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."