Friday, November 17, 2006

Presentation to Faculty by A. Ben Wagner

A. Ben Wagner of the University at Buffalo gave a presentation "Finding and Using Physics Information" at the regular Tuesday Physics Dept. seminar this week. Ben's presentation is at this URL:

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~abwagner/FindUsePhysInfo_files/frame.htm

I'm sure I speak for librarians everywhere when I say "Thanks Ben"!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

For-credit grad information literacy courses

On Friday October 20, 2006, the New York State Science Librarians met at SUNY Binghamton for our annual meeting. For more information about the organization, see our web page: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/unysci/ny-science-lib.html

I am pleased to say that my collaboration with Professor Dick Wheeler's physics213 class continued this past summer, even though I was on medical leave. I was pleased that Prof. Wheeler decided to add an assignment about plagairism to the class.

E. Connie Powell teaches a class called "Chemistry and Chemical Biology Bibliographic Resources" at RPI. For more information, contact Connie at .

A. Ben Wagner of SUNY Buffalo taught a class for physics graduate students last spring, and will be teaching it again spring 2007.

"Finding and using physics information in the electronic age"

A. Ben Wagner
Sciences Librarian, University at Buffalo abwagner@buffalo.edu

The problem today is not finding information but being overwhelmed by the number of options and millions of hits. Learn what key resources such as new INSPEC (Physics Abstracts) interface , SciFinder Scholar, Knovel, and Web of Science offer beyond generic Internet searching. Even more important, the process of using information will be discussed from developing background information to in-depth research to writing an article. Specialized resources that permit efficient access to properties, data, and special forms of literature such as patents, theses, and government reports will be reviewed. I will also demonstrate the EndNote personal citation database manager available to the entire UB.

Pat LaCourse at the NYS College of Ceramincs Alfred lacourpc@alfred.edu

Teaches the first-year engineering graduates a (mandatory for materials
engineers) one-credit course (CEMS 660). The final assignment is their
thesis proposal, which is then approved by the graduate office.

Pat doesn't have a web page for the course, because it is all on Blackboard
(the class is hybrid - four class meetings, with weekly assignments
online). They can go back in the Blackboard class as guests when they
are in the final stage of writing their thesis. When I have time, I
would like to develop general web access to the materials though.

Other for-credit courses of which I am aware:

"Hans-Joerg Kraus" Hans-Joerg.Kraus@anu.edu.au is the contact person for the
Australian National University's Graduate Information Literacy Program.
http://ilp.anu.edu.au/grad/

Grad ILP staff work with graduate students to identify training needs, enrol in training sessions, finalise requirements for the Graduate Course Award in Research Information Literacy and dealing with individual problems in seeking resources for your studies or formatting your thesis.

RES 500 OL - Research Strategies
A ONE CREDIT GRADUATE LEVEL INTERACTIVE COURSE IN INFORMATION RESEARCH SKILLS
prepared by William Badke (REVISED August 2006)
http://www.acts.twu.ca/lbr/research500.htm

CHEM602
Leah Solla, Chemistry Librarian Cornell University
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/chem602/