Science at Collins

Waste reduction is the focus of the Live Green challenge’s second week. Click on the photo at left to see a list of selected books at Collins Library on the topic.

Selections range from a new industrial design ethos, to the story of a man who studies the vast island of trash in the Pacific, to practical actions you can take now as a consumer and a member of a university to reduce waste, to the surprising afterlife of garbage. Check one of them out, or search our catalog for more.

February is Live Green Challenge month at University of Puget Sound, and Collins Library is looking to live green, too! After all, what idea could be more sustainable than a library, where many people are able to share the same resources.

We invite you to visit the library during the month of February to see our display in support of the Live Green Challenge. Stop by the Learning Commons on the main floor to find reading suggestions and a place to leave a green resolution (on re-used paper, of course!).

Keep an eye on this blog, too—each week this month we’ll release a list of selected great titles on that week’s Live Green theme! This week, browse a list of selected books on energy and energy conservation by clicking on the post’s illustration.

The library recently received a notice from the School of Education about an open house on what it’s like to be an educator. They hoped that science students would attend—it’s a great opportunity to hear educators talk about what it’s like to do their jobs, and there is certainly a need for more science and math teachers!

Are you thinking about becoming a teacher? The School of Education will present a discussion on “A Career in Education? Practitioners Talk about What Life in Schools is Really Like” at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9 in Trimble Forum.

Three teachers will speak about their experiences teaching in a variety of settings. This will be followed by what promises to be a lively and informative discussion. Food will be served. All campus members are welcome to attend. The event is presented by the Teaching and Counseling Professions Advisory Committee.

Visiting reference hours with your science liaison in Harned hall will begin on March 3, 2010. Over the last few semesters, most of the questions I’ve gotten have been leading up to or after midterms, so I’m adjusting hours to better match that pattern.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to email, phone (x3649), or drop by my office (Library 117)  if you have a question!

CAS has made CASSI, the CAS Source Index tool, freely available online.

Formerly only available by subscription on CD, this is a great little tool for expanding equivocal journal title abbreviations before searching and is essential for confirming an abbreviation for an ACS citation. Searches are available by title, coden, and ISSN, as well, for tracing lost citations.

Bookmark the site yourself, or find it out when you need it on the Chemistry Research Gateway page.

Check out publications from the American Museum of Natural History. Starting with material published in the 19th century and carrying on in some cases to the present, you can find zoological systematics, paleontology, geology, evolution, and anthropology material in full text PDFs.
The series include:

• American Museum Novitates
• Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History
• Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
• James Arthur Lecture on the Evolution of the Human Brain
• Manuscripts in the AMNH Library
• Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History

Browse by series, or search by publication number or keyword at the AMNH Scientific Publications Library.

This would be especially great for finding classics of descriptive geology, material for STS students interested in American scientific history, or biology students. Find it linked here, and on the STS, Geology, and Biology Research Gateway pages.

The Department of Energy’s Information Bridge Search engine is a great way to get into the government-published energy literature. And now, you can quickly assess whether retrieved items are of interest by automatically generating word clouds in your search results. Just hover your mouse over the item’s title or PDF file, and a cloud of the most commonly used words in the text will pop up:

Not quite as precise as an abstract, perhaps, but definitely a quicker way to suss out the material than by opening each PDF manually to find the one you want.

Look in the left hand bar of Information Bridge searches, as well, to find subject clusters and authors to narrow down your search:

Or try it yourself:

The University of Puget Sound’s Collins Library is beginning a new award, generously sponsored by the Book Club of Washington—a Book Collecting Contest for all full time undergraduate students at UPS!

First prize is $1,000; second prize is $500.  Definitely worth thinking about while on break! Find more information and application instructions at the library page, or stop by the Learning Commons desk to pick up a flier.

It’d be exciting to see some science collections. Stop by the library to see some examples. Right now, we have a variety up in the Link across from the circulation desk—from calligraphy to Mother Goose to translations and popularizations of Newton’s works!

We’re testing out a new database called GREENR, aimed at Environmental Policy & Decision Making research. It features scholarly and popular articles, a search interface, and topical portals.

Check it out at our Trial Databases page, and send us your feedback!

Though 2009 had enough significant scientific anniversaries to be “The International Year of Science”, 2010 won’t be without its celebrations. The Royal Society will celebrate its 350th anniversary, and as part of the celebration, they’ve release a fantastic site highlighting key scientific publications of the Philosophical Transactions between 1666 to 2008.

Entitled Trailblazing, the  site is a movable timeline of  important discoveries and events in the history of science. White bubbles mark events, and red bubbles mark key scientific papers published by the Royal Society. Click the red bubbles for a signed popup including a signed essay explaining the paper’s significance and context,  links to further information and free full text of the scanned original paper.

Content isn’t restricted to perennial favorites alone. Sure, the discovery of DNA is included, but so are reports on the first blood transfusion, early eye surgery, probability, and geoengineering. It’s a nifty way to get a quick overview of largely British science from 1660 or so, could be a great place for students to browse as they narrow down research topics, or just enjoy making some serendipitous discoveries.