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March 27, 2007
Proposed: Federal Digital Data Respository
The March 22nd issue of Nature is reporting that an interdepartmental government group, the Interagency Working Group on Digital Data (IWGDD) has recommended that the government set up a freely accessible repository for the massive quantities of data that are generated by research sponsored by many government agencies. Currently such a repository exists for gene and protein data -- Genbank -- and for astronomers. But this proposal, which it is felt WILL HAPPEN, has a much broader reach. The IWGDD represents 22 agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, and other government branches including the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
A draft strategic plan for this proposal will be drawn up by the Fall of 2007. According to the Nature article,
The group’s first step is to set up a robust public infrastructure so all researchers have a permanent home for their data. One option is to create a national network of online data repositories, funded by the government and staffed by dedicated computing and archiving professionals. It would extend to all communities a model similar to the Arabidopsis Information Resource, in which 20 staff serve 13,000 registered users and 5,000 labs. The IWGDD is considering making submission of well-documented data sets to archives a requirement of getting a grant.
Posted by florador at 12:01 PM
March 22, 2007
NCBI Courses Offered at the U of I: April 4-5
Reminder:
The University of Illinois Biotechnology Information Center, a virtual branch of the U of I Library, and the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center are hosting the presentation of two NCBI mini-courses and an in-depth course on using the NCBI structure analysis tools. The three courses being offered are:
* Mini-course #6, EntrezGene Quick Start - April 4th, morning
* Mini-course #11, Microbial Genomes Quick Start - April 4th, afternoon
* Exploring 3D Molecular Structures Using NCBI Tools - April 5th, ~all day
The two mini-courses will be offered on Wednesday, April 4th; they are each 2.5 hours long. The structure course will be offered on Thursday, April 5th, and is 5 hours long.
To learn more about the courses and to register, please follow this link:
< http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/NCBI_Spring_2007.htm >
Katie
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Prof. Katie Newman
Biotechnology Librarian, Biotechnology Information Center (BIC),
Acting Biology Librarian, and
UIUC Scholarly Communication Officer
Office: 123A Burrill Hall, MC-112
Email: florador@uiuc.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386
Fax: (217) 333-3662
Biotech Info Center (BIC) website:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/
BIC News: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/bicnews/
Posted by mmalliso at 3:17 PM
March 7, 2007
Trials: Nature Protocols; Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
We have trials running until the end of March, 2007, for two new, important sets of peer-reviewed protocols, one from the Nature Publishing Group and the other from Cold Spring Harbor Press. Both sets of protocols cover a wide range of fields within molecular and cell biology, from bioinformatics and computational biology to basic microscopy and electrophoresis.
We do not yet have pricing information for them.
Please give them a side by side test drive, and send me your impressions and critiques. If we are only able to afford to purchase a subscription to one of these, which would you recommend? Please send comments to: florador@uiuc.edu
Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=598310
FAQ: http://www.cshprotocols.org/misc/faqlist.dtl
Nature Protocols
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=545072
FAQ: http://www.natureprotocols.com/about.php
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Note: we currently have subscriptions to Wiley's Current Protocols series, including Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Current Protocols in Immunology, Current Protocols in Bioinformatics, etc. For a list, see:
http://tinyurl.com/278luk
Posted by florador at 10:57 AM