Monday, May 25, 2009

Access to New Resources

As a result of the merger with Dept. of Natural Resources and Water, we can now offer you access to two new Informit Databases:

APA-FT (Australian Public Affairs: Full Text)

AIATSIS (Indigenous Studies Bibliography)

Australian Public Affairs - Full Text (APA-FT), is an indexing and full text database that provides Internet access to the scanned images of journal articles from published material on the social sciences and humanities. The database indexes 515 journal titles, with 223+ being comprehensively indexed. The scanned images of journal articles in Australian Public Affairs - Full Text are sourced mostly from these comprehensively indexed journals. Images are provided in PDF format.

Some of the titles which are available fulltext and may be of interest include:

Aboriginal history
Australian Aboriginal studies
Australian archaeology
Australian historical studies
Australasian j. of environmental management
Australian j. of public administration
Australian zoologist
Griffith review
J. of the Royal Historical Society of Qld
Policy
Quadrant
Queensland archaeological research

The Organic Center

The Organic Center is a great website that focuses on the science behind organic agricultural production. Their mission is "to generate credible, peer reviewed scientific information and communicate the verifiable benefits of organic farming and products to society." Under the "State of Science" tab at the top of the page visitors should check out the "Hot Science" section. The articles listed here will give the visitor an idea of all the aspects of organic production there are, and why they are important. For instance, articles such as "Common Insecticide Causes Neurological Deficits in Children", "Soil Quality from Long-term Organic Management Nearly Doubles Flavonoids in Organic Tomatoes" and "Hormone Growth Promoters Feed to Beef Cattle Linked to Adverse Impacts on Male Sexual Development". The "Organic Resources" tab at the top of the homepage has links to "Consumer Resources" and "Science Resources", which are loaded with links to websites regarding all aspects of organic agriculture. The "Leaders in Organics" link, also under the "Organic Resources" tab, has articles by a food scientist and by the chief marketing executive of an organic food company. Visitors interested in receiving the Organic Center's monthly e-newsletter, The Scoop, can sign up by clicking on the "News & Media" tab, and then clicking on the "Newsletter Archive" link. After signing up, visitors should browse the archives of the newsletter, which go back to the beginning of 2007. – Scout report. Volume 15, Number 15, April 17, 2009

Periodic Tables of Videos

This site from the University of Nottingham is a periodic table with added interest as each description of an element is accompanied by an informative and interesting video clip such as the one on P (Lead) where we learn something about the camouflage of submarines in WWII.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Internet security

This week I have gathered up a couple of sites which deal with internet security

Australian Internet Security Initiative
With the rise of threats to our computers via the internet, security breaches and the continuing problems of Spam and phishing, the Australian Government has set up this initiative to help combat the problems facing all computer owners and users.

For a complete listing of Australian government site dealing with internet security
http://www.australia.gov.au/topics/it-and-communications/internet

Protecting your online Identity

With the advent of social networking there is an increasing interest in, and concerns about the identity we present on the Web. The article, “Will the real Emily please stand up” provides food for thought on this topic. It also mentions “ClaimID”, tool to help you take control of your public web face.This site contains a useful section outlining "Best practices in managing your online identity"

Simply Delicious

Book now for the next Library Session

When: Friday 29th May from 10:30 to 11:30

Where: The Group Room on Level 14, 16o Ann Street

What: In this session we look at the features of Delicious with a particular focus on the Library@DERM internet subject links.

The session also covers how to set up an account of your own, to convert your current Favourites into and organised and tagged list which you can access from any computer.

There are only 8 place available so Contact the library to book a place for this session

Monday, May 11, 2009

Using Web 2.0 for Research

If you are looking for hard to find information particularly on recent topics then this excellent presentation from Lissa Lord at the University of Kansas provides ideas for non-print sources to retrieve relevant and up-to-date information

Environmental History Resources

This site is maintained by Dr Jan Oosthoek at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

It was set up to provide resources and information for students, scholars and anyone interested in all aspects of environmental history.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Introducing Environment Complete

When: Friday May 15 from 10:30 to 11:30

Where: Group Room, Level 14, 160 Ann Street

Places are limited.
Contact the library to book a place for this session

• Environment Complete indexes the journal literature in environmentally relevant areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more.

• Environment Complete contains more than 1,957,000 records from more than journal titles going back to the 1940s as well as more than 120 monographs.

• Environment Complete also contains full text for more than 680 journals, including many of the most used journals in the discipline, such as Environment (back to 1975), Ecologist, Conservation Biology, etc. Additionally, Environment Complete provides full text for 120 monographs, such as Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (3 volumes), Advances in Water Treatment & Environmental Management, etc.

• This session is designed introduce the user to all the features of this database and to demonstrate how to set up a personal profile, select, save, and export or printout references and articles.

The Aldo Leopold Archives

"Aldo Leopold is considered by many to have been the most influential conservation thinker of the 20th Century. Leopold's legacy spans the disciplines of forestry, wildlife management, conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, restoration ecology, private land management, environmental history, literature, education, esthetics, and ethics. He is most widely known as the author of A Sand County Almanac, one of the most beloved and respected books about the environment ever published. The Leopold Collection houses the raw materials that document not only Leopold's rise to prominence but the history of conservation and the emergence of the field of ecology from the early 1900s until his death in 1948.

Leopold was a meticulous and disciplined generator and retainer of important correspondence, memorandum, reports, and related materials. He published more than 500 articles, essays and reports and his papers contain at least 500 more unpublished essays, reports, and memorandum of significance. He also kept detailed diaries and journals of his Forest Service activity, his travels, hunting and field experience, and observations and activities at his Sand County farm. He maintained active correspondence (both outgoing and incoming) with more than a hundred professional and conservation organizations, with his many graduate students, and with hundreds of leaders in a range of scholarly disciplines, professional fields, government agencies, and conservation organizations. His papers reflect the most advanced thinking and most innovative practice across virtually the entire spectrum of natural resource conservation, policy and management in the first half of the twentieth century.

The collection has been augmented by correspondence and related materials carefully retained over the years by his mother, his wife, and other family members and professional associates; these span his entire life, but are most rich and voluminous for his early years. It also includes student notebooks and course materials from his studies in Burlington, Lawrenceville and Yale, and copies of his inspection reports on many national forests in the Southwest as well as hundreds of family photographs and photographs taken by Leopold to illustrate aspects of wildlife ecology and land management". - Information taken from the site maintained by the University of Wisconsin as part of the University's Digital Collections.

eResearch Archive

eRa is the gateway to to the Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries
archive of scientific and research publications

For the first time, the research output of QPIF is available to the wider online community. This output includes journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and theses. Where permission has been granted (or subscriptions permit), users viewing the eResearch Archive will be able to link directly to full text content online or download a copy free of charge.

eResearch Archive ensures the widest possible dissemination of QPIF staff research and contributes to the growing body of research literature that is now freely available online.

Publications have been submitted from a broad cross section of QPIF staff, covering areas such as Animal Science, Emerging Technologies, Fisheries, Plant Science, Horticulture and Forestry Science, Biosecurity and Industry Development.

Users can conduct a basic or advanced search or browse by subject