Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Global Trend: More Science, More Fraud - New York Times

Read about the recent scandal in South Korea and an overview of the current state of ethics and truth in scientific publishing.

Global Trend: More Science, More Fraud - New York Times

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Dog Genome Sequenced


The genome sequence of a dog is now available on open-access from several sites. This site from NCBI also has lots of other interesting genetics links and tools.

NCBI Dog Genome Resources

My dog Pinky ----------->

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

What good is a journal article if you don't know it is there?

In order for journal articles to be used by students and scholars, they must have some way of being found. That is what indexing and abstracting services are for. The index takes all of the titles, authors and other pertinent information from published journals and makes it searchable for users. As new open-access publications are gaining reputations, various indexing services are picking them up. Biomed Central, the largest collection of open access science journals maintains a list of where their journals are indexed:

BioMed Central for libraries Journal indexing

Recently four titles (BMC Developmental Biology, BMC Immunology, BMC Neurology, and BMC
Structural Biology) were picked up for indexing by Thomson ISI, in their Science Citation Index. (CSULB staff, faculty and students have access to this index through Web of Science here)

Monday, November 21, 2005

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Read articles by Chemistry Nobel prize winners

ACS offers free access to journal articles written by 2005 Chemsity Nobel Laureates.

(CSULB users always have access to the journals through their library's subscription to ACS Web Editions)

Monday, October 31, 2005

Friday, October 28, 2005

Scientists Blogging? Yes they are!

Read this article in The Scientist (August 1, 2005) about scientists using Blogs as a way of furthering scientific communication. The Power of the Blog

Friday, October 21, 2005

Monday, October 10, 2005

CSULB to open Center for Education in Proteomic Analysis

CSULB Receives $500K Keck Foundation Grant
A Center for Education in Proteomic Analysis (CEPA) – the first of its type in The California State University system – is being established at CSULB with a $500,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Great White Shark Travels 12,400 miles


Great White Shark Travels Farther, Faster than Any Other Shark Known









Read more about Nicole the Great White here:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/515137/

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Americans, German Win Nobel Physics Prize - Yahoo! News


Physics Nobel Prize winners announced

Go to our Scitation database and search Glauber, Roy or Hall, John L or Haensch, Theodor to read articles by these decorated Physicists.

Monday, October 03, 2005

$75K Grant to College of Engineering

DENSO Foundation Awards $75K Grant to the CSULB College of Engineering:

http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/archives/vol_57_no_17/award2.htm

Monday, September 26, 2005

Writing, Research and RefWorks Workshops at the Library


Students who need help with research, writing and citing? Students or Faculty interested in learning more about RefWorks? Graduate students needing help with research and writing for a thesis?
Try a Library Workshop!

Library Instruction: Research & Writing Workshops

(http://www.csulb.edu/library/instruction/workshops.html)

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Chemistry Education in 2015

In the Chronicle of Higher Education on August 31, there was an article about the future of chemistry education. Access the article here for five days:

http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=8eicdro2lp34qv5j44qak0bg9fx4gb6d

Thereafter you will need to be a subscriber to CoHE, CSULB Students Staff and Faculty have access through the library website.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Inside Higher Ed :: Graduate Science Enrollments Grow

Inside Higher Ed :: Graduate Science Enrollments Grow

Inside Higher Education, the open access answer to the Chronicle of Higher Education:

"Welcome to Inside Higher Ed, the online source for news, opinion and career advice and services for all of higher education. Whether you’re an adjunct or a vice president, a grad student or an eminence grise, we’ve got what you need to thrive in your job or find a better one: breaking news, provocative daily commentary, blogs, discussion areas, practical career columns, and a powerful suite of tools to help higher education professionals get jobs and colleges identify and hire employees."

New Open Access Journals, Free on the Web




http://libpubmedia.co.uk/RNAiJ/RNAiJHome.htm

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/sap/

Cancer Informatics

http://www.la-press.com/ci.htm

Not yet published: Evolutionary Bioinformatics Online:

http://www.la-press.com/evolbio.htm

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

ACM Launches Two New Journals

CSULB Faculty, Students and Staff will have full-text access to these new journals.

scitech library question - George Porter: ACM Launches Two New Journals

Thursday, August 11, 2005

IEEE Xplore: Full-text Journals Added

As CSULB students faculty or staff you have access to these items.

"IEEE Adds 15,000 Historic Electron Devices Articles to Archive

Continuing its plan to digitize its entire journal backfile, IEEE this
month made available online versions of more than 15,000 articles from IEEE
Electron Devices Society publications dating as far back as 1954.
The archive now includes articles from three of the Society's most
influential publications: IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (papers
from 1954 to 1987); IEEE Electron Device Letters (papers from 1980 to
1987); and the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (papers from
1955 to 1987).
Papers from 1988-forward were already available electronically. The IEEE
online collection now contains nearly 1.2 million documents.
To view abstracts of the papers in these publications, visit:

IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome.jsp?punumber=1000245

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=16

IEEE Electron Device Letters
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=55

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Independently, Two Frogs Blaze the Same Venomous Path - New York Times


"Among frogs and New Yorkers alike, those wearing loud colors are assumed to have very poor taste. As researchers have long observed, the brightest frog species in nature are often the most poisonous, and for good reason."

Read more at:
Independently, Two Frogs Blaze the Same Venomous Path - New York Times

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

California Air Is Cleaner, but Troubles Remain - New York Times

"A major study sponsored by the South Coast district in 1998 showed that the cancer risk for residents of Long Beach, to the immediate northeast of the ports, was twice as great as the risk for people in west-central Los Angeles and four times as high as the risk for those near Topanga Canyon. Diesel particulates from trucks, ships and locomotives, the study said, accounted for 70 percent of the risk.

Read more at:
California Air Is Cleaner, but Troubles Remain - New York Times

Monday, August 01, 2005

Our Faculty lead students to success!

Two CSULB faculty: Darwin Hall, director of the Environmental Science and Policy program, and Antonella Sciortino, Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Management, led student teamsthat were awarded grants of $10,000 and $9,000 from the Metropolitan Water District to further research into water conservation. See the article at:

Inside CSULB

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Public Library of Science enters the mainstream

Been hesitant to publish your articles in open-access journals? Well, consider the Public Library of Science. PLOS Biology has a journal impact factor of 13.868 for 2004. That compares with Current Biology at 11.901, and is twice as high as the next journal listed in the biology category, FASEB Journal with 6.820.

You can check the impact factors of your favorite journals at Web of Science (access restricted to CSULB staff, faculty, and students). Use the pull-down menu at the top of the page to select Journal Citation Reports.

Other PLOS journals are also moving into the mainstream. You may have heard a story in the news on Monday about how cats can't taste sweetness? (It was featured on NPR Monday morning.) That article is published in the very first issue of PLOS Genetics.

Why are open access journals important? Why should you publish in open access journals?

Monday, July 25, 2005

Still don't have RSS?

Read these articles on the future of RSS:
Woot blog on RSS

Will RSS replace e-mail? :: AO

My current favorite feeds include Woot and New York Times Science. (And of course this blog, which you can add to your RSS reader with this URL: http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml )

Need more information about setting up your own RSS reader? Try Yahoo or XML.com or Feedster

Thursday, July 21, 2005

E-STREAMS needs book reviewers!


E-STREAMS "E-STREAMS: Electronic reviews of Science & Technology References covering Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and Science. E-STREAMS is a collaborative venture between H. Robert Malinowsky of the University of Illinois at Chicago and YBP Library Services. E-STREAMS is free of charge and is available only in electronic form. Current issues and a full archive of E-STREAMS are maintained on the e-streams.com web site."

E-STREAMS is currently looking for professors who would like to review books in their area. Click on "Reviewers" on the left side of the screen. You get to keep the books! (Search Outten to see the reviews I have written!)

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

NPR : House Fight Heats Up over Global Warming

A chilling effect? Listen to the following NPR story.

"Morning Edition, July 20, 2005 · The head of the House Energy and Science Committee is engaged in a nasty public fight over global warming. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has called for an investigation into three climate scientists and their work on global warming. Science Committee chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) called the investigation "misguided and illegitimate" and has demanded that Barton call off the probe."

NPR : House Fight Heats Up over Global Warming

Friday, July 15, 2005

Open-Access!! Read the new PLoS Biology


What do you know about the journal pricing crisis? Do you know why open-access journals are important? Check out SPARC.

What can you do?

Read the latest issue of PLoS Biology one of the leaders in the open-access movement:

"PLoS Biology is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a non-profit organization committed to making scientific and medical literature a public resource."

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Search for Chemistry Experiments!

The Journal of Chemical Education has an interesting tool on their website. The JCE Online: Project Chemlab allows you to search for lab experiments by level (H.S., college etc.) and various categories. This leads you to a list of articles from the journal. CSULB people have free online access to the journal, just go to Locate Journals, click on "title", and type in "Journal of chemical education".

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Ever hear that song in your head over and over again?

Neuron Network Goes Awry, and Brain Becomes an IPod - New York Times

CSULB Library says Goodbye to Science Librarian

Kate Peterson, science and engineering librarian, has left Long Beach for a new opportunity in Minnesota. She will be greatly missed. In her absence, Cathy Outten will act as liason to all the departments of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, as well as the departments of the College of Engineering. The department of Science Education will be taken care of by Karin Griffin, education librarian.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

College of Natural Science and Mathematics @ CSULB Student Clubs

Did you know there are 11 different student clubs for CNSM students? Check out the list at Student Organizations and Clubs

Friday, July 01, 2005

Great Biology Teacher Resources!!!

Visit this incredible site for everything to need to teach biology!

BioEd Online: Biology Teacher Resources


"Ever since the early days of the Internet, various educational
organizations and foundations have sought to use the Web to disseminate important
pedagogical tools to fellow educators and interested parties. This very
fine site sponsored by the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University
does exactly that for the field of biology with great aplomb. First-time
visitors will want to start by perusing the homepage, which includes links
to "Hot Topics" in biology (such as flu prevention), a "Biology News"
section (which digests important news from the field), and a selection of
recent additions to the site. Educators will also want to take a look
through the slide sets offered here, in the PowerPoint format, which
include topics such as human body systems, ecosystems, and Mendelian genetics.
Additionally, the site also features a number of streaming video
presentations for classroom use on a wide range of biological topics."

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Engineers- RSS Feeds from EVilliage 2!

With your CSULB ID and Library Pin, you have access to EVilliage 2 which provides access to over 5000 engineering journals!

EVilliage also allows you to set up RSS feeds of any search you want, so your feed reader (such as My Yahoo or Pluck) will be updated weekly with new articles that fit your search!

Read Engineering Village 2 - Help to learn more about EVilliage RSS feeds.

PS You can also read this blog in your RSS reader, use this URL: http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Ever wanted to time travel? Maybe you can!

Read:
Remembrance of Things Future: The Mystery of Time - New York Times
Visit:
NOVA Online - Time Travel
Howstuffworks - Time Travel
And even donate to future civilizations in hopes that they will come back to retrieve you!
Time Travel Fund (This should not be taken as an endorsement, or even encouragement, to give this website money! Just something fun to look at!)

Monday, June 27, 2005

ASEE Conference Blog

Didn't make it to the Amercian Society of Engineering Educators conference in Portland? You can read the blog at http://www.asee.org/blog/index.cfm.

Now is the time to request materials for Fall semester!


Now is the perfect time for you to contact your librarian about materials you need or want for your Fall classes. Materials such as books, videos, etc, can be purchased, and made available to ALL of your students through our E-Reserves. Contact Cathy for more information on Science, Math and Engineering materials.

Is Alaska Melting?

In the New York Times: The Race to Alaska Before It Melts - New York Times
Visitors to Alaska are finding less and less when they get there, less glaciers that is. Global warming? Keep up to date on global warming news at http://www.globalwarm.com/

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Open Access journal in Computational Biology

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) announced its latest open access (free, peer-reviewed) journal entitled, PLoS Computational Biology.

"What motivates us to start a new journal at this time? Computation, driven in part by the influx of large amounts of data at all biological scales, has become a central feature of research and discovery in the life sciences," said the founding editors including Philip E. Bourne, a professor in the Department of Parmacology at the University of California San Diego.

Tip:
Sign-up to receive e-mail notice of new articles and issues.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Why pay if you can get it for free?

Tech Support Alert has published the 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities. Includes best free browser, best free anti-virus software, best free adware/spyware/scumware remover, best free firewall, best free software suite and much more.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

San Diego State University Detects Fires


"Researchers at San Diego State University are leading a $1.2 million project at SDSU’s Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve to test an early warning fire sensor network they say has the potential to significantly improve wildfire detection and response in San Diego and other high-risk communities." Read more.

Experience Mars


For the young, or young at heart, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana has a new exhibit, Space: Next Stop Mars from now until September 11th. Explore hands-on astronaut suits, a life size replica of the Mars rovers, planetary landscapes, Mars in 3D and much more.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Solar Spacecraft Crashes

The Cosmos 1, set to be the first solar sail spacecraft, seems to have crashed minutes after take off due to apparent booster rocket failure.
Read about it from Reuters

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Monday, June 20, 2005

Solar Sailing

On Tuesday (June 21st), the Cosmos 1 spacecraft (FAQs) will be launched using a rocket from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. Once in space, it will open a bank of 49-foot Mylar sails and will be relying on light (photons) reflecting off the sails to power its movement. This project was developed by non-governmental organization, The Planetary Society. Read about viewing the Comos 1 as it orbits Earth.

Friday, June 17, 2005

Visit the real Madagascar

Have you seen the Dreamworks movie Madagascar? Take a Virtual Tour of Madagascar from Conservation International. Learn about lemurs, plants, animals and the Malagasy people. Also play Lemur Match.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Did you feel it, again?

Another earthquake struck Southern California at about 1:53pm. It has a preliminary magnitude 5.3 and is centered near Yucaipa, CA. It is the third significant earthquake since Sunday.
Check out Earthquakes from USGS-Caltech Seismic Net
You can also report your account.

SDSU chemistry lab used to produce meth

A chemistry graduate student, with a troubled past, was arrested after a joint DEA and San Diego State University police investigation for using a campus chemistry lab to make methamphetamine, Ecstasy and a powerful anesthetic.
read about it in the San Diego Union-Tribune

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Modeling the Brain?

Researchers from IBM and the EPFL in Switzerland announced they would begin building a simulation of the neocortical column of the human brain on the Blue Gene/L IBM supercomputer. The neocortical column contains over 10,000 nerve cells and makes up "grey matter." The computer "consists of enough independent processors for each to be programmed to emulate an individual nerve."
read more in the June 9th issue of the Economist

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Are your students using the best resources available?

Would you like your students to use the the best resources available for your assignments? Bring your class to the library for a specialized library instruction session. Believe it or not, professors are already signing up for Fall classes.

So as you plan your syllabus for Fall, be sure to include a session of library instruction.

To reserve your session use this form, or contact the science librarian.

Engineering Case Studies for education

Ever needed an example for class? Try Engineering Cases for real-world case studies! "This is a collection of information on engineering cases. These are accounts of real engineering projects that are written for use in engineering education. The accounts are not highly technical, and are quite readable by those with the appropriate interest."
It has a catalog of cases-obtained by writing to the Center. Most helpful are information about writing Engineering Case Studies and how to to use the effectively in the classroom.
Also see our Case Studies, Ethics, Disasters & Failures Research Guide.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Updating Computer Science Education

In the June 2005 issue of "Communications of the ACM," Jacques Cohen, professor at Brandeis University gives his viewpoint for updating CS education.
  • "I urge CS educators to help prepare their students to manipulate huge amounts of data and make sure they gain experience in using, modifying, and combining complex programs available on the web."
  • "CS educators should thus consider the following recommendations: scripting capabilities, data volume, complexity of algorithms, and probability and statistics."
  • "The general tendency toward outsourcing has a significant effect on how CS educators should prepare their students."

To read the full article go to ACM Digital Library and type "Updating computer science education" in the top search box.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Did you feel it?

The magnitude 5.6 Anza Eathquake occurred at 8:41am on Sunday June 12, 2005 with an epicenter about 20 miles south of Palm Spring, CA. Learn more about it from the Southern California Seismic Network or check the Index Map of Recent Earthquakes from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Fireworks from NASA on July 4th

NASA announced that the Deep Impact spacecraft will be sending a 1-meter-wide impactor to hit the Tempel 1 comet on July 4th. "The potentially spectacular collision will be observed by the Deep Impact spacecraft, and ground and space-based observatories."
Check out the encounter animation and video simulation.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Geographic Distribution of Major Hazards in the US

The USGS has created a, "set of six maps...to emphasize areas in the contiguous 48 states where there is a relatively high risk...of four hazards (floods, earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions)...plus hurricanes and tornadoes." There is also an animation of all maps together.

Large quake predicted again for Indonesia

A researcher from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland predicts more earthquakes to follow the devastating magnitude 9.1 earthquake in December of 2004 and the magnitude 8.7 earthquake in March 2005. The researchers found the stress levels have not decreased after these earlier earthquakes. (read about it from National Geographic)

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Academic Press Journals

Did you know the CSULB library has access to Academic Press journals through ScienceDirect? At least the last five years of each journal should be available full-text.

They can be accessed through ScienceDirect.

Go here: ScienceDirect - Academic Press Journals to see a list of available journals.

If that link doesn't work (it may only work on campus computers), just enter ScienceDirect (Click Here) , and search for the journal title you are interested in.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Designing for the Virtual Interactive Classroom

This article from Campus Technology discusses current projects and software offerings for three main types of higher education online collaboration: small group meetings (fewer than 10), interactive class meetings (fewer than 100), and large class meetings. It also quotes a survey from the Sloan Consortium that says, "a majority of academic leaders believe that online learning quality is already equal to or superior to face-to-face instruction."
What do you think?

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Physics--New Databases by Topic

We have updated the databases by topic page. We have eliminated the catch-all "Science/Technology" and added Physics (it used to be listed with Geology)!

Monday, May 30, 2005

New search engine in beta

Exalead a fairly new search engine from France, introduced in October 2004 (and still in beta) is beginning to get some buzz. "The key factors in evaluating a search engine should include timeliness, ability to handle ambiguity, and plenty of power search tools. Exalead does a great job, at least on two of these three criteria" (read the review)
Also try the advanced search

Saturday, May 28, 2005

EEVL Xtra

EEVL: Internet Guide to Engineering, Mathematics and Computing launched a new service called EEVL Xtra which "cross-searches over 20 collection relevant to engineering, mathematics and computing, including content from over 50 publishers and providers," including subject specific content from the hidden web which isn't indexed by Google or Google Scholar. (learn more)

Friday, May 27, 2005

Managing web sites

Bookmark Managers
Having trouble keeping track of interesting web sites? There are a number of free, web-based ways to save and annotate web sites and access them from any computer.
Here are a few we have been trying out:
Furl http://www.furl.net/
del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/
Bookmark Manager http://bkm.sourceforge.net/ (open source tool)
(see more options)

Thursday, May 26, 2005

New books on Evolution in the library!

Come check out these new books on evolution, and while you're at it, look at the other books on the new book shelf to pick up some summer reading!


The Behavior of Animals : Mechanisms, Function, and Evolution
QL763 .B39 2005 (4th Floor)

Evolution: the Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
QH361.L27 2004 (4th Floor)

Evolution in Perspective: the Science Teacher's Compendium
QH362 .E853 2004 (New Book Shelf)

Evolutionary Theory: Mathematical and Conceptual Foundations
QH366.2 .R523 2004 (New Book Shelf, 1st floor)

Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe
QH360.5.C66 2005 (New Book Shelf)

On the Origin of Phyla
QH367.5.V26 2004 (4th Floor)

Speciation
QH380.C68 2004 (New Book Shelf)

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

"Math is Hot"

The Washington Post ran an article in its Arts & Living section about math. Check it out below:

Count Him In

And check out these books in the Library!

Math and bio 2010 : linking undergraduate disciplines / edited by Lynn Arthur Steen. QH323.5 .M363 2005

Math and the Mona Lisa : the art and science of Leonardo da Vinci / Bülent Atalay. N6923.L33 A4 2004

And look for this title, coming soon:

Mathematical puzzles : a connoisseur's collection / Peter Winkler

IoP papers free for 30 days

The Institute of Physics is now offering free electronic access to most new journal articles for the first 30 days after online publication. This feature is called This Month's Papers and includes over 30 journals. (learn more)

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Classic Textbooks in Science-Online

The National Academy of Sciences has started a new series to digitize out-of-print yet classic science texts. The first is John A. Moore's Heredity and Development, Second Edition in both PDF and HTML.

Lemurs & Lions Push Technology Forward

DreamWorks Animation's new film Madagascar includes effects impossible even a few years ago. Due to advances in computer power, file compression and coding, Madagascar's animated animals have a line of computer code for each hair. "Alex, the Lion...had 1.7 million hairs on his head and each one represented a series of 1s and 0s." (learn more)

Monday, May 23, 2005

Ever wanted to look up chemical information on your cell phone?

ACS is making Chem Abstracts available over the airwaves. (Not something the library will be able to provide in the near future, but interesting nonetheless.)

The Chronicle: 5/27/2005: Coming Soon: Doing Research With Your Cellphone

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Science and Technology @ MERLOT

"MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Links to online learning materials...along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments."
Browse or search through chemistry (443), computer science (475), physics (1592), biology (860), astronomy (149), geology (72), engineering (349) and much more.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Open Source Projects top 100,000

SourceForge.net, a repository of Open Source computing projects, has approved and launched over 100,000 projects. These include additions by large organizations such as NASA, Microsoft, Google and IBM (read more).

Thursday, May 19, 2005

California Earthquake Prediction Map

USGS and scientists from the Swiss Seismological Service and the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) rolled out an online, real-time earthquake prediction map which shows the probability of an earthquake in the next 24 hours. It is based on earthquake data collected by the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) and known patterns of aftershocks.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Wikipedia

Have you ever tried Wikipedia? This is a free online encyclopedia--created and maintained by the general public. Anyone can add or change the entries. For this reason, information used for academic research should be verified in another source. But this has also led to its rapid growth with over 560,000 entries since 2001!

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Average Journal Prices Soar!

Check out this journal price survey done by Library Journal.

Average Price Per Title by Discipline
Chemistry - $2,868
Physics - 2,719
Engineering - 1,683
Biology - 1,494
Technology - 1,460
Math & Computer Science - 1,267
Astronomy - 1,235
Geology - 1,197
Botany - 1,109
Food Science - 1,107
Health Sciences - 1,081
General Science - 1,059
Zoology - 1,053
Geography - 945
Agriculture - 799

SOURCE: LJ PERIODICAL PRICE SURVEY 2005

Eagles of Santa Catalina May Lose Support System - New York Times

Eagles of Santa Catalina May Lose Support System - New York Times

Read about the current state of the Golden Eagle project on Catalina Island.

In the library:
CSULB students have written 15 masters theses about the flora and fauna of Catalina Island. Do a COAST keyword search on Catalina Long Beach to find them, and come to the library, 2nd floor, to read them.

Or come and check out:
The Golden Eagle by Jeff Watson ; illustrated by Keith Brockie ; with colour plate and landscapes by Donald Watson. On the 4th Floor at QL696.F32 W367 1997

Monday, May 16, 2005

"Seattle leads U.S. cities joining Kyoto Protocol"

132 mayors from across the U.S. are joining a "bipartisan coalition to fight global warming on the local level," including New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. learn more

Late nights @ the Library

To help students with the end of the year rush, the Library will be open an extra two hours until 2:00am on Sundays--Thursdays (from May 8-May 19). The Library has also brought in extra tables and chairs to make room for everyone!

Saturday, May 14, 2005

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth

This companion web site (requires flash) to a PBS/National Geographic four-part documentary talks about global change in many forms including:

  1. Invaders: Traces the journey of non-native species and the resulting fall out
  2. One degree factor: Discusses how a few degrees of climate change effect species
  3. Predators: Explores the crucial role top predators play in an ecosystem
  4. Troubled Waters: Talks about the role of toxins in the world's water systems

Friday, May 13, 2005

New Chapters in the Dinosaur Chronicles - New York Times

A look at the new dinosaur exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.

New Chapters in the Dinosaur Chronicles - New York Times


Come to the library and check out:

Posture, locomotion, and paleoecology of pterosaurs / by Sankar Chatterjee, R.J. Templin.
QE1 .G486 no.376

Dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles of California / Richard P. Hilton ; illustrated by Ken Kirkland ; foreword by Keven Padian. QE861.8.C2 H55 2003

When life nearly died : the greatest mass extinction of all time / Michael J. Benton. QE721.2.E97 B46 2003

Thursday, May 12, 2005

RoboCup: Soccer Playing Dogs?

"Robot dog soccer is one of five games that teams of scholars competed in during the 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open. The aim of the three-day competition...is to develop software for better robots with the long-term goal of fielding a robot soccer team good enough to play a human team by 2050."

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Check out Inside CSULB

Did you know that Zahur Anwar, Physics and Astronomy, and Jerry Ball, Mathematics and Statistics and Tulin Mangir, Electrical Engineering, are featured in this month's Inside CSULB ?


Also, check out the review on Oceanographers and the Cold War, available now at the CSULB library!

CSULB Library New Titles List

Have you checked out the CSULB Library New Titles List?

Updated quarterly, it lists new books the library has acquired by subject.

You can also check out the New Book shelves on the first floor of the library and be the first to get your hands on these items.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Science.gov Weekly Email Alerts

Science.gov, "a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. government agencies, including research and development results," has a new weekly Alert service. Simply register and enter your topics/keywords and you will receive a weekly email alert about new content added to Science.gov on your topic.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Wired News: Computers Grade Students' Writing

An interesting tool, let the debate begin!

Wired News: Computers Grade Students' Writing

1905--the "Miracle Year"

As part of the World Year of Physics, learn about the four papers produced in the same year, 1905, by Albert Einstein.

Also listen to, National Public Radio story, How Smart was Einstein?
Also visit, Was Einstein a Space Alien? from Science @ NASA

Thursday, May 05, 2005

NASA Science and Technical Information (STI)

NASA STI "helps you locate, obtain, and publish NASA aerospace information and find national and international information pertinent to your research and mission." Includes links to NTRS: NASA Technical Report Server, STAR: Scientific and Technical Aerospace reports and more.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

"BitTorrent as friend, not foe"

"BitTorrent has been described as Hollywood's Napster--a sinister software that makes it easy to steal movies off the Internet." This article from CNN describes how the technology of BitTorrent works and how the movie and other industries are responding.
Also see the How Stuff Works: BitTorrent

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

The New York Times-Science- Chimeras on the Horizon, but Don't Expect Centaurs

A fascinating look at the ethics and implications of stem-cell research and the creation of human-animal chimeras.

The New York Times > Science > Chimeras on the Horizon, but Don't Expect Centaurs

Once again, you need to sign in to NY Times to view the article. If you don't want to create your own account, try www.bugmenot.com

Research Paper Clinics

Sign up or drop by our Clinics to get help with research projects and assitance from the Writers Resource Lab*.
May 4 (Wednesday) 10-1pm
May 5 (Thursday) 11-2pm
May 9 (Monday) 11-2pm
May 10 (Tuesday) 1-4pm

Note: All sessions held in the Spidell classroom, 1st floor of the Library.

*Writers Resouces Lab not available at all sessions, check sign up form.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Google's patents

"Google has filed a patent application, entitled 'Information retrieval based on historical data.' This new patent application reveals many of the techniques which Google uses to rank sites and shows you exactly what you need to do to gain high Google positions."
Learn more about finding patents.

Friday, April 29, 2005

Interesting websites: fly fishing, Linus Pauling and more!

Check out these interesting websites!

Science History
It's in the Blood! A Documentary History of Linus Pauling, Hemoglobin and Sickle Cell Anemia

A history of fly fishing

Organism Studies
Ben S. Roesch's Shark Page: Masterpiece of Evolution

Web Portal - CNAH The Center for North American Herpetology

Reef Check's Web Reef Advisory System (WRAS)

Research
BioModels Database

Teaching and Learning Tools
NY Times Science Lesson Plans

Explorations Through Geologic Time- An interactive tutorial

Microsoft on worker shortage, visas, and innovation

"A panel discussion at the Microsoft Research Tech Fair provided insight into the future of innovation and U.S. competitiveness." Tilghman, president of Princeton University said, "The U.S. has the finest higher-education system in the world. What's failing is the K-12 system. By the time they get to us [at the university level] they are math-phobic and science-phobic."

Nagoya Mathematical Journal available Free online!

Cornell University Library, Project Euclid, and the Graduate School of Mathematics at Nagoya University are pleased to announce the availability of the Nagoya Mathematical Journal (v.153--177)1999--2005; 222 articles at Nagoya Mathematical Journal, Volume 177

(1950--1998) are forthcoming (ETA: late May)

The Nagoya Mathematical Journal is available on an Open Access basis.


Thursday, April 28, 2005

E-books on IT!

Safari Tech Books Online will let you search thru and read 300+ electronic IT books. Find books about computing, programming and much more.
Tip: Get Library PIN to access Safari Tech Books from off campus.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

More database trials @ the Library

We are pleased to be offering access for the next month to:
1.) GeoScienceWorld: a geology and earth science database
2.) Technical and Computer Package (with Inspec): physics and computing databases
3.) Scopus: science and technology database

Take a few minutes and try out these databases and send us your feedback.
Thanks!

The New York Times Science: Tiny, Plentiful and Really Hard to Catch

Neat article about neutrinos in the NY Times today. You will need to set up a free account with NY Times to read the whole article, or borrow a login and password from Bugmenot.com (a fun website/concept in itself!)

The New York Times > Science > Tiny, Plentiful and Really Hard to Catch

Monday, April 25, 2005

Blogs Will Change Your Business - Businessweek.com

Including the business of education. Read this article for an update on the furor that blogs are creating on the web. And if you want more information, or help setting one up, contact Cathy.

International Business News & Technology Articles - Businessweek.com

Friday, April 22, 2005

Math Awareness Month

"Mathematics Awareness Month April 2005: Mathematics and the Cosmos


The American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics announce that the theme for Mathematics Awareness Month 2005 is Mathematics and the Cosmos.

How do astronomers find planets outside our solar system?

How can cosmologists understand the behavior of galaxies, quasars and black holes?

Will the planets in our solar system follow their current orbits for the foreseeable future?

How do missions to Mars and Saturn, for example, arrive at their destinations so precisely, and once there, how is information relayed back to Earth?

Mathematics is fundamental to answering these questions. In fact, mathematics is at the core of our attempts to understand the cosmos at every level: Riemannian geometry and topology furnish models of the universe, numerical simulations help us to understand large-scale dynamics, celestial mechanics provides a key to comprehending the solar system, and a wide variety of mathematical tools are needed for actual exploration of the space around us.

Resources for this year's Mathematics Awareness Month program can be found at www. mathaware.org."

Thursday, April 21, 2005

RSS Feed reminder!

Just a reminder that you can read this blog in an RSS feed reader using http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml

More info:
You can add this blog to your RSS reader. An RSS reader is a great way to keep up with what's happening; nearly all major news sources have RSS feeds. Also many major journals will feed you their latest tables of contents! If you would like to add the weblog to your RSS reader, use this url: http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml If you want to know more about Weblogs and RSS, contact Cathy (coutten@csulb.edu) or Kate (jpeters4@csulb.edu), or to get started, try these websites:
About RSS: http://my.yahoo.com/s/faq/rss/index.html
A good list of RSS aggregators: http://www.hebig.org/blogs/archives/main/000877.php

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

New Look for SFX

Try this link to see an example of the new SFX box:
SFX by Ex Libris Inc.

SFX, the program that links full-text in our databases, has been upgraded to version 3. Now when you click on in a database to look for full-text, you will see this new box . Generally it functions the same way. One nice added feature is: if you click on the Advanced option, you will see a link to alert librarians of any problems with SFX.

Try out Scopus during our free trial!



Try out Scopus, Scopus - Basic Search a new database from Elsevier.

We have free trial access for the next thirty days from any campus computer.

This database searches 14,000 science journals and will link directly to articles the library subscribes to online such as those available through ScienceDirect.

One feature of the search is the ability to refine your results by clicking on boxes at the top of the results page limiting your results to a specific year, journal title, author, etc. You may click as many as you like and then click "Limit to" or "Exclude" to get your new results.

To see if Scopus searches a specific journal go to the Sources Page.

Scopus also incorporates a web search (searching the web for scholarly information such at what is published at Biomed Central and PLoS which are returned as separate results).

Please e-mail me with your comments!

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

New Online Access to Journal of STEM Education

The Journal fo STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is now available free on the web at http://www.jstem.org/

It is a peer-reviewed journal promoting "high-quality undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics..." (This from the mission statement inside the Jan-Jun 2004 issue.)

Monday, April 18, 2005

New Books @ the Library


View the newest books at the CSULB Library. Most books are located in the 1st floor Lobby.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Greece's Rion-Antirion Bridge Wins

Greece's Rion-Antirion bridge, completed four months ahead of schedule, was named the 2005 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award winner by the American society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The bridge, challenged by deep waters, high seismicity and constant winds, will carry the Olympic torch over Greece's Gulf of Corinth.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Earth Day Websites

Check out this collection of websites about Earth Day!

The NSDL Scout Report for Life Sciences-- Volume 4, Number 8

The Argument for Open Access Publishing

Science Wants to be Free

This brief article from the MIT Technology Review talks about the status of Open Access publishing in the sciences.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Research Paper Clinics

That research paper got you down?
Get help from the Library and the Writing Center
April 19 (Tuesday) 11-2pm
April 20 (Wednesday) 2-5pm
April 26 (Tuesday) 3-6pm
April 28 (Thursday) 12-3pm
May 4 (Wednesday) 10-1pm
May 5 (Thursday) 11-2pm
May 9 (Monday) 11-2pm
May 10 (Tuesday) 1-4pm
Sign up online or just drop by.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

PLoS Biology: Table of Contents

The new edition of PLoS Biology is now available on the web.

PLoS Biology: Table of Contents

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.

Visit the home page of PLoS here: http://www.plos.org/

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

NASA tests shape-shifting robots

NASA engineers at the Goddard Space Fligh Center watched the TETWalker robot successfully move. "Robots of this type will eventually be miniaturized and joined together to form 'autonomous nanotechnology swarms (ANTS)' that alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae...."
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/ants.html

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Electronic Journal of Probability

This open-access journal along with its sister journal, Electronic Communications in Probability, are now indexed and searchable in Web of Science, available to you through your CSULB Library!

Electronic Journal of Probability

New Open-Access Journal for the Pathogen Research Community

Public Library of Science (PLoS) is an example of the new open-access model of journal publishing. See below for their press release on one of their latest journals.

Public Library of Science Launches New Open-Access Journal for the Pathogen Research Community; PLoS Pathogens Accepting Submissions at www.plospathogens.org

Visit the journal at www.plospathogens.org

IEEE Xplore 2.0 released

IEEE Xplore, the electrical and computer engineering database, has released a new interface. Read the FAQ's and explore the Tutorial (pdf).

Go to our Engineering Databases to explore.

Please contact Kate Peterson if you have questions.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

"A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services the support life on Earth-such as fresh water... air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests- are being degraded or used unsustainable."

http://www.millenniumassessment.org/

Monday, March 28, 2005

New ACS Chemistry Journal!

The new journal: Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation is now available and provided to you Full-Text by your CSULB library. Just go to the Chemistry/Biochemistry Database list and click on ACS Web Editions.

“The Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (JCTC) published animpressive first issue in January 2005, with over 180 pages and 18articles. … Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, edited by William L.Jorgensen, Whitehead Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, publishespapers reporting new theories, methodology and/or important applicationsin quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and statistical mechanics.Topics in this bi-monthly journal include: advances in ab initio quantum mechanics; molecular design; solvation models; molecular dynamics in the broadest sense including gas-phase dynamics, ab initio dynamics, biomolecular dynamics, and protein folding; surface science; density functional theory; properties of new materials; Monte Carlo simulations; QM/MM calculations; and biomolecular structure prediction.
As the publisher of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A&B - the leadingjournal in physical chemistry - and the Journal of Chemical Information andModeling, ACS Publications invites you to enjoy … the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation.” - Florence Sumaray, Marketing Manager ACS

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Darwin Hall to Speak at Faculty Supper

Darwin Hall, Director of the Environmental Science and Policy degree program on campus will be speaking at the next Faculty Supper Club, April 7.
See announcement from Inside CSULB:
Hall to Speak at Faculty Supper

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Hot Topics in Science and Technology

CSA, one of our vendors, selects a new topic each month and gives an overview, the key journal articles, and links to web sites. Topics range from stem cells to brownfields to the Cassini-Huygens mission. The site is helpful for students trying to pick a topic for a paper or project.

http://www.csa.com/news/hottopics-main.php

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Library Instruction: Did your students get what they need?

Kate and Cathy have finished all of the requested course-integrated library instruction sessions for this semester. Classes came to the library, the librarians went to the classrooms, and students learned everything from what a citation is to using STN to search Chem Abstracts online. Did your students get a lecture? Could they benefit from one? Check out our Information Literacy Standards to see what your students need to know about the world of information. Its not too late to request a session, or start thinking about next semester. Sessions can be tailored to a specific class and even a specific assignment!

CSULB Library Instruction

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Nobel Laureate Lecture a Success!

Kate and I had a good time seeing many students and faculty attending the 28th annual Nobal Laureate Lecture. We had a table set up outside the hall with books from the library pertaining to the lecture. We gave away bookmarks, sticky notepads, and magnets, as well as a flyer on library resources.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Frog Dissection web site

Ever wanted to disect a frog without the ickiness? Try this for a "virtual dissection":

http://froggy.lbl.gov/

Friday, March 11, 2005

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq & Afghanistan

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/iraq/iraq.htmLearn about the Corps activities including photos, stories and factsheets. Projects include sewage system reconstruction and bridge building. Also find information about the repair of Iraqi oil infrastructure.

Chemistry Nobel Laureate to speak at CSULB

"Dr. Alan J. Heeger, one of three co-winners of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in conductive polymers, will speak on Wednesday, March 16, during the 28 th annual Nobel Laureate Lecture at CSULB. Admission is free."

Heeger to Speak at 28th Annual Nobel Laureate Lecture

Your Science Librarians will have a table set up!

Please stop by and say Hi to Cathy and Kate!

Thursday, March 10, 2005

ConnectSciences

http://connectsciences.inist.fr

Search the free Article Catalog (with access to 9.8 million citations since 1990) from the French Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (INIST). Also search 3600 scientific web sites, and find multilingual terminology resources (English, French, and Spanish).

Use Locate Journals to check if CSULB has a specific journal (print or electronically) and use Illiad to get any articles we don't have in 5-7 days.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

New at IEEE (Electrical Engineering)

Read What's New @ IEEE and learn about IEEE Xplore 2.0, web metadata standards, awards honoring great engineering educators, engineering dream jobs and more.

Brand New nanotechnology journal "Small"

There is a brand new nanotechnology journal available from Wiley Interscience.

CSULB faculty and students have access to fulltext at Wiley InterScience: Journal Issues - Small

"Small""Wiley-VCH is proud to introduce Small, the new interdisciplinary journal for Nano and Micro Science and Technology—to be published from January 2005."

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Library has wireless access to the internet!

Wireless access to the internet is now available on the first floor of the library. By logging in with your CSULB webmail login and password or your Beachboard ID and password you can access the internet, and even print to our Self-Serve printers! See Library Wireless User Guide for more details.

Monday, March 07, 2005

NeuroRx

NeuroRx
NeuroRX was introduced in 2004 by the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics is now available through PubMed Central full-text through six months ago for faculty and students.
PubMed Central

Sunday, March 06, 2005

American Physical Society provides RSS feeds!

"The American Physical Society (APS) is now providing content awareness using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds as a convenience to our readers.

Journal feeds contain recently published articles in each journal and are updated as new articles are published.

A list of all available feeds along with a FAQ can be found at http://feeds.aps.org/ or by following the RSS link on journal home and Scitation pages"

-Robert Kelly - Director - Journal Information Systems - The American Physical Society

Saturday, March 05, 2005

New Journals coming to Biomed Central

BioMed Central <http://biomedcentral.com/> has added three new titles to their roster of independent Open Access journals under active development. <http://www.biomedcentral.com/independent/forthcoming>.

The queue of announced independent OA journals is currently 10 titles deep.

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine http://www.ethnobiomed.com/ ISSN: 1746-4269

Plant Methods http://www.plantmethods.com/ ISSN: 1746-

Systems http://www.salinesystems.org/ ISSN: 1746-1448

Friday, March 04, 2005

ACM Digital Library Added

We are pleased to announce access to the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library.

ACM is "the world's oldest and largest educational and scientific computing society."

Use the ACM Digital Library to search the ACM publications back to 1950. We have full text access to most of the ACM journals, magazines, and transactions.

Use the ACM Guide to Computing Literature to search over 750,000 citations and abstracts to journal articles, books, conference proceedings, thesis and dissertations from over 3,000 publishers.

Contact Kate for more information or to set up a training session.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Library Instruction

Did you know you can request you very own library instruction sessions? Sessions can happen in the library, or in your classroom.

Sessions can cover any library topic that is relevant to your students. The most common session includes an introduction to the research tools and sources available at the library. Sessions can be tailored to a specific subject area, or a specific assignment.

Special sections can be taught on citing sources, avoiding plagiarism and the research process.

Contact Cathy or Kate for more info.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Free Patents Online Database

Free Patents Online Database
A great site for looking up patents!

Monday, February 28, 2005

Journals Moved!

Bound journals have been moved to the "Tower Rooms" and separated from the book collection. Q-QD journals are on the third floor, room 322, QE-Z are on the fourth floor, room 407. The current periodicals (typically the most recent year) are still located on the Lower Level.

New Blog and RSS feed for CSULB's science community

Kate Peterson and Cathy Outten, your science librarians, have set up this blog and RSS feed for you to keep updated on what's happening at your University Library. Look here for information about new books arriving; journal subscriptions, both print and electronic; and any other library news. We will also include links to interesting science websites and keep you updated on science news.

(You can visit this blog http://csulblibraryscitech.blogspot.com/ or read it through your RSS reader using the URL: http://csulblibraryscitech.blogspot.com/atom.xml.)

Editor's note: Address changed to: http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/csulbsciblog.html
and RSS feed to http://www.csulb.edu/~coutten/scifeed.xml March 2005

Want to know more about blogs and RSS? Contact Cathy or Kate at the library!