October 2004 Newsletter - LANL Research Library

Research Library Newsletter
October 2004

Table of Contents

New Research Library website
Elsevier ebooks and reference works now available at your desktop
Nature research journals backfiles now available at your desktop
New Nature journal - Nature Methods
New database clusters in engineering, aeronautics & space sciences, and materials science
Technical reports
Searching for safety
Visitors from Max Planck discuss digital libraries
New electronic journals from the Research Library
Search engines: Ask Jeeves becomes more personal

Past issues
Index
Subscribe

Did you know...

Our new LANL contract competition web page provides links to important documents and news reports on the unfolding contract competition.

New Research Library website

The new Research Library website is available at http://library.lanl.gov. Members of the Research Library staff conducted usability interviews for six months before going live with the new site and appreciate the time and effort of those LANL scientists and engineers who provided feedback.

New features include:

Organization of the home page based on LANL usage statistics
A journal search tool on the home page
A site index on every page to facilitate browsing and navigation
Resource by subject pages which identify key resources and integrate databases, ejournals, reference materials, web resources, and other resources on the same page
A sandbox for showing users the work of the Library Without Walls team while it's still in development
Demonstrations of new web technologies such as RSS feeds

Please send comments to library@lanl.gov.

The web team

Elsevier ebooks and reference works now available at your desktop

Selected Elsevier Ebooks and Reference Works are now available to LANL researchers via the Science Direct website. Titles available for LANL use are readily identified by a green text icon indicating a licensed subscription. You can also access these titles through the Library Catalog.

Reference Works include:

Selected Ebooks series cover the following broad subject areas:

Business, Management & Economics (54 titles) - Subject areas covered include organizational behavior, human resources, strategy, international business and management, accounting and economics, marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation, leadership, cognition and psychology. Sample titles:

Chemistry (12 titles) - Subject areas covered include chemical engineering, catalysis, spectroscopy, biochemistry/medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, organic and inorganic chemistry, and quantum chemistry. Sample titles:

Life Sciences (33 titles) - Subject areas covered include agriculture, ecosystems and environment, agricultural systems, forest ecology and management, scientia horiculturae, aquatic toxicology, marine biology and ecology, insect physiology, soil biology & biochemistry, phytochemistry, hydrology, and geoderma. Sample titles:

Methods of Enzymology (including backfiles)

Irma Holtkamp (isholtkamp@lanl.gov)

Nature research journals backfiles now available at your desktop

The Research Library has made available at your desktop the electronic backfiles for the Nature research journals. This includes access to every issue published from volume 1 issue 1 to 1998 of:

Nature Biotechnology (1983-1998)
Nature Genetics (1992-1998)
Nature Medicine (1995-1998)
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (1994-1998)

These titles include content from the four original Nature research journals, previously published in print only. Articles are available in PDF format with HTML versions of abstracts and reference lists. Fulltext articles are linked in the LANL databases (SearchPlus, etc.) and available through LinkSeeker.

Carol Hoover (hoover@lanl.gov)

New Nature journal - Nature Methods

The Research Library has subscribed to a LANL-wide license for online access to the latest Nature journal - Nature Methods. Nature Methods is a forum for the dissemination of novel research methods for life scientists and chemists. The journal is meant to bridge the two research communities by bringing chemistry tools to biologists and making chemists aware of biologists' needs.

Nature Methods aims to introduce methods at a stage where they have not yet gained a track record of success but show definite promise and are likely to stimulate other researchers. Established methods will also be addressed. The Protocol section will focus on established methods that still present a technical challenge. Nature Methods is producing this section in association with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, the publisher of numerous laboratory manuals that constitute the prime references in their fields. The Reviews section will attempt to address challenges that arise when the general direction of research in a field makes certain recently developed methods almost indispensable.

The inaugural issue is available at http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nmeth/archive/index.html. Nature Methods records in SearchPlus (now including BIOSIS and Inspec) will be linked to the fulltext articles via LinkSeeker.

Carol Hoover (hoover@lanl.gov)

New database clusters in engineering, aeronautics & space sciences, and materials science

In an effort to continually expand searching options for our LANL customers, the Research Library is now providing the following research database clusters. Just click on the Databases page and look under “Databases by alphabet” for CSA or look under “Databases by subject” for your desired subject area, such as “Materials science.” Once you click on one of the CSA database clusters, you will be presented with this screen. From here, select the desired database(s) to begin searching on your topic.

The CSA Engineering Research Database – With a strong focus on engineering topics ranging from civil, earthquake, environmental, mechanical, and transportation engineering to technological and engineering aspects of air and water quality, environmental safety, energy production and developments. The subfiles that make up the CSA Engineering Research Database can be searched separately if desired. The subfiles are:

The CSA High Technology Research Database with Aerospace brings together in one place research in the areas of aeronautics, astronautics, computer & information technology, electronics, communications, solid state materials and devices, and space sciences. The subfiles can be searched separately, if desired. The subfiles are:

The CSA Materials Research Database with METADEX combines the majority of the leading materials science databases, with specialist content on materials science, metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, and composites used in engineering application. The subfiles can be searched separately, if desired. The subfiles are:

For broad searches, "CSA Technology Research Database" combines all three of these clusters. As with all CSA databases, the LANL Research Library has provided links to full-text articles to which the library subscribes via the LinkSeeker icon.

Lou Pray (lpray@lanl.gov)

Technical reports

The Research Library has 1.5 million unclassified technical reports, in electronic, paper and microfiche formats. And Library staff help LANL customers find report literature to support their research. Our recently revised web pages, starting with the main Reports page, provide information on the report collection and how to find reports. Links are provided to the Library Catalog and DOE databases -- the best places to start -- and to the databases and catalogs of other government agencies and facilities available on the web.

The Library Service Desk can help with questions about finding and obtaining reports. The report vault, where paper and microfiche reports are stored, is no longer open for walk-in visitors, however you can request copies and they will be retrieved by library staff. The How to obtain reports page explains your options for getting copies of reports.

The Research Library collection includes all unclassified reports, including limited access reports, but not classified. For classified reports or videos, contact IM-9's Classified Report Collection staff at 665-4168.

Searching for safety

The Research Library provides access to many full-text articles and specific journal titles on safety. Using our most popular tool, SearchPlus, you can search Social SciSearch to locate full-text articles in "Safety Science," the "Journal of Safety Research," "Risk Analysis" and "Accident Analysis and Prevention." Searching the entire range of databases in SearchPlus allows you to discover safety focused articles from a broad spectrum of subject areas.

Science Server provides indexing and access to "Chemical Health and Safety" and "Fire Safety Journal," as well as many in-depth articles written for academic audiences.

A third helpful database, ABI/INFORM, gives you a view into many industry specific journals with excellent articles written by working professionals. This database has access to a few more safety journals, but its strength is the industry view-point. ABI/INFORM has tabs to lead you into the literature by topic, basic and advanced searching, publication title, and topic (or keyword) searching. The ability to e-mail articles to colleagues is especially useful, and you can access full-text for most articles. Although all the databases contain indexing for safety information, these specific databases are a good way to start your search and provide quick and relevant results.

Donna Berg (donna.berg@lanl.gov)

Visitors from Max Planck discuss digital libraries

The Research Library hosted visitors from the Max Planck Society, who traveled to Los Alamos to see a demonstration of Library Without Walls capabilities and discuss the development of digital library capabilities. The Max Planck visitors were representing the Information and Communication Technology Unit of the Administrative Headquarters, the Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management in the Max Planck Society, and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry.

Donna Berg (donna.berg@lanl.gov)

New electronic journals from the Research Library

The following new electronic journals have been added to the library collection and are available from your desktop:

Carol Hoover (hoover@lanl.gov)

Search engines: Ask Jeeves becomes more personal

Ask Jeeves has taken a giant step in service to make that search engine more personal and useful.

Take a test drive by clicking on the "My Jeeves Tour" which is currently in beta mode. After executing a search you can save individual results, organize them into folders, add short notes that create metadata for the results, and e-mail results to another colleague. You can save up to 1,000 results, and if you register for MyJeeves you may save an unlimited number of items. Registration also allow you to search your folders from any computer.

Ask Jeeves has also beefed up their address/map search function, added an interesting site preview feature called 'binoculars', and now routinely includes many of the capabilities found when using search engines such as Google: word definitions, advanced search, searching for pictures, news.

The site is especially crisp and clean and the personalization features will help you organize your own personal web without downloading or purchasing any additional software for your desktop.

Donna Berg (donna.berg@lanl.gov)

Comments?
If you have comments or suggestions for other topics you would like to see covered in this newsletter, pease send your ideas to the Newsletter Editor.

Want to be notified of new issues?

Newsletter Editorial Team: Donna Berg, Helen Boorman, Lou Pray, and Kathy Varjabedian.

Research Library Newsletter October 2004

Research Library Newsletter
October 2004