What does the financial crisis mean for science? Nature special

Nature has published a special on what the biggest financial crisis in decades means for science.

“Will your research funding be cut? How secure is your company or research institution? And can the meltdown actually create opportunities for science? ” 

The special features editorials, news items, opinions, etc.

I also noticed that Information Age has been looking at how the recession will reshape the IT business.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Menswear, marketing, company reports and signal processing – and other new books in the Library

Added to the library recently were books on menswear, marketing, company reports, signal processing and several other topics.

For the full list of new books, go to the New Books section of the Catalogue.

Selected titles added to the Edinburgh campus library at Riccarton Library include the 2nd edition of Discrete-time signal processing, by Alan V. Oppenheim, Ronald W. Schafer and John R. Buck.

Added to the Library at Galashiels was a copy of Modern menswear, by Hywel Davies. 

Information on how to place a reservation for a book is available.

Information on suggesting books for the library is also available, or you can let the Subject Librarians know if you have any suggestions for new titles.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Reminder – one week to return your Standard Loans

Reminder to Undergraduates, Masters & Diploma students

All Standard Loan books which you have borrowed this semester are due for return by Friday 5 December.

If you wish to keep them for longer, you can renew them at any time before the deadline by logging on to your Library record (via Patron functions) in the catalogue. Simply select the books you want to renew, and then click on the “Renew Items” button. Remember – you cannot renew a book if someone else has reserved it, if you have any overdue books, or if you have more than £2.00 outstanding in unpaid fines.

All Standard Loan books borrowed or renewed now are due for return in the first week of next semester – by Friday 16 January 2009.

If you need help renewing your books, or of you have any questions about borrowing, contact the Service Desks in the Riccarton or Galashiels Libraries.

Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

New and notable websites, news, blogs, etc

If you’re interested in new and noteworthy websites of relevance to students, academics and researchers, or news from the scholarly publishing industry, or new academic and library blogs, and much more, then check out the December 2008 issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter.

The newsletter is edited by Marion Kennedy, Catherine Ure and myself.  It’s monthly, and its free.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Personalising physics publishing with Web 2.0

An article in the October/November issue of Research Information looks at Personalising physics publishing with Web 2.0 (how podcasts, blogs, social networks and Second Life are being used by publishers in the subject area of physics).

Amongst other things, this article looks at the Nature Physics portal, and also IOPScience and arXiv.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Social housing, research methods for construction, wallpaper – and other new books in the Library

Added to the library recently were books on social housing, research methods for construction, wallpaper, and several other topics.

For the full list of new books, go to the New Books section of the Catalogue.

Selected titles added to the Edinburgh campus library at Riccarton Library include copies of The future of social housing, edited by Suzanne Fitzpatrick and Mark Stephens, and Greed and corporate failure: the lessons from recent disasters, by Stewart Hamilton and Alicia Micklethwait.

Added to the Library at Galashiels was a copy of The cutting edge of wallpaper, edited by Cigalle Hanaor (additional information about this book is available).

Information on how to place a reservation for a book is available.

Information on suggesting books for the library is also available, or you can let the Subject Librarians know if you have any suggestions for new titles.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Standard Loans now due for return or renewal

Undergraduates, Masters & Diploma students

All Standard Loan books which you have borrowed this semester are due for return by Friday 5 December.

If you wish to keep them for longer, you can renew them at any time before the deadline by logging on to your Library record (via Patron functions) in the catalogue. Simply select the books you want to renew, and then click on the “Renew Items” button. Remember – you cannot renew a book if someone else has reserved it, if you have any overdue books, or if you have more than £2.00 outstanding in unpaid fines.

All Standard Loan books borrowed or renewed now are due for return in the first week of next semester – by Friday 16 January 2009.

If you need help renewing your books, or of you have any questions about borrowing, contact the Service Desks in the Riccarton or Galashiels Libraries.

Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

Graduating with a PhD this week?

Congratulations!

What’s going to happen to your thesis now?

We will keep it safely locked in the Library store, and anyone visiting the Library will be able to read it, but….. why not let the whole world find out about your research?

We’re setting up a new service called HWURPA – the Heriot-Watt University Research Publications Archive.

This will include digital copies of Heriot-Watt PhD theses, to be freely available on the internet. In future, all Heriot-Watt PhD students will be required to provide a digital copy of their theses, which we will make available directly from HWURPA.

Be a pioneer and your thesis could be one of the first in HWURPA.

Research shows that a digital thesis is consulted 10 times more often than the printed equivalent, so making your thesis available this way would make your research more widely known.

Interested?

Simply give us an electronic copy of your thesis and we’ll do the rest—within a few weeks your thesis could be there for all to see.

Contact us for more details about how to give your thesis to us.

Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

Finders Keepers, Readers Reapers

Library workshop for staff

Would you like to KEEP appropriate readings in your Vision courses so students can easily FIND them? Would you like students to REAP the benefits of READing these materials rather than the first few pages from a Google search? 

Why not come along to the library’s FINDERS KEEPERS, READERS REAPERS workshop?  This session for staff will cover how to get appropriate reading materials directly to students through their Vision courses.  It will cover linking to recommended reading as well as embedding other tools and resources to help students find appropriate wider reading.  The library’s scanning service  will also be described.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday 26th November 12.15-1.45 in the Anderson Room on the top floor of the Library. Tea and coffee provided. Bring your own lunch.

FREE MEMORY STICK FOR ALL STAFF ATTENDING

More information on this and other library workshops on the library’s workshops programme webpage

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

New networking site for engineers from the IET

IET Discover is a new user-created information sharing and networking service for engineers from the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Importantly, it’s free and is not just limited to IET members.

It consists of a social bookmarking service with tagging, where you can save websites, and it also allows you to create your own homepage and join collaborative groups. There are various other features, making this worth a trial if you’re involved in any way with engineering and technology.

Because of the importance and size of the IET as a professional society, I expect that this useful new service will be heavily used.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian