Faculty Support

Finding Aids at the University at Buffalo Libraries

Library Administration — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:38:30 +0000

The University at Buffalo Libraries are proud to announce the availability of a new tool that will vastly improve access to finding aids for our unique archival collections. The database stores finding aids from University Archives, the Poetry Collection, the Law Library, and the Music Library. It operates using the eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) system developed by the California Digital Library.

The database can be accessed directly at http://libweb1.lib.buffalo.edu:8080/xtf/search. Associated pages contain information about UB’s archival collections, Encoded Archival Description as a format, and the structure of UB’s EAD finding aids. The database has also been added to the UB Libraries list of Databases by Title under “Finding Aids at the University at Buffalo Libraries“.

What are finding aids? Finding aids are guides to archival records, personal papers, or manuscripts. They describe a collection’s origins, contents, and organization in more detail than the library catalog describes books. They are tools to help researchers determine if a collection contains useful information and where that information is located. Visit About UB Finding Aids for more information.

Explore Free E-Books and Major E-Book Readers

Library Administration — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:53:49 +0000

For the book industry, 2009 is rapidly becoming the Year of the E-Book. There have been major developments involving Google, of course, but also Barnes & Noble and the Internet Archive. New readers are on the market and more are to come. You can learn about these developments from a wealth of material on the Web, including a diversity of videos. The following post may be just what you need to consider whether e-books and e-book readers are technologies you’d like to try.

Nicholson Baker and Robert Darnton

Popular author with an interest in libraries — famous historian and director of Harvard University Libraries.

Baker, Nicholson. “A New Page.” The New Yorker 85, no. 23
(August 3, 2009): 24-30.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_baker

Darnton, Robert. “On the ropes? Robert Darnton’s Case for Books.”
Publisher’s Weekly 256, no. 37 (September 14, 2009).

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6696290.html

Free E-Books, Some Sources

Adobe Digital Editions Sample Library
http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/library/

Google Books (Select Advanced Search.)
http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search?q=war
Before you search, select “public domain.” Either PDF or ePub works well.

Google Books Mobile
http://books.google.com/m
For iPhone and Android. While these books were already available on Google Book Search, these new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen.

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
Select from Computer Generated Files, bottom of the screen. For Digital Editions, use the ePub format.

Bookserver (The Internet Archive)
http://www.archive.org/bookserver
A lending and vending system for e-books. It “ will allow users to find, buy, or borrow digital books from sources all across the web. The system, built on an open architecture and using open book formats, promises that the books housed there will work on any device whether that’s a laptop, PC, smartphone, game console, or one of the myriad of e-Readers like Amazon’s Kindle.” For context read cnet News’ “Internet Archive’s Bookserver could “dominate” Amazon” (19 October 2009): http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10378573-52.html.

What’s Out There? Formats and Readers

An Overview of Current Readers
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

eBook Reader Guide
http://ebook-reader-guide.com/
Compares a large array of readers.

E-Books Come in Different Formats

Wikipedia’s Comparison of E-Book Formats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats

More on E-Book Formats
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_formats
The formats your reader can handle will determine the e-books you can read. To find conversion programs, conduct a Google search, entering “convert” and “the name of the format you would like to convert.” To convert ePub format, for instance, enter: epub convert.

SONY

Sony PRS-505
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2q3_bwUZ4
A detailed overview.

Sony Touch Edition PRS-600
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWl60GNcQIw

Sony Daily Edition – Wireless (The Latest in Sony Readers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23b8-ozAGB0
A direct challenge to the Kindle: good images and impartial comparisons and teaming up with Google.

AMAZON

Kindle DX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myqkadSYT2Q

Kindle 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgxSR72TWrY
Text-to-speech demonstration.

Kindle 2
http://www.amazon.com
Click on the Kindle image at the bottom of the Web page, see the two videos: A Guided Tour and Amazon Kindle (testimonials).

Mobipocket
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp?Language=EN
These books will work on a Kindle – among other readers, Mobipocket Reader software, a universal reader for PDAs. The Mobipocket software package is free and consists of various publishing and reading tools for PDA, Smartphones, cellular phones and e-book devices (Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Java ME, BlackBerry, Psion, Kindle and iLiad). There is a reader software version for personal computers running on Microsoft Windows. It allows you to import different file formats, among them HTML, PDF, OEB, CHM , TXT and Microsoft Office formats. Unencrypted Mobipocket books can be read on Mac OS X and the iPhone using Lexcycle Stanza or Calibre, third-party programs. (Description from the Wikipedia.)

Barnes and Noble

Nook: “The World’s Most Advaned eBook Reader”
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/?cds2Pid=30919

Nook Demonstrated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezlLHKktf9I

Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic Flexible Display Demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0znv3V-GsNk
How flexible is the display? Very.

Plastic Logic Reader – Open and Flexible (Literally)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOWQvrgdZRE

What Makes Plastic Logic Different?
http://tinyurl.com/6jndaq
What makes this different from a Kindle? Many things.

Teaming Up with Barnes and Noble
http://tinyurl.com/l36ngk
A very good general overview and – again – the differences from the Kindle

Apple’s iTouch and iPhone

Using the Touch or Phone a Reader
http://cnettv.cnet.com/use-your-iphone-e-book-reader/9742-1_53-50004447.html

eReader.com
http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/browse.htm
Software and bookstore.

Stanza Tutorial
http://blip.tv/file/1705824
A free app that allows you to read e-books.

Safari
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysWBfaPZs94
Safari: the Web browser.

Kindle Books for iPhone and iPod Touch
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000301301
Buy a book from the Kindle Store optimized for Safari on your iPhone or iPod touch and get it auto-delivered wirelessly.

Information skills in the disciplines…

cvh2 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:55:46 +0000

The Association of College & Research Libraries has compiled a discipline-specific list of information literacy standards and curricula developed by accrediting agencies, professional associations, and institutions of higher education.

UB librarians understand the importance of developing students’ information skills in ways that are relevant and targeted to the intricacies of their academic disciplines. Librarians are in collaboration with faculty in all areas of study for this purpose. For ideas, contact your subject librarian today!

Open Access Week – October 19-23, 2009

Library Administration — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:34:34 +0000

What is Open Access (OA) and why do we need a week devoted to it? Peter Suber, one of the leading proponents of Open Access briefly explains it this way, “OA literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder. OA is entirely compatible with peer review, and all the major OA initiatives for scientific and scholarly literature insist on its importance. ”

More of a visual learner? Take a look at this video: Open Access 101.

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) created Open Access Week to “to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the international higher education community and the general public.” This year’s Open Access Week is supported by SPARC, The Public Library of Science, Students for Free Culture, Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook, Open Access Directory, and Electronic Information for Libraries.

You can find out more by visiting the UB Libraries Scholarly Communication web page on Open Access, picking up a handout at any of the UB Libraries Reference Desks and reading the Electronic Highways column in this week’s Reporter.

NIH Public Access Policy Clarification

Library Administration — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:01:59 +0000

RESEARCHERS: A National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy clarification notice has been published regarding the NIHMS (manuscript) and PMC (PubMed Central) ID numbers required to document your compliance with this policy. See NIH Public Access Policy – Overview for more information.

Cancellations – Fall 2009

Library Administration — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:00:48 +0000

The University Libraries regretfully submit the following list of periodicals, serials, microform subscriptions, and databases that we will cut from our collections during this year. The majority of these cancellations will go into effect January, 2010. Some full-text content will still be available through alternative means of access, including via third-party (database) providers. Please see our list of electronic journals to check the availability of any particular title. Fortunately, we were able to avoid even deeper cuts by continuing to shift print subscriptions over to electronic access wherever possible. This shift to online versions typically saves only a modest amount of subscription costs, but avoids significant processing, binding, and storage costs.

List of Cancellations (HTML)

Decisions were made following consultation with appropriate and associated schools and individual faculty. Such cuts are necessitated by the inability of the Libraries’ acquisitions budget to cover the rising costs of scholarly information and by the need to cull lesser-used materials in order to buy new items that are in high demand. This list is multidisciplinary and arranged in alphabetical order by title. While it does not come easily or naturally to us to cancel subscriptions, we feel that we have been able to work our way through a difficult budgetary year doing only minimal damage to the collections on which you depend. Further, we are confident that efficient interlibrary loan and purchase-on-demand capabilities that have been greatly enhanced in recent years by computer technologies allow us to compensate quickly when you need something we do not own. On behalf of the Libraries, I would like to thank you for your continuing support, cooperation, and input. If you have questions or concerns regarding individual titles, please contact Austin Booth habooth@buffalo.edu, 645-2814 ext 422.

Stephen Roberts, Associate Vice President for University Libraries

National Information Literacy Month…

cvh2 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:14:16 +0000

President Obama proclaimed October 2009 as National Information Literacy Month. Read the full proclamation from the White House Press Office:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-National-Information-Literacy-Awareness-Month/

UB librarians specialize in helping to develop your students’ information skills. We do so in person, in the classroom, and online. Learn more by contacting your subject librarian today!

Cheers!

SciFinder: Web-based Access Required by October 13, 2009

Library Administration — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:57:58 +0000

On Tuesday morning, October 13, 2009, all access to SciFinder will be through the new web-based interface that Chemical Abstracts Service has developed over the past few years. The benefits and rationale for this change are explained in the SciFinder Web FAQ Document (PDF) at http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ScFinderWebFAQ.pdf

Although the web version does not require any special software, the vendor does require individual registration. This quick and simple process is described at our UB/CAS SciFinder Registration Site at . Your UB email address must be used during registration.

Please note Chemical Abstracts Service has stopped development work on the special client access program that we have used since 2000. Compelling reasons for this migration include the ability to save searches and run them against new records as they are added to the database (Keep me posted), and increased security.

Please contact our chemistry/physics librarian, A. Ben Wagner at with any questions or concerns. For more information about SciFinder Web, see http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/pdp/index.asp?ID=438

The Future of Paper/Print Publishing

Library Administration — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:04:19 +0000

This week’s Electronic Highways column in the UB Reporter focuses on transformations in publishing and distributing scholarly information. Find out more about how publishers, scholars, research libraries, professional organizations, and universities are working together on the initiatives, and the local efforts at UB, by reading the full article. The ‘Electronic Highways’ column written by UB librarians appears weekly during the academic year.

SciFinder Scholar I – Library Workshop

Library Administration — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:13:42 +0000

SciFinder Scholar I: Introduction

This will be a hands-on overview of the scope and capabilities of SciFinder Scholar, which provides access to over 84 million compounds, 38 million literature references, and over 10 million reactions. Learn the basics of searching and navigation with a brief introduction to substance searching. No knowledge of chemical structure drawing is required to attend this session.

Date: Friday 9/18/2009 10:00 AM
Location: 212 Capen Hall, Teaching & Learning Center
Instructor: A. Ben Wagner (abwagner@buffalo.edu)

See the Teaching & Learning Center Workshops Schedule for a full listing of workshops.