Thursday 25 October 2012

New e-books purchased in Zoology



The Balfour Library has purchased some new e-books! 

They are available via the online library catalogue, LibrarySearch at: http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/. Alternatively, I have provided direct URLs by the title of each book:

Evolution and belief: confessions of a religious paleontologist, by Robert J. Asher. Cambridge University Press; 2012. http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|eresources|83158

Gaining ground, 2nd ed., by Jennifer A. Clack. Indiana University Press; 2012. http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|eresources|83190

Wild hope, by Andrew Balmford. University of Chicago Press; 2012. http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|eresources|83191

There is also a sticker on the front of the printed versions of the books to tell you that there is also an e-copy and how to access it - just like in the photo above!

New acquisitions


New books purchased:

Partridges: countryside barometer, by G. R. Potts. London: Collins New Naturalist; 2012. Balfour Library shelfmark:  KK (18).

Vision and brain: how we perceive the world, by James V. Stone. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 2012. Balfour Library shelfmark: GFS (41i-iii).

Donations from Cambridge University Press:

The ethics of species: an introduction, by Ronald Sandler. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2012. Balfour Library shelfmark: GGW (222).

Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of biofuels: evidence from developing nations, edited by Alexandros Gasparatos and Per Stromberg. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2012. Balfour Library shelfmark: GGW (223).


Friday 12 October 2012

Extensive collection of specimens and Alfred Russel Wallace papers appear together for first time in online project

You may be interested to read this Guardian piece on Wallace Online, a web project directed by John van Wyhe, the historian behind Darwin Online. You can find the article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/sep/27/recognition-alfred-russel-wallace-darwin.

Wallace's work on the theory of evolution through natural selection, along with major insights into biodiversity, are described in thousands of pages of books, articles, drawings and paintings, which have now been made available via Wallace Online http://wallace-online.org/.

Paper in Ibis on Professor Alfred Newton's contribution to ornithology


Professor Tim Birkhead and Peter Gallivan, from the University of Sheffield, have published a paper, Alfred Newton's contribution to ornithology: a conservative quest for facts rather than grand theories, in Ibis (2012), 154, 887-905.

Alfred Newton (1829-1907), Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, was a founder of the Balfour & Newton Libraries in the Department. He bequeathed his collection of rare books (dating from the 15th century) and his archive to the Department.

This essay gives a fascinating insight into Newton's personality and highlights his considerable achievements in the field of ornithology. It covers his life, his role as one of the founders of the British Ornithological Union (BOU), his Dictionary of Birds, and his other interests such as extinct birds (the solitaire and dodo), migration, the cuckoo, conservation, and William Yarrell's History of British Birds, and his connections with Charles Darwin. The paper really does place Newton in context in the history of ornithology.

Find out more about Newton and his collections on the library's Special Collections website here: http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/library/newton.html.

The Ibis article can be found here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2012.01274.x/abstract.

Thursday 11 October 2012

LibrarySearch+



The University Library is currently piloting a new search service called LibrarySearch+.  It offers a single search box for finding full text and citations from the whole of the University's online (and print) resources content. You can even search for the title of individual journal articles, and much of the content is provided by databases such as the Web of Knowledge.

The pilot lasts until the end of December, please send any comments via the ‘Feedback’ link in the top right hand corner of your search results page.

[The following text has been adapted from a post on the University Library's eResources etc. blog here: https://eresources.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?m=201207].

What is LibrarySearch+?

It’s a single search box for finding the full text and citations for the majority of the University’s extensive online subscriptions. This includes:
  • Online articles from scholarly journals, covering the vast majority of the University’s subscriptions (JSTOR, Science Direct, OUP, CUP etc.
  • Newspaper content.
  • Major academic databases (incl. Web of Knowledge).

 It also contains data currently in LibrarySearch: 
  • Over six million catalogue records from Newton.
  • Digital collections in the DSpace repository.
  • Using the interface, users can easily email and export references to a wide variety of citation management tools. Advanced search options are available, including the ability to search across a single journal title.

 How is it different?

Traditionally, libraries have put different kinds of scholarly material into different interfaces. This meant that you had to look in one place for books and printed journals, another for e-journals, and yet others for full-text journal articles and news reports.

Now you can search all these formats together and get a big picture overview of work in your field. LibrarySearch+ will even search inside the full text of books for your keywords.

How can I manage my search results?

You do get a lot of search results but the idea is that you then refine them in various ways, for example by content (e.g. book, e-book, journal article, thesis), or only review results from peer-reviewed journals or with full text online, or by publication date.

You can use the ‘save to list’ feature which allows you to export or email your saved items to EndNote or RefWorks  or BibTex and in your preferred citation format.

You can access LibrarySearch+ in three ways:

Go to the libraries@cambridge Service Developments blog post to download a user guide https://libcamdev.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=859.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Life science professional development books now available in the library

Thanks to recommendations from some of the postgraduate students and research staff in the Department of Zoology the following titles have recently been purchased. We hope you find them useful! 

How to write and illustrate scientific papers, 2nd ed., by Bjorn Gustavii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2008. Balfour Library shelfmark: D.14 (31b).

How to write and publish a scientific paper, 7th ed., by Robert A. Day and Barbara Gastel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2008. Balfour Library shelfmark: D.14 (34g).

Rediscover grammar, 3rd ed., by David Crystal. Harlow: Pearson; 2004.  Balfour Library shelfmark: D.14 (36c).

Science research writing for non-native speakers of English, by Hilary Glasman-Deal. London: Imperial College Press; 2010. Balfour Library shelfmark: D.14 (33).

A scientist's guide to talking with the media: practical advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists, by Richard Hayes and Daniel Grossman. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press; 2006. Balfour Library shelfmark: D.14 (35).

Writing science: how to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded, by Joshua Schimel. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2012. Balfour Library shelfmark: D.14 (32).


Are there any other professional development books you can recommend?

For example, Cambridge University Press has a good selection that you can browse here: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/viewalltitles/item238682/?site_locale=en_GB The library is able to get some CUP titles for free or at a discount, and any Cambridge University Card holder can in fact receive 20% off CUP titles from their bookshop.

You can use the online form to recommend books for purchase at: http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/library/form/pubform.php.