CAMBIA Patent Lens- patent searching for the greater good from down-under

According to CAMBIA's mission statement: "CAMBIA is an independent, international non-profit institute. For more than a decade, CAMBIA has been creating new technologies, tools and paradigms to foster collaboration and life-sciences enabled innovation. These tools are designed to enable disadvantaged communities and developing countries to meet their own challenges in food security, health, and natural resource management." Based in Australia (they even have a GoogleEarth map of their location), the created Patent Lens, "to shed light and transparency on the patent system. The effects of the patent system as it works now may not match the original intent to benefit society. People affected by it should know the effects, so as to be able to advocate change where it may be needed." Patent Lens is a searchable full-text database of more than 7 million patents and patent applications from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, EPO (European Patent Office), and IP Australia.

The database also incorporates INPADOC — “bibliographic data from over 70 countries and legal status data from more than 40 patent authorities” — which, according to Patent Lens, “can help to give an idea whether a patent application related to one of interest was filed in other countries, and possibly whether patents are in force or applications are still pending.”

Check out the review from ResourceShelf: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2007/07/19/resource-of-the-week-patent-searching-for-the-rest-of-us/ and Patent Lens and CAMBIA: http://www.patentlens.net/daisy/patentlens/patentlens.html Patents are available in PDF, full-text, with images. Check it out!!

Visual Literacy - Periodic table illustrates different types

This is a very cool website. For those of us who are more visual learners, it is fascinating to see the different ways concepts can be explained visually. Check it out- http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Goodbye date stamp: Keep track of due dates online

UW longtimers might remember the days when you signed your name to check out a book from a UW Library. The due date was stamped inside the cover as an inky reminder of your obligation, and you could see the names of previous readers, even years back.

Times change, though. Card catalogs and signatures gave way to bar codes and NET IDs, and the Internet made library searches as convenient as a mouse-click. But through it all, library staffers continued to ink-stamp those due dates inside the books, as ever.

But no longer. This summer, the date stamps are being retired for most all library items except items without bar codes, such as some unbound periodicals and government publications, said Thom Deardorff, UW Libraries coordinator for access services. The change-over started in June and will be complete campuswide by September.

Those who still want one may have a receipt -- which makes an acceptable bookmark -- but very few users are asking for receipts, Deardorff said.

And after all, it makes sense, especially since books can be renewed easily and often online, making the stamped due date incorrect anyway.

Plus, Deardorff said, the staffers had to choose from a variety of stamps depending on the type of item and loan, the elimination of which will make checkouts even faster.

From University Week 7/19/07: http://uwnews.org/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?visitsource=uwkmail&articleID=35314

Senate asks EPA to reopen its closed libraries!

And some good news for a change! A victory for librarians and the general public, after almost a year of controversy and hearings with members of ALA and SLA. Read the full news item.

See where ALA has been in its first 100 Years- (great song too!)

Study finds a "meritocracy of difficulty" perceived by undergraduate engineering students

Engineering overdrive: Undergrads in field overworked, not informed about their major, study finds

By Hannah Hickey News and Information

Engineering undergraduates begin college with little idea of what it means to be an engineer, and they often don't find out until their third year. Some students justify their heavy workload with a "meritocracy of difficulty" that equates hard work in school with material reward down the road. And findings show that male and female engineering students approach technical questions differently. Read full article