact: Paul Fisette 413/545-1771

AMHERST, Mass. – Are you planning to add a new roof or new siding to your home before winter? Paul Fisette of the University of Massachusetts Amherst says that these home improvement jobs can be the perfect opportunity to boost your home’s energy efficiency and lower your heating bills, especially if you own an older home.

“Often a catastrophic event like water dripping from the ceiling can launch home improvement projects into high gear, but there is a lot you can do beyond fixing leaks and replacing worn exterior siding,” says Fisette, head of the department of natural resources conservation and an expert on green building. “A well-designed exterior retrofit will lower energy bills and improve the comfort of your home by eliminating drafts.”

According to Fisette, roof shingles need to be replaced every 20 years, and if your home needs a new roof, it is safe to assume that it also needs new, or at least better, insulation. “Homes built 20 years ago are under-insulated by today’s standards, since fuel was cheap then,” says Fisette. “Builders of that time didn’t devote much attention to insulation and air-tightness. High energy bills, drafty indoor climates and ice dams on the roof are all costly symptoms of these subpar designs.”

For most homes, an energy retrofit of the ceiling is fairly easy. Just climb into the attic, block all air leaks connecting the living space to the attic with foam insulation from a can, and increase the thickness of the insulation on the attic floor. You will need 12 inches of fiberglass or cellulose insulation to deliver the R-38 values recommended for much of the country. A good plan is one that provides a continuous insulation barrier between the attic and the living space below.

The situation gets more difficult in cape style homes and homes with cathedral ceilings, where sloped ceilings mean that areas between roof rafters are sealed by finished surfaces. Shallow roof pitches can also be problematic, since there may not be enough space between the rafter ends and the attic floor to install enough insulation. In these cases, insulation needs to be added after the lower edge of the roof has been removed, exposing areas that were inaccessible from the inside. Insulation products with a high R-value per inch, such as rigid foam, may also be required due to space constraints.

If your siding has also seen better days, replacing it can not only dress up your home, but can also be a way of addressing places where air leaks, holes and lack of insulation reduce your homes energy efficiency.

“At first, this process may seem simple; just strip off the old siding from the walls, replace any failing trim, and put up new siding,” says Fisette. “But this limited vision can lead to lost opportunities to increase the insulation in the walls.”

Fisette says he is constantly surprised by the number of old houses that don’t have enough, or any, insulation in the wall cavities. Many owners of older homes replace or add to the insulation in the attic, where it is fairly easy to reach, but avoid the more complicated enclosed-wall insulation. Filling these cavities with blown-in cellulose, fiberglass and foam when old siding is removed becomes much easier, since the insulation can be placed in the wall cavities through holes in the exposed outer sheathing.

This is also the time to repair loose sheathing, replace any rotten wood and patch all gaps, holes and seams with foam insulation from a can. Sealing around window and door openings should also be done at this time.

For maximum energy benefits, Fisette recommends wrapping the exterior walls with rigid foam insulation, which is available in sheets. The rigid foam can be attached to the sheathing with glue or nails, and seams should be taped. Since siding should not be nailed directly to the rigid foam, this process can get a bit tricky, requiring the use of vertical wooden strips attached to the foam sheets to serve as anchors for the siding. This creates an air space between the siding and the insulation. While it may seem like a lot of work, this method will provide a tight, dry and warm structure for many years.

Fisette says that payback times are the most common question posed by homeowners, who wonder whether the cost of extra insulation will transfer into savings. “Payback can be very hard to calculate, since it depends on how much money is spent on improvements and a host of other factors, including climate, existing levels of insulation and fuel costs,” says Fisette. “Calculations on savings for adding insulation to the walls of a standard ranch house predict a five to 10 year payback.”

PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) changed

PubMed Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) was originally developed to identify author names, journal titles, and MeSH terms in search queries without search tags. In the old schema, author name and journal title fields were not searched when the search terms also matched a MeSH term. This caused thousands of citation-type searches to fail every day. The new ATM addresses this problem by removing those field restrictions. Under the new schema, query terms can be found in both MeSH terms and every PubMed citation field.

For more information visit http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/pubmed_atm_change.html

SciFinder Web Coming Soon

Soon access to SciFinder at the UMass Amherst Libraries will be possible through the web. In addition to the traditional means of accessing SciFinder Scholar via a client, CAS is now offering web access. In total the UMass Amherst Libraries is limited to six simultaneous users. This means that it is important to remember to Logoff when finished to free up a connection for another user.

Users are asked to register, agree to the terms of use, and maintain their own username and password. After one submits the registration form, CAS sends an e-mail with instructions for completing the registration process. Therefore, you must have an e-mail address with your organization’s e-mail domain.

So, look for future information about this upcoming opportunity.

For more information about SciFinder Scholar visit http://www.cas.org/SCIFINDER/SCHOLAR/index.html

"UMass studies alternative ethanol sources" - article in Springfield Republican/MassLive site

Highlights the work of "Stephen J. Herbert, a professor of agronomy in the UMass Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences who is leading the research along with Om Parkash, an assistant professor in the department, and Randall G. Prostak, a weed specialist with the UMass Extension. "

UMass studies alternative ethanol sources

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

By STAN FREEMAN
sfreeman@repub.com

AMHERST - With corn prices rising and corn shortages growing around the world, ethanol made from corn - viewed just a year ago as the preferred substitute for gasoline - has rapidly fallen from favor.

In hopes that ethanol can still offer a way out of the energy crisis, this spring in the Pioneer Valley, University of Massachusetts researchers are field testing alternatives to corn that can be grown on land that offers poor support for food crops, such as on roadsides and hillsides and in rocky or dry soils. ...

Stacia Marcelynas Battles Wind, Rain to Place UMass Amherst Eighth in National Supermileage Competition

The UMass Amherst team created a super-mileage vehicle nicknamed "The Homewrecker" (I'm sure there's a story there!) which "racked up an impressive 683 miles per gallon at the Eaton Corporation proving grounds in Marshall, Michigan, finishing in the top 25 percent of a field of 35 teams from around the world at the June 5-6 event. "

Wordle Me This

A quick diversion not wholly unrelated to things science: Wordle! Here the introductory text of "What is Nanomanufacturing?" can be reproduced thus:

And the article itself is good reading, too!

Amazing what you can find online these days - Ernst Haeckel: Kunstformen der Natur 1899-1904

My colleague, Maxine, says that Kunstformen der Natur means Artforms of Nature. It is an online scan of a beautiful book, a collection of page plates of living things, many microscopic, but in any case, beautiful shapes that have been rendered in drawings by Ernst Haeckel. These images are pretty spectacular - some in color and others black & white. If anyone knows more about this book, or Ernst Haeckel, I'd be interested to hear about it.

I think the whole book can be downloaded from this site also, though my German is non-existent, so I'm not certain!

Gmelin Database Trial now through 8/30/08

The UMass Amherst Sciences & Engineering Library has arranged for a trial subscription to the Gmelin database now through August 30th.

The Gmelin Database is the sister database to Beilstein, covering inorganic and organometallic compounds from 1772 to date. Based on a German publication, the Gmelin Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie, the database currently comprises over 2.5 million compounds, including glasses, alloys, ceramics, minerals and coordination compounds, 1.9 million reactions and 1.3 million citations.

During this time period we will also have access to the Patent Chemistry Database.

For instructions on how to connect to the database contact Paulina Borrego pborrego@library.umass.edu

Darwinmania!

New York Times blog post (June 17, 2008) from Olivia Judson on the upcoming 200th anniverary of Charles Darwin's birth Feb 12, 2009; also, "July 1 [2008] is the 150th anniversary of the first announcement of his discovery of natural selection, the main driving force of evolution." This was at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London (see yesterday's blog post on the Linnean Society collections) where both Alfred Russel Wallace and Darwin read papers on natural selection. Judson outlines the prior claimants to the concept of evolution and natural selection, and then asks the question, why do we celebrate Darwin over any of these others? it was for On the Origin of Species, published on November 24, 1859.

The reason the “Origin” was so powerful, compelling and persuasive, the reason Darwin succeeded while his predecessors failed, is that in it he does not just describe how evolution by natural selection works. He presents an enormous body of evidence culled from every field of biology then known. He discusses subjects as diverse as pigeon breeding in Ancient Egypt, the rudimentary eyes of cave fish, the nest-building instincts of honeybees, the evolving size of gooseberries (they’ve been getting bigger), wingless beetles on the island of Madeira and algae in New Zealand. One moment, he’s considering fossil animals like brachiopods (which had hinged shells like clams, but with a different axis of symmetry); the next, he’s discussing the accessibility of nectar in clover flowers to different species of bee.

At the same time, he uses every form of evidence at his disposal: he observes, argues, compares, infers and describes the results of experiments he has read about, or in many cases, personally conducted. For example, one of Darwin’s observations is that the inhabitants of islands resemble — but differ subtly from — those of the nearest continents. So: birds and bushes on islands off the coast of South America resemble South American birds and bushes; islands near Africa are populated by recognizably African forms.

He argues that the reason for this is that new islands become colonized by beings from the nearest continents, and that the new inhabitants then begin evolving independently. He then asks: can animals and plants from the continents get to new islands, especially those that are far out at sea? To investigate this, he conducts experiments to see how long seeds from different plants can remain immersed in saltwater and still begin to grow. In short, he tests his reasoning over and over again.

Let's celebrate Darwin's birth this coming February! And then the publication of Origin in November!

Science Blogs

As you all know, the blogosphere is burgeoning - people have things to say, and the Web makes it possible for folks to find an audience easily. The thing to do is find the right name!

I was reading a blog I found through the environmentalresearchweb newswire written by a woman named Liz Kalaugher doing Arctic research onboard the icebreaker/research vessel Amundsen, and started wondering if someone was collecting all the science blogs.

So I Googled "science blogs" - and found someone has taken that name. Seed Media Group has a site called "Science Blogs" - a group of about 70+ bloggers that this company has selected. So no, I haven't found a collection of all science blogs yet, but there's some pretty interesting stuff on this site - not just people propounding their own point of view, but discussion from readers. In my opinion, that's where the real action is.

For instance, I sampled a blog called Drug Monkey which is written by DrugMonkey, an NIH-funded biomedical researcher, and PhysioProf, an NIH-funded basic science faculty member at a private medical school. PhysioProf was ranting about (1) the way up-and-coming scientists - grad students, post-docs - are not exposed to the possibilities of 'alternative' career paths other than 'academic science' (in the private sector); and (2) don't expect him to change the system - he's only one person. This piece was posted yesterday, and there are 40 responses from thoughtful (mostly) people as of this writing. Forty responses tells me the blog has a lot of people who follow it, not only reading but writing in. It's a little community.

If anyone finds a big list of science blogs from different sources, please let me know - I'd like to start collecting them, if not reading them!

Linnean Collections online

The Linnean Society of London (U.K.) is creating a digital image collection of the plants and insects in their possession. They have completed the 14,000 plants, and the moths and butterflies segment of the insect collection. The images show both top and bottom views of the butterflies/moths, and the labels. The photographs are beautiful.

From various pages on their website:

The Linnean Society of London holds some 9,000 specimens, including 3,200 Linnaean ones, of which many are important types. After acquiring the collections from the widow of Linnaeus in 1784, Sir James Edward Smith, the founder and first President of the Linnean Society, added his own specimens to the collection, almost trebling its size. Because of difficulties in recognising all the material interpolated by Smith it has been maintained as a single historic collection. Besides insects as we understand them today, the collection also includes such things as spiders, scorpions, millipedes and crabs – all ‘insects’ as Linnaeus understood them.

The prime scientific importance of the Linnaean part of the collection is as type* specimens for the species which he described. Smith's material (which can often be distinguished from Linnaeus' by the type of pins used to secure specimens) is a valuable source of information on insects from around the globe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but so far has been little exploited.
[*A type specimen is one which is permanently associated with a given scientific name, and acts as a permanent reference point to confirm the identity of the species to which the name must apply.]

For more information see "The 'Linnaean' insect collection" by Mike Fitton and Kim Harman in The Linnean Special Issue No. 7, 2007, 'The Linnaean Collections'.

...

The Linnaean Collections comprise the specimens of plants (14,000), fish (158), shells (1,564) and insects (3,198) acquired from the widow of Carl Linnaeus in 1784 by Sir James Edward Smith, founder and first President of the Linnean Society. They also include the library of Linnaeus (of some 1,600 volumes) and his letters (c. 3,000 items of correspondence and manuscripts). All are housed in a temperature and humidity controlled strongroom in the Linnean Society.

It is the Linnean Society's aim to make available its primary research material in digital formats to support taxonomic and conservation efforts worldwide as well as providing public pleasure and enjoyment.

Browse the Collections
Search the Collections by categories: Herbarium or Insects.

The Herbarium archive contains all 14,000 Linnaean plant specimens. This first phase of the Insects archive contains the Linnaean and Smithian butterflies and moths only. All the remaining insects from the collection will be made available early in 2009.

Apparently, the Fish and Shell Collections will also be digitized, eventually.

Database Trial - Henry Stewart Talks: Biomedical and Life Sciences Collection

The library currently has a trial subscription to the Henry Stewart Talks: Biomedical and Life Sciences Collection database. View more than 700 online animated seminar style talks by leading scientists on biomedical and life sciences topics.

The trial ends June 30, 2008.

Send comments to cpmullen@library.umass.edu

Yes, We Will Have No Bananas

New York Times Op-Ed from Dan Koeppel, the author of “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World,” suggests that distance, the practice of monoculture, and a virus will cause bananas to become much more expensive, and be regarded as what they are, "an exotic fruit that, some day soon, may slip beyond our reach."

New 'super-paper' is stronger than cast iron

Article on the New Scientist Tech site - perhaps of interest to our wood technology folks, as well as the nano folks, and anyone interested in new materials.

First three paragraphs:

Punching your way out of a paper bag could become a lot harder, thanks to the development of a new kind of paper that is stronger than cast iron.

The new paper could be used to reinforce conventional paper, produce extra-strong sticky tape or help create tough synthetic replacements for biological tissues, says Lars Berglund from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Despite its great strength, Berglund's "nanopaper" is produced from a biological material found in conventional paper: cellulose. This long sugar molecule is a principal component of plant cell walls and is the most common organic compound on Earth.

Another blog

I really enjoy Olivia Judson's blog posts for the New York Times. She's an evolutionary biologist at Imperial College in London, and she's witty, imaginative and seems really smart. Today's post discusses the bacteria discovered in rocks deep below the seafloor, and the possibility that they may contribute to weathering of the crust. She has blogged about ichnofossils, rain-seeding bacteria, and what the world would be like if all genetic mutation stopped. She is given to flights of fancy, like this one on dinosaur mating habits:

"Which brings me to my tyrannical fantasy. I want to take a journey 68 million years back in time to see a Tyrannosaurus rex couple mating. What was it like? Did they trumpet and bellow and stamp their feet? Did they thrash their enormous tails? Did he bite her neck in rapture and exude a musky scent? Somehow, I imagine that when two T. rex got it on, the earth shook for miles around."

Or this one on things that live among pineapple leaves:

"The other day, I went to the supermarket to buy a pineapple. I didn’t select the one that smelled the ripest, but the one with the most impressive leaves: tall, bushy and uncrushed by the journey from Costa Rica. When I got it home, I put it in the kitchen sink, turned on the tap, and watched how the water gathered and formed pools in the spaces between the leaves. And I began to imagine that I was not a human in an apartment in London, but a small frog in a tropical forest, climbing up the leaves of a plant like a pineapple, looking for a pool where I could deposit the tadpole I’m carrying on my back."

Her curiosity as an evolutionary biologist leads her to think about a range of environments, from clouds to the "deep subsurface biosphere." As a geologist, I find lots to think about in her articles. Take a look at a couple yourself. They make for provocative reading, but they're somehow relaxing.

Journals Find Fakery in Many Images Submitted to Support Research

Article by Jeffrey R. Young in the Chronicle of Higher Education, May 29, 2008 on doctored images in scientific journals, their prevalence, detection, and consequences.

"Kristin Roovers was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with a bright career ahead of her—a trusted member of a research laboratory at the medical school studying the role of cell growth in diabetes.

"But when an editor of The Journal of Clinical Investigation did a spot-check of one of her images for an article in 2005, Roovers's research proved a little too perfect."

Putting science into people's lives

A thoughtful op-ed article from the New York Times, June 1:

Put a Little Science in Your Life

By BRIAN GREENE
Published: June 1, 2008
Science is a language of hope and inspiration, providing discoveries that fire the imagination and instill a sense of connection to our lives and our world.

'... in teaching our students, we continually fail to activate rich opportunities for revealing the breathtaking vistas opened up by science, and instead focus on the need to gain competency with science’s underlying technical details.

'In fact, many students I’ve spoken to have little sense of the big questions those technical details collectively try to answer: Where did the universe come from? How did life originate? How does the brain give rise to consciousness? Like a music curriculum that requires its students to practice scales while rarely if ever inspiring them by playing the great masterpieces, this way of teaching science squanders the chance to make students sit up in their chairs and say, “Wow, that’s science?”'

Brian Greene, a professor of physics at Columbia, is the author of “The Elegant Universe” and “The Fabric of the Cosmos.”

New Art Exhibit at ISEL

“Images: Neotropical Birds”

An exhibit of photographs by Jeff Podos at the Integrated Sciences & Engineering Library

Associate Professor of Biology Jeff Podos’ exhibit of Neotropical birds is on display from May 5 to August 29, 2008 in the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library, Graduate Research Center Lowrise at UMass Amherst.

The exhibit includes twelve 16" x 20" color photos or photo montages of birds from the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest and the Galápagos Islands. The birds were photographed in their natural environments.

Jeff Podos has been affiliated with UMass Amherst since 2000 and is currently an Associate Professor of Biology. With the help of his students and collaborators, he studies the behavior and evolution of birds, with particular emphasis on the evolution, function, and development of vocal signals.

According to Professor Podos, “the Neotropical region supports a remarkable diversity of bird species, including many species that are found only in specific regions such as the Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest. Brazil by itself contains about 1700 described species, with new species being described each year. All of North America, by contrast, supports about 700 bird species. Much about the lives of Neotropical birds -- their behavior, distribution, mating patterns, and so on -- remains relatively unknown.”

For more information contact Paulina Borrego at pborrego@library.umass.edu or 545-7891.

What Have You Done With Your Cognitive Surplus Lately?

Clay Shirky explains how 1 trillion hours of worldwide television consumption per year could translate into 10,000 Wikipedia projects per year. If only we could kick Desperate Housewives.

It's National Library Week-- Do you know where your librarian is?

Since 1958, the nation has designated a week in April as National Library Week. Since we're in the midst of it now, I thought I'd talk about one relatively new aspect of the UMass Libraries-- the Peripatetic Librarian.

As more library resources become available electronically, some people think they don't need librarians to get the information they need. Of course, that's not true. Nevertheless, some people avoid coming to the library for help. Librarians being who they are, then, ride out to the rescue.

At UMass, I'm aware of four outside-the-library places where you might find us waiting for your questions, or maybe just reminding you by our presence that you have a question.

• Mike Davis, Library Liaison to the Isenberg School of Management, holds office hours there in Room 212 every Tuesday from 10:30am to 12:30pm.

• Barbara Morgan, Liaison to Legal Studies, Political Science, STPEc, and Steve McGinty, Liaison to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, as well as Sociology, SDPPS, TEC, Economics, Educational Policy, and Research & Administration (whew!) can be found just outside the Thompson Cafe each Wednesday and Thursday from 11:30am to 12:30pm.

• Maxine Schmidt (that'd be me), Liaison to Biology, Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, and Resource Economics-- in the Blue Wall every Wednesday from 10am to noon.

• Madeleine Charney, Liaison to the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and Landscape Architecture, is currently on maternity leave, but normally holds hours in Hills.

So stop by one of these outposts and say hi sometime, and look for more of us in more places outside the library. Of course, you're always welcome in the Good Ole Library too!

New Subject Guides

The UMass Library subject guides are getting a makeover! We are using an application called LibGuides that gives us a lot more flexibility with content and style. We can include rss feeds from blogs and news sources, embed videos and even a chat widget, so you can "chat" with us live when we're online. You can also comment on the guides and their contents. The guides we have up so far look really good, and we'd love your feedback. Check them out at http://umass.libguides.com
There are four ISEL-related ones at present. You can also find some at the appropriate pages on the new Research Database Locator

New Journal Ranking Source

BioMed Central's blog has a piece on "SCImago – a new source of journal metrics offering a wealth of free data on open access journals." The importance of a specific journal is of interest to anyone publishing their research - obviously, one would prefer to publish in a journal with the greatest impact. Thomson Scientific, as the first to create this metric using Citation Indexing with their Journal Citation Ranking (JCR), has long had the dominant role, but many have criticized their methodology, and been frustrated by their slowness to include new journals. Also, this service is costly.

A few companies have challenged Thomson Scientific's monopoly (Scopus and Google Scholar, for example) and now SCImago has joined the fray. It uses data from Scopus, and gives weights to the citations based on their sources - a citation from a lesser-read journal will have lower impact on the rating than one from Nature or Science.

Thanks, to Jim Craig for bringing this to our attention.

Two-sided printing available at ISEL

In response to numerous requests from our patrons, printing on both sides of the sheet is available from public workstations.

Two points:

Send the print job through as a two-sided print request - you cannot choose it after sending it the printer. This means you shouldn't just click on the printing icons that send the print job directly to the printer without bringing up a dialog box. In the printing dialog box, select Properties; this usually brings up Printing Shortcuts, where you can chose Two-Sided Printing.

The cost is the same as whether you use one or two sheets of paper to print two sides. The only benefit to you is that it uses less paper.

Any questions, please ask the library staff.

Wireless access vastly improved at ISEL

Recently, new nodes for wireless network access were installed and activated by OIT. We now have much better signal strength on all four floors, though perhaps the best signal is on the first, second, and third floors. There are no actual nodes in the basement, but you can get signal there from the 1st floor nodes.

Come and check it out!

RefWorks using science databases

Learn how to use RefWorks focusing on science databases such as Agricola, PubMed and Web of Science.

Using RefWorks with Science Databases - Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 11:15 am-12:15 pm
Wednesday, April 16, 2008, 4:00-5:00 pm

The workshops will cover the basics: how to access RefWorks, search catalogs, import references from library databases, retrieve and manage citations, and create bibliographies according to various citation styles (e.g. MLA or APA). They will also cover more in-depth applications: how to manipulate your database, use Write-N-Cite to add parenthetical references to your work, use RefShare to share folders with other researchers, and other questions you may have.

To register email refworks@library.umass.edu

DIGITAL QUADRANGLE SERIES COLLOQUIUM

A press release from the UMass Amherst Libraries:

DIGITAL QUADRANGLE SERIES COLLOQUIUM

“Engaging the Web for Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Publication”


Amherst, MA – UMass Amherst will host “Engaging the Web for Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Publication” on March 28, 2008, from 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. in Campus Center Room 163C at UMass Amherst. Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia, will give the keynote talk “The Googlization of Everything.” The program will also include a faculty panel presentation of Scholarworks implementations, remarks on the Carnegie Classification on Community Engagement, and a facilitated luncheon that will result in action plans for keeping author rights and publishing in an online environment, addressing concerns about Intellectual Property (IP), and adopting ScholarWorks. Dr. Vaidhyanthan’s talk and faculty presentations are open to the public. The roundtable lunch portion of the program is open to UMass Amherst faculty and staff only.

A cultural historian and media scholar, Siva Vaidhyanathan is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001); and The Anarchist in the Library: How Peer-to-Peer Networks are Transforming Politics, Culture, and Information (Basic Books, 2003). He is co-editor of Rewiring the “Nation”: The Place of Technology in American Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). After five years as a professional journalist, Vaidhyanathan earned a PhD in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Vaidhyanathan has taught at the University of Texas, Wesleyan University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and New York University. He is currently associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia and writing his next book, The Googlization of Everything, a critical examination of Google's disruptive effect on culture, commerce, and community, on a public website produced by the Institute.

Scholarworks@UMassAmherst (http://www.scholarworks.umass.edu) is one way the campus supports the open communication of the scholarship at UMass Amherst. Over the past several years, UMass Amherst has made a significant investment in ScholarWorks to enable the shift to a digital culture. Using this digital technology and the web has its benefits but its use also raises many questions including, "Have I been losing the rights to my own work?" "How can I keep my author rights?" and, "If my work isn't online, is it invisible?"

ScholarWorks provides the infrastructure and support for creating access and dissemination vehicles and providing the long-term preservation of research and scholarly products. Critical for this transformation are faculty awareness of author and IP rights, alternative digital publishing platforms, and knowledge of how to use ScholarWorks. The final portion of this program, a facilitated roundtable discussion for UMass Amherst faculty and staff, will be devoted to this awareness. Participants will leave with actionable plans for their use of ScholarWorks.

This third annual Digital Quadrangle Series Colloquium is sponsored by the UMass Amherst Libraries, Office for Research, Center for Teaching, the Graduate School, and new this year, the Office of Outreach.

For more information, contact Marilyn Billings, 545-6891, mbillings@library.umass.edu, or Marla Michel, 577-0092, marla@research.umass.edu, or visit http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dq/. Faculty RSVP is requested to Marilyn Billings by Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Indigenous maps safeguard territories - an article from an environmental research newswire.

Indigenous people know their own territory best, and if they can create a map which includes all the places that are important to them, it is a powerful tool when working with corporations.

This article comes from a useful environmental newswire, Environmental Research Web.

Near Arctic, Seed Vault Is a Fort Knox of Food

An article from the New York Times this Leap Year day, discussing the establishment of a formal network of seed banks.

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

A vault buried under the permafrost in Norway has begun to receive millions of seeds, an effort to save the genetic legacy of vanishing plants.

Ten Worst Jobs in Science 2007 - from Popular Science magazine

Popular Science's annual bottom-10 list, in which they salute the men and women who do what no salary can adequately reward.

National Science Debate

A group of scientists, educators, government officials, business leaders and other prominent people in the US have called for Science Debate 2008. The goal is to get the presidential candidates to talk about their views on science and technology policy, environmental issues, and medicine and health issues. You can read about the beginnings of the effort here. There are lists of supporters, both individual and institutional, on the website, and you can add your name to the list as well.

Spring Semester RefWorks Workshops

If you don't use a citation manager, you're working waaay too hard. It's a very easy and convenient way to store and format all of your references-- books, journal articles, websites, etc. The Library has made RefWorks is available to everyone at UMass, for the entire time you're here. It's a web-based citation manager, so you can access your bibliographies from your room or your office, or Baltimore or Barcelona. Formatting options for the most commonly used styles in academia are included. There's even a Write-n-Cite feature, which allows you to insert a placeholder for a reference into your paper as you're writing, and formats the in-text references as well as your bibliography.

Here's the schedule for this semester:

Tues 2/12, 9:30-10:30
Tues 3/11, 11:30-12:30
Thurs 3/27, 2:30-3:30
Wed 4/9, 2:30-3:30
All workshops will be held in the Calipari Room on the Main Floor of Du Bois Library. You can get more info here.

If none of these times work for you, you can also register for the RefWorks webinars (taught by the RefWorks folks, not UMass librarians). Go to the RefWorks website and, down on the bottom right, choose the topic that suits you.

Journal Science Returns to JSTOR

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and JSTOR have reached an agreement reinstating the journal Science in the online journal archive. The journal’s decision to withdraw its affiliation last summer was met with much criticism by librarians and others in the field.

New Public Access Law

For the first time the U.S. government has mandated public access to research funded by a major agency. This week President Bush signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764) which includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from its funded research.

Researchers will now be required to deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed articles into the National Library of Medicine’s online archive, PubMed Central. Full text articles will be publicly available and searchable in PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication in a journal.

It is hoped that open access will make scientific results more readily available and ultimately facilitate the advancement of scientific knowledge. "This policy will directly improve the sharing of scientific findings, the pace of medical advances, and the rate of return on benefits to the taxpayer,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).

More information can be found at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/

Questioning the validity of journal impact factors

In a recent editorial in the Journal of Cell Biology the executive editors of The Journal of Cell Biology and The Journal of Experimental Medicine joined with the executive director of the Rockefeller University Press to test the validity of data associated with journal impact factors. For those unfamiliar with the calculation it is a measure of the number of cites to recent articles compared to the number of recent articles for a given period. In other words, the impact factor for a given year measures the average number of times a paper published in the previous two years was cited during the year in question.

For example, the journal impact factor for the journal Nature is reported to be 26.681 calculated from the following data:

Cites in 2006 to articles published in:
2005 = 25820
2004 = 26022
Sum = 51842

Number of articles published in:
2005 = 1065
2004 = 878
Sum = 1943

Calculation = Cites to recent articles / Number of recent articles = 51842 / 1943 = 26.681

The authors of the editorial tried to replicate the journal impact factors from data supported by Thomson Scientific (owners of the Web of Science) and were unable to report the same results. This puts into question the data supplied by Thomson Scientific and the overall validity of journal impact factors. One wonders if journal impact factors should be given the importance that they are within the scientific community given the fact that they might be calculated from suspect data.

Short and Snappy Author Rights Colloquy

For Science Faculty and Graduate Students who are publishing or preparing to publish their research, an important upcoming event:

Short and Snappy Author Rights Colloquy
Thursday, November 29
12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
Gunness Student Center Conference Room, Marcus Hall

Learn why keeping the copyright to your published work can give you more freedom to use and expose your own research.

Lunch will be provided!

To register, email rreznikz@library.umass.edu

SPIE Digital Library just added to the UMass Amherst collection

SPIE, for those who may not know, is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. The name originated from the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, but like many groups these days, the society changed its name and it's focus has evolved and grown, but the acronym remains.

Their Digital Library is now available to UMass Amherst patrons through the library's website - through the catalog or the databases.

From SPIE's website:

The SPIE Digital Library is the most extensive resource available on optics and photonics, providing unprecedented access to more than 230,000 technical papers from SPIE Journals and Conference Proceedings from 1990 to the present. More than 17,000 new research papers are added annually.

Contents of the SPIE Digital Library

Proceedings of SPIE: Starting at Volume 1200 (1990)*

Optical Engineering: Starting at Volume 29 (1990)

Journal of Electronic Imaging: Starting at Volume 1 (1992)

Journal of Biomedical Optics: Starting at Volume 1 (1996)

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS: Starting at Volume 1 (2002)

Journal of Applied Remote Sensing: Starting at Volume 1 (2007)

Journal of Nanophotonics: Starting at Volume 1 (2007)

* Some Proceedings volumes are not available in the SPIE Digital Library as SPIE does not have electronic rights to this material. Click here for a listing of those volumes.

Aerial photos in the Library's Map Collection

The Library has acquired an extensive collection of aerial photographs-- approximately 24,000 in all-- of the Massachusetts landscape, used for almost 50 years to map land use and land use change in the Commonwealth. Initiated by Forestry Professor Emeritus William P. "Mac" MacConnell ’43, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to be completely mapped in this fashion. The project became the foundation for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory. The collection can be used in the Library's Map Collection on the 2nd floor of Du Bois.
For a couple of years while I was in grad school at UMass, I worked with the MacConnell maps, digitizing land use change. I was fascinated with the process and the photos. My supervisors then, Kate Jones (now at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments GIS) and David Goodwin (now at the Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation's Forestry Management Program), told me about their long histories analyzing the photos with stereoscopes (also on display in the Map Collection). They related the history of The Raccoon Wars, which began with a prank that involved painting the black eyepieces of the stereoscopes with black ink, so that the user would finish her or his work with dark rings around the eyes. Ever since, I've been waiting to use that tactic.

UMass Amherst - $9.2 million in NSF grants

As blogged on the www.masslive.com site (click on the title to go to the article).

Some of you will have personal knowledge about this, but as an onlooker, I was impressed with the range of these projects that got funded by the NSF. It is, I know, a competitive process.

Congratulations to those individuals and groups who have collectively shown that UMass Amherst is an institution doing interesting work (and we beat MIT - woohoo!). Here is the list of awardees as published in the Springfield Republican blog:

RESEARCH AWARDS
The following are the grants awarded by the National Science Foundation, and the person directing each of the funded projects.

Awarded to the University of Massachusetts:

$200,000 - A data collection project, Prashant Shenoy
$300,067 - A project in nanotechnology, Sigfrid Yngvesson
$316,365 - Research involving emulsified products (two or more liquids blended together, such as ice cream or mayonnaise), Michael Henson
$350,001 - A project in wireless networks, Donald Towsley
$404,132 - A project relating to the search of vast archives of data or information, W. Bruce Croft
$442,000 - Research in Internet running on light, Tilman Wolf
$513,600 - Biofuels research, George Huber
$597,503 - A project involving the teaching of science, Morton Sternheim
$600,000 - Research into the transfer of data on the Internet, Arunkumar Venkataramani
$979,098 - Research into the teaching of science, John Clement
$1.5 million - Renewable energy research, Sankaran Thayumanavan
$3 million - A project in cellular engineering training, Susan C. Roberts
To Smith College:
$125,240 - Computer science research, Ruth Haas
$315,760 - Research in biogeochemistry, Elizabeth Jamieson

Cells lead astray

The New York Times has an article in today's Science section about lead, and its historical uses. It's not hard to see why people were so enthusiastic about lead in ancient times-- it's easy to find and recover, it has a low melting point, and it's malleable. Lead also gets cozy with sulfur, which is why there are so many health problems associated with it. Some of these problems were known by Hippocrates in 400 BC, but lead was so useful that people weren't ready to do without it. The most significant problems are experienced by young children, whose brain development is affected by lead molecules which disrupt some proteins by seeking out sulfur. Other animals are also affected by ingesting lead.
In my previous career in public health, I became a Certified Lead Inspector for housing. In New England, with its older housing stock, lead paint is a persistent issue. While Europe banned the residential use of lead paint in the 1920s, the US didn't until the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a regulation in 1978 prohibiting its use in residential settings. At first, I thought that flaking lead paint was the big problem, since kids often eat the flakes (Apparently, lead lends a sweet taste to substances, which is why the Romans used it to treat wine.), but it is also present in house dust as a result of friction on window sashes and door jambs. Lead from gasoline contributed to the environmental load as well.
Here are some UMass Library databases you can search for more information on lead in the environment and it's effects on humans and other animals. Remember that you may have to use your OIT login information if you want to connect from off-campus.
CAB Abstracts
Engineering Village
Environment Index
Food Science and Technology Abstracts
Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology
LexisNexis Environmental
PubMed: UMass Amherst subscription
Web of Science
Zoological Record
If you're interested in the biochemistry of lead, try Beilstein.

Journal Science to leave JSTOR

After nearly a ten year relationship with JSTOR, the Mellon-founded online journal archive, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has decided to end its association pulling the journal Science from the journal archive, effective 31 December 2007. This is the first time that a member publisher has left the over 900 title journal archive since its beginning in 1994.

In a statement, a Science spokesperson said that: “AAAS shares the belief that it is now time to assume full responsibility for maintaining a complete electronic archive of its flagship publication.”

Science magazine (6 July 2007) special issue on Undergraduate Science Education

From the Special Issue introduction, "Many Voices, One Message" by Jeffrey Mervis:

... The hegemony of English is just one of many forces shaping undergraduate STEM education. This special issue looks at the topic by focusing on the lives of [12] faculty members in a dozen countries on six continents. The group is meant to be representative of scientists teaching large numbers of undergraduates around the world. The list is skewed toward the most industrialized countries but also includes those in which the scientific infrastructure is developing rapidly. An accompanying map presents some basic information about higher education in each country.
...
For an additional perspective, Science invited three distinguished educators to explore the issues facing undergraduate STEM education. Excerpts of their comments appear in this issue; the complete discussion is available at www.sciencemag.org/sciext/undergrad_education07. This issue also marks the debut of the Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment Journal Club, as well as three Teaching Resources.

We hope that you'll find the entire package compelling enough to alter your own worldview of undergraduate education. If it does, please let us know at www.sciencemag.org/sciext/eletters."

WorldWideScience.org

WorldWideScience.org opens public access to more than 200 million pages of international research information. This international search portal was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the British Library and eight countries ranging from Australia to Japan. It uses federated search technology much like that of Google and Yahoo, searching an variety of databases then aggregating the results and ranking them, returning a variety of results for a single query.

Ooooohhh!!! Aaaaaahhhh!!

I love fireworks, and in the past, I've taken extreme measures to see two shows in one night. So I was delighted to find this site, courtesy of Librarians' Index to the Internet. It explains the chemistry and basic physics behind the displays, and includes a table showing the compounds that produce specific colors, as well as a little bit of history. A friend of mine worries that knowing too much about things like fireworks will make them less wonderful and enjoyable, but this stuff fascinates me.
Chemical of the Week is one of my favorite sites. I always learn something here, and it often appeals to a family affinity with explosives (stories for another time). It's geared to enlightened non-specialists, so anyone can enjoy it.

New search tool for science!!

I just tried out Scitopia, which describes itself as a "...free federated search portal to the digital libraries of leading science and technology societies." Currently, it simultaneously searches the publications of 15 scientific societies (including AGU), as well as "patents and government data" (I haven't figured out how well the last part works yet). It's in beta now, so give it a try and let them know how to develop it.

The Junk Drawer

National Geographic has an article on Linnaeus (with some wonderful photographs) on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of his birth. The title of the article is "A Passion for Order," which describes a characteristic of most scientists, but also a significant trait of librarians (though you wouldn't know it to look at *my* desk). One of my courses in library school was titled "Organization of Knowledge." I was surprised to see that there were only two texts, and seriously apprehensive about having to learn how the world's knowledge is systematized in one semester. To my relief, the class concerned the varieties of classification used in libraries, with some emphasis on the LC scheme used in most academic libraries. We also discussed some new systems made possible by advances in database management and expanding internet access.

It seems lately that the organization of stuff, especially information, is a hot topic. Last year, it was Peter Morville's Ambient Findability. David Weinberger gave a 57- minute talk on the Google campus on May 10 on the topic of his new book, Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder . The talk is great (I haven't read the book yet-- it's on my desk now.), but I had an issue with some of his comments in the Google talk about librarians, whom he says he admires, and I believe him. He said that librarians (and scientists, shop owners, publishers, everyone) try to order information, a task he sees as futile. He's right, it is futile, and the digital disorder in his subtitle has shown us that. My argument with him is that librarians have figured that out already. We use keywords, hyperlinking, folksonomies, tagging, social networks-- all that stuff. There is still a use for the LC classification and other schemes for print material and non-digital native objects (so we can find their physical selves), but librarians bring at least a representation of them into the disordered digital world via their metadata.

I'm really excited to be a librarian right now. The whole notion of what the library is changes constantly, and it's a lot of work to keep up with students' use of technology and their consequent expectations. Libraries are learning to be more nimble and adapt quickly. At the same time, we realize that most of our users employ only basic strategies with their new electronic tools-- usually just enough to perform a single task. That's where we can help, but more on that later...

What Kind of User Are You?

The PEW Internet & American Life Project has come up with a typology of Information and Communication Technology Users based on a survey of "assets, actions, and attitudes" of the American public. Are you an omnivore? A lackluster veteran? Or an inexperienced experimenter? Find out.

IEEE Standards Association creates Nanoelectronics Standards Roadmap

On April 14th, the IEEE Standards Association released a Nanoelectronics Standards Roadmap, version 1.0. This draft is available for public comment from their website. The roadmap is intended to:

• "Discern the highest value nanoelectronics standards to provide maximum leverage to the industry by providing a platform of common definitions, processes and technologies.
• Identify a small set of near-term standards to jump start nanoelectronics standards development. Frame these standards (define their scope and purpose) to accelerate working group formation and progress. Build momentum within the industry by creating a few quick wins consistent with the longer range standards strategy.
• Complement, not replace, existing industry roadmaps and knowledge bases.
• Provide a framework for efficient communication and collaboration among industry members. Reduce barriers to industry convergence and efficient commerce.
• Speed the development and deployment of high value nanoelectronics standards; consistent with the maturity of processes and technologies.
• Create an extensible and living framework by which nanoelectronics standards development may be managed proactively, strategically and efficiently"

The IEEE-SA will hold a town meeting to present and discuss the roadmap at NSTI Nanotechnology 2007.

NN/LM-NER's PubMed Search Tags and Field Qualifiers Guide

Check out the latest revision of the NN/LM-NER's PubMed Search Tags and Field Qualifiers Guide!

http://nnlm.gov/ner/training/material/PubMedFieldTags.doc

Search like an expert! This handy guide lists the major search tags and field qualifiers for advanced PubMed searching. Keep it next to your computer for easy reference.
This guide is intended to be customized with your library's logo and contact information, folded in half and laminated. Don't have a laminator? No problem. It also makes a nice one page handout.

Or better yet... customize and post it on your web site!

Check out Boston University Medical Center's customized version at: http://med-libwww.bu.edu/pdf/pubmedfieldtags.pdf

Thanks to Michelle Eberle - Consumer Health Information Coordinator - National Network of Libraries of Medicine - New England - University of Massachusetts Medical School - for this information.

Illustrata: Natural Sciences database trial until May 5 2007

Illustrata: Natural Sciences is a new database that provides access to charts, tables, graphs, photographs, maps and other figures across a wide range of biological and environmental disciplines. With Illustrata: Natural Sciences it is possible to search the scholarly research literature for visual information previously not indexed. Using the “Search Tools” feature it is possible to search the scientific literature for graphs, illustrations, maps, photographs, tables and images.

“Researchers can then view the full object, including all caption and label text. Results can be easily saved or imported and used for presentations, lectures, or research.”

More than one million object records have been indexed covering over 880 different journals from a variety of publishers. It is projected that over two million objects will be indexed by the end of the year.

Three other forthcoming Illustrata resources include image databases for the fields of Technology, Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities.

Please let Maxine Schmidt (mschmidt@library.umass.edu) know your impression of Illustrata: Natural Sciences.

Geoscience World database trial until April 5 2007

Here's what the site has to say about itself:

"GeoScienceWorld (GSW) is a nonprofit corporation formed by a group of leading geoscientific organizations for the purpose of making geoscience research and related information easily and economically available via the Internet. GSW is an unprecedented collaboration of six leading earth science societies and one institute."

It also says that it is "indexed, linked, and inter-operable" with GeoRef. Right now, GSW is offering the content of the journals published by the founding member organizations: American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), American Geological Institute (AGI), Geological Society of America (GSA), The Geological Society of London (GSL), Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), and Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG).

Be aware, though, that because this is a trial, you won't find the handy little red SFX links that will take you to the full text sources for other journals. To get those, go through the Library's webpage to GeoRef, where you will be properly authenticated.

Let Maxine Schmidt (mschmidt@library.umass.edu) know what you think of GSW.

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols database - Subscription!

The UMass Amherst Libraries have subscribed to the Cold Spring Harbor Protocols database. In response to the requests of several patrons, we conducted a trial subscription last fall, and the reaction from most respondents was very positive. As a consequence, and because these methods are widely used on campus, we have added this database to our extensive collection.

From the "About" section of the CSH Protocols Website:
Cold Spring Harbor Protocols is a definitive, interactive source of new and classic research techniques. The database is fully searchable by keyword and subject, and it has many novel features—such as discussion forums and personal folders—made possible by online publication. Its coverage includes cell and molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics, protein science, and imaging. Protocols are presented step-by-step and edited in the style that has made Molecular Cloning, Antibodies, Cells and many other CSH manuals essential to the work of scientists worldwide. Protocols will be continuously expanded, updated, and annotated by the originators and users of the techniques.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the ISEL Library staff.

UMass Amherst Digital Quadrangle Series Colloquium: " Showcasing Research and Teaching in the 21st Century: A Digital Approach"

NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: 03/1/07

CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATION ASST., (413) 545-0162

Amherst, MA - UMass Amherst will host “Showcasing Research & Teaching in the 21^st Century: A Digital Approach” on March 29, 2007, from 1:00 – 4:45 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union at UMass Amherst. David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs of the National Association for State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), will give the keynote talk “If It Cannot Be Found on the Net, It Does Not Exist: Increasing Impact for UMass Scholarship.” Provost Charlena Seymour will introduce Dr. Shulenburger.

The event will mark the official debut of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, the new digital repository for campus researchers and scholars. The complete agenda for the afternoon is available at: http://www.umass.edu/research/Mar2907Agenda.pdf. A wine and cheese reception in the Student Union Art Gallery will follow the program. Faculty, staff, and graduate students are invited to attend. The event is open to the public.

David Shulenburger is active nationally and internationally as an advocate for reform in the areas of scholarly communication and academic accreditation. Shulenburger previously held the positions of Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of Kansas from 1993 to 2006, where he received several University-wide teaching awards. He is chair of the board of the Center for Research Libraries, consulting editor for “Change,” past chair of the NASULGC Council on Academic Affairs, board member of BioOne, and has served on the boards of numerous other non-profits. Previously a faculty member at Clemson University and a labor economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, he received his PhD and masters degrees from the University of Illinois.

The second half of the program includes two panel discussions. In the first, “The ScholarWorks Track: A Panel of Case Studies,” faculty members will discuss the adoption of ScholarWorks and its impact on their research and teaching. Representatives from the Center for Teaching, Office for Research, Graduate School, and UMass Press will serve on the second panel, “Tools and Policies: Getting to Your Destination.” Discussion topics will include intellectual property, the potential for transforming teaching models, the electronic master’s theses project, and open access from the perspective of UMass Press.

This second annual Digital Quadrangle Series Colloquium is sponsored by the UMass Amherst Libraries, Office for Research, Center for Teaching, and the Graduate School.

For more information, contact Marilyn Billings, 545-6891, or mbillings@library.umass.edu.

The Secret to Google page ranking

From Maxine - A rather amusing explanation of how Google determines which pages are listed first when you do a search. Suffice to say it involves PCs - pigeon clusters.

Librarians and other information mavens have long wondered about Google's relevancy algorithms, which Google regards as a trade secret. We like to know how to make our search strategies as efficient as possible, and knowing how the search engine works would obviously be useful, but as a commercial enterprise, Google doesn't want to help people 'game' the system. So this explanation is meant to be funny, but at the same time, it is twitting their critics.

UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES TO SURVEY CAMPUS COMMUNITY

Amherst, MA – The UMass Amherst Libraries will conduct a survey, LibQUAL+™, of all faculty members and graduate students, and a random sample of 2,000 undergraduates between February 27 and March 16, 2007. Participants will be emailed and asked to participate in the 10-minute web-based survey. A free beverage coupon to the Procrastination Station Café in the Du Bois Library will be given to those completing the survey.

The results of the survey will be used to help assess and improve the UMass Amherst Libraries’ services, collections, and facilities. The results will also indicate how UMass Amherst library services compare to other institutions of similar size and mission. It will allow the Libraries to benchmark its results against those of other colleges and universities to determine best practices and indicate where to concentrate improvements for UMass Amherst users. UMass Amherst is among over 200 libraries participating in this year's survey.

In 2004, the UMass Amherst Libraries conducted a LibQUAL+™ survey, contributing to the Libraries’ initiating many improvements, particularly in the Du Bois Library. Improvements include more electronic resources, increased hours to 24 hours/five days a week, increased wireless access, group study rooms, comfortable chairs, additional computers, scanners, a fax machine, and vending machines on the Lower Level, quiet study spaces on Floors 2 and 3, a renovated lobby with a coffee shop, book delivery on campus, and more flexible lending policies.
LibQUAL+ ™ is a rigorously tested web-based survey administered by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

For more information, contact Jan Higgins in the Library Office, at 545-6868 or libqual@library.umass.edu. More information about the survey is available at www.library.umass.edu/assessment/libqual.html.

Check it out! Origami and Math from Robert J. Lang

A recent profile in The New Yorker magazine of Robert J. Lang sent us to this website. Lang retired from a successful career as a physicist and engineer, during which he authored or co-authored over 80 technical publications and 40 patents on semiconductor lasers, optics, and integrated optoelectronics; he is now a full-time origami artist. His work is exhibited, and has also been used in television commercials and other media.

Lang writes and speaks extensively on the intersection of origami and mathematics, and has developed computer applications to simulate and help design origami. Dr. Lang resides in Alamo, California.

And yes, this "dancing crane" was folded from a single sheet without cuts. Lang's website has images of his work, many with crease patterns which (theoretically) one could use to reproduce the figure.

Database Trial: CSH Protocols

We have a trial set up for the subscription database, CSH Protocols, or Cold Spring Harbor Protocols (http://www.cshprotocols.org). This includes the full text of the latest versions of their laboratory methods in molecular and cellular biology. If this is of interest to you, please give it a try, and let me, Naka Ishii, know if you think this is a worthwhile addition to our collection.

As with any new library resource, if we decide it is valuable, we will need to figure out how to fund it, and weigh the options against the utility of the new resource, so please be clear about how useful it is, what priority you would give it.

You can also access this trial through our Database Trials webpage on the Library's website. From the Library homepage, www.library.umass.edu, click on the tab for Services, then from that list, select Research Help and Support. On the left side of that page, there is a link to the Database Trials page.

Thanks in advance for your help in evaluating CSH Protocols.

Darwin Goes Digital

Cambridge University is in the process of making the complete works of Charles Darwin available online. The collection includes images of books and manuscripts, as well as Darwin's field notebooks! So far the developers estimate that 50% of the total material is now accessible, and more is added each day. They expect to complete the project in 2009.

A new look to UMass Amherst Library Website, and the new online catalog

The Library's Website has undergone a radical redesign, and we hope that our patrons will find it easier to use, once they get over the initial shock. The content is essentially the same, except for the new catalog, which had its debut this week also.

In the months to come, we are also changing the way the contents of the Library's Website are organized, so that behind the scenes, it will be contained in a "content management system." While we hope that this change will be invisible to our patrons, we also believe that it will allow the content to be more current, since global changes will be easier to make.

The new online library catalog, mentioned above, has 'gone live' as they are saying over in Du Bois, and it is not without problems. This gigantic piece of software is really called an 'integrated library system' or ILS. An ILS not only contains the catalog of our materials and electronic resources, it also includes the circulation system and all the transactions, patrons, holds, bills, etc., and the acquisitions module - this tracks all the library materials we order and purchase. On top of that, this one system is shared by five separate institutions, the Five Colleges; so you can see that glitches are inevitable in the implementation of something so massive. We beg your patience and understanding.

That said, please do let us know when you encounter a problem. You might be the first one to notice something awry. Do also let us know if you find something that you like - though at this juncture I'm not holding my breath!

Wish us luck!

A new library catalog!

The Five College Library System is instituting a big change. A new Five College Library Catalog will debut the week of August 28, 2006, providing improved access to the millions of resources at the UMass Amherst Libraries and those of the Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith College Libraries. After a detailed market review, the libraries chose ALEPH® by Ex Libris to replace Innopac by Innovative Interfaces, the existing library software system. The new catalog will be available through the Library home page at http://www.library.umass.edu/ or directly at http://fcaa.library.umass.edu:8991/F.

The software will make searching for information easier. For example, it will permit online searching of all libraries simultaneously, foreign language searches, focusing searches on specific research areas, and limiting searches to a particular collection or format (i.e. book, CD, journal, etc.). It will now be possible for users to set up personal accounts to receive email notifications of new arrivals in designated subject areas, and to review personal searches and borrowing histories.

As part of the transition, the five-college request function and self- renewal features will be temporarily suspended from August 19 until the week of August 28, 2006 and the virtual catalog request function has been suspended through January 2007. Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery will continue to operate normally and users can continue to submit requests.

ALEPH was created by a team of librarians, systems analysts, and programmers to provide an automated library system that was efficient, user-friendly, and multilingual. Other libraries using the ALEPH software include Harvard, Duke University, MIT, State University of New York (SUNY), University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Maryland, University of Notre Dame, and many others.

Staff here at the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library and at Du Bois will be available if you need help navigating the new features, or to speak to your classes about the new system and the libraries in general. As always, feel free to call me with any questions.

Wellcome Trust Biomedical Image Awards 2006

The Wellcome Trust has just announced its Biomedical Image Award winners for 2006. Stunning images of life from the molecular/cellular level on up. Check out the gallery...when you click on an image, you'll be given the opportunity to listen to a sound file of the scientist behind the image discussing his/her work.