International Field Guides Database

International Field Guides is a searchable database of field guides from North America and around the world.  As used in this site, a field guide is a small, lightweight book used to identify plants, animals, or other objects.  It is designed to be used outdoors and usually contains many illustrations, whether drawings or photographs, and limited text. Generally speaking, field guides are used by amateurs, hence the emphasis on visual identification.  There are a number of different technical manuals, atlases, floras and faunas, handbooks, and keys for the use of professionals which are not listed here. This site, built by Diane Schmidt, the biology librarian at the University of Illinois Library, merges Schmidt’s book, A Guide to Field Guides: Identifying the Natural History of North America, and its companion Web site, “International Field Guides.” 

UCSD Bookstore RSS Feeds for New Medical Books

The UCSD Bookstore has a way for you to find out when it receives new medical books in your discipline. Go to their website and click on “List of RSS Feeds;” then click on the subject area you’re interested in to add that feed to your feed reader (e.g., Google Reader).  The information you receive in the feed will include a synopsis of each new book. If you buy a book from the bookstore website, you will receive a 5% discount. Check to see if you are in an eligible area for free daily delivery by calling (858) 534-0028.

If you are not sure what RSS feeds are or how they can help you, click on “About RSS Feeds” to find out about the benefits of using a feed reader, how to get one, etc.

Note: If you are a UCSD faculty member, staff member, or student, you can use the feeds to find out about new books but you don’t have to buy them. Check the UCSD Libraries Catalog, Roger, to see if we have the book, and if we don’t, fill out our interlibrary loan form and we will borrow the book for you to use.

Phil Bourne Talks About SciVee on Feb. 28

Dr. Philip E. Bourne, a Professor in the UCSD Department of Pharmacology and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, will give a talk, “SciVee: A New Form of Scientific Communication and Dissemination,” on February 28 from noon to 1 PM at the UCSD Biomedical Library.

Today’s students, who are the leading scientists of tomorrow, are well-versed in the use of online video and social networking in their personal lives, yet these habits have yet to significantly impact their professional lives. SciVee (http://www.scivee.tv) is one of a number of internet sites that is attempting to bring about this change. A unique feature of SciVee is the integration of open access paper content with a video made by the paper authors in what is termed a “pubcast.” This and other features will be described in the context of whether the libraries might become the scholarly video store of the future.

Dr. Bourne is the Co-Director of the Protein Data Bank, and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal, PLoS Computational Biology.

This is the fourth talk in the Biomedical Library lunchtime lecture series.  Space is limited so please RSVP to Vicky Anderson at vkanderson@ucsd.edu by February 25.  Feel free to bring a discreet lunch; cookies and water will be provided.

Need to Find Literature in the Life Sciences?

If so, then try searching BIOSIS Previews, a premiere database that includes articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters in the life sciences. Recently, the database has been improved to facilitate searching. If you would like to learn more, sign up for an upcoming workshop. You can also request to meet with a librarian at a time that is convenient for you, using our consultation service.

Winter 2008 classes available

We’ve got over a dozen classes coming up this quarter including old favorites like PubMed and Google searching, EndNote and Refworks, as well as productivity courses on PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat and photo editing with Paint.Net. New this quarter, just in time for academic reviews, a session on finding out who has cited your work and the impact it has had. “Got Impact?” will be offered January 30th. Check them out and sign up on our Classes - Winter 2008 web page.

Library closing early January 25th

The Biomedical Library and Graduate Study will close at 5pm Friday, January 25th to allow the carpet to be cleaned. The Library and Graduate Study will open normally at 10am Saturday, January 26th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Your Speaker Ideas Needed

The Biomedical Library has a lunchtime speaker series. We’ve had three speakers so far: Last May, Dr. Sara Mednick spoke about the benefits of napping, in August Dr. Kimberly Brouwer talked about the uses of GIS in public health, and in November Dr. John B. West talked about high altitude physiology and Mt. Everest.

We have another talk lined up for February 28: Dr. Phil Bourne from the UCSD School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will discuss: “SciVee: A new form of scientific communication and dissemination.” Mark your calendars and stay tuned for further details.

Meanwhile, we’re looking for ideas for future speakers and topics. Do you know a UCSD faculty member or other researcher who is a good speaker and has something interesting to talk about? If so, please send your recommendations to Nancy Stimson at nstimson@ucsd.edu  Thanks for your help!

ClinicalTrials.gov Gets a New Look

ClinicalTrials.gov, a free registry of federally and privately supported clinical trials conducted in the United States and around the world, got a new user interface and a new look recently. This database currently has records for over 49,000 trials in 153 countries. Check out the improvements detailed in this article.