Science at Collins

• Jacobsen, Neil E. 2007. NMR spectroscopy explained : Simplified theory, applications and examples for organic chemistry and structural biology. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.
•  Ortiz de Montellano, Paul R., ed. 2005. Cytochrome P450 : Structure, mechanism, and biochemistry. 3rd ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.Bryan, Jeff C. 2009. Introduction to nuclear science. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Roat-Malone, Rosette M. 2007. Bioinorganic chemistry : A short course. 2nd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.

• Glover, Beverley J. 2007. Understanding flowers and flowering : An integrated approach. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
• Gribbin, M., & Gribbin, J. R. (Eds.). (2008). Flower hunters. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.Schuenke, M., Ross, L. M., Lamperti, E. D., Taub, E., Schulte, E., Schumacher, U., et al (Eds.). (2007). Thieme atlas of anatomy : Head and neuroanatomy. Stuttgart ; New York: Thieme.
• Stebbins, G. L. 2., Hollowell, V. C., Smocovitis, V. B., & Duggan, E. P. (Eds.). (2007). The ladyslipper and I. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden.
• Ortiz de Montellano, Paul R., ed. 2005. Cytochrome P450 : Structure, mechanism, and biochemistry. 3rd ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

DVDs are moving behind the circulation desk.

To browse DVDs virtually, visit the Library Media Collection and click on the link for “All Languages”, or the link to limit by the language of your choice.

To search DVDs, follow those two steps. Then click on the “Modify Search” button, and replace the asterisk in the search box with  your keywords.

Once you’ve found the DVD you’d like to check out, just ask the staff person at the circulation desk.

ArXiv just announced a new opt-in service for authors, a public author identifier, that will make it easier to find your work.

What does this mean?

A public author identifier is a unique string of characters that makes it it possible to disambiguate authors from each other (letting you be certain that J. A. Smith is a different author than J. Smith) and to search comprehensively for everything written by an author (letting you be certain you’ve found all of J.A. Smith’s papers, including those signed with different forms of the name, like  J. Smith,  or published under an earlier name, like J. Brown).

Right now, ArXiv uses authority records to link authors together in most of these situations, which helps keep authorship in order. However, it is a strictly in-house system. It can’t communicate easily with other services, unlike the public author identifier.

The public author identifier is a URI, or unique string of characters. It will ultimately be linkable to resources not in ArXiv, so that papers in another database could be found, if not accessed, by an author search in ArXiv. This will make it easier for interested readers to find everything you’ve written, upping exposure and citation possibilities.

What else does it do that’s new?

In addition to making publications more obvious, the public author identifier has a few other nifty advantages.  The public author identifier makes it possible to:

• Enter the URI into a browser and automatically have it resolve it into an HTML web page listing all your ArXive deposited publications, as in this example.
• Follow an author or be followed as an author via RSS feed.
• Automatically and dynamically include a complete list of your publications on your own web page using a widget called myarticle. Once the code is inserted in your page, every time an article of yours is deposited in ArXiv, the list on your web page will be updated with no further effort from you.
• Automatically list your articles on your Facebook profile and comment on or discuss ArXiv articles with other authors using the app myarxiv.

How do I use it?

Contact an ArXiv administrator to opt in if this sounds interesting as an author. Then try out any of the new services, or just rest assured that your publications are easier to find.

As a reader, keep an eye out for others using the system, so you can more efficiently keep track of work!

Stop by Collins Library today or tomorrow morning, where Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling monastery are creating a sand mandala, an intricate design painted with sand. Learn more about the tradition of sand painting and its meaning in Tibetan Buddhism.

The mandala begins with geometric chalk drawings which are gradually filled in with more detailed sand painting. Read a bit more about the relationship between geometry and the sacred in  Robert Lawlor’s Sacred Geometry.

Collins Library wants to ensure that we’re serving our community as well as possible. As a result, you’ll find talkback boards around the library and in select campus locations inviting you to answer the following question:

• What do you wish for at the library?
• What do you like about the Library?
• What would make you want to use the library more (online or in person)?

Please use these talkback boards to tell us what you think. Or, answer in the comments of this blog!

Another alternative is to send your thoughts via email. Just go to our ASK US! link here or on the main page of the library website.

However you choose to send it, we’d love to hear what you think!

 
Carnegie Mellon has digitized The American Journal of Science from 1819 to 1895, making it openly available to users.

The American Journal of Science continues to be published as a geology and earth science journal, though it began more broadly as The American Journal of Science and Arts in 1818. Despite the change in subject matter, it is the oldest continuously published science journal in the US.

While Collins Library holds volumes from 1883 to the present, the earlier content may be of use to students of history, geology, and STS. Click into the Carnegie Mellon AJS site to browse and search the collections. If you decide to search, I’d recommend searching in another Collins database (like GeoRef, which covers much of the journal) to find the citation, and then browsing in. The AJS archive relies on optical character recognition, which makes searching a little less consistent.

Just a taste of what you might find…

I searched GeoRef for AJS articles by Othniel Charles Marsh , then tried Edward Drinker Cope.  Direct access to one of the most dramatic feuds in paleontology!