Web 2.0 – what comes next?

 What will the next generation of the web bring?

Stephen Abram, Vice President Innovation, SirsiDynix USA, is a leading lighthouse thinker and trend forecaster in the world of libraries and information.

Stephen will be giving a free public address:

 Monday 8 September

5:30 to 6:30 pm

Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania.

Stephen is a dynamic and inspiring speaker. Some of the questions he will address are:

Right now we’re talking about Web 2.0.  But what comes next?

What should we be doing and planning for now to be prepared for a world that is changing faster than ever and users who are entering a world that is a paradox of excitement and challenge.

A socially driven web is coming fast and its transformational potential is huge.

Stephen will also run us though the changes that are being wrought by Googlers, the Millennials and information 3.0.

Further information: Morris Miller Librarian (03) 6226 2395

“Mega” Ebsco database trial now running

Until December 2008, UTAS Library clients have access to MegaFile Premier; an impressive array of  databases, covering many different disciplines.  Many of these databases are full-text, so you also have access to many more electronic journals as well.

Of most interest to UTAS users will be the Academic Search Premier, Health Source, Newspaper Source and Psychology and Behavioral Science Collection; but there is much more to explore, so check out the full list of databases on trial with links.

Our database pages  also contain a link to a full list of all Ebsco databases currently available. This includes those on trial until December 2008 and those we already subscribe to.

Improved Ebsco database searching

Ebsco provides several of our most useful and popular databases- Business Source Premier, ANZ Reference Centre, CINAHL…and others.

The Ebsco search interface has just had a major upgrade. Here are some of the major changes:

• Images, graphs, charts appear in search results
• Improved  ways of limiting results
• “Visual search” allows you to move and rearrange search terms
• “Smart text” searching allows you to paste a whole block of text (usually from another highly relevant article) and the software will interpret it, create a strategy and perform a search to find similar articles
• A “cite” feature gives clear guidelines on how to reference the results you find in a number of styles like APA, Chicago and Vancouver
• All articles have persistent links. These persistent links will be relocated from the body of the record to the browser URL bar for easier bookmarking. Lecturers can easily embed these in MyLO.

These features are available for you on any Ebsco database, and most of the new feature are neatly summarized on this page in Ebsco’s Support site.
Only a few of these feature are truly new, but it is presented in a more user friendly way.

Contact your Liaison Librarian for more information.

Introducing the new AMC Librarian

I am Ian Bollard and I have started an 18 month secondment as the AMC Librarian. I come to the AMC Library with a background of providing information and liaison services recently in the sciences at the Launceston Campus Library and previously in other disciplines such as business.  In the darkest past I worked at the Bureau of Meteorology library in Melbourne. I hope to complete my studies in the Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching this year. I am committed to improving the learning opportunities in information skills so staff and students can become independent researchers. I am keen to demonstrate the services and resources available to staff and students. It  is an interesting fact that the AMC Library has the next largest number of loans behind the bigger libraries of the Launceston Campus and Morris Miller Libraries. If you are in the vicinity, please drop by the AMC Library and say hello to Michelle and Ian.

Update on Wiley Interscience database

There are some ongoing issues (see blog post 30 June) with the transfer of Blackwell titles to Wiley Interscience and some content is not yet available. This problem is being worked on and the missing content should be available soon.

Information regarding the transition is available at www.interscience.wiley.com/transition

 

 

24 JULY UPDATE: PROBLEM FIXED

What is the International Computer Driving Licence?

This course comprises 7 online units and is available to all UTAS staff and students.

Find out more at http://www.utas.edu.au/library/icdl/index.html or ask at any UTAS Library.

Computer science – useful information

Couldn’t make it to Europe for your favourite Computer Conference in 2008?  Lose your Conference Proceedings CDROM at the conference dinner ?  Wondering what you missed at ICIAR 2008, DILS 2008 or  SIPEW 2008 ?

Luckily you may find the fulltext proceedings in the Library Database called  “Lecture Notes in Computer Science”-  a Springer online book series.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science covers disciplines such as: Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence (incl. Robotics), Computer Communication Networks, Software Engineering, Data Encryption, Database Management, Computation by Abstract Devices and Algorithm Analysis and Problem Complexity.

Find it under “L” on the Library Databases page 

 

 

 

Saving ‘Received’ documents in ZPortal

The documents we attach to your ZPortal as a PDF link should be viewed/saved or printed out within 30 days. After this period of time, under Copyright regulations, we are required to remove the documents from our server. Recently we have had a couple of phone calls from users asking what had happened to a file received many months ago.

 

The above information is contained in the ‘Received’ alert sent out when the document is first attached. However, we shall also include it on our Document Delivery web pages to increase the prominence.

 

Of course, we can ‘repurchase’ the article once the request has been resubmitted, but we would like to avoid this.

EndNote XI for Mac: Word 2008 toolbar

Good news for Endnote users who have a Mac.

A problem affecting the Cite while You Write toolbar for Word 2008 has now been fixed via a downloadable patch.

All the information you need to download and install this patch is available from the Endnote support website.