scitech library question

Presentations from CiL 2005 Now Available

:: Links to the presentations from Computers In Libraries 2005 are available on the Information Today web site. (Via: Science Library Pad.)

Poster Presenters for SLA Annual Conference in Toronto

:: From a post on CHMINF-L:

Presenters have now been selected for the Poster Session, "Better Understanding Your Users," being cosponsored by the Chemistry, PAM, and Sci-Tech Divisions at the upcoming SLA meeting in Toronto . A list of the presenters along with titles and abstracts of the presentations can be found on the Chemistry Division web site at http://www.sla.org/division/dche/2005/poster.htm.

It should be an exciting session, and we hope you will be able to attend in person. For those of you who cannot make it to Toronto, however, a web version of the conference will be presented on the Chemistry Division's web conference site sometime following the Toronto conference. Details of the web version will be forthcoming, but this format will provide you with a chance to read/view the presentations and participate in discussions with the presenters in an asynchronous fashion, so please stay tuned for details regarding this.

Bill Armstrong, Moderator
Chemistry, Sci-Tech, & PAM Poster Session

Cites & Incites Insights

:: I am obviously having trouble keeping up with Walt Crawford. I missed noting the v5 n2: Midwinter 2005 issue of Cites & ~~Incites~~ Insights, which appeared between January and February. When you are finished with that issue, check out the v5 n5: Spring 2005 issue as well. BTW, Walt, please consider changing the name, because quite obviously, I have a mental block with the title as it is now. ;-)

Handbook of Chemistry & Physics Updating Policy

:: Excerpted from a post on CHMINF-L, David R Lide, Editor-in-Chief, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, explains the policy of updating HCP:

Each annual edition provides an opportunity to add new material, update/expand existing tables, and correct errors. Certainly, all errors that we have found or that have been brought to our attention by users are corrected in each new edition. We typically introduce five or six new topics each year, and five to ten existing tables are updated or expanded. The net result is the at least 5% of the book is substantially changed each year. In some years, when a very long table is updated, the changes can amount to 10-20%.

]]> In regard to updating, we pay particular attention to data and recommendations from official bodies such as IUPAC, CODATA, and Government bodies. Thus we update things like atomic weights, fundamental physical constants, the IUPAC pH scale, the NTP carcinogen list, and permissible limits of contaminants in the workplace as soon as they are available (and occasionally even before they are formally published). In very active research areas where modern instruments are generating more accurate data than were previously available, we try to do a major revision of the pertinent Handbook tables every two or three years.

I should mention that the 86th Edition, which will appear in July 2005, will include a major facelift, in addition to the updates just described. The typeface and general layout have been improved, and many tables have been reorganized to make them more easily readable.

I hope this information is helpful. Please send me any suggestions for additions or other improvements to the Handbook.

David R. Lide
Editor-in-Chief, CRC handbook of Chemistry and Physics
13901 Riding Loop Dr.
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Phone/Fax: 301-738-7147
email: drlide AT post DOT harvard DOT edu:

AIP Introduces Library Branding

:: From a message sent by Christine Orr of AIP, which appeared on various listservs:

The American Institute of Physics is pleased to announce that beginning this week, all AIP journal abstract pages will carry a message informing users that their access is provided via their library’s subscription. Once a user is IP-authenticated, each abstract view will display a small banner stating, “Your access to J. Appl. Physics [e.g.] is provided by the subscription of [institution].”

]]> We hope that this message helps to better inform your patrons about the services you provide, and to dispel the notion that online information is without cost.

The displayed name of the subscribing institution is taken from each institution’s subscriber records. If you feel your institution’s name is not displayed properly, simply follow the Library Welcome Message help icon on any abstracts page. This will enable you to email us, and we can change how your institution's name is displayed in these branding messages.

If you have any questions regarding this service, please contact me
directly.

Kind regards,

Christine Orr
Marketing Manager
American Institute of Physics
Melville NY, USA
Tel: +1 516-576-2484
http://librarians.aip.org
corr AT aip DOT org

Canadian Government Outlines Proposed Amendments to the Copyright Act

:: Copyright reform took a step forward today in Canada:

On March 24, the ministers of Canadian Heritage and Industry released a Statement outlining the Government's proposals for amendments to the Copyright Act that would address the short-term group of reform issues. The Government intends to introduce a bill later this spring. The Government also tabled on the same day its Response to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage's May 2004 Interim Report on Copyright Reform. The Response includes the Government Statement.

A backgrounder setting out highlights of the Government's proposals is provided, as well as a series of frequently asked questions to assist in understanding the Statement. Stakeholders will have an opportunity to make their views known to the appropriate parliamentary committee after the bill is introduced.

These documents are also available at:

* Joint site
* Industry Canada

]]> Some of the Statement highlights include:

Regarding Internet Service Provider Liability: "ISPs would be exempt from copyright liability in relation to their activities as intermediaries, namely, their activities as mere conduits for information, their caching activities, their hosting activities, and their information location activities."
"The Government supports the use of leading-edge technologies in education and research. The bill will propose certain measures that will facilitate the use of the Internet for these purposes."
Regarding Use of Copyright Works for Remote Learning:
- "Current educational exceptions permit the performance or display, within the classroom, of certain copyright material as part of a lecture. The requirement that the performance or display be confined to the classroom would be removed to enable remote students to view the lecture using network technology, either live or at a more convenient time. Educational institutions would be required to adopt reasonable safeguards to prevent misuse of the copyright material."
- "Material that may be photocopied and provided to students pursuant to an educational institution's blanket licence with a collective society would also be permitted to be delivered to the students electronically without additional copyright liability, unless the licence in question provides for such delivery. Educational institutions would be required to adopt effective safeguards to prevent misuse of the copyright material."
Regarding Interlibrary Loans: "The electronic desktop delivery of certain copyright material directly to the patron would be permitted, provided that effective safeguards were in place to prevent the misuse of the material or of the inter-library loan service".

Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School - Comment By Carl Selinger (Author)

:: Recently I posted a short review of Carl Selinger's new book, "Stuff You Don't Learn In Engineering School: Skills For Success In The Real World." Carl read the review, and submitted a timely comment regarding the importance of information and research skills:

As the author of "Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School," thanks for the great review! Also thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt ... I think that information and research skills -- while of course critically important -- are not really "soft" skills like the others covered. But we are on the same page: I'm now covering other skill areas not in the book in continuing articles in IEEE Spectrum, and the 1/05 web-only article on "Drowning in Data" deals with information overload & keeping up ... and emphasizes the importance of staying current in your field, and gives a few tips on researching issues.

I thank Carl for the response, and very much appreciate that he will be covering skills such as research and information gathering in his forthcoming IEEE Spectrum columns. Well done!

Engineering Students and Weblogs

:: I've written previously about working with engineering design students (in mechanical, chemical, materials engineering classes) by helping them create weblogs to use for project management. The students are working in groups of four, and I've helped a number of groups set up weblogs for this purpose. My campus doesn't yet support weblogs as a teaching tool, so each one must be set up individually.

The process I developed was somewhat tedious, involving setting up a blog on Blogger, moving it to the U of A server on one of the students' accounts, and then showing them how to uploaded documents, create posts, etc. Rewarding work, despite the time consumption.

]]>
Yesterday I heard from one of the students who noted that their group could no longer get to their blog, as the URL seemed to have changed from http to https. A bit of investigation revealed that the campus servers had been upgraded, and if anyone's site was password protected, the URL would change as such. The solution seemed to be straightforward: go in to the Settings in the Blogger account for each blog to which I had added the .htaccess file, and change the URL to https. Problem is, the Blogger Settings will not accept the change. Type in https, click Save, and it returns to http.

This left two options: delete the .htaccess file, thus removing password protection, or leave as is, and each time a group member goes to the blog or tries to open a document or ppt presentation within, live with the error page that returns on the click, and then go to the https version of the URL.

This is a small example of the problems we can encounter when working with students to set up blogs for project management, and one's institution doesn't support the software. Hopefully this will change sometime soon.

I can report that despite any minor roadblocks such as this, the groups using blogs are doing a great job, and finding the blog to be a worthwhile tool for engineering design project management.

Scirus Indexes Patent Data for 13,000,000 Patents

:: From the Elsevier site, Scirus now includes patent data:

Amsterdam, 22 March 2005 � Elsevier today announced that its free science-specific search engine, Scirus, has now indexed 13 million patents. Patents indexed in Scirus include those from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). By making patents available through its index, Scirus has expanded its service to include new and valuable information sources...

Bill Clinton To Speak At SLA in Toronto

:: Word is out that President Bill Clinton has been added to the list of general session speakers at SLA in Toronto. From a post on SLA-ENG today:

This morning it was announced to the Board, that former President Bill Clinton recently agreed to be a general session speaker for the SLA Toronto meeting. He will speak on Wednesday morning , from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. This is really exciting news! We wanted the conference planners to be among the first to hear. Promotional and PR Information is being developed and will be sent out as soon as we are able to the entire membership. We do not foresee this conflicting with any division programming, except as mentioned earlier, Wednesday morning sessions will now begin at 7:00 a.m.

Beilstein Launches Open Access Journal on Organic Chemistry

:: George Porter sent word about the following new open access journal for organic chemistry:

San Diego, CA.: The prestigious Beilstein-Institut today announced the launch of the first major Open Access journal for organic chemistry. Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will be published by the Beilstein-Institut in co-operation with BioMed Central, the Open Access publisher. The peer-reviewed online journal will begin publication during 2005, and a call for papers, providing full information for authors, will be issued in May.

Director of the Beilstein-Institut Martin Hicks made the announcement at the American Chemical Society 229th Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. Professor Jonathan Clayden, of the University of Manchester, has been confirmed as the Editor-in-Chief, and an international editorial advisory board is also being appointed.

The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will publish outstanding original research on all aspects of organic chemistry and related disciplines. Areas covered in the journal will include: organic synthesis, organic reactions and mechanisms, natural products chemistry and chemical biology, organic materials and macro- and supramolecular organic chemistry.
]]> As an Open Access journal, the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will offer the international community of organic chemists the opportunity to make their research results freely available immediately on publication, and permanently available in the public archives of science.

The journal will publish full research articles and short communications, as well as occasional reviews and commentary articles. Supplementary data will also be published. There will be particular emphasis on speed of publication and on presentation of the articles in a chemically intelligent way. The journal will be made freely available online, while an annual print archival edition will be available for purchase at cost.

The Beilstein-Institut is committed to improving communication among chemists and will support the journal financially, including the publishing costs, to enable the journal to be open access without charge to authors.

Just as Beilstein has been synonymous with high quality scientific publishing for over two centuries, so BioMed Central has become synonymous with high-quality, online Open Access publishing in the biomedical disciplines, and is now making its publishing expertise available to new fields. BioMed Central now publishes over 130 Open Access journals, and will provide the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry with a complete publishing system, maintain and host the journal.

Together these two organizations will ensure that the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry offers authors, readers and libraries the highest quality service.

Further information is available on the The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry site:

Scientists publish research in learned journals so that it can be registered as their work, certified by their peers, disseminated to interested readers, and archived as part of the body of scientific literature. The recent emergence of open access journals, which are freely available to readers online, enhance the journal publishing process without compromising its important quality control function. Open access journals are not only fully refereed, but are also being covered by the Science Citation Index and have impact factors.

The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will begin publication during 2005. A Call for Papers providing full information for authors, will be released in May 2005. It will be a peer-reviewed online journal, published by the Beilstein-Institut in co-operation with BioMed Central, and the first major open access journal in this field. As such it will offer the international community of organic chemists a service that has been available to life scientists for some time - the opportunity to make their research results freely available on an open access basis and in the public archives of science...

Cindi Posts The OpenURL Cybertour Presentation

:: Cindi Trainor has added all the slides and such from the OpenURL Cybertour she did at CiL 2005. She then posted links to the Instant Messaging Cybertour she did at CiL as well.

Updates to Previous Entries on Scopus and Patent Downloading

:: Comments were received regarding resources mentioned in previous entries, and I felt the information was important enough to be added to a new post.

Regarding the entry, Review of Web of Science (2004 version) and Scopus, Christina Pikas advised that "My colleague, Susan Fingerman, wrote a very detailed review of Scopus for Online magazine (it's put out by Information Today). That magazine is indexed full text in a bunch of the general academic databases like Wilson and Ebsco." Here's the citation: Fingerman, Susan. "SCOPUS: Profusion and Confusion". Online v29 issue 2, 36-38.
Regarding the entry, Guide To Downloading Patents on the Internet, Dana Roth wrote to add Patent Fetcher to the list.

My thanks to Christina and Dana for the additional information.

Cindi's Computers in Libraries Reports

:: For further coverage of Computers in Libraries, please check my friend Cindi Trainor's observations from the second and third days, her final thoughts, and while you're at it, send her much sympathy after reading about her and her family's Nightmare Trip From Hell!

Creative Commons Expands, Advertises for Science Commons Executive Director

:: The Creative Commons, the group working to reform copyright, announced in November 2004 the creation of the Science Commons:

The mission of Science Commons is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others. Science Commons works within current copyright and patent law to promote legal and technical mechanisms that remove barriers to sharing.

To develop and launch the project, Creative Commons is seeking an Executive Director for the Science Commons:

The growing abundance of biological and other scientific data, and the explosion of technologies permitting their worldwide availability and distributed processing, present a unique opportunity. Science Commons seeks to enable scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs to make the most of this historic opportunity and its promise for broadening collaboration and accelerating the pace and depth of discovery. Science Commons will work to counter the application of locks and legal restrictions on scientific data, discovery, and experience, while developing the incentives and means to ease their movement, examination, and productive use among researchers and industry.

We are seeking an Executive Director to develop and launch Science Commons. The Executive Director will report to the Creative Commons Board chairman and will work with active Board and advisory group members.