Try BrowZine!

Have you yet tried your hand at "BrowZine"?!   No need to knit your brow over efforts to stay current with your favorite research journals.  Download the Browzine app for iPad or Android tablet. 

When you download the BrowZine application from the AppStore or Google Play, you will see a list of schools.  Select UW-Madison then enter your NetID and password.  Once installed, you can create a bookshelf of your favorite journals, browse and read articles, and export citation records to compatible citation management tools. 

Brought to you by UW-Madison Libraries, BrowZine is available to all UW-Madison faculty, staff and students. 

Staying Current

How do you stay current with the literature in your field of study or research?  If you find this a challenging prospect, our librarians have the tools to help.

Staying up-to-date with what is happening in your area of research may take several forms.  Are you interested in having browsing access to the most current volume of a favorite journal or magazine?  Or, would you prefer to receive an email message or RSS feed to newly-published research on a topic of interest?  In similar fashion, would you like to know when your published article is cited by other researchers?  Or, do your enjoy reading blogs and current news from News sites and the popular press?

If any and all of these apply to the information you would like to retrieve and your workflow (more on that question of management, below), note that there are open Web resources and library-licensed tools that can serve this process of keeping current.  A selection of these tools and assists are listed, below, by approach or form.

Table of Contents (your favorite or essential journals)

• Browzine (see our previous post)
• Journal TOCs (free, scholarly journal TOCs)
• Database Alerts (via email or RSS)
• Publisher Websites (some offer free TOCs)

Search and Citation Alerts (your area of research interest or by publication)

• Database Alerts (via email or RSS)
• Google Scholar Alerts (via email with Google Account--either to "My Citations" or to a topic search)
• Google Book Alerts (an option as from the Result Type menu)

Blogs, News Media, Website Updates

• Subscribe to feeds using feed readers or Web browser.

Library Guides, Liaisons and Workshops
You do not need to do this alone.  Speak to your librarians for assistance and customization.  Attend a drop-in workshop or do-it-yourself by reading our Web guides.

• Research Guide to Keeping Current in the Literature
• MyUW, Research Tab (Create a customized, browsing access list of your "Favorite Library E-Resources")

Managing the Information you Retrieve
Campus Libraries provide support for several software products for managing your citations and formatting your reference list.  Evaluate these tools and attend a drop-in workshop to explore their features.  The beauty of these tools is that they can communicate well with library-licensed databases making it relatively easy and efficient to move records from database to manager. 

Have any tips and resources to share?  If so, please reply to this post.

BrowZine

Would you like to follow your favorite research journals using your iPad or Android tablet?  If so, try the BrowZine App today!  When you download the BrowZine application from the App Store or Google Play, you will see a list of schools.  Select UW-Madison then enter your NetID and password.  Once installed, you can create a bookshelf of your favorite journals, browse and read articles, and export citation records to compatible citation management tools. 

While not every journal to which UW-Madison Libraries has access will be available, BrowZine does maintain a relationship with many academic publishers (see the list here).  

Brought to you by UW-Madison Libraries, BrowZine is available to all UW-Madison faculty, staff and students.  Enjoy!

RefWorks Subscription

UW-Madison Libraries will end its subscription to RefWorks on June 30, 2013.  While the Libraries are committed to providing support for citation management tools, a recent assessment of its budget has forced this decision to discontinue campus-wide licensing.  Please see a message from the Libraries’ Interim Director, Ed Van Gemert.

Steenbock and other UW-Madison librarians are available to provide assistance during this coming year to help you to select another citation management tool and to transfer your references from RefWorks.   

In order to assist you in this process, information about transferring records can be found on the pages to Citation Managers.  Information about other citation management tools, to which the Libraries will continue to provide support, can also be found on these same pages.

Look for free, drop-in workshops during this academic year to orient you to alternative tools.  Should the date and time for these particular workshops not work for your schedule, contact Steenbock librarians to schedule individual or small group sessions. 

• View the workshop calendar
• Request instruction from Steenbock staff

 Please send your questions or concerns to Steenbock Library staff at asksteenbock@library.wisc.edu

Get Acquainted; Plan an Orientation

Are you new to campus or do you have new staff or incoming graduate students? If so, you may wish to consult with your Steenbock library liaison to plan an orientation to library collections and services.

Steenbock librarians are happy to meet with new staff and students--be it for an individual consultation, small-group workshop, or as participant in a department welcome event. Complete a request form.

Additionally, library liaisons can provide the following services:

• Assist with library services and policies (e.g., Interlibrary Loan, UW System search and retrieval…etc.),
• Assist with customizing email alerts to keep you informed about new articles matching your topic criteria or with tables of contents to your favorite journals,
• Provide in-depth reference consultations--at our office or yours--(e.g., help with strategy and database choices, work with your citation management product…etc.),
• Supply customized instructional sessions and course Web pages for your students,
• Consult on questions related to publishing your research (e.g., identify target journals, manage copyright, measure research impact, or investigate open-access publishing options).

Watch for our Steenbock Drop-In Workshops and Tours | August/September Tours

Or see the campus-wide libraries’ Workshops/Classes/Tours calendar.

Zotero Development Workshop (April 11)

Do you need to make Zotero work for you? And, as a Zotero user, would you like to contribute to the development community?
If so, campus libraries are sponsoring a Zotero Development Workshop, in several sessions, on Monday, April 11, 2011. (More information about Zotero).

Join Zotero community developer, Avram Lyon, to learn more about Translator Creation, Citation Style Language, the Zotero API, and using Zotero for your own scholarly endeavors.

Session times and locations:

Translator Creation, 10:00 - 11:30 AM
Room 126, Memorial Library

Translators allow Zotero to detect and pull in citation information from web sites, including library catalogs, databases...you name it. The great thing is that if you create a new translator or make changes to an existing one, these updates can be bundled with subsequent Zotero releases to help others with their scholarly endeavors. You can also use the translators you create locally on your computer.

Citation Style Language, 1:00 - 2:30 PM
Room 126, Memorial Library

CSL is an XML language that allows you to create new citation and bibliographic styles. Many of the styles you know and use now within Zotero are created by community developers. If you need one that is not currently present in Zotero's CSL library, you can create your own - and this portion of the workshop will show you how to do that.

Mashups using Zotero's API and Leveraging Zotero for new scholarly endeavors, 3:00 - 4:30 PM
Room 126, Memorial Library

This session will show talk about manipulating parameters to feed various items and collections into other applications like Omeka, Wordpress, Googlereader, or one you create yourself! Some neat possibilities with Zotero include the crowdsourcing of transcription, metadata creation or the cleaning up of "bad" metadata as a group project.

Prerequisites
In order to fully participate in these workshops, we ask that participants are comfortable with HTML.

Registration
Please email Anne (aerauh@engr.wisc.edu) if you plan to attend.

With thanks to Anne R for the content of this blog post.

Graduate Support Series, Spring 2011

UW-Madison campus libraries have teamed to offer a series of free workshops for graduate students. As each workshop is designed to be a "stand-alone" presentation, students can choose to attend any number of them, in any combination.

Please visit the workshop site or view the flyer (PDF) for the listing of workshops in the series. From "Keeping Current with the Literature" to "Using Patents and Technical Reports"--there is something for you.

Do note date, time and library location. Registration is recommended; register with the GSC (Graduate Student Collaborative).

Do you use a Citation Manager? Take the Survey!

UW-Madison Libraries is looking to assess your use of citation management tools (EndNote, Mendeley, RefWorks, Zotero, etc.). Your participation is encouraged and appreciated even if you do not use these tools regularly. The survey should take less than five minutes to complete--and your reply to survey questions will remain anonymous.

The deadline for completing the survey will be November 30, 2010.

Take the survey!

Google Scholar Alerts

For those who enjoy Google Scholar, do note that it now enables you to set an alert--that is, to save a particular search strategy on a topic, specific article, or author and have Google send you an email notification when more articles are added to its database that match your criteria.

It’s as simple as running your search, then clicking the envelope icon "create email alert". If you are interested in "cited by" information for a particular article, run the search for that article, click "Cited by" beneath the search result, then click the envelope icon "create email alert".

• See the Help pages for more information.

Additionally, consider setting your Scholar Preferences to include a link to Find It at UW-Madison and a link to export your records to a preferred Citation Manager (EndNote, RefWorks, etc.) The Find It at UW Madison link will map you to local holdings for particular articles--either in full-text online or as available in print from campus libraries. (When using Google Scholar on-campus, you should see this Find It at UW-Madison link).

If you are using Google Scholar from off-campus, select Scholar Preferences from the Google Scholar search page, and search for the name of your library in the Library Links section (for example, enter UW Madison).

Select boxes for your campus library system and the Open WorldCat Library Search.

Select your preferred Bibliography Manager from the drop menu near the bottom of the Preferences page. Once selected, links will appear with your retrieval to enable you to export citations to that manager.

Click to Save Preferences.

(Do note that selecting a link to a full-text article from off-campus will require you to login with your UW-Madison NetId).

Manage Your References!

Citation Managers are software products that can help you to perform the following tasks:

• Create and organize a personal research database of references gathered from databases.

• Format manuscripts and reference lists instantly in a variety of styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.)

• Share your databases with classmates and colleagues.

In order to decide which product will work the best for you (and you may even find it useful to use more than one), visit the online chart to compare features or consult the flyer, "Which one is right for you?"

The libraries support several products (EndNote, RefWorks & Zotero) and offer free workshops to students and staff. Visit the workshop schedule for November, browse the workshop calendar by topic (look for citation managers) or ask to speak with your librarian consultants.

• EndNote & EndNote Web Consultants
• RefWorks Consultants
• Zotero Consultants

Managing Citations with EndNote

Drop by Steenbock Library for Tuesday's EndNote workshop. The workshop will explain the basic features of this product--how to organize databases and records, import records from MadCat and research literature databases, and format bibliographies. Its Web companion, EndNote Web, will also be featured. (EndNote Web is free to campus users courtesy of UW-Madison Libraries).

Managing Your Citations with EndNote
Tuesday, March 16 (4:30-6:00PM)
Room 105

Should you not be able to attend the March 16 workshop, an additional workshop is scheduled for April 9 (noon-1:15 PM) at Steenbock Library. Check the campus libraries workshops page for more information and dates for all upcoming library workshops.

Managing Citations with RefWorks (Feb 24)

Have you discovered RefWorks?! Use this citation manager to organize a personal database and to format bibliographies with ease.

The drop-in workshop will cover RefWorks’ essentials, including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat and journal databases, and preparing bibliographies. Hands-on practice will be encouraged.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Wednesday, February 24 (3:00-4:15 PM)
Room 105, Steenbock Library

No registration is necessary in order to attend, and all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff.

Should you not be able to attend the February 24 workshop, an additional workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, April 7 (4:30-5:45 PM) at Steenbock Library. Check the campus libraries workshops page for more information and dates for all upcoming library workshops.

EndNote Workshop (Feb 16)

The EndNote workshop will explain its basic features including how to organize databases and records, import records from MadCat and research literature databases, and format bibliographies. Its Web companion, EndNote Web, will also be featured. (EndNote Web is free to campus users courtesy of UW-Madison Libraries).

Managing Your Citations with EndNote
Tuesday, February 16 (1:30-3:00)
Room 105

Should you not be able to attend the February 16 workshop, two additional workshops are scheduled for March 16 (4:30-6:00 PM) and April 9 (noon-1:15 PM) at Steenbock Library.

Check the campus libraries workshops page for more information and dates for all upcoming library workshops.

Citation Managers: Find the Right One for You

Citation Managers are software products that can help you to perform the following tasks:

• Create and organize a personal research database of references gathered from databases.
• Format manuscripts and reference lists instantly in a variety of styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.).
• Share your databases with classmates and colleagues.
• Transfer references, as need be, to similar products--RefWorks, EndNote, EndNote Web, and Zotero.

In order to decide which product will work the best for you (and you may even find it useful to use more than one), visit the online chart to compare features or the flyer, “Which one is right for you?”

Additionally, the libraries will be offering workshops to introduce students and staff to these various products. Visit the online schedule and choose a date that will work for you:

EndNote & EndNote Web Workshops

RefWorks Workshops

Zotero Workshop

Managing Citations with RefWorks (Today, Nov 4)

Have you discovered RefWorks?! Use this citation manager to organize a personal database and to format bibliographies with ease.

The drop-in workshop will cover RefWorks’ essentials, including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat and journal databases, and preparing bibliographies. Hands-on practice will be encouraged.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Wednesday, November 4 (3:00-4:00 PM)
Room 105, Steenbock Library

No registration is necessary in order to attend, and all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff.

Alumni Access to RefWorks

Campus Libraries are pleased to announce that UW-Madison alumni will now have access to RefWorks.

Accessing RefWorks:

If you no longer have an active UW-Madison NetID and password, contact AskRefWorks to obtain the UW-Madison RefWorks Group Code. In order to verify alumni status, you will need to provide your uwalumni e-mail address. Click here to sign up for this free e-mail address.

• Enter the Group Code at the RefWorks Group Code Remote Access login site.

• Click Go to Login.

• Log into your RefWorks account with your log-in name and password.

Updating Your User Status:

In order to help us track the number of alumni participating in this program, please change your RefWorks user status to "alumni".

• Log into your RefWorks account.

• Click Update User Information in the Tools menu.

• Select Alumni in the Type of User drop-down menu.

• Click Update.

Accessing Other Library Resources:

Due to licensing agreements with our resource providers, only currently-enrolled students, faculty and staff are permitted remote access to many library online resources, including online journals, article databases, and the FindIt links in your Refworks account.

Refer to Visitor Information for details regarding on-site and off-campus access to library resources. Consider document delivery services.

Writing Center Assistance

The Writing Center can help you with the mechanics of organizing your thoughts and materials to complete writing assignments for your classes. The center offers several options for individual consultation including email, face to face instruction, and live chat conferencing.

• Face to Face Instruction

• Email Instruction

• Online “Chat” Conferences

The Writing Center office is located in Helen C. White Hall, Room 6171. Drop-by assistance is offered at several campus locations including College and Memorial Libraries and several residence halls (including Lakeshore).

The Writing Center may also have a free class that fits your needs. Click here to view the class list.

(Writing assistance for the community can be obtained from Madison Public Libraries).

Steenbock librarians are happy to help you find information to inform your papers and projects and to assist you with using a citation manager to organize citations to the research literature and to format bibliographies/reference lists. (Citation managers include such products as EndNote and RefWorks). Contact us!

Managing Your Citations with EndNote (Oct 2)

This workshop will explain the basic features of EndNote including organizing databases and records, importing records from MadCat and research literature databases, and formatting bibliographies. Its Web companion, EndNote Web, will also be featured. (EndNote Web is free to campus users courtesy of UW-Madison Libraries).

Managing Your Citations with EndNote
Friday, October 2, (11:30 AM -1:00 PM)
Room 105

Should you not be able to attend the October 2 workshop, two additional workshops are scheduled for October 23 (noon – 1:30 PM) and November 17 (3:00 – 4:30 PM) at Steenbock Library. Check the campus libraries workshops page for more information and dates for all upcoming library workshops.

Managing Citations with RefWorks (Sept 30)

Have you discovered RefWorks?! Use this citation manager to organize a personal database and format bibliographies with ease.

The drop-in workshop will cover RefWorks’ essentials, including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat and journal databases, and preparing bibliographies. Hands-on practice will be encouraged.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Wednesday, September 30 (noon – 1:15 PM)
Room 105, Steenbock Library

No registration is necessary in order to attend, and all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff.

Should you not be able to attend the September workshop, another is scheduled for October 22 (3:00-4:15 PM) at Steenbock Library. Check the campus libraries workshops page for information and dates for all upcoming library workshops.

Citation Managers, Workshops

Citation Managers are software products that can help you to perform the following tasks:

• Create and organize a personal research database of references gathered from databases.

• Format manuscripts and reference lists instantly in a variety of styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.).

• Share your databases with colleagues.

• Transfer references, as need be, to similar products--RefWorks, EndNote, EndNote Web, and Zotero.

In order to decide which product will work well for you (and you may even find it useful to use more than one), visit the online chart to compare features.

Steenbock Library will host two workshops in July for learning more about RefWorks and EndNote.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Wednesday, July 8 (3:00-4:30), Room 105

Managing Your Citations with EndNote/EndNote Web
Thursday, July 9 (3:00-4:30), Room 105

If you are not able to join us for a workshop at Steenbock, visit the online schedules to find another workshop date that will work for you:

EndNote & EndNote Web Workshops

RefWorks Workshops