Thursday, May 29, 2008

ThoughtBlend

This is new and interesting! ThoughtBlend is a collection and forum of good ideas. Users can post their own ideas, or they can view, rate and discuss the ideas of others.

Peak Everything

This article from Treehugger explores eight commodities we are running out of, including rice, metal, dirt and electricity as well as oil, and attempts to explain why.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

HighWire Press

"HighWire Press is the largest archive of free full-text science on Earth! As of 5/26/08, [HighWire Press assists] in the online publication of 1,884,244 free full-text articles and 4,785,577 total articles. There are 15 sites with free trial periods, and 44 completely free sites. 248 sites have free back issues, and 1050 sites have pay per view!"

The Business and Biodiversity Offset Program (BBOP)

BBOP is a new partnership between companies, governments and conservation experts to explore biodiversity offsets - to demonstrate conservation and livelihood outcomes in a portfolio of biodiversity offset pilot projects; to develop, test and disseminate best practice on biodiversity offsets and to contribute to policy and corporate developments on biodiversity offsets. The library link, in particular, contains a range of up-to-date documents on biodiversity offsets.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)

"The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious ... project to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth. At its heart lies a series of Web sites — one for each of the approximately 1.8 million known species — that provide the entry points to this vast array of knowledge. The entry-point for each site is a species page suitable for the general public, but with several linked pages aimed at more specialized users. The sites sparkle with text and images that are enticing to everyone, as well as providing deep links to specific data.

The EOL dynamically synthesizes biodiversity knowledge about all known species, including their taxonomy, geographic distribution, collections, genetics, evolutionary history, morphology, behavior, ecological relationships, and importance for human well being, and distribute this information through the Internet. It serves as a primary resource for a wide audience that includes scientists, natural resource managers, conservationists, teachers, and students around the world."

Biodiversity Heritage Library

"Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. The group is developing a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available through a global “biodiversity commons.”

Participating institutions:

American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY)
The Field Museum (Chicago, IL)
Harvard University Botany Libraries (Cambridge, MA)
Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, MA)
Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, MA)
Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, MO)
Natural History Museum (London, UK)
The New York Botanical Garden (New York, NY)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Richmond, UK)
Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Washington, DC)

The participating libraries have over two million volumes of biodiversity literature collected over 200 years to support the work of scientists, researchers, and students in their home institutions and throughout the world. The 10 member libraries of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) members now have over 1.124 million pages of key taxonomic literature available on the web."

State Library of Queensland webcasts

Access State Library of Queensland webcasts to view recorded talks by a variety of speakers including Ian Townsend on extreme weather and the futurist Tony Stevenson discussing "our complex relationship with the future and how even just thinking about it can bring about change and a different world for our children and future generations".

Friday, May 16, 2008

Treehugger

Have you seen this site before? It's great! "TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. [It's] a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information [including an] up to the minute blog, weekly and daily newsletters, weekly video segments [and a] weekly radio show."

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Our Iceberg is Melting

This is the website to accompany the book The Iceberg is Melting (which the library has just made available!). Here you will find a summary of John Kotter’s research on successful change, excerpts from web seminars on change, tips from change leaders and more!

Green Thing

This is an interesting site! Green Thing is a new online community that makes it easy and enjoyable to be a bit greener. Every month you'll get a different Green Thing to do. All you have to do is do it!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas

The Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO Australia) is a nationwide network of professionals working to reduce our oil vulnerability. ASPO aims to bring the probabilities, risks and opportunities that Peak Oil presents to the attention of decision-makers.

ASPO is part of a network of organisations around the world affiliated with the original Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO). The formation of ASPO-Australia is an initiative of the Sustainable Transport Coalition. ASPO Australia's patron is Hon. Andrew McNamara MP, chair of the Queensland Govt Oil Vulnerability Task Force and Queensland Minister for Climate Change, Sustainability and Innovation.

The website provides links to documents, presentations, news, articles and more!

Climate Policy online!

With thanks to the support of the Economic Services, Strategy and Policy Division, we are pleased to announce we now have an online and print subscription to Climate Policy. From the journal home page: "Climate Policy presents the highest quality refereed research and analysis on the policy issues raised by climate change, and provides a forum for commentary and debate. It addresses both the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change, within and between the different regions of the world. It encourages a trans-disciplinary approach to these issues at international, regional, national and sectoral levels. The journal aims to make complex, policy-related analysis of climate change issues accessible to a wide audience."

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Picture Australia

Picture Australia is an Internet based service that allows you to search many significant online pictorial collections at the same time. Browse the "Picture Trails" - themed albums include history, society, travel and places, or search for a particular image.

How Much Is Enough?

Zen Habits is an interesting and thought-provoking blog written by Leo Babauta. In this entry he questions 'how much is enough?'. Browse the categories on the right for further stimulating ideas.