Physics Archive - Science and Engineering University at Buffalo Libraries

Science and Engineering

Archive for the ‘Physics’ Category

Additional Power Outlets Installed in Silverman Library

Need to plug in your laptop or phone on the 2nd floor of Silverman Library?

It’s now easier than ever!

Additional power outlets were installed on the second floor of Silverman Library during Spring Break. Each study table in the area near the windows now has six power outlets, making it easy to connect laptops, phones and other electronic devices without having to rearrange tables and chairs in that area.

“The University Libraries are continuing to push ubiquitous power sources for electronic devices in a long-range effort to enhance the study spaces we offer,” says Ken Hood, Facilities, Space Planning and Safety Officer for the Libraries. “Over winter break, we converted space formerly occupied by microforms on Silverman 2 into user space; and over spring break, we added power outlets in that new study space. This is another step towards our goal.”

Enjoy!

Find an Available Computer on Campus

Wouldn’t it be nice to know if a computer is available in the Cybrary or other public computing site before heading there? Now you can do just that!

The UBIT Find an Available Computer web page provides information about computer availability in various locations on north and south campuses. Try it at:

http://www.buffalo.edu/ubit/service-guides/computing-sites/available-cybrary-stations.html.

(Please note that some locations are still awaiting to have this feature added.)

Open Access Journal Directory – New Milestones

Ever wonder whether there were any good open access journals in your field? The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), launched in 2003, now lists over 8,000 peer reviewed journals. Simply put, open access (OA) journals are freely available to all readers on the Internet and do not have subscription charges. Many studies show that OA articles are downloaded and cited more than equivalent articles locked behind subscription walls.

Using DOAJ, journal titles can be searched using keywords and browsed by subject areas. They just announced two important milestones:

1) More than 1 million articles are now searchable in DOAJ. They expect this figure to increase significantly in the months to come.

2) More than 50% of the journals are providing metadata at article level.

In February, the White House issued a new directive that open access will be mandated for most federally funded research within the next year. Visit our Scholarly Communications web site for more information.

Stunning New Open Access Publication / Data Directive from the White House

On February 22, 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directed any federal agency spending more than $100 million per year on R&D to create open-access policies within the next six months. The policy will require all research articles funded by these agencies to be made open access (free-to-read) within 12 months of publication. In addition, digital data must be made publicly accessible. Naturally, classified research is exempted.

One option for fulfilling these upcoming requirements is to deposit your publications and data in our UB Institutional Repository. Our new Scholarly Communications web site has sections on publicly archiving your scholarship and on data management. These web pages contain the contact information for library staff that would be glad to discuss this new development with you.

Agencies covered by the new policy include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, and Transportation, as well as the EPA, FDA, NASA, and, mostly importantly, NSF. The White House announcement contains a link to the actual directive. A 3/7/2013 Chronicle of Higher Education article discusses the impact these new policies might have.

Database Snapshot: Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Full-text of the popular Springer book series Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) includes Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics (LNBI). Most volumes are conference proceedings. Major areas covered in this database are computer science, engineering, math, biology, statistics, GIS, information science, informatics, communication science, physics, bioinformatics, multimedia, and medical imaging. The database includes volumes from 1997-present. Some LNCS volumes in print are owned by the UB Libraries. Users can also refer to the LNCS/AI/BI Conference Acronym Index.

Tips for using Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Enter your terms in the search box in the blue bar (not the upper one). In the results list, full-text is noted with “Download PDF”. Refine your search using the left column of refine options. References for articles and related content are given on the item page.

2012 Knovel University Challenge

2012 Knovel University Challenge: More Questions, More Prizes!

The Challenge Has Begun!

Dates of the Contest: September 10 – December 1, 2012

Every year, the Knovel University Challenge allows students to compete for prizes while learning how to use Knovel, an engineering database and research tool that the UB Libraries subscribe to in order to make available the full-text of over 1,000 engineering handbooks that can help you with your homework and research.

Last year, students from more than 600 universities worldwide submitted more than 12,000 entries and a UB ENGINEERING STUDENT WAS THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER, taking home an iPad. We also had another UB engineering student win one of the contest-within-a-contest prizes. Let’s win again this year!

AND, this year there are even more opportunities to win, with new questions EVERY WEEK, and weekly prizes awarded as well. See below for the details.

What’s New: For the first time ever, there will be new questions and new winners EVERY WEEK, so there are even more opportunities for students to play and win great prizes, like Beats Audio earphones valued at $150 each and more. Knovel will also continue to award a randomly selected grand prize winner and the contest within the contest to schools with the highest number of participating students.

Who Should Play: The challenge is open to current engineering and science students. The only requirement is that you must use Knovel to answer the questions.

How to Play: Go to: http://www.knoveluniversitychallenge.com and click on the PLAY NOW button.

Note: There should be no need to log in to Knovel if you are on campus. If you are trying to access Knovel from off-campus, you should go instead to: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/pdp/index.asp?ID=240 and from this page click on the name of the database: Knovel E-Books: Science and Engineering. It will ask you to authenticate with your UBIT name and password and then pass you in. Once connected, click on the University Challenge banner at the top of the screen. Also, if coming in from off-campus, if you usually run VPN (UB’s virtual proxy network software), turn it off. It interferes with authenticating/accessing library-subscription databases like Knovel.

Let the Games begin!

Web of Science/Knowledge: Left-hand truncation now available

Hopefully, you know that most databases permit right-hand truncation or word stemming using a special character, usually an asterisk or question mark. For example, in Web of Science, searching for ‘biodegrad*’ would retrieve references with biodegrade, biodegradation, biodegraded, etc. Truncating words is perhaps the simplest way to ensure more complete retrieval of relevant records.

However, very few large databases permit left-hand truncation as well which allows retrieval of word roots with varying prefixes. As of late this summer, this is now possible in the Web of Knowledge and Web of Science. It can be used alone or with right-hand truncation.

The query ‘*degrad*‘ now retrieves degradation, photodegradated, biodegrade, etc. Left-hand truncation might not be something you need every day, but it cam be a powerful tool in creating more comprehensive searches. We are not aware of another current, major interdisciplinary database or platform that has a left-hand truncation feature.

Database Snapshot: Applied Science & Technology Index

Applied Science & Technology Index (ASTI) is a multi-disciplinary database covering over 800 periodicals, half of which are peer reviewed. Included are trade and industrial publications, journals issued by professional and technical societies, specialized subject periodicals, as well as special issues such as buyers’ guides, directories, and conference proceedings. The disciplines listed below indicated the broad range of topics covered by ASTI.

Acoustics
Aeronautics
Applied Mathematics
Artificial Intelligence
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Communication & Information Technology
Engineering & Biomedical Materials
Energy Resources & Research
Environmental Engineering
Geology
Industrial Engineering
Marine Technology
Mechanical Engineering
Mining Engineering
Neural Networks
Nuclear Engineering
Oceanography
Optical & Neural Computing
Petroleum & GasPhysicsRobotics
Space Science
Textile Industry & Fabrics

Many of the subjects provided offer links to full-text as well.

Tips for Using Applied Science & Technology Index

Choose multiple categories from the “Select a Field” menus in order to limit your searches.
Use the “Thesaurus” link at the top of the page to find the appropriate search terms.
- For example: if you enter “Math” in the Thesaurus, it will tell you to use “Mathematics” for better results.
Use an asterisk (*) to ‘truncate’ search terms.
- For example: searching “wom*n” will provide search results for both “woman” and “women.”

Database Snapshot: Energy & Power Source

Energy & Power Source is a partial full-text database designed to support the informational needs of the energy and power industries at all levels. It offers indexing from nearly 5,100 publications, including journals, monographs, magazines, and trade publications, all directly dealing with energy industry-related issues. Current topics include: Coal, natural gas, petroleum, electric and nuclear power, as well as renewable energy.

This collection covers many areas integral to the energy and power industries, including:

Coal
Nuclear Power
Electric Power
Petroleum
Natural Gas
Renewable Energy

Users will be pleased to find a wide range of information designed to serve energy industry professionals as well. Energy & Power Source provides information pertaining to both technical and business aspects of the energy industry.

Tips for Using Energy & Power Source

Choose multiple categories from the “Select a Field” menus in order to limit your searches.
Use the “Thesaurus” link at the top of the page to find the appropriate search terms.
- For example: if you enter “Atomic Energy” in the Thesaurus, it will tell you to use “Nuclear Energy” for better results.
Use an asterisk (*) to ‘truncate’ search terms.
- For example: searching “wom*n” will provide search results for both “woman” and “women.”

What’s New in Web of Knowledge

Earlier this month, Web of Knowledge began rolling out a series of new features and updates designed to give users a clearer and more complete view of scholarly material. These changes provide greater context and searchability, which developers hope will allow users to retrieve articles and citations with more efficiency and accuracy.

In terms of improving search capabilities, Web of Knowledge claims to now display more complete bibliographic descriptions, which include added context and data, in addition to adding more comprehensive information to it’s Cited Reference Lookup Table. The UK/US synonym dictionary has been expanded as well in order to pool results with more consistency. All together, these features create a more accurate and comprehensive picture of a work’s citation information.

At the user level, developers have also added a number of interesting functions to make searches more flexible and organizing retrieved works easier than ever. Users can now:

Mark and export cited references from an article’s bibliography
Search for a cited article or title
Display all known authors (and their positions) listed in a bibliography
Truncate values in the Topic, Title, UID, and ID codes fields

In all, these changes should continue to make life easier for those who use Web of Knowledge to any large degree, and are likely to precede future updates and innovations as databases become increasingly user-centric.

Web of Knowledge is a collection of multi-disciplinary databases containing leads to citations with bibliographical references for articles from over 8,000 journals. Many of the references include author-prepared abstracts, as well as links to the full-text of articles (when available).