What's New at the Biology Library

Fall Semester Welcome

Welcome to fall semester on campus. We hope that you had a good summer. As with most summers, it went all too fast. And as with most summers, we have been busy with new changes, a summary of which will follow:

New form for Biology Library instruction requests
We now have a new request form for Biology Library instruction session requests. The form will help provide a mechanism to make sure that we get all the details we need to know how to best serve the instruction needs of the requester. This form < http://webtools.uiuc.edu/formBuilder/NonSecureForm?id=1406217> can be accessed from the homepage under Library Services via Instruction Request Form. There is also a link from the Services page in the Library Instruction section, which also has a link from the homepage under Library Services via Instruction Information. Information about Biology Library instruction opportunities can be found on our Services Web, as well as the form.

Some of the things that you may be interested in requesting through this form are:

Tours of the Biology Library
Sessions on library use and services (Online Library Catalog, how to locate library materials, borrowing, interlibrary loan, etc.)
Workshops on how to use particular databases, how to set up current awareness services to keep up-to-date on the literature, etc.
Course, project, or research related library instruction sessions
Assistance with research assignment development
Creation of handouts, guides, Web pages, Web tutorials, and other library research or subject related information tools

Library Introduction Quickies
The Biology Library will be presenting quick (twenty minutes), basic introduction to the various nooks and crannies of our Biology Library Web page, the Online Library Catalog, and the Library Online Research Web page as well as the UIUC Library system in general. After attending a session, individuals will have a beginning understanding of our UIUC Library system and what tools are used to locate materials. More in depth sessions will be held later in the semester. (I’ll be talking pretty fast!). Sessions will take place Monday, August 29 thru Thursday, September 1 every half hour from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon and 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm in 164E Burrill Hall, PC Lab (southeast corner, first floor hall). No registration required.

Biology Library Shelving Update
As you may recall from our spring announcement http://www.library.uiuc.edu/bix/whatsnew.htm#3/17/05 , we are undergoing a massive shelving shift in our stacks, and even the print cubicles did not escape.   There has been a bit of change in regards to where the lesser used print titles are shelved. Some of the lesser used print titles have their new unbound issues actually shelved with the bound volumes for that title, so if they are not in the cubicle area, try the looking for it with its bound volumes.

"Q" books (quartos) have been removed from the regular shelves where they were interspersed with regular title, and most are now shelved on the top floor, toward the back of the middle section. "F" books (folios) are shelved separately in call number order with most being on the middle floor of the stacks, next to the Cage for the closed stacks collection (SW section of floor). There are a few that are in The Cage.

For the most part, the shelf range signs are up-to-date on the second and third floors of the stacks. If you see something not in order, let us know. The top floor in the stacks is still a work in progress so some areas may still not have accurate range signs until the shift is complete in a few weeks. We are happy to provide assistance to anyone needing help to maneuver our maze.

All changes will be incorporated into our guide, Locating Materials in the Biology Library http://www.library.uiuc.edu/bix/locate.htm , as details solidify..

New Library Titles List
You can now browse the Library’s recently catalogued titles (not journals, magazines, or electronic resources) by library, call number range, or a combination thereof within a selected time frame and sorted by call number, author name, or item title. You can create a RSS Feed , and add it to your RSS Reader for automatic alerts based on the criteria selected. A HTML link can be created for automatic alerts based on the selected criteria and put in a Web page or bookmark it. Access “New Titles @ The University Library” through the directly at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/newtitles/ ; or the Library Gateway (under Research tab) at http://www.library.uiuc.edu; and via the Online Library Catalog at http://www.library.uiuc.edu . “FAQ’s” and “Descriptions and Examples” provided. Enjoy!

Ovid Interface Updated
On July 5, after over eight years, Ovid launched a new enhanced interface. This will affect all databases we get through Ovid, such as Current Contents, EBM Reviews (Cochrane, etc.), and Ovid MEDLINE (not MEDLINE via PubMed). We are in the process of updating our Current Contents handout.

In a nutshell, most of the enhancements seem to be esthetic more than functional in nature. The appearance of the interface is more contemporary. There are no more icons.   These have been exchanged for tabs and buttons. Functions continue to be the same for the most part. For instance, the Search History continues to be on the search page and manipulated as before.
There are a couple of new features you won’t want to miss though. Each search result has a Find Citing Article link that provides access to Journals@Ovid articles that are cited in the article.   Additionally, there is a Find Citation tab with the search tabs. This extremely handy feature is similar to Single Citation Matcher in PubMed and will be an especially welcome tool for users looking for several citations at a time.

The auto alerts will not be affected. For those of you who are interested in creating auto alerts in Current Contents, be sure to see out instructions for doing so at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/bix/SDIcurrcon.htm . It is a little convoluted to do so but is possible! It does require being registered with the state consortium the Library belongs to, which may take up to a week.

Coming Attractions:
The Biology Library will soon have its own news blog named “BioBlog.” News categories will be Biology Library Instruction, Biology Library Services, Collections Update, Database Update, and Resource of the Week which will be automatically archived. Additional links will be made to our Biology Library Daily Journals List, New Biology Library Books, UIUC Library News Items. More on this as the project develops.

The Biology Library is nearly finished updating our many, varied, and indispensable general and subject print and electronic guides. New database details and new research titles are just some of the many things that are being addressed. Will announce when this project is completed.

A new campus Library Toolbar is under development. More when it becomes available.

For more information about these and other Library matters, please feel free to contact me.

Melody Allison
Assistant Biology Librarian and Assistant Professor of Library Administration
Biology Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
101 Burrill Hall, 407 South Goodwin
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 333-7461; 3654

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Ovid has updated its database platform (it's been over ten years since there has been a major design change). Ovid users will be pleased with the new more conventional, intuitive interface design. The Library subscribes to several databases that use the Ovid platform -- databases of interest to SOLS patrons include Current Contents and Ovid MEDLINE. Current Ovid auto alerts that are in place should not be affected.

The Biology Library is in the process of updating our Guide to Current Contents and will send the guide URL when the guide is completed. In the meantime Here is a link to the Ovid Web Gateway User Manual for version 10.0.0 (355 pages) <http://www.ovid.com/site/docs/owg_uman.doc>.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

Katie

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Prof. Katie Clark, Plant Biology Ph. D.
Biotechnology Librarian,
Biotechnology Information Center
123A Burrill Hall, MC-112
Email: florador@uiuc.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386 Fax: (217) 333-3662
BIC website: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/
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Have you been thinking about publishing in an open access journal?

Recently the Library joined BioMed Central, one of the largest publishers of Open Access journals. (These are peer-reviewed journals that publish articles electronically on the web for all to read without cost to the reader). With our membership in BMC, you may now publish in one of the rigorously peer-reviewed BMC journals without incurring any page costs!

You might be interested in learning that ISI (Web of Science) is starting to index some of the BMC journals; and of course PubMed has been for some time.

If you're curious to see a list of articles published by our colleagues at UIUC in BMC journals, click here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/11700
or to see a list of the BMC titles, click here:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/results.php?interface=13
or here
http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/gateway/

Along with our membership in BMC, we also purchased access rights to Faculty of 1000. Use this to find "significant" recently published papers in your field. Thousands of articles published each year, and it's easy to miss a really important one. F1000's experts point out the significance of the really "hot" papers in your field that you might have otherwise overlooked. F1000 is primarily for those engaged in biomedical research, in the broadest sense. Ecological research has recently been added, too.

Access F1000 via the Online Research Resources URL <http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/>
Note: you'll want to "register" the first time you use F1000, so you can personalize it to focus on your subject interests. This will also allow you to set up an email alert, which will regularly list the hot papers in your area.

Katie

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Prof. Katie Clark, Plant Biology Ph. D.
Biotechnology Librarian,
Biotechnology Information Center
123A Burrill Hall, MC-112
Email: florador@uiuc.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386 Fax: (217) 333-3662
BIC website: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/
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PubMed's Cubby is being deactivated (anticipated January 28), and replaced with My NCBI (anticipated February 1) which allows you to save searches, including automatic e-mail updates, and create filters with links to outside resources. For more details see the NLM Technical Bulletin, January-February 2005 issue, at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/jf05/jf05_myncbi.html

We are pleased to announce that New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) now has campus wide access available, as with most of our other electronic journal subscriptions. [Prior to this there were just 5 IP addresses where NEJM could be accessed - Biology Library Reference Desk being one of those.]

You can access NEJM via the Biology Library Electronic Journals list link in the upper part of our homepage at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/bix [ http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/results.php?pg=14 ] ; or from the Online Research Resources (ORR) page at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/ [which has a link from our homepage, as well as from the the Library Gateway at http://www.library.uiuc.edu ]. Searching the title in the Journals & Newspapers or the All sections should get it.

I have just accessed NEJM and pdfs from it on two computers fluently. Please let us know should there be any problems.

The beginning of the new school year is almost here, and the Biology Library would like to invite you to look over the services < http://www.library.uiuc.edu/bix/services.htm > we provide, which may be of assistance to you in our mutual goal to enhance learning and scholarship through the use of our many and varied Library resources. For instance, we:

I would like to point out some new Biology Library Web pages that have been created in recent months which will be useful to orient students and faculty to our Library resources, all accessible through our homepage < http://www.library.edu/bix >.

Please let me know if you have any additions to any of our new guides that you would like to see. Please also let me know if you find any of these initiatives particularly useful, or ones that would be. This helps me know what activities to focus on that will most benefit you. If you need assistance concerning Library resources, as always, the Biology Library is at your service

	Date	Message Title
	8/25/05	Fall Semester Welcome
	7/29/05	GenBank and NCBI Molecular Resources Workshops
	7/8/05	Announcing New Ovid Platform
	6/30/05	Free personal print Cell Subscriptions from Cell Press for interested UIUC Faculty and Students!
	4/14/05	UIUC Library Joins BioMEd Central, and also now has Faculty of 1000 Access
	4/8/05	New Biomedical Resources, including backfiles to Methods in Enzymology!
	3/17/05	Biology Library Stacks Rearrangement
	1/19/05	Replacement of PubMed Cubby with My NCBI
	8/13/04	New England Journal of Medicine
	8/10/04	Biology Library - At Your Service
	8/10/04	Summer Database Updates
	12/11/03	Lost? Take our New Virtual Library Tour!

UIUC Biotechnology Information Center http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/ Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center http://www.biotech.uiuc.edu/ Katie

UIUC Biotechnology Information Center
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/
Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center
http://www.biotech.uiuc.edu/

Katie