Library News for Science

Library Services is running the following online tutorials for OU students and staff in October:

Student introduction to Library Services: 3rd October, 10am; 10th October, 10am; 12th October, 12:30pm

How to find an ebook: 27th October, 12pm

How to find an ejournal: 7th October, 10am

How to set up ejournal alerts: 3rd October, 10am; 20th October, 1pm

Introduction to bibliographic management: 30th October, 11:30am

Finding information in Psychology: 23rd October, 3pm

Please register for these online sessions by going to the Library Information Literacy Area  of the VLE.  On this website you will also find the learning outcomes for these sessions, a link to training on the interface and you will be able to check if you have the right software to access Elluminate.

The library running the following online tutorials for OU students and staff in September:
 1.  Introduction to Library Services for ALs: 14th September 2pm
 2.  How to use RefWorks: 17th September 2pm
 3.  Finding information in Psychology: 30th September 3pm
Please register for these online sessions by going to the Library Information Literacy webssite.  On this website you will also find the learning outcomes for these sessions, a link to training on the interface and you will be able to check if you have the right software to access Elluminate Live!

If you want to see what the latest books we have bought into the library, you can take a look at the new books page.
There are categories for Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Physics, Planetary science and Psychology, Research methods and Science.

You can watch footage of the Apollo 11 mission on British Pathe, explore the eBook A Dictionary of Space Exploration, or other eBooks on Space using the ebook search page.
Why not try the planetary science subject pages of the library website for more resources, or look at ScreenOnline for clips of television sci-fi programmes including The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf.

This article from The Scientist covers how greater interaction between Faculty members and the Science Librarians can aid your research.

Libraries 2.0: Secrets from Science Librarians that can save you hours of work.

If you would like to talk to one of us from the Science Team working in the Librar, either individually or to invite us to one of your meetings, then contact Judy Thomas (j.m.thomas) to arrange this.

Images from the Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge are now available online as part of JISC’s digitisation programme. These digitised images include photos taken at both the Artic and Antarctic and 1845 & 1982 and each record includes detailed catalogue entries giving all the information about the photo. They are available from the Freeze Frame site.

How do you use information on the move?You are invited to take part in a survey intended to establish how the majority of Open University students and staff access, or would like to access, information away from your desk or laptop. The survey questions are primarily about how you use your mobile phone, smartphone or PDA to look up, use or interact with information.

This survey is being conducted by Keren Mills, who is a member of staff at the Open University, but this research is being undertaken in partnership with Cambridge University as part of the Arcadia project. Staff and students at Cambridge University will be receiving the same survey.

You could win £30 in book vouchers or Amazon vouchers by entering the prize draw.  The survey will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and it will be available until 27 March 2009.

We have just set up access to a selection of electronic resources for retired staff. When staff retire they will be automatically given the permissions to access these resoruces – staff who have previously retired will need to contact the Retired Staff Association to have their access set up. Science resources that are included in this scheme include:

• GeoScience World
• Royal Society of Chemistry Journals
•  SpringerLink

This is a service we are developing so more resources will be added to this list as the licences are negotiated.

We are running the following online tutorials in February, March and April:

• Student Introduction to Library Services: 4th February 11am-12pm, 5th March 3-4pm and 3rd April 10-11am
• AL (tutor) Introduction to Library Services: 12th February 3-4pm
• How to Set Up eJournal Alerts: 17th February 10-11am
• How to Find an eJournal: 25th February 10:30-11:30am
• Finding Information in Languages: 13th March 3-4pm
• Finding Information in Business & Management: 21st April 10:30-11:30am 
• How to Social Bookmark: 23rd March 2-3pm

Please register for these sessions by going to the Library Information Literacy Area of the VLE.  On this website you will also find the learning outcomes for these sessions, a link to training on the interface and you will be able to check if you have the right software to access Elluminate Live!.

Edina are coming to the OU to run a training session on Mastermap in the Information Literacy Suite in the Library on the 25th February 2009. The session is described as:

This event will cover the use of OS MasterMap data within the EDINA Digimap service. Onward use of the data will also be considered. As of 2 September, Land-Line Plus data has been removed from the EDINA Digimap service and completely replaced with OS MasterMap data.

Go to the Edina website to sign up for this event and for more details