Top 20 Countries in Engineering

ScienceWatch.com, a weekly behind-the-scenes look at the scientists, journals, institutions, nations, and papers selected by Essential Science Indicators^SM from Thomson Reuters and other products of the Research Services Group, has released a listing of the top 20 countries which, as of the latest bimonthly update of Essential Science Indicators^SM, attracted the highest total citations to their papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals of Engineering over an 11-year period, (1998-December 31, 2008). These countries are of a pool of 96 countries comprising the top 50% ranked by total citation count in this field.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Internet news, new websites, blogs, tweets, etc

The June 2009 issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter is now available.

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, Twitter, and much more, then check out this newsletter.

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

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Academic staff – send us your Reading Lists

As you prepare your courses for 2009/2010, please remember to send the Library a copy of the Reading Lists you will be giving to your students.

Why do we need your reading lists?

We need to be sure that the Library has copies of all the books you will be recommending to your students next year. We need details of all your recommended reading so that we can ensure we have copies of all the books you recommend, and that we have enough copies for the number of students in your classes.

What do we do with your lists?

We check to make sure we have all the books on your lists.

We order any books which we do not already have.

We order additional copies of books where you indicate large numbers of students in your classes.

We can find out whether anything on your list is available as an e-book.

We inform you if any of the books on your list are out of print, or otherwise unavailable, so you can consider alternative recommendations.

How are these books paid for?

We use the central Course Book Fund to buy books to support teaching. Books on your reading list will be charged to this fund.

What should you do?

Please send your lists to Eve Dick in Riccarton Library. Please give the approximate number of students expected to take the course, so we can order multiple copies if necessary.

Did you know?

We can also make digitised copies of essential chapters, articles etc. available for uploading into Vision through our Scanning Service. Contact us for more details of how you can make essential reading available to your students 24/7.

Please remember

We need advance warning of any books which you will recommend to your students – tell us before you tell them!

Thanks!
Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

Neoliberalism, study skills, the ecohouse – and other new books in the Library

Added to the library recently were books on neoliberalism, study skills, the ecohouse 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 include Study skills for dummies, by Doreen du Boulay, Contesting neoliberalism: urban frontiers, edited by Helga Leitner, Jamie Peck and Eric S. Sheppard, and Ecohouse: a design guide, by Sue Roaf, Manuel Fuentes and Stephanie Thomas.

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

Final reminder – last day to return your books

Remember that today – Friday 22 May – is the final day to return the books you still have on loan. You can check which books you have on loan through the catalogue – just click on the Patron Functions tab to access your record.

If you want to keep your books over the Summer Vacation, just tell the Service Desk staff when you return your books and they will issue the books for the summer.

Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

Something new – WolframAlpha

 

As it’s been in the news quite a lot, you may have noticed a new website called WolframAlpha.  “Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.”

From the FAQ: 

Is Wolfram|Alpha a search engine?
No. It’s a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.

Is Wolfram|Alpha free to use?
Yes, it’s free for personal noncommercial use as described in its Terms of Use. Subscriptions will be available in the near future with enhanced features for large-scale and commercial use.

Who is Wolfram|Alpha for?
Everyone! Its goal is to bring expert-level knowledge to everybody.

See real time tweets about the new service, and for a brief review of it, read what Karen Blakeman writes on her blog.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Enjoy the summer – we’re still open!

The Library staff hope you enjoy the Summer Vacation.

We’ll be open on our Summer Vacation schedule from Saturday 23 May – Sunday 13 September.

Riccarton Library will be closed for stocktaking Monday 15 June – Thursday 18 June.

We’ll be busy throughout the vacation.

As well as our normal activities – buying books for next year, stocktaking and checking all the existing books, helping students working on dissertations and other research through the summer – we’ll be making some changes. In Riccarton Library, we’re hoping to secure funding to upgrade the 2 Group Study Rooms on Level 3 to include IT, projection equipment, smartboards etc. to provide you with better facilities for working on group projects. In Galashiels, we’ll be completing the integration of the books from the College and the University to create a single collection of books for all our members.

Of course, we will also be taking our holidays, so it won’t all be hard work!

We look forward to seeing you in September.

Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

Reminder – books due back this week

Undergraduates, Masters & Diploma students

All Standard Loan books are due for return this week – by Friday 22 May. Over 800 of you have books to return – why not beat the queues and return your books today?

All your books should be returned to the Service Desk in either Riccarton or Scottish Borders Campus Libraries. As all books have to be returned at the end of the year, it is not possible to use the self-service feature in the catalogue. If you wish to keep your loans over the Summer Vacation, tell the Service Desk staff and they will issue the books for the summer.

All books which you borrow for the summer are due for return in the first week of next Semester – by Friday 18 September.

You can check which books you have on loan through the Library catalogue at http://hw.lib.ed.ac.uk/ – select the Patron Functions button to access your details.

If you have any questions about borrowing, contact the Service Desks in the Riccarton or Scottish Borders Campus Libraries.

Gill McDonald
Deputy Librarian

Dyslexia, probability, optical fiber communications – and other new books in the Library

Added to the library recently were books on dyslexia, probability, optical fiber communications 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 include Introduction to probability with R, by K. Baclawski, and a copy of the 3rd edition of Optical fiber communications: principles and practice, by John M. Senior and M. Yousif Jamro

Added to the library at Galashiels were several books, including Making dyslexia work for you: a self-help guide.

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

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World was published today (12th May 2009)

This is the report of an independent Committee of Inquiry into the impact on higher education of students’ widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies.  The report looks at the projected future trends in the use of technology in higher education.

From the JISC press release: “Findings from the report show that students typically spend four hours a day online, a figure that looks set to rise as teenagers make increasing use of Web 2.0 technology in their daily lives. One of the challenges for the higher education sector is therefore to ensure that staff can keep pace with the advancing technology which many of their students rely on every day, using the technology to enhance the student learning experience.”

For more information see the JISC information page. The report is discussed in today’s Education Guardian.  If you want to follow comments on the report in Twitter, search for the tag: #clex09

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian