Thursday, June 28, 2007

Library Resources for Bioenergy and Biofuels Research

There are many library databases suitable for searching research literature on topics of bioenergy and biofuels. A selection of these databases is listed below with brief descriptions, dates of coverage, and links to the products themselves.

Steenbock Library congratulates faculty, researchers and affiliated staff who will continue to pursue research and innovation with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

Do speak with librarians at Steenbock and Wendt libraries for assistance using these resources.

Research Literature Databases

Applied Science (1983 - updated quarterly)
Indexes articles, product evaluations, and book reviews from more than 390 leading periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Includes trade and industrial publications, journals of professional societies, and specialized subject periodicals.

Biotechnology & Bioengineering Abstracts (1982 - updated monthly)
Indexes some 539 journal covering research, applications, regulatory developments and new patents across all areas of biotechnology and bioengineering.

Business Source Elite (1984 - updated daily)
Full-text database of more than 900 business journals plus an indexing and abstracting database of approximately 1600 journals. Scholarly and popular business magazines are included.

CAB Abstracts (1910 - updated quarterly)
Indexes some 11,000 journals, books, technical reports, theses, symposium, patents, conference proceedings, and annual reports each year. Subject matter includes agricultural engineering, forest products, biofuels, dairy science and technology, irrigation and drainage, postharvest technology, animal and plant science production, and soil science and fertilizer technology.

Engineering Research
Aggregate search within the following databases—all of which can be searched individually:

ANTE: Abstracts in New Technology & Engineering (1981-)
Civil Engineering Abstracts (1966-)
Earthquake Engineering Abstracts (1971-)
Environmental Engineering Abstracts (1990-)
Mechanical & Transportation Engineering Abstracts (1966-)

Engineering Village (INSPEC and Compendex) (1884 - updated weekly)
Provides searchable access to multiple engineering databases through one interface. Databases include: Compendex (Engineering Index); INSPEC; ENGnetBASE, with over 160 handbooks; patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office; esp@cenet, the European Patent Organisation database: Scirus, a comprehensive science-specific web search engine; and daily news feeds from LexisNexis on a broad spectrum of engineering topics.

Environmental Science & Pollution Management
Aggregate search within the following databases—all of which can be searched individually:

Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology Abstracts (1993-)
ASFA3: Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Quality (1990-)
Bacteriology Abstracts (Microbiology B) (1982-)
Ecology Abstracts (1982-)
EIS: Digests of Environmental Impact Statements (1985-)
Environmental Engineering Abstracts (1990-)
Health Safety Science Abstracts (1981-)
Human Population & Natural Resource Management (1995-)
Industrial and Applied Microbiology Abstracts (Microbiology A) (1982-)
Pollution Abstracts (1981-)
Risk Abstracts (1990-)
Toxicology Abstracts (1990-)
Water Resources Abstracts (1967-)

GEOBASE (1980- updated twice monthly)
Abstracts scholarly literature on geography, geology and ecology and provides comprehensive bibliographic references to more than 2,000 primary journals, books, monographs, reports, conference proceedings and theses in the fields of human and physical geography, cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), geomorphology, climatology, hydrology and development studies.

GrayLit Network (1960 - updates vary)
Portal to technical report information generated through federally funded research and development projects. Many of the documents are available in full-text.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks (Workshop, July 11)

This workshop will cover the basic features of using RefWorks, including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat and journal databases, and preparing bibliographies. Hands-on practice will be included. No registration is necessary in order to attend and all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff. Check Steenbock's entrance sign for room location.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Wednesday, July 11 (3:00-4:30)

Summer 2007 Steenbock Workshop Calendar

Can't make a scheduled workshop? Library staff can set up a time for you or your group. Use the request form or contact Patricia Herrling (263-6373 or by email).

For additional workshop opportunites from campus libraries, visit the Workshops, Classes and Tours page.

Urban Forestry Index (UFind)

The Urban Forestry Index (UFind) is a searchable database to popular and research-oriented publications and other media of urban forestry and arboricultural interest. The content of the database is supplied in cooperation with US Forest Service, University of Minnesota and Treelink and includes many full-text documents. Browsing categories include subject, format and regional options.

In instances when full-text is not available through the database (usually journal articles), consult local library holdings and/or request assistance from Steenbock librarians. Use the MadCat catalog for locating books or documents; use Find It for locating journal articles.

If the item is not available from campus libraries, the libraries can obtain a copy for you (at no charge to you) from another institution. Place a request via Library Express (ILL) for non-campus items.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Register Now for PubChem Workshops!

PubChem registration is now open for workshops slated for August 1-2, 2007.

Submit your registration via the online form. While registration is free, space will be limited.

Workshop descriptions:

PubChem Essentials (August 1)
Content: Understanding the content and organization of the PubChem databases and finding links from a given compound to related data including bioactivity studies, literature abstracts, protein sequences, protein structures, genes, and diseases.

PubChem Powertools (August 2)
Content: Finding structurally similar chemicals to a given compound and finding sets of compounds with defined bioactivity profiles.

For more information about the PubChem product, visit: http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Biology News Net

Keep on top of breaking news in the life sciences with Biology News Net. This comprehensive site pulls news from a variety of sources—including Reuters, Associated Press, NIH, Nature, Scientific American, among others.

News headlines can be browsed by filtered categories of interest including Aids and HIV, Bioinformatics, Gene Therapy, Microbiology, Stem Cell Research, (etc).

If you are accustomed to using a feed-reader such as Bloglines or others, then feeds to each of the news categories can be selected.

The site also supplies a web board to current job opportunities in biology/life sciences (most in academia—at the time of this blog posting).

Friday, June 08, 2007

SVM Featured Images

In recognition of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Alumni Reunion (slated for June 16, 2007), the University Archives has posted several images from the last two decades on its “Featured Images” page. Browse images and/or submit comments and information.

Enjoy!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Save the Date! Principles of PubChem Workshops, (August 1-2)

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) presents Principles of PubChem, a two-day series of lectures and labs about using the PubChem system. Each session runs for three hours (one hour lecture plus two hour hands-on lab).

Workshop descriptions:

PubChem Essentials (August 1)
Content: Understanding the content and organization of the PubChem databases and finding links from a given compound to related data including bioactivity studies, literature abstracts, protein sequences, protein structures, genes, and diseases.

PubChem Powertools (August 2)
Content: Finding structurally similar chemicals to a given compound and finding sets of compounds with defined bioactivity profiles.

While registration is free, space will be limited. Look for online registration (soon) at the Ebling Library home page.

For more information about the PubChem product, visit: http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Managing Your Citations with Refworks, Workshop (June 14)

This workshop will cover the basic features of using RefWorks, including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat and journal databases, and preparing bibliographies. Hands-on practice will be included.

No registration is necessary in order to attend and all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff. Check Steenbock's entrance sign for room location.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Thursday, June 14 (11:30-1:00)

Summer 2007 Workshop Calendar

Can't make a scheduled workshop? Library staff can set up a time for you or your group. Use the request form or contact Patricia Herrling (263-6373 or by email).

Monday, June 04, 2007

Darwin Correspondence Project (Cambridge University, Library)

If you would like to gain insight into the "evolution" of that particular, so-named, scientific tenet, as bantered about by contemporaries, among other topics of the day, then consider browsing the site of the Darwin Correspondence Project.

Since its inception in 1974, the project has documented, from libraries and private collections, a sum of 14,500 letters exchanged between Charles Darwin and 2000 correspondents—5000 letters of which have been recently digitized. Among the 5000, are letters exchanged during the voyage of the Beagle and from the years encompassing publication of Origin of Species (1859).

These letters can be searched by keyword with retrieval supplying summary and transcription, footnotes, and links to related correspondence.

The site also includes special resource subsets including exploration of Darwin and Religion and Countdown to the 2009 Cambridge bicentenary celebration of Darwin’s birth.