Resource Review: Free Range Databases

Resource Review: Free Range Databases

Provides a list of free databases that are a bit 'under the radar' as they aren't indexed by Google (in most cases.) Subject areas cover anthropology, sociology, statistics, medicine, economics.

ENERGY EFFICIENT

Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering, has been named to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advisory Committee (http://www.energy.gov/news/9792.htm). The committee’s 19 members will meet twice a year and report directly to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. They will advise him on long-range strategies, program funding and other issues in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

HUB Construction Cameras Installed

We have two views to choose from:

• From the Engineering Library

• From Hall Health.

Recruiters Pick State Schools, Pass on Ivies - WSJ.com

Recruiters Pick State Schools, Pass on Ivies - WSJ.com Recruiters prefer choosing new hires from larger state universities because they tend to be more academically well-rounded.

Drexel Freshmen Get Help From 'Personal Librarians' - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Drexel Freshmen Get Help From 'Personal Librarians' - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

University of Texas at San Antonio opens bookless library on university campus

From KnowledgeSPEAK.com:

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has announced that it has opened its Applied Engineering and Technology (AET) Library, projected as the US' first completely bookless brick-and-mortar library on a college or university campus. The 80-person capacity library, which caters to UTSA's College of Sciences and College of Engineering students, is a satellite to the university's larger John Peace Library.

Electronic research is stated to be central to UTSA's AET Library. Instead of storing printed volumes, the library offers students a collection of electronic resources including 425,000 e-books and 18,000 e-journal subscriptions. Skilled science and engineering librarians are available during library hours to help students who need research assistance.

UTSA's electronic library is said to be quickly catching on with students, who are finding that library staff is more available to assist them now that it does not have to circulate and re-shelf books. The publications students want to read are also more accessible, because the online format allows many students to simultaneously access the same volume.

The trend to move higher education library collections online began in October 2000, when Kansas State University opened its Fiedler Engineering Library. The branch library's collection is completely electronic, with the exception of a series of reference books and a few journals that are unavailable electronically. Earlier this year, Stanford University continued the trend when it removed all but 10,000 printed volumes from its Engineering Library.

UTSA designed its bookless library to engage students in an online format within a contemporary new space. The library features ultra modern furniture and space age décor as well as 10 desktop computers, a printer, a scanner and five large LCD screens. To support student study sessions and spontaneous collaboration, the library also offers a series of group study niches and three group study rooms outfitted with whiteboards. The spaces seek to reflect an emphasis on teamwork, communications and problem solving, skills integral to the success of professional engineers and scientists.

With the e-library now open, UTSA is exploring ways to take the bookless concept even further. In the next few months, it expects to start providing pre-loaded collections of e-books on e-reader devices like the iPad or Kindle for students to check out and take home.

Back to the Future is Now! Nike Patents Self-Lacing Sneaker

Wired Magazine reports: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/nike-patents-marty-mcflys-self-lacing-sneaker/

For a link to full patent: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-08/nike-patents-mcfly-self-lacing-shoes-future

Because we don't know what we don't know... until it happens

Disaster Spurs Innovation
On the front of its Science Times section, the New York Times (7/20, D1, Broad) reports, "Disasters teach more than successes," an idea "widely accepted among engineers. ... Disaster, in short, can become a spur to innovation." Even though "the trial-and-error process of building machines and industries has, over the centuries, resulted in the loss of much blood and many thousands of lives," the "sometimes appalling" failures "are inevitable, and given this fact, engineers say it pays to make good use of them to prevent future mistakes. The result is that the technological feats that define the modern world are sometimes the result of events that some might wish to forget." Experts expect the recent "catastrophic failure" of a Gulf oil rig that "took 11 lives and started the worst offshore oil spill in United States history -- will drive the technological progress."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/science/20lesson.html

ASM International Content Available on Knovel

ASM International Content Available on Knovel

San Jose Mercury News: Stanford University prepares for 'bookless library'

This article link was mailed to you by: julesck@u.washington.edu *
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Here's an article about Sarah's current project at the Stanford Physics & Engineering Library.

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Stanford University prepares for 'bookless library' -

By Lisa M. Krieger

lkrieger@mercurynews.com

Box by box, decades of past scholarship are being packed up and emptied from the school's Physics library to make way for the future: a smaller but more efficient and largely electronic library that can accommodate the vast and expanding literature of Physics, Computer Science and Engineering. View Full Story

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Knovel and ASM International partnership to enhance Engineering references

Knovel, a web-based application integrating technical information with analytical and search tools, has announced a partnership with ASM International, The Materials Information Society. ASM publishes information on selection, properties, processing and performance of materials ranging from metals and alloys through plastics and ceramics in handbook, dataset and atlas forms.

Knovel partners with more than 70 international professional societies and publishers to ensure engineers have access to trusted sources of technical content across 23 engineering subject areas. ASM's authoritative published content will be combined with Knovel's data search capabilities and interactive analysis tools.

The combination of expanded materials information alongside best practice information on processing, design and development, is expected to enable engineers using Knovel to quickly access more of the data they need and incorporate it into their work. Engineers working in industries including Aerospace, Design and Construction, Specialty Chemicals, Industrial Equipment and Oil and Gas will benefit greatly from this combined offering.

With a network of over 36,000 members worldwide, ASM provides materials science and engineering professionals with a range of authoritative information and knowledge. The society's best-known information resource is the world-renowned ASM Handbook series, which along with atlases of fatigue curves and stress-strain curves are included in the set of ASM information that will be available from Knovel.

Copyright for Librarians- online course from Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society

From the press release:
March 24, 2010 - Cambridge, Mass., and Rome, Italy - The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today announced the launch of a new online, open access curriculum, “Copyright for Librarians” (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/copyrightforlibrarians/), developed in conjunction with eIFL.net. “Copyright for Librarians” aims to inform librarians about copyright law in general, as well as the aspects of copyright law that most affect libraries, especially those in developing and transition countries.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/copyrightforlibrarians/Main_Page

Barbie has a new career!

 Check out the press release, direct from Mattel: http://www.barbiemedia.com/admin/uploads/ComputerEngineerBarbie.pdf

UW CEE Professor visits Haiti to realize a shocking reality about construction practices

Prof. Mark Eberhard is back from Haiti where he led a team of five engineers to study how that country's buildings withstood the 7.0 magnitude quake that hit in January.

"I was shocked to hear there was no building code in Haiti," said Eberhard. "I've never been to a place where there's no building codes."

Eberhard is the lead author of a report that will be shared with U.S. aid agencies and the United Nations. He described his trip on a NEES (Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation) blog:http://neescomm.blogspot.com/

IEEE Xplore Video Shows New Interface and Features

Couple opens Engineering Institute in Bellingham

The Bellingham (WA) Herald (2/6, Cox) reports, "The Washington Engineering Institute, located in Barkley Village, is a new school that will offer one- and two-year certificate programs, as well as continuing education classes for professional engineers."

From the website: WEIS is: " A private institute providing engineering, surveying, and GIS certificate programs and classes to job seekers and industry."

Founded and operated by Dave and Katherine Bren, the program is as follows, "all students take the same first-year program, civil engineering technology. Then if they want to continue for a second year, they can specialize in construction engineering technology, surveying technology, GIS technology or continue with civil engineering technology. Professional engineers also can take some continuing education courses, mostly focused on technology training, or they can take a class that's part of the certificate programs if there is space available." The instructors will be practicing engineers.

New website showcasing DOE Reseach & Development Accomplishments

Check out the website/database from the Department of Energy (DOE), called DOE Research and Development (R&D) Accomplishments, a central forum for information about the outcomes of past DOE R&D that have had significant economic impact, have improved people's lives, or have been widely recognized as remarkable advances in science.
The site is comprised of the R&D Accomplishments Database, Featured Scientists/Topics pages, Laureates, Interesting Insights, and Snapshots. More information about DOE R&D Accomplishments content is available on the About page.

The Most-Cited Institutions in Engineering, 1999-2009, data analyzed by ScienceWatch.com

This is a very interesting list showing the the top 20 institutions which attracted the highest total citations to their papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed Engineering journals. These institutions are the top 20 out of a pool of 1,084 institutions comprising the top 1% ranked by total citation count in this field.  http://sciencewatch.com/inter/ins/10/10febTOP20ENG/

RiP Database from TRB

The Transportation Research Board's Research in Progress (RiP) website contains the Research In Progress (RiP) Database and a data-entry system to allow users in State Departments of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and University Transportation Centers to add, modify and delete information on their current research projects. The RiP database now contains over 8400 current or recently completed transportation research projects. Most of the RiP records are projects funded by Federal and State Departments of Transportation. University transportation research is also included. The RiP Database now serves as a clearinghouse of University Transportation Centers ongoing research. International research projects from the TRIP file of the International Transport Research Documentation Database are now included in the RiP database. The Transportation Association of Canada supplies records from its Canadian Surface Transportation Research Database for RiP.

More societies and publishers add content to Knovel - including SAE and ASHRAE

Knovel, an online resource that helps engineers find reliable technical information, has announced partnerships with 16 organisations. Knovel’s comprehensive collection of content is continually updated as new titles are available and reflects the evolving needs of its users – engineers.

Knovel works with its Editorial Advisory Board, comprised of multi-disciplinary industry and academic leaders, to prioritise content additions and editorial features based upon current workflow needs and emerging industry trends. The company has partnered with more than 50 international professional societies and publishers including McGraw-Hill, Wiley and Elsevier. Joining Knovel's growing roster of content partners are SAE International, ASHRAE and 14 other societies and publishers.

Knovel offers validated engineering content, selected from trusted sources and delivered to engineers quickly and with extreme precision. The value of Knovel’s content is extended by its optimised search and data analysis tools, enabling engineers to not only easily find relevant data, but also analyse, document and incorporate it into their everyday work.

"Crash-resistant" train cars- really? Is this the cartoons come to life?

Metrolink To Use "New High-Tech, Crash-Resistant Cars."

The Los Angeles Times (12/18, Connell) reports, "Nearly five years after a deadly Metrolink train wreck in Glendale intensified debate about passenger car design," the commuter rail service in Southern California "will soon take delivery of new high-tech, crash-resistant cars," according to officials. Two of the cars, "the first of their kind in the nation, are to be unloaded from a ship in the Port of Long Beach in mid-January and will be put into service as early as next summer." They "have energy-absorbing ends designed to distribute the force of train-on-train collisions. Other features include breakaway interior tables."

OSTI gets fancy with its' database results display!

The Information Bridge has recently added word clouds to give you a window into the content of full-text research documents. The word clouds visually represent word frequency within each document and can be viewed from the search results screen or on the bibliographic citation page when hovering over the title or the PDF icon. The top 50 terms are shown alphabetically within the word cloud. Font size is determined by the frequency of usage within the document. Depending upon the term weighting, fonts can be as much as 80 percent larger than the least used terms in the document. The colors are random.

To see it in action, run a quick search. Hover over the title of one of the resulting citations to see a colorful word cloud! Groovy!

Information Bridge provides free public access to over 200,000 full-text documents and bibliographic citations of Department of Energy research report literature. Documents in Information Bridge are primarily from 1991 forward and were produced by DOE, the DOE contractor community, and/or DOE grantees. Legacy documents are added as they become available in electronic format.

The Librarian's Mission- R. David Lankes' keynote at Charleston Conference

This is a ~40 minute screencast of Lankes' inspirational presentation last week in Charleston. It's worth watching, if not for the necessarily unique or new ideas, but for his smart reasoning and conclusions. During the last 10 or so minutes you're expecting the audience to start yelling "Hallelujah!".

More WorldCat news re: Science Direct collections

Elsevier metadata for SCOPUS and ScienceDirect collections from 2006 to the present have now been indexed in WorldCat.org search results. 

This article-level metadata joins similar content such as the GPO Monthly Catalog, ArticleFirst, Medline, ERIC and the British Library Inside Serials. The ScienceDirect content corresponds to 1,800 journals, 150 book series and more than 1.3 million records. 

Totally Tubular - FRP Bridge Design

NYTimes.com: Building a Bridge of (and to) the Future

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Carbon- and glass-fiber fabric tubes filled with concrete offer strength, light weight and resistance to corrosion.

"Long the stuff of surfboards and pleasure boats, and more recently used in aircraft wings and other components, plastic polymers reinforced with fibers were first researched for use in bridges in the 1980s. Civil engineers were attracted to them for the same reasons other designers were — their strength, light weight and corrosion resistance."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/13bridge.html

Though more expensive to create, the technology makes the bridge less expensive in the long run, due to lower maintenance, transportation, labor and equipment costs.  

IBM journals to be available via IEEE Xplore, exclusively

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and IBM, US, have announced a publishing agreement. Under the deal, all papers published in IBM journals will be available exclusively in the IEEE Xplore digital library (www.ieee.org/ieeexplore) from the first quarter of 2010 onwards. The aim is to disseminate key technical articles and papers in computer hardware, software and information systems to a wider audience of researchers and interested readers around the world. The IBM Journal of Research and Development, which now includes the IBM Systems Journal, is claimed to be one of the top-cited journals in the field. The two, which have been published online since 1998, merged into one fee-based online publication in 2009. The production of future editions of the current publication, the IBM Journal of Research and Development, will be handled by IEEE. IBM will be responsible for the content acquisition and peer review, while IEEE assumes the article production, copy editing, data conversion, online hosting and maintenance.

Rockets Able To Run On Toffee

For real!

The UK's The Scotsman (10/7) reports, "Rockets can run on toffee, a scientist has proved. Jem Stansfield demonstrated a hybrid rocket powered by the sweet on BBC1's Bang Goes The Theory." Ray Wilkinson of the University of Hertfordshire "suggested the experiment could help scientists find environmentally-friendly materials to fuel rockets."

The rocket was capable of powering a bicycle ridden by Mr Stansfield at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Hybrid rockets require nothing more than a cheap solid that burns and a gas – in this case nitrous oxide – to provide oxygen, he said. Ray Wilkinson, principal lecturer in aerospace design and rocket propulsion at the University of Hertfordshire, suggested the experiment could help scientists find environmentally-friendly materials to fuel rockets.

Thanks Harry Potter! - Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes

Borrowing from the physics of invisibility cloaks could make it possible to hide buildings from the devastating effects of earthquakes, say physicists in France and the UK. The "earthquake cloak" idea comes from the team led by Stefan Enoch at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France. They were the first to show that the physics of invisibility cloaks could have other applications – designing a cloak that could render objects "invisible" to destructive storm waves or tsunamis. See also: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/cloak-could-make-buildings-inviible-earthquakes

New Fed Gov website: Data.gov

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data.

New webpage for reporting Libraries system down emergencies

This is the page Libraries ITS wants everyone to use to determine the correct reporting procedure for any system down emergencies: https://staffweb.lib.washington.edu/units/ITS/system-down-emergency

Major Cuts Planned at Canada’s National Science Library Draw Protest

CISTI's budget could be cut up to 70%, a combination of a 50% cut across the board and a 20% cut that will force particular services to be operated on a cost-recovery basis. CISTI has already cut all print journal subscriptions, retaining only those that are available online. It's a sad sad state. Read the full report: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6649848.html?nid=2673&source=title&rid=1206325913

Free International Nuclear Information System database from the IAEA

The INIS (International Nuclear Information System) database is available free, as at 3 April 2009: http://inisdb2.iaea.org/ It is a product of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), which promotes the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Information about the content of the database is available at http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm/inis/products/aboutdb.htm:

"Leading reference database for scientific literature published worldwide on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology

• Comprehensive international coverage by INIS Members and the INIS Secretariat.

• over 3 million bibliographic citations and abstracts of journal articles, scientific and technical reports, conference papers, books, patents, theses, laws, regulations and standards, and web documents, covering publications in 63 languages; all records include keywords and most have an abstract in English

• Includes a unique collection of over 850 000 full-text documents: scientific and technical reports, conference proceedings, patents, theses, and preprints. This “grey” non-conventional literature (NCL) is not easily available from other sources."

Computer science enrollment rebounds nationally and at UW

Local perspective on the NYT story that reports that for the first time in six years, enrollment in computer science programs in the United States increased last year. In a blog entry by the Seattle Times' Ben Romano are comments from Ed Lazowska, from the UW CSE department. Full story: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/03/17/computer_science_enrollment_rebounds_nationally_an.html

First woman to earn PhD in Computer Science wins Turing Award

Barbara Liskov, the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. from a computer-science department and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been awarded the A.M. Turing Award for 2008. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3652/first-woman-in-us-to-earn-a-phd-from-a-computer-science-department-wins-the-turing-award

30th anniversary of Hood Canal Bridge sinking - emeritus UW prof. remembers...

Posted on Sunday, Feb. 08, 2009

Anniversary of bridge sinking looms large for retired professor

By DEAN KAHN

Feb. 13 this year happens to be Friday the 13th.

It's also the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Hood Canal floating bridge.

Not many people would have that anniversary fixed in their brain, but Billy Hartz does.

Read More...

IBM Retains Top Spot On Patent List.

IndustryWeek (3/1, Jusko) reports, "For the 16th consecutive year, high-tech giant IBM Corp. has nabbed the top spot for the number of patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Not only that, but with 4,186 patents granted in 2008, it also became the first organization to break the 4,000 patent barrier, according to IFI Patent Intelligence, which analyzed USPTO data." However, "the U.S. share of patents is slipping," with "U.S. companies garnering just 49% of U.S. patents granted in 2008, down from 50% in 2007." Further, "U.S. firms hold just four of the top 10 slots and 12 of the top 35." But, according to Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI Patent Intelligence, one shouldn't "confuse quantity with quality." Slaughter said, "What's clear is that many of the world's largest companies are placing a higher priority on protecting their intellectual property."

O'Donnell, Auth elected to National Academy of Engineering

Matthew O'Donnell, dean of the University of Washington's College of Engineering and professor in the department of bioengineering, and David Auth, a UW affiliate professor in bioengineering and consultant based in Kirkland, Wash., have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?visitsource=uwkmail&id=47239

NASA Celebrates 50 Years

With Automa as your guide through an extensive Flash presentation, learn all about NASA and its' 50 year history. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/50th/

A Library for Engineering Education: Frank O. Marvin and the University of Kansas, 1875-1915

It was written by Jim Neeley, the fairly recently retired head of the Spahr Engineering Library at KU, and was published late last year in the journal Libraries and the Cultural Record. A very interesting piece. While the focus in on how an engineering library started at KU, many of the forces that led to its creation were more generally present elsewhere, and led to a blossoming of engineering libraries in the late 19th and early 20th century, (a few examples from and ties to other institutions are offered). Jim also makes mention in a number of places of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, which was founded in 1893 and later morphed into ASEE. Finally, in the appendix there are a handful of links to pages at other institutions related to the histories of their engineering libraries. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lac/v043/43.4.neeley.html

WorldCat New Books List?

I have a couple of questions:
1. Have you created a WorldCat account in order to make and/or watch lists?
2. Do you think anyone else has?
The reason I ask is I just logged into my WorldCat account (which I don't do very often) to look for interesting lists to follow. I searched for "engineering" and found that the Kresge Engineering Library at UC Berkeley makes lists of all its new books. You can see their profile and lists here.
So I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to copycat UCB. The idea would be that our patrons could follow the list so they would be able to easily see what our new books are. (Of course, they can already see our new books pretty easily by looking at our new books page, but this would make it even easier.)
Alternatively, I've noticed that some units have RSS feeds of their new books available. I don't think we have that going on, but that would achieve the same effect.
I guess the point is whether students/faculty might find such a thing useful. Part of me thinks yes, because I personally like to keep an eye out for cool new books. But part of me also thinks no, because students/faculty are primarily concerned with their own work/research and will search (or have search updates) for those subjects on their own.
Any thoughts?

Dawg Prints Alerts- new webpage

Due to the recent outages affecting our program, Dawg Prints has taken several steps to better inform and distribute information vital to our users. In addition to the Dawg Prints Support email, the Dawg Prints Updates mailing list, and our Dawg Prints website, we have recently created another site, named Dawg Prints Alerts, to provide centralized notification to our users. This site will be updated whenever an issue affects the Dawg Prints system or a location. You can find it at:http://depts.washington.edu/dawgprnt/dpalerts. If your issue is not addressed please make sure to email Dawg Prints Support at: uwcshelp@u.washington.edu.

A Real Life Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

The UK's Daily Mail (1/12, Massey) reports on the Terrafugia Transition flying car, set to debut next month. "With wings that fold up automatically at the push of a button, the Terrafugia Transition should be equally at home in the sky or on the road." The Transition "is powered by the same 100 brake horsepower engine...on the ground and in the air" and "Terrafugia claims it will be able to fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of petrol at a cruising speed of 115mph." Currently, according to the article, "the only place in the US in which it is legal to take off from a road is Alaska. And as well as your driving licence, you will need your pilot's licence." Neoseeker (1/11, Ridgely) reported, "Assuming it survives all well and good, it will be in showrooms in 18 months time (July of next year)." The article also noted, "The vehicle is capable of transforming from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds."

Safari Book collection info- why some books disappear!

You'll probably see some questions about why certain books are not available on Safari when they were available a few weeks ago. If the book in question is a 2006 publication, then it fell off our subscription on Jan. 1st. (our subscription is for the most recent 3 years only, which is now 2007, 2008, and 2009-- even though there's hardly anything available for 2009 yet...). Since O'Reilly books are only available online through Safari, there isn't anyplace else where we can get an electronic copy. The person can request a print copy through the regular book purchase request form or ILL. I've asked cataloging to remove 2006 Safari records from the catalog, so people shouldn't be finding them that way. Let me know if there are any other issues/questions about Safari. Linda.

Knovel Reverse Engineers the New Year's Eve Times Square Ball Drop

Calculating the required horsepower for the electric motor driving Times Square's New Year's Eve ball

One of the most well-known traditions representing the New Year's Eve celebration is the ball drop in New York City's Times Square. A very decorative ball made up of thousands of crystals drops down a pole during the final minute of the year. This year's ball has seen many upgrades from its 2007 version- it's three times brighter, double in size and most notably, has increased in weight from 1,100 pounds to 12,000 pounds.

The ball drop occurs via an electric motor which lowers the ball 70 feet over the course of one minute. The weight increase means that more power will need to be supplied from the motor. We did some research on past ball drops and here's what we know: the gearmotor's output shaft must be 6 rpm and the time must be negligible since timing is crucial for the ball drop event. What we don't know is the minimum horsepower needed by an electric motor.

To see the solution: http://www.info.knovel.com/knovelmessages/NYESolution.html

We Go 2.0 (Sort Of)

As you may have noticed, links to our Facebook page and new blog have been added to the EngLib homepage. Any ideas/suggestions/criticisms about either of these new little ventures will be met with a cold stare. Just kidding! Seriously, I hope these actually get a little use, and it's my belief that the more we all contribute, the more useful our web presence will be. Here a few links about what a Facebook page and blog can do: David Lee King's What can you do with a Facebook page? LibrarianInBlack's Ten Social Networking Tips for Libraries iLibrarian points to the Ultimate Blogger Writing Guide

Knovel Enhanced!

From the Knovel Blog:

Knovel has just introduced enhancements to our Interactive Tables. These enhancements make it even easier for Knovel users to work with tabular information. Not only are the tables easier to read, but they also support drag and drop functionally, so users can move columns around, hide rows and basically manipulate data.

Here is a link to the official announcement for more info: http://www.info.knovel.com/knovelmessages/Tablesanncmt120108.html

Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship

Check out the article "Science Experiments: Reaching Out to Our Users" in the current issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. Our own Linda Whang and other UW science librarians are the authors! Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

Convincing the faculty and students in the sciences of the value of libraries and librarians can be a particularly "hard sell" as more and more of their primary journal literature becomes available online anywhere from any computer. Six science librarians from the University of Washington experimented with both traditional and unconventional ways to engage our users. We tried meeting them in their spaces, luring them into ours, and using the middle ground of the Internet, with creative initiatives including blogs, give-aways, geocaching, and more.

Reference Extract

http://referencextract.org/ Reference Extract is envisioned as a web search engine, like Google, Yahoo and MSN. However, unlike other search engines, Reference Extracts will be built for maximum credibility by relying on the expertise and credibility judgments of librarians from around the globe. Users will enter a search term and get results weighted towards sites most often referred to by librarians at institutions such as the Library of Congress, the University of Washington, the State of Maryland, and over 1,400 libraries worldwide.

Halliburton Applies For Patent-Trolling Patent

I saw this on Slashdot and thought even if it's not true, it's something worth noting: An anonymous reader writes, "Halliburton...has apparently taken an interest in methods of patent trolling. In fact, according to Techdirt, the company has applied for a patent on patent trolling. Specifically, it's applied for a patent on the process of finding a company that protected an invention via trade secret, figuring out what that secret is, patenting it ... and then suing the original company. Hopefully, the patent office rejects this patent, because I somehow doubt that Halliburton is trying to get the patent as a way to block others from patent trolling."

Videos in honor of Open Access Day

Diane Graves, Librarian from Open Access Videos on Vimeo. Open Access Day was October 14. Openaccessday.org posted several videos testifying to the benefits of open access for scholarship: http://vimeo.com/oaday08 These are a project of Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition: sparc.org/ , Public Library of Science: plos.org/ and Students for Free Culture: freeculture.org/

Science Info Without Borders- Worldwidescience.org

Carol Tenopir presents an in-depth review of the web portal, Worldwidescience.org, which provides free federated search access to science databases from government agencies worldwide, soon to include China!

"Founded in 2007 through an agreement between the British Library and OSTI, WorldWideScience.org is modeled after Science.gov, a portal to 100 million pages of science bulletins from 13 U.S. government agencies. Both are built using Deep Web Technologies, a Santa Fe, NM–based company that calls its product Explorit Research Accelerator."

WorldWideScience.org includes government-sponsored science content from more than 50 member countries and 40 international portals, as well as everything covered by Science.gov. With the addition of China as a member in August, the portal, Warnick says, “will soon reach a billion pages.”

Read the complete review here: http://tinyurl.com/4zpy5w

Engineers develop coating that detects bridge cracks using nanotechnology~

For bridge freaks like me, I think this is pretty cool. I'm not sure about the price though ($1/inch2), although if it prevents structural failure, it's probably worth it at any price: Michigan's Ann Arbor News (original article only available for fee) (9/3, Hamon) reports that Jerry Lynch, a University of Michigan professor of engineering, has led a research team in the development of structural coating that will "detect cracks in bridges before the damage is visible." According to the Ann Arbor News, Lynch and his colleagues created the coating with "carbon nanotubes that use electrical currents to find damage like strain and corrosion." Nicholas Kotov, a UM engineering professor and "key developer of the technology," explained that a "carbon nanotube is microscopic and shaped like a long, hollow strand of spaghetti." Moreover, it is "one of the strongest materials available and, when mixed with the polymers, lends strength to the coating." When electricity flows through the skin, "it produces a two-dimensional image via a central computing device," and "electrical resistance shown in the image will indicate structural damage." Kotov said that the "coating costs about $1 per square inch and is engineered to last decades." He added, "Presumably the carbon nanotube coating won't corrode over the lifetime of the bridge."

UW Researcher named 2008 MacArthur Fellow

David Montgomery, 46, professor of geomorphology, University of Washington. He is making fundamental contributions to our understanding of the geophysical forces that determine landscape evolution and of how our use of soils and rivers has shaped civilizations past and present. Complete list of MacArthur fellows for 2008: http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/09/4703n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Information is Power - Even When it’s Wrong

Posted on the ACRL blog: Check out this example proving the importance of information literacy: a sloppy mistake in handling information led to a plunge in a company’s stock prices: http://acrlog.org/2008/09/11/information-is-power-even-when-its-wrong/ More on the story: Tribune Co., Google Explain Revival of Outdated United Bankruptcy Story http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=150236

Professional Engineering Publishing Launches Engineering Conferences Online

Professional Engineering Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (www.imeche.org), has launched Engineering Conferences Online (ECO), a new online publishing service for conference organizers. ECO (http://eco.pepublishing.com) provides conference organizers with a new way of disseminating important engineering research that would normally be very difficult or impossible to locate in traditional book or CD formats. Papers in ECO will usually be available free of charge on an open access basis and will be fully referenced using DOIs.

Poof! Scientists closer to invisibility cloak

Scientists at UC Berkeley are getting closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnrH1I5OMi2psDdZ2cWrmQlVfyXgD92FPIOG0

DOE Data Explorer - read more on the OSTI Blog

http://www.osti.gov/ostiblog/home/entry/discover_the_data_behind_doe From the entry:"If you’re ready to discover data, then OSTI’s newest product is ready for you! The DOE Data Explorer (DDE) is a unique tool that identifies collections of DOE-sponsored numeric files, figures and data plots, multimedia and images, computer simulations, specialized databases, and interactive data maps. Browse, run a quick search, or advanced search, then click a link to results. You’ll be amazed at the data you can freely see and use, the highly specialized interfaces developed by the owners of the data that will help you delve deeper into their collections, and the software toolkits that allow you to manipulate, compare, visualize, download, and re-use the data." Data is gathered from collections at national laboratories, data centers, scientific user facilities, colleges and universities ...and across all of the science areas with DOE involvement.

iBreadcrumbs.com - for the birds?

Check out the latest Firefox tool bar add-in, a way for researchers to annotate and share information online. You can access your own annotations from any computer, you know the drill. Here's the full article from the Chronicle, June 4, 2008: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3059&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

New wiki for Engineering Library

Here's what some other Engineering Librarians are doing, just announced today: A Research Portal and Guide to Engineering Resources for the Ohio University Community. Visit it here: http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/engrwiki/index.php/Main_Page So far it has 143 pages.

Information R/evolution

Just in case anyone gets the same question as I got today, here's a note about the books in the display case (someone was potentially interested in checking one out and may return to do so). The key is in the refdesk drawer, and the books need to be checked in again as they are checked out to a library account at the moment, but once that is done they can be checked out to the person as usual.

"Question Shop" (otherwise known as a reference desk)

"What they don’t mention is that the fellow in the picture is named Marcus Googlethorpe." (I'm not sure about that...) http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/02/10/question-shop-gives-answer-to-any-telephoned-query/

Holistic Engineering Program?

Potential employers are finding out that engineers don't know how to manage systems that need knowledge in environmental areas. OSU has a solution: New program combines ecology with engineering "This lack of experience puts a burden on employers, including farmers, engineering consultants and government agencies, who must then teach engineers how to bridge the gap between environmental and engineered solutions themselves. "They need students who understand traditional engineering and how it intersects with biological and ecological systems," said Bolte. For this reason, OSU has launched a new undergraduate program that combines ecology with engineering. "By the time they leave, we expect them to be fluent in both," he said. About 10 students will complete their first semester of the ecological engineering curriculum this spring, and the program is expected to grow to about 120 students within five years... For several years, the university has offered a graduate program in biological and ecological engineering - evolved from its agricultural engineering program - but the students who enroll are generally interested in pursuing careers in research, he said. The undergraduate program, on the other hand, will produce engineers ready for work out in the field..."

Need information? Contact Your Academic Librarian Today

Gap Persists Between Faculty Salaries at Public and Private Institutions

The gap isn't anything new, the author explains, but it just isn't getting much better. Note the continued disparity between men and women faculty too- isn't this the 21st century??! (At least the institution's presidents are paid well...) Read the full article from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i32/32a01901.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

College of Engineering Open House

2008 Annual Engineering Open House

Friday April 25, 2008: 9:00am - 3:00pm and Saturday April 26, 2008: 10:00am - 2:00pm

As always the Engineering Library will participate in the Open House with a poster display taking the place of the invention poster. We will also be showing a Building Big video continuously.

Please get ready to answer questions about the bathroom locations....

Mourning the Passing of a Household Icon

Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias discusses what most of us probably already know, that the 'old-fashioned' encyclopedias of yore are being replaced by "the online hearth", Wikipedia and the like. In the 1970's, I remember using our huge brown simulated leather-bound Encyclopedia Britannica and the current edition (blue covers) of the World Book Encyclopedia to begin researching my various school 'reports': Mexico, the La Brea tar pits, the human body; they all started with these wonderful sources of, what seemed like an infinite amount of information. Now my 11 year old son starts all his research with Wikipedia and probably ends it there too, to my dismay. I always ask him what books he used, but his response is that it's too hard to find books in his school library. If I had more time, I'd be taking him more often to the public library to search the catalog (which he does know how to do!). This article mentions a Wikipedia alternative, (only however for topics in the natural sciences) that I have never heard of before. The Encyclopedia of Life was started by a Harvard biologist who has been joined by a team of international scientists: "It sounds surreal, and yet scientists are writing the Book of All Species. Or to be more precise, they are building a Web site called the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org). On Thursday its authors, an international team of scientists, will introduce the first 30,000 pages, and within a decade, they predict, they will have the other 1.77 million." (http://tinyurl.com/2rwlef) The researchers want to make the site useful to scientists and non-scientists, so they are creating a sliding button that readers can move to decide how much detail they want about the topic. The EOL is certainly a very interesting concept but obviously an extremely ambitious project. I kind of miss our old Britannica set. They are still available for purchase, although they are being marketed quite differently. Britannica wants people to think of the many volumes as a "luxury experience. You want to be able to produce a lot of joy, a paper joy.” I just don't get that same sense of "joy" from Wikipedia.

New resources help engineers

By Roddy MacLeod, Librarian at Herriot-Watt University Library in Edinburgh, Scotland. Updates regarding new journal titles, developments in publisher's access and technology offerings. Originally published in February/March issue of Research Information. http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=161

The Librarian Song - Check out his facial expressions!

ACRL is proud to announce the 2008 award winners:

Division Award Winners Excellence in Academic Libraries Award (Donor: Blackwell’s Book Services) University: McMaster University Libraries, Hamilton, Ontario College: Laurence McKinley Gould Library at Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. (My Alma Mater!) Community College: Shatford Library at Pasadena City College, Pasadena, Calif. Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award (Donor: YBP Library Services) Peter Hernon, Simmons College Samuel Lazerow Fellowship (Donor: Thomson Scientific) Ping Situ, University of Arizona, and Shuyong Jiang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, for their research project on vendor-provided records and the experience of a research library in outsourcing cataloging service for its Chinese language materials, including its backlogs Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (Donor: Thomson Scientific) Donghua Tao, University of Missouri - Columbia School of Information Science & Learning Technology, for her proposal, “Using Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in Understanding Selection and Use of Information Resources: An Information Resource Selection and Use Model”

Grand Challenges for Engineering Selected

The NAE Committee on Engineering's Grand Challenges has identified 14 areas awaiting engineering solutions in the 21st century: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/ Reverse-engineering the brain sounds a little scary to me! Here is a list of all 14:

• Make solar energy economical
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Microform Drawer map

Just a note to let you know that Circ kindly shared their microform-drawer map with us, in case you run into a pesky call number that's hard to find. It's on the clipboard in the reference drawer.

Google Jockeying- distraction or learning tool?

In "7 Things You Should Know About Google Jockeying" part of a series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, we learn about a new teaching tool that is being used in classes at the Annenberg School of Communication at USC. Professors designate a "Google jockey" for their lecture. This jockey is responsible for searching the internet to explore the topic being discussed. The results are projected onto a screen where all class members can see the searching and they can IM the jockey with more search suggestions. I don't know about you, but I have enough trouble focusing on a presenter or lecturer. I could see being completely stressed because I want to watch the searching and look at the results (which may not be the same results the jockey chooses to look at) and at the same time pay attention to the presenter. Could you be in a class where this is happening? Could be be a Google jockey? Read the report: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7014.pdf

Your Writing, Not Someone Else's

Check out this UW Business Writing Center produced video illustrating the evils of plagiarism.

Greater Access to the NTIS Collection Now Available

Search NTIS.GOV for titles from 1964 to present http://www.ntis.gov/search/index.aspx NTIS is pleased to launch its improved search engine with features such as: Enhanced retrieval with search functionality for categories, collections, and source agencies. * The NTIS search engine now more powerfully finds the information you need. * The Advanced Searching capabilities allows for an even greater focus on appropriate content for your search. Expanded access to the NTIS collection now includes the ability to search, retrieve and select from over 3.0 million products. * Improved access with new NTIS titles added each week. * Customers are provided a Product File of related purchased titles * Now you can find virtually any item in the NTIS collection and order many in your choice of format (downloads, printed copy, CD ROM or microfiche). * Search Help has step by step instructions and graphics: http://www.ntis.gov/search/index.aspx * All search results include a brief product description and easy access to place your order online, quickly, easily and securely.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Becomes Partisan Bone of Contention

In today's NYT article: Board’s Theory on Bridge Collapse Facing Tough Sell, the NTSB gets in in trouble with the Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Minnesota State Representative and Democrat, Jim Oberstar. Oberstar claims that the NTSB is jumping the gun with their claim that the 1/2" gusset plates used in the original construction of the I-35 bridge were 1/2" too thin and they caused the bridge's collapse last summer rather than neglect, which is the current theory. The more popular lack of maintenance belief has become a partisan issue. The final NTSB report isn't expected for 8 more months. For complete article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/us/30cnd-bridge.html?ex=1359349200&en=09693d9b0270a21e&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Do we need another reason to move to Hawaii?

Energy Department focuses on making Hawaii energy-independent.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1/28, Keefe) reported, "Federal and state energy officials are planning a major investment in new technologies in an attempt to make Hawaii the nation's first state to get the vast majority of its energy from renewable sources." The Energy Department will "solicit proposals from researchers, companies and others to dramatically expand Hawaii's use of solar and wind power." The agency will also seek to take advantage of the state's "unique resources to develop renewable sources of energy," such as "harnessing the power of ocean waves, creating new biofuels based on algae or palm oil, and increasing the use of underground heat generated beneath the island state's volcanoes." Hawaii was chosen by the Energy Department "because of its unique resources, its strategic location for national security, and the state's recent emphasis on developing more renewable energy." The Journal-Constitution noted, "Hawaii today gets about 90 percent of its energy from imported oil. Because of its isolation, its gasoline prices are typically the highest in the nation."

Omnibus Bill Mandates Access to Scientific Research

From ALA News: This includes the reinstatement of walk-in service at the Environmental Protection Agency’s 10 regional libraries. The funding is $1 million more than proposed by the Senate in June to reopen four libraries, including the headquarters library in Washington, D.C., and restore scaled-back hours elsewhere, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Also included in this bill is the mandate that the PubMed Central database receive for deposit within 12 months of publication peer-reviewed articles researched with funds from the National Institutes of Health. I know that the AAP is fiercely fighting this on behalf of journal publishers, but hopefully it will be stand. Read the full story: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2007/december2007/omnibus.cfm

Facebook and Research, together??

Searching Library Collections in Facebook

Facebook has a new plug-in that allows searching of WorldCat from an interface within Facebook. Not only is OCLC getting into the social networking scene but academic libraries and even JSTOR has plug-ins available as well. More... (from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Wired Campus, 1/8/08: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2643/searching-library-collections-in-facebook)

Social networking in Compendex, ScienceDirect

(This is an email I received from Lauren Ray, the UW Libraries' Educational Outreach Librarian.) "The Ubiquitous Librarian blog has a recent post on Elsevier's 2.0 tools, specifically how Compendex is using tagging through del.icio.us. I just tried a search in Compendex, and saw that by clicking on the detailed record for a citation, you have the option of adding a tag to the citation (which you can designate as public or for your eyes only). In ScienceDirect, when viewing a citation (Summary Plus), there is the option to "Add to 2Collab", a space in which you can bookmark and share Science Direct citations, websites, blogs, etc with other 2Collab users. I just tried a search in ScienceDirect, and ended up joining 2Collab. I would definitely recommend checking it out. There are library & info lit related groups in 2collab, including the group "Research Assessment and Citation Analysis". Even if you don't end up using 2Collab, it's worth exploring how these tools might help faculty and students enhance the way they discover new sources of information. You can also get a really nice overview of how librarians can use 2Collab from this 2 minute video, featuring a guided tour by the senior project manager for Science Direct: http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJmNQB1tswgY. -Lauren"

GrayLit Network Discontinued

The GrayLIT Network retired October 31, 2007. "Please use [ http://www.science.gov/ ] Science.gov or the [ http://www.scienceaccelerator.gov/ ] Science Accelerator to search across collections of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) scientific and technical information. As a free public service, searches will include research and development results, project descriptions, accomplishments, technical report and more, via resources made available by the [ http://www.osti.gov/ ] Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), U.S. DOE. Send any inquiries to [ mailto:graylit@osti.gov ] graylit@osti.gov." (odd that they still have 'graylit' in their email address!)

Boston Public plans to make government documents accessible

A digital library partnership, including two nonprofit organizations and the Boston Public Library, is preparing to begin making digital copies of the library’s paper-based government documents collection, which will then be made available on the Internet. Boston Public Library librarians said they planned to begin by digitizing the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings from the 1950s, which is regularly sought after by its patrons. Read the full article in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/business/27online.html?ref=technology

Great guide to finding online technical reports from Stanford librarian

Take a look at this long list of online technical report organizations, including AT &T Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, MIT, Stanford and other academic and corporate organizations. http://library.stanford.edu/depts/mathcs/research_help/guides/online_report_orgs.html

Nice explanation of the function/usage of ASME standards

I was looking for something to explain to a non-engineering student how standards work and stumbled on this great doc on the ASME site. Introduction to ASME codes and standards Anyhow, I thought it might be useful to someone. :) Sarah

The Library Game- sharpen your librarian skills!

http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/etc/game2/game2.swf Click on Hint for how to play-

RefWorks from IEEE Xplore

IEEE just enabled downloading in RefWorks format from their IEEE Xplore database. I let the faculty and students in EE, CSE, and TC know-- so there might be some questions at the reference desk about it. It's not the most obvious thing to import into RefWorks, so I put instructions below. Thanks! -Linda ---- Original Message ----- Great news! Citations from IEEE Xplore are now importable into RefWorks, an online citation management tool (if you don't have a RefWorks account yet, you can set one up at http://www.lib.washington.edu/ougl/refworks/ (please note-- you'll need to be on campus or logged into the UW Libraries' Proxy Server to access RefWorks). To import citations from IEEE Xplore (http://www.ieee.org/ieeexplore): 1. Click on the "AbstractPlus" view for the citation you wish to save. 2. Under "Download this Citation," choose "Citation" or "Citation & Abstract" from the Choose drop-down menu, and "RefWorks" from the Download drop-down menu, then click the Download button. 3. Your citation will be saved as a file with a .jsp extension. 4. Log in to RefWorks (https://www.refworks.com/Refworks/login.asp?). 5. Select References/Import from the toolbar. 6. Select "RIS Format" as the Import Filter/Data Source and "IEEE/IEE Electronic Library (IEL)" as the database. 7. Browse to find the text file saved to your computer. 8. Click Import -- your reference(s) will be in the "Last Imported" folder.

Auxiliary Stacks Requests

Just in case you haven't run into this, I found out yesterday that the Auxiliary Stacks Mediated Request form is down for a while. When I called circulation about it, their suggestions were to: -First try to get the patron to place a hold themselves through the catalog if that is possible. -If not, if they have a borrower's card, circulation can place a hold through Millenium. -And if all else fails, ask a circulation manager to email the hold in or call in to Suzzallo circulation. The timeline for getting the form up again was unknown when I called.

Introducing Le book

If you haven't seen this video, it's a classic!

Information R/evolution

A very creative video gives us pause to think about information and its organizational systems. Take a look!

I broke the door!

This morning I was headed to the main stairwell and the door handle on the first floor just came off in my hand. Maybe I'm super strong or maybe the building is falling apart. I alerted Chris and Tom and I called the Physical Plant. They said they'd send someone over. In the meantime, the door is propped open and the handle is here at the ref desk. After this I might have to dress up as the Hulk for Halloween.

The Scanner PC

Has anyone else heard complaints about the scanner/microfilm computer? Apparently, it's extremely slow in both running the Adobe program and browsing the Internet (so slow as to to cause people to just leave in the middle of trying to scan). A patron suggested we try defragmenting the hard drive (actually, she first suggested we just get a new computer), but there's probably nothing we can do besides maybe putting a sign on the bulletin board that says something like, "Patience is a virtue."

A Fair(y) Use Tale

If you haven't seen this video about copyright and fair use, it's definitely worth it! Plus you get to refresh your knowledge of animated Disney movies!

Antonio Panizzi: ''the fact of a man's being a political exile does not exclude him from the Reading Room.''

This NYT article from 1997 describes the establishment and relocation of the British Library's famous circular reading room. For the anglophiles and book lovers among us, it is an interesting trip back to Panizzi's time: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/09/bookend/bookend.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Four new chairs in engineering

The departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, BioEngineering and Electrical Engineering each have a new departmental chair. For full story: http://uwnews.org/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?visitsource=uwkmail&articleID=36831

engcirc blog

Steve and Laura maintain this blog for the circ students and staff but we should check it periodically too for shelving updates, other info.: http://stevesdesk.blogspot.com There is a link to it on the right sidebar of this page too.

Research Workstation - info and notes

Sending email from the pcs: Since we have now reconfigured all our 'public pcs' to the more restricted browser settings, commercial email sites will not be accessible. However emailing citations, articles, etc. is still possible using the file --> send function of the browser. This will open the Microsoft email form that can be used to send the item. Please mention to anyone using this that if they filter their email the message could end up in their junk mail folder. If they can't find the message they should look in the junk folder. Answering the inevitable questions about why we've changed our pcs: Those machines have been reconfigured to a somewhat more restrictive setting in order to better serve the needs of our primary user population. If there is a particular _research-related_ resource that you wish to use that you cannot connect to from those machines, please let us know the name or URL of that resource and we will explore making it accessible. If someone comes to one of you with such a request, take down the name or URL of the resource, the name and contact info (an e-mail address) of the person placing the request, and forward it to Julie C. and we WILL try to make the resource accessible if it is a request for something engineering-related (defined reasonably broadly) that we feel should justifiably be added to the Digital Registry. Who determines what's reasonable/justifiable? Julie, and if she's unsure about something, me. (Mel)

battery recycling

I just learned that we can recycle batteries, cell phones, pagers, ink catridges, CD's and DVD's at the Engineering Library! They go in the E-Media bin that's next to the table with the stapler on the first floor. Sorry if this is old news-- I almost sent someone away because I didn't know we could do this. http://www.washington.edu/admin/recycling/emedia.html

Machines to add funds have been installed, copier software updated...

The new Husky & Dawg-Prints Cards add-value station is now installed and operational in the Allen lobby, adjacent to the two print stations. This devise allows users to add value in any dollar denomination (bills only) to their Husky and Dawg-Prints Cards. It will also dispense Dawg-Prints Cards in any dollar denomination. The other 2 Dawg-Prints Cards dispensers in the building (the one in the Allen lobby and the one on Allen north 3rd floor, will be removed in the near future and reinstalled in branches that currently do not have dispensers. I will be updating both Info Index and public Web pages regarding this later this morning. Be aware that after the end of this month, OUGL Copy Center will no longer be able to add-value to Husky Cards. I will go ahead and remove OUGL Copy Center from the above-mentioned Web pages, though they will be able to continue adding value through the month of August. Since I last emailed you all, there have been great strides made in correcting many of the problems we had been seeing with the Pharos networking software. There have been 5 new versions of the software since August 17th, each one of which has demonstrably improved the performance. There are still some issues with the copiers that are connected to the network via wireless routers. There will be a solution of the wireless problems before the beginning of Fall term. Pharos is still working on creating a 100% functional software, and they still have until August 30 to get close enough to the goal as to be seamless to the largest percentage of our users. At this point, we no longer anticipate the need to roll out 'plan B' articulated in my last email. Some of the unresolved issues are: 1) Occasional need to 'restart' when there is no green light on the swipe. (This was reported to Pharos last week.) 2) Copy-ratio still only seems to offer a fixed number of reduction/enlargement options. It is, in fact, possible for users to key in any reduction or enlargement ratio they desire; it just is not evident that this is possible. 3) 2-sided copying is still not working off the glass (it does work on copiers with document feeders). 4) The 3 color copiers do not have many of the 'special features' available. All the above are currently being worked on by Pharos. I suspect numbers 1 & 2 to be fixed very soon. Numbers 3 & 4 will likely take longer. We hope to have them in place by the beginning of Fall term, but they are more complicated and require Pharos acquiring more proprietary code from Canon to do so. This will happen, but takes more negotiating between the 2 vendors. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adam C. Hall Manager of Operations Reference & Research Services Room 140 Suzzallo Library 206.685.2799

Copy Card updates

If anyone wants a refund on money left on their old print/copy cards, they can fill out a form that is located in the Reference Desk drawer. The form comes with an envelope addressed to Copy Services which can be dropped in any campus mail box. There are also forms/envelopes at the Circ Desk. Circ can also accept the completed forms for mailing. Funds can be transferred to the person's Husky card account (it takes about 10 days), or they can get a Dawg Prints card mailed to them with the amount of the refund on it. Those are the only options. Encourage people to transfer the funds to their Husky card account- Dawg Prints cards are primarily for off-campus visitors.