BioBlog: New Resource Archives

March 4, 2010

Journal of Visualized Experiments

I've had several people ask me about the Journal of Visualized
Experiments. We subscribed to it last year, so we do have access to all the articles. However, if you go directly to the jove.com URL the site does not seem to recognize your IP address as belonging to a subscriber. If you go through the library's proxy server instead, it should work. To do that, bookmark this link instead of going directly to JoVE:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=708996.

It's always a good idea to use the library's link rather than going directly to a publisher's web site. To do this, go to the Online Research Resources page at http://www.library.illinois.edu/orr/ and search for your journal.

Please let me know if you continue to have problems with JoVE or any other journal.

Diane Schmidt

Posted by dcschmid at 12:18 PM

June 10, 2009

Trial subscription to AMA Manual of Style Online

The Library has a trial subscription to the new AMA Manual of Style Online (10th edition), the Manual’s first online edition. The Manual is a product of Oxford University Press and JAMA and the Archives Journals Click to trial subscription here.

Please let us know if you find this resource useful so we know whether to advocate for a full subscription to this resource.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

Posted by mmalliso at 4:15 PM

January 23, 2009

Biology Library Notes: Spring 2009 update

The Biology Librarhttp://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/mt-static/images/formatting-icons/email.gify hopes your Winter Break was safe and warm, despite the frigid Arctic blast. We have a number of new resources and resource updates that will make your spring semester warmer despite what the weather brings us outside!
____________________________________________________________________________
VuFind (beta version)
VuFind is a ‘next generation’ catalog interface being beta tested for our University of Illinois online library catalog and the I-Share catalog for Illinois academic libraries. Links are provided both from the University Library Gateway and the Biology Library hompage. VuFind has a number of features not currently available in these current catalogs. VuFind is not taking the place of current catalogs, but providing another search option allowing use of advanced features such as facet searching (subject, title, topic, language, format, and more), automatic search history creation where previous searches can be repeated easily by clicking on search query link, one-time entering of Library ID# and other details for requests once your personal “MyAccount” is created, user-added comments and tagging, and much more. Caveats: The current beta version does not search course, reserves, allow call number searching, have departmental library limits, or have direct export to RefWorks. The University Library’s Next Generation Catalog Working Group is interested in your feedback. Click Tell us what you think about VuFind at the top of the VuFind page just under the header to let them know what you like, what you don’t like, and what you would like to see. [Note: the Feedback link at the bottom of the page sends your comments to the state library consortium, CARLI , so please use the afore-mentioned link to our Library working group -- or send comments to both! ] For more information, see VuFind Catalog Interface and VuFind Frequently Asked Questions.

Biology Library Resources Module
The “Biology Library Resources Module” is a portal created for quick access to Library resources and services students and faculty need for their research and scholarly work. This portal can be used for courses. It can be linked to from course homepages and Illinois Compass courseware. The module can be adapted to specific course and other needs. Just contact Melody Allison, Assistant Biology Librarian, who will be happy to work with you, including provision of librarian assistance to students in Compass courseware (mmalliso@illinois.edu or 333-7461). (See also entry Biology Library Guides)

Electronic Books for Life Sciences
There are a growing number of electronic books (e-books) available to UIUC Library patrons. The LigGuide “Electronic Books for Life Sciences” presents electronic books in life sciences areas that are available through the University Library. This guide explains how to find Library electronic books and provides access to selected titles and packages with life sciences titles.

Biology Library Guides
Biology Library has number of guides available to support your curricular and research needs. Whether you need help using our major life sciences article databases, finding library resources, or identifying major reference and other materials in various life sciences subject areas, we have a wide assortment of guides to meet your needs. These guides can be linked to from course pages or I-Compass pages. A number of our guides have been updated to digital LibGuide versions making them even easier to access and use, and more are being planned. The following are examples of just a few of the ones available to help you get the most out of our Library resources:

• Guide to the Campus Resources for New SOLS Faculty and Guide to Campus Resources for Students are good ways for the new student or faculty member to get acquainted with library resources and services as well as for the established students and faculty to see what currently is happening in our ever-changing environment.
• Resources for Biologists guide contains links to selected career and work resources useful for the new and the experienced biologist. Find here information about presentations and teaching, research, writing and publishing, school rankings, grants and funding, safety, ethics and standards, math and statistics used in life sciences, social networks for researchers and academics, biology games, and more!
• Journal Resources page links you to information about Library print and electronic journals, journal abbreviations tools, journals lists and thesauri for the major life sciences databases, citation format resources, citation management tools, journal email alerts, and other information.
• Research Resources page links you to UIUC and other sources related to research responsibilities, such as academic integrity, copyright, ethics, plagiarism, research process, and the tools and resources to accomplish them, such as resources for citation format styles, citation management tools, the NIH Funded Research Policy, and Writing Labs.
• Tips for Searching Article Databases shows how to construct effective search strategies.
(See also previous entries "Electronic Books for Life Sciences" and "Biology Library Resources Module").

Instructional Services
A wealth of library resources are available for student and faculty curricular and research needs. Keeping up with new resources as well as changes in established resources features and functions can be a formidable challenge. Let us help you save time and effort in this endeavor with our many and varied instructional services. We can help make sure that your students are using the best resources for their course and research information. We can also help keep you up-to-date with new resources and new features of established resources. We can provide 1:1 consultations or office calls for faculty and class sessions and 1:1 consultations for your students. For more details, see Biology Library Instructional Services.

Librarian "Office Calls" for Faculty
Are there occasions when you would like to learn more about your favorite database, but just haven’t had the time to grapple with all the new nuances? Or maybe you would like to move out of your comfort zone and get acquainted with a bibliographic database that you are not familiar with? Or perhaps you want to begin to use a research tool, like RefWorks, that is new to you? Just contact Melody Allison, Assistant Biology Librarian, at mmalliso@illinois.edu or 333-7461.

Illinois LibX Toolbar
THE Library has updated to a new tool bar product, called LibX Toolbar. LibX Toolbar has all the features of the previous I-GO toolbar plus much more. Available for both Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox browsers, it provides quick access to several often used electronic Library and campus resources right at your fingertips. No more typing in URLs, treading through bookmark directories and content, or trying to locate that ‘convenient’ place you put URLs which made sense at the time you placed them there but now cannot be located. The Toolbar takes you to all of the following:
• Department library Web sites
• Online Library Catalog
• Online Research Resources Web site
• Campus phone book
• Google searching
• Course reserves
• Interlibrary loan
• My Library Account
• Online Reference Collection
• RefWorks
• UIUC Express Mail
• NetFiles
• Illinois Compass
• Automatic linking -- inserts I-Mark link for our Online Library catalog from sites suchs as Amazon and Google
• Drag and drop searching of highlighted terms from Web documents into LibX Toolbar 'Search'
• Drag and drop citations onto LibX Toolbar 'Scholar' button to find citations in GoogleScholar
• and more !!
For more information, including download, see http://www.library.uiuc.edu/toolbar
____________________________________________________________________________

Please let us know if you have any questions about these updates, or suggestions for our guides or Web site.

Posted by mmalliso at 2:33 PM

November 26, 2008

New Web of Science tool -- Scientific WebPlus

Thomson Scientific's Web Citation Index has morphed into Scientific WebPlus. A component of ISI Web of Knowledge (WOK) (inc. Science Citation Index), Scientific WebPlus now includes in its results data from 716 institutional repositories (theses, technical reports, dissertations, manuscripts, and more), including our own IDEALS, Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship repository.

You may search Scientific WebPlus directly via links to it on the Select a Database or Additional Resources pages. Results are filtered by domain (.com, .org, .edu, .gov, .au, and other). Links for Repository Results, News Results, and Blog Results are provided along with search results. For example, searching the term "Drosophila mauritiana" reveals 11 repository results from 7 institutions, including results from IDEALS.

Most links go directly to the deposits full text. If you know the name of the institutional repository you can also search the repository name and find a link directly to its Web site. For instance, searching the term "Ideals" finds IDEALS @ UIUC, the IDEALS homepage.

Additionally Scientific WebPlus results are integrated into every WOK search. Besides the general results list, you can locate Scientific WebPlus results from each results page next on the right page side in the same "Results" heading line via "Scientific WebPlus View Web Results" link.

Scientific WebPlus provides access to Web content that has been "fully vetted, adhering to high standards for scientific integrity, accuracy, timeliness, and readability" (Thomson Reuters, Your Access to Institutional Repository Data is About to Change, 2008). This will make your search for relevant Web sources a whole lot faster and productive.

Check out the IDEALS site for information on how you can deposit your research and scholarship into our repository, which then can be found by Web of Science and Scientific WebPlus searchers!

Posted by mmalliso at 1:38 PM

September 12, 2008

New Biology Library Web site coming soon!

The Biology Library is very pleased to announce that in the next few weeks we will be transitioning our Web site to the University Library’s Content Management System (CMS) platform. The CMS provides more versatility in how our Web site content is organized and navigated. We think you will find this new Biology Library Web site a welcome change! For more information about Biology Library resources, resource instruction, and other services go to the Biology Library Web site , or contact us at 333-3654 or biolib@illinois.edu.

Biology Library Guides converted to LibGuides

The Biology Library subject guides are being changed from a pdf format to a Web 2.0 content management and information sharing system called LibGuides. LibGuides allows the content to be organized in many different ways utilizing tabular structure, modules, and other editorial features to provide a very usable frame to hang our content on. Additionally there are many Web 2.0 opportunities to take advantage of such as integration of the guides into Web sites, blogs, courseware systems, Facebook, Twitter, and Del.icio.us and more. Most subject guides are converted but there are still a few to go, and other guides are being considered for conversion. Check out our newly converted subject guides. If you have an interest in any of these possibilities for using our LibGuides, just let us know.

Easy Search now has Life Sciences subset.

The University Easy Search search tool is proving to be a very popular destination to locate information from Library resources as well as resources outside the Library. The default Easy Search searches multi-topic article databases, the Library Online Library Catalog, the state I-Share Library Catalog, our Springer E-Books subscription, Google books, Amazon books, Google, MS Live Web, Google Scholar, and Scirus Academic Web Search – all at once!

The new Life Sciences subset searches the subject article databases Biological Abstracts, MEDLINE (via Web of Knowledge), CAB Abstracts, Food & Technology Abstracts, Zoological Abstracts, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management, Academic Search Elite (EBSCO), Web of Science, Scopus, and Academic OneFile (InfoTrac) plus the same catalogs and Web sites as the default search.

There is also a Health Sciences subset that searches MEDLINE (via Web of Knowledge), Biological Abstracts, PsycInfo, Toxicology Abstracts, Health and Safety Science Abstracts, Physical Education Index, Social Services Abstracts, AgeLine, Alt HealthWatch, CINAHL Nursing Literature, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, Scopus, and Academic Search Elite (EBSCO) plus the same catalogs and Web sites as the default search.

Caveat: Searching multiple databases at once (federated searches) cannot take advantage of many of the individual database’s features such as subject or field searching – yet – so to best take advantage of these sophisticated options, direct searches in the individual database is still the place to do this. Easy Search is available from the University Library homepage or the Easy Search homepage .

NIH Funded Research Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy requires that "all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law." (See the NIH Public Access Web site for an overview of this policy, how to comply, and other details.) The Library can assist you with copyright issues and the article submission process as well as depositing your manuscript in Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS) , the institutional repository for the research and scholarship of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. See the University Library’s NIH Public Access Mandate information and Guide to the NIH Public Access Mandate for details. For continuing developments in scholarly communication issues, be sure to check out to the University Library's Scholarly Communication Blog or subscribe to its RSS feed.

Posted by mmalliso at 1:43 PM

September 11, 2008

Springer Protocols trial

Hi everybody --

Until October 31st, the University will have TRIAL access to a relatively new resource, Springer Protocols.

The publisher, Springer, recently acquired Humana Press, so this resource includes protocols from Humana’s book series Methods in Molecular Biology, Methods in Molecular Medicine, Methods in Biotechnology, Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Neuromethods. It also includes protocols from a number of Laboratory Handbooks, such as The Biomethods Handbook, The Proteomics Handbook, and the Springer Laboratory Manuals .

Please give this product a spin, and let me (or your departmental librarian) know what you think of it's usefulness.
Search by discipline:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/results.php?titlesearch=springer*+protocols*&tstype=K&types =
or
Search the whole set:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=946001

You might want to compare Springer Protocols with several other "Protocols" that we currently have:
Wiley's Current Protocols in.. series.
Nature Protocols
Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

Thanks!

~ Katie
--<- @ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@
Prof. Katie Newman
Biotechnology Librarian,
and U of Illinois Library Scholarly Communication Officer

Office: 2130 IGB (Inst. for Genomic Biology)
Email: florador@illinois.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386
FAX: (217)-244-1800

Biotechnology Information Center (BIC) website:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/biotech/
BIC News: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/bicnews/

Scholarly Communication (SC) website:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/scholcomm/index.htm
SC News: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/

Posted by mmalliso at 9:09 AM

July 15, 2008

New UIUC Support Site about the NIH Public Access Mandate

The Library has a new guide about the NIH Public Access Mandate to assist University of Illinois authors comply. It includes information about copyright and grant considerations, submitting papers for publication, how the Library can assist you, and more. For more information contact:

Katie Newman
Biotechnology Librarian and Scholarly Communication Officer
florador@uiuc.edu
217-265-5386

Sarah Shreeves
IDEALS Coordinator
sshreeve@uiuc.edu
217-244-3877

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

Posted by mmalliso at 2:18 PM

April 8, 2008

The University of Illinois is Now a Member of BioMed Central

The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana is now a Supporting Member of the open access publisher, BioMed Central.

What this means is that when you submit a journal article for publication in one of nearly 200 BMC titles, you will receive a 15% discount off the article processing charge!

Here's a list of the BMC titles:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/browse/journals/.
This discount also applies to articles submitted to Chemistry Central
http://www.chemistrycentral.com/ and to PhysMath Central http://www.physmathcentral.com/.

Here's a list of the article processing charges for the various BMC journals (before discount):
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/apcfaq
For most of the journals, the fee is $1690, but may be as high as $2685 or as low as $500. A few are even free.

Many of the BMC journals have already earned quite respectable Impact Factors. See:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/faq?name=impactfactor
e.g., Genome Biology (7.17); BMC Bioinformatics (3.62); BMC Biology (4.43); BMC Evolutionary Biology (4.46)

Why should you consider publishing in a BMC journal?
First of all, know that all research submitted will receive rigorous and rapid peer review. If the article is accepted:

It will be accessible to anyone with an Internet connection - open access means no subscriptions or 'pay-per-view' charges for original research articles.
It is more likely to be cited, as it will be freely available to the entire global biological and medical community
It will be listed in PubMed within days of publication
You retain the copyright of your work
You will be able to view your article's access statistics, which average over 200 downloads per month per article
Your articles will be securely and permanently archived in PubMed Central

Papers published by our colleagues:
The University of Illinois' "homepage" lists papers that were published in BMC jouranls by U of I authors in the last year -- at this point 30 research articles, software, protocols, etc:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/11700
For your interest, here's the U of I-Chicago's home page:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/48900

Submitting a paper:
If you are on campus within our recognized IP range when submitting a manuscript you will be identified as belonging to a member institution and automatically granted a 15% discount on article processing charges If you are at home or at an external terminal when submitting your paper, you can still claim this discount by stating that you are a affiliated with the U of I. Papers may be submitted either via a journal home page or via http://www.biomedcentral.com/manuscript/.

Posted by florador at 4:05 PM

January 30, 2008

New Field Guide Resource

Hello everyone,

You may remember that a year or so ago I sent out a message saying that I
was working on a database listing field guides from around the world. I'm
pleased to report that the U of I News Bureau just sent out a news item on
the database. If you need or use field guides please take a look, and as
always send suggestions for guides to add!

Diane Schmidt
Biology Librarian

Today's News From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jan. 29, 2008

U. OF I. LIBRARIAN LAUNCHES COMPREHENSIVE WEB DATABASE OF FIELD GUIDES
Diane Schmidt, the biology librarian at the U. of I. has built and
launched the most complete database of field guides to date. The
International Field Guides Web Site merges Schmidt’s own book, “A
Guide to Field Guides: Identifying the Natural History of North
America” (Libraries Unlimited, 1999), and its companion Web site,
International Field Guides, plus 2,000 new titles.
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0129fieldguides.html

Visit the News Bureau for more news.

Posted by mmalliso at 5:03 PM

November 16, 2007

Firefox Plugin for PubMed Users at the U of Illinois

If you're a bio researcher who uses the Firefox browser and PubMed, you'll want to read this!

Leslie McNeil, the NCSA researcher who manages the National Microbial Pathogen Data Resource (NMPDR), has created a Firefox plugin for U of I researchers who frequently search PubMed!

About Firefox Plugins:
Are you used to searching Google by typing in queries in the top right-hand side of the Firefox toolbar? Did you know that you can add additional search options so you can choose to search Wikipedia, Google Scholar, the U of I domain, or many other search sites, instead? All you need to do is add additional FireFox plugins.

You'll find many additional Firefox plugins from the following sources:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:4
http://mycroft.mozdev.org/
http://www.searchplugins.net/pluginlist.aspx

To load them into Firefox, all you have to do is click on the plugin's link .

About the Firefox PubMed plugin for U of I Researchers:
Leslie McNeil has created a customized a PubMed FireFox plugin for the U of Illinois researchers. Install it from this site by clicking on the "I":
http://www.searchplugins.net/pluginlist.aspx?q=PubMed+for+University+of+Illinois&mode=exactAfter installing the plugin, click on the Firefox drop down box where you normally would type in a Google search. Choose to search PubMed instead of Google and type in your PubMed search. You'll be brought to the PubMed site with all the usual University of Illinois subscriptions and options** intact -- that is, you'll see which articles we have direct e-access to, and you'll see the UI Discover button that lets you discover other options for obtaining the articles. Leslie has also embedded the proxy URL into the plugin, so you can load it on your home computers and still be able to access the full text journals from PubMed citations.

Give it a try! I think you'll agree it's handy!

**That is, you'll go to the same PubMed search as if you started with this URL:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/get.php?instid=406312

----
Note: this message has been archived on the Biotech Info Center blog:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/bicnews/

Katie
--<- @ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@
Prof. Katie Newman
Biotechnology Librarian, Biotechnology Information Center (BIC),
and UIUC Scholarly Communication Officer

Office: 123A Burrill Hall, MC-112
Email: florador@uiuc.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386
Fax: (217) 333-3662

Posted by mmalliso at 11:16 AM

May 15, 2007

Senate Endorses the CIC Provosts' Statement on Publication Agreements

On April 30th, 2007, the U of Illinois Faculty Senate endorsed the CIC Provosts' Statement on Publication Agreements. This statement urges faculty to retain some of their copyrights when submitting papers for publication in order to maximize the scholarly impact, accessibility, educational use, and readership of their papers. To facilitate this, U of Illinois authors are urged to consider amending the standard publisher's Copyright Transfer Agreement with the Addendum to Publication Agreement for CIC Authors (Word doc).

The Addendum stipulates that the authors will be able to make their papers freely available on the Internet within 6 months of publication, thus granting publishers the right of first impact. U of Illinois authors are urged to submit a copy of their paper to IDEALS -- the U of Illinois digital archive -- with the stipulation that it be made freely available after 6 months. Of course, some publishers already allow authors to mount their articles on institutional web sites; check the Sherpa/Romeo database for publisher policies.

For more background on the CIC Provost's Statement on Publication Agreements, and why the U of Illinois Senate endorsed it, please read the background information provided by the U of Illinois Senate Committee on the Library.

Posted by florador at 4:16 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

-----------------
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

January 5, 2007

AccessScience: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online

We've just gained online access to AccessScience: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online.

This is the online equivalent of the latest version of the classic McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.

AccessScience contains more than 8,500 articles written for students, researchers, and the general public. More than 5,000 scientists have contributed to the Encyclopedia — including 35 Nobel Prize winners. Articles are brought to life by 13,000 high-quality illustrations and rich media content. AccessScience may be searched by keyword or browsed by subject discipline.

Look for these important features in AccessScience...

full search capabilities of the latest edition of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology
new trends and developments in science and technology ("Research Updates") from the McGraw-Hill Yearbooks of Science & Technology
access to 110,000+ definitions from The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms
biographies of scientists
late-breaking science and technology news
bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citations
links to evaluated related web sites
learning resources and study guides
added illustrations, animations, and image galleries
questions answered in a weekly Q&A
and much more

Find the link to this and other electronic journals and reference materials in the Library's Online Research Resource.

Or, you may want to browse Electronic Reference Books for the Life Sciences for other dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Posted by florador at 1:35 PM

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