Reference Disorder!

I was just reshelving some reference books and I noticed that the TA section is in a state of chaos, by which I mean several chunks are out of numerical order. I'm itching to reclaim the TAs in the name of Organization, but it seems like it would keep me away from the reference desk for too long and would involve moving quite a few books around. (Did I mention there's also a group of TEs in the middle of the TDs?) When would be the best time to tackle this? -Destinee

Levi's sues over pocket design patent infringment!

Read more about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/business/29jeans.html?8ur&emc=ur

USPTO's seven step quick start

So I went to one of the pre-conferences at ALA, Business Librarianship 101. It was interesting to note that whey they talked about patent research, they really only talked about how hard it was to navigate the USPTO site, and mentioned finding your PTDL Library more than once. You may already know about this, but sometimes if I can't get a patron to focus on our guide to patent searching, I refer them to USPTO's 7-step strategy. The good thing is that it provides direct links to everything you need. I've found the easiest way to direct people to it (and for me to even find it) is search for "seven step strategy" from the top-right search box on the uspto.gov home page.

Food consumption in the library

So -- I've had to tell two separate individuals today to NOT EAT in the library. They both looked at me like I'm completely insane. Am I the only one enforcing this policy? What exactly is our policy (Is M&Ms okay, but we draw the line at hamburgers?). I think we all need to be on the same page for enforcement AND actively enforce the rules everytime someone pulls out a bag of chips. If you think that food isn't a problem in our library I suggest you go look at the various garbage cans. They are full of food waste. It's only a matter of time before the rats at the HUB (and yes, there are rats in the HUB!) make their way across the street. Let me know your thoughts... Chandra

Patents PC Problem

I just got a complaint that the keyboard isn't working on the PC in the Patent Area. I checked and it looks like it's connected, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Any ideas?

FirstGov.gov becomes USA.gov

"In January 2007, FirstGov.gov announced that it changed its name to USA.gov. GobiernoUSA.gov is the new name for the Spanish-language portal. These names give assurance that the user is on a government site. USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov are public domain websites, which means you may link to them."

Copy machine out of order

Machine #833 on the second floor is jamming continuously. Tom tried to no avail to fix it. I've reported it by phone to copy services.

New CSA Environmental Sciences Database

With the continuing consolidation of CSA databases, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management is our most recent addition. It includes Water Resources Abstracts. It also includes the following:

• Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology Abstracts
• ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Quality
• Bacteriology Abstracts (Microbiology B)
• Ecology Abstracts
• Environmental Engineering Abstracts
• Health and Safety Science Abstracts
• Human Population & Natural Resource Management
• Industrial and Applied Microbiology Abstracts (Microbiology A)
• Pollution Abstracts
• Risk Abstracts
• Sustainability Science Abstracts
• Toxicology Abstracts, and
• Water Resources Abstracts

RUSA/MARS Best Website of 2006

http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/marsbestref2006.htm The most relevant sites for our areas are probably How Products Are Made and my personal favorite SkyscraperPage. Check out the list for other useful websites, especially Crash Course in Copyright from a librarian at the University of Texas system.

Reference shelves are comin' down

The workers are on a break right now, so the pounding in my brain has subsided. The shelves are about 1/2 gone and most of the books are off too. It's weird to have the workers right here behind us at the desk, but it's also interesting to see them in action. They really just work and talk to each other about the job. I guess in my mind I was hoping for some chain gang songs or something. Mel says the banging will actually get louder when they put in the new stuff. It seems to me it couldn't be much louder, but I guess it's the concrete drilling that will really put the noise over the edge. I can hardly wait!

Another engineering blog

The Virginia Commonwealth University has an interesting blog for engineering and sciences students called Librarycasting SE. They provide screencast and podcast tutorials, workshop announcements, along with other topical content.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone- I will be back in the office on January 8. Starting that week I'll be working Mon-Thurs.,thus adding Wed. to my schedule. Everyone have a safe and relaxing holiday- see you in '07!

Keep the E.P.A. Libraries Open-

A letter to the editor of the NYT by Leslie Burger, ALA pres. presenting a good argument against dismantling the regional network of E.P.A. libraries: http://www.freepress.net/news/19619

Ready Reference -> Reference

Destinee and I changed the blue ready reference stickers to regular yellow reference stickers today. And we have blue fingers! Mel found out that they were going to redo the shelving on the first floor sooner than we thought. So, I began moving them into the reference collection, but there is still one section left. (I put the red LC subject headings books in the small collection at the reference desk.) The call numbers have not been changed in the catalog yet, so we'll just refer patrons to the reference collection until then.

Shelving work continues....

The workers are back today. I saw them unloading the new end panels from the truck this morning and wow are they spiffy! It's a whole new world of shelving on the 2nd floor!

New Template

I decided I didn't like the old "look" for the blog so I've changed the template. Let me know what you think.

Another acquisition in the database world

CSA (CIG) acquires ProQuest: read the Press Release.

Welcome

This is the first post on the brand spanking new blog for the Engineering Reference Desk. I am hoping that we can all use this blog to communicate items of interest to all of us; little things like out of order pcs or printers to more important policy or staff notices. We can also share information about library and engineering stuff in general. I have also added some feeds from other library and science librarian blogs. Check out the most recent items posted on those blogs. Comment or add your own post- let's give it a try and see if it works for us.