Latest Internet news, new websites, blogs, Twitter, etc

It’s here!  The October 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 at Heriot-Watt University. It’s monthly, and its free!

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

European science and applied science news

The latest Science news and Applied Science news, from Alphagalileo, the world’s leading independent resource for European research news.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

New interface for British Standards Online (BSOL)

Heriot-Watt University Library susbcribes to British Standards Online (BSOL) through which members of Heriot-Watt University have access to the full text of current, historic, and draft British Standards and BSI adopted European and international standards.

The new BSOL site provides:

• New faster hosting environment and new url 
• Improved accessibility via a new design, layout and navigation
• Powerful browsing facility now easier to find and use
• Separated search boxes to make searching easier
• Clear distinctions between BSOL and the BSI Shop including information about your subscription
• Quick search that searches the full BSOL catalogue
• Contextual help links on most pages
• Better access to product and BSI news and information
• Improved ‘My Notifications’ personal list and alerting functionality

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

What would you like to do?

We’re pleased with the new display which has just been erected at the entrance to Riccarton Library, shown below alongside Acting University Librarian Gill McDonald.

The display, paid for out of some externally funded consultancy work, asks the question: What would you like to do?  And then suggests ten possibilities for things you can do in the Library:

Find – Access – Borrow – Study – Learn – Teach – Research – Update – Comment – Ask.

You may have noticed that Riccarton Library has started to present it’s collections and services under these ten headings, which hopefully encompass just about everything you can do in the physical and virtual Library, and thereby act as a way to ’brand’ the functions of the Library.  In the near future, the Library website is also going to be reorganised along the same lines.

 

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

European integration, employment law, biomedical optics – and other new books in the Library

Added to the library recently were books on European integration, employment law, biomedical optics, 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 The economics of European integration, by Richard Baldwin and Charles Wyplosz, and An introduction to biomedical optics, by R. Splinter and B. A. Hooper

Added to the 3 Hour Loan collection at the Scottish Borders Campus Library at Galashiels was another copy of Employment law: an introduction, by Victor Craig and Susan Walker

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

Mendeley – Organise, share and discover research papers

Mendeley has been described by The Guardian as a fusion of iTunes and Last.fm for science.  It describes itself as a free research management tool for desktop & web.  It also lets you explore research trends and connect to other academics in your discipline.

Based in London, Mendeley is funded by some of the people behind Skype, Last.fm, and Warner Music.  According to Mendeley’s statistics, there are more than 4.5 million articles added and downloadable.

There’s a lot of very useful looking features to this service.  Through it, you can find new research, collaborate with other researchers, organise your own research library, and much more.  You can also import and export from EndNote.  You can easily add papers found in a number of popular services: 

If you want to know more about how Mendeley works, and its various features, read The Guardian article, or there’s a Getting Started document, and also a Mendeley Blog for updates about the service. There’s also a detailed review of it at hangingtogether.org.

It looks as though Mendeley could be a very useful service for researchers, and is definitely one to watch.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

CSA Illumina unavailable Sunday 27th Sept

Please note that the CSA Illumina service, which provides access to a number of databases on a wide variety of subjects, will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on Sunday 27th Sept between 2:00 GMT and 14:00 GMT.  CSA Illumina is one of a number of databases through which members of Heriot-Watt University can find articles, conference papers, reports and other kinds of information.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Numerical recipes, corporate reporting, international logistics – and other new books in the Library

Added to the library recently were books on numerical recipes, corporate reporting, international logistics, 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 a copy of the 3rd edition of Numerical recipes: the art of scientific computing, by William H. Press and others, and copies of the 4th edition of International corporate reporting: a comparative approach, by Clare Roberts, Pauline Weetman and Paul Gordon.

Added to the Scottish Borders Campus Library at Galashiels was a copy of How to faith the future: Winter 2010-11,  by Christine Boland 

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

Wifi throughout the Library

The Heriot-Watt University Wireless Service extends to all floors of Riccarton Library.

No longer any need for this sort of thing:

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

ScienceDirect unavailable Saturday 19th Sept

Please note that ScienceDirect, the full-text scientific database, will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance for approximately 13 hours during the period from 12:00 Saturday, 19 Sep. to 01:00 Sunday, 20 Sep. GMT.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian