Recently in Resources Category

If you're a SciFinder user than you know that in the past you've had to download client software onto your desktop to search SciFinder's database and use VPN if you wanted to access it off-campus.

Now SciFinder has recently made an online version available to UMN Library users.

To use SciFinder online you'll have to set up a SciFinder Account...here's the steps that our Chemistry Librarian, Meghan Lafferty sent out:

- Log in to https://www.lib.umn.edu/user/x500.
- Click on http://www.lib.umn.edu/get/16109 (or paste it into the address bar in your browser).
- If you come to an Access Denied page, click on the "Please login..." link.
- Use your umn.edu e-mail address when filling out the registration form, .
- Because only current University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff are permitted to use SciFinder Scholar, please do not share registration/log-in information.

For those of you who currently use the client software, it will continue to work...but they are planning on phasing it out in late 2010.

We only have a limited number of SciFinder seats so please make sure to log out when you are finished using it.

I've gone through and made a page of course-related resources that may help as you do research for any Biomedical Engineering class that you're taking. These pages link to resources like our Knovel E-Book Collection (that allows you to search and read entire engineering reference books online) and RefWorks (a citation manager you can use for free).

You can search for these pages by course number at http://www.lib.umn.edu/libdata/courses.phtml

Sometimes the vast number of resources the library subscribes to can be overwhelming...hopefully these pages will help narrow down your selection. If you have questions about using these tools or you can't find the information you need send me an email and I'll try and help you out.

Here is a selection of new books that we've purchased for your browsing enjoyment.

If you have any purchase suggestions, feel free to let me know!

Intelligent and Adaptive Systems in Medicine
By Olivier Haas and Keith J. Burnham
Online Book

Molecular Driving Forces : Statistical Thermodynamics in Chemistry and Biology
By Ken A. Dill and Sarina Bromberg
QC311.5 .D55 2003

Optical Biosensors : Today and Tomorrow
By Frances S. Ligler
R857.B54 O68 2008

Progress in Bioceramics
R857.C4 P76 2008

Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems
By George A. Truskey, Fan Yuan, and David F. Katz
QH509 .T78 2009

The libraries have been developing an upgrade to the existing assignment calculator. A Beta version is now being released for faculty, students and staff to use. The Assignment Calculator Beta can be found at https://tools.lib.umn.edu/ac/.

Some new features include:
• New Assignment Templates (Lab reports template is in development!)
• Add/Remove/Rearrange individual assignment steps.
• Instructors can customize an assignment and share with class.
• Ability to add personalized notes and links to assignment steps.

If you'd like a quick overview of how to use the tool with classes that you're teaching a short online movie is available to view.

If you'd like help customizing a template or have any questions, just let me know.

Here's a list of some recent additions to our Biomedical Engineering collection at the Physical Sciences and Engineering Library. Check our catalog for current availability.

1.) Algorithms in Bioinformatics: 8th international workshop, WABI 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany, September 15-19, 2008
R858.A2 A44 2008

2.) Computer Modeling in Bioengineering: Theoretical Background, Examples, and Software
By Milos Kojic
R858 .C6415 2008

3.) Haptics for Teleoperated Surgical Robotic Systems
By M. Tavakoli
R857.R63 H36 2008

4.) Visualization in Medicine: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications
By Bernhard Preim
R857.O6 P74 2007

The library programmers have come up with another tool that should make finding books and other materials even simpler. They've developed a tool that can be used with the Mozilla Firefox web browser that will link Amazon.com with our library's collection and tell you whether or not we own a copy.

Here are step-by-step instructions to set the tool up.

If it comes up that we don't have a copy you can place an ILL request or email me a purchase recommendation.

(example of an iGoogle Library Widget)

Are you aware of the cool tools that the libraries have developed to make library searching more convenient for you--integrating library searching into tools that you already use.

Programmers have developed widgets that work along with the University of Minnesota’s MyU Portal, iGoogle, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Amazon. To learn more about these tools visit the library’s widget page.

The online reference book website Knovel is putting on a contest, the Knovel University Challenge.

The contest begins today and goes through November 7th. It's open to all UMN students. All you have to do is enter via the widget below and get three answers correct using Knovel Ebooks.

If you get three correct answers you will be eligible for Knovel's drawing. They plan to give away 2 Nintendo Wiis, 3 iPod Nanos, and 6 iTunes Gift Cards.

You'll be able to familiarize yourself with this great reference resource and may just win a prize. For more information about rules and regulations, click here.

RefWorks has added a new feature that may be of some use to Biomedical Engineering researchers. RefWorks has made it so that the PubMed ID (PMID) and the PubMed Central ID (PMCID) get imported into your RefWorks account when you bring citations in from PubMed.

This new feature should be a time saver if you're working on NIH-funded research that now requires you to include these numbers in your citation.

Are you using Knovel?

Knovel is a library search engine that allows you to search the full text of hundreds of electronic reference books focused on science and engineering.

If you're new to Knovel or even if you have used it in the past you may be interested to view the new tutorials they've put together on enhancing your Knovel experience. I went through the tutorials this morning and I learned new tricks and I've been using Knovel regularly for a couple of years.

You can either follow this link or look for the video camera icon the next time you're in Knovel.

The library has subscribed to a great new electronic book database that may help you in your research.

Springer E-Books makes more than 25,000 full text books available online to you. The books included cover a wide range of topics such as general engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence and statistics.

The next time you need a resource, but can’t get over to Walter Library, this might be a good place to search.

A new SMART Commons opened up in Walter Library over the summer up on the Second Floor of the building.

SMART offers a wide variety of equipment for checkout, including:
• Video Recorders
• Tripods
• Microphones
• External Hard Drives

There are also a wide variety of both popular and academic DVDs and videos available for checkout. And a small group viewing room, available for reservation with a 65-inch plasma screen and Blu-Ray Player.
Along with these items for check out, there are computers loaded with useful software. Including programs such as:
• Adobe Creative Suite
• iPhoto
• iMovie
• Final Cut Express
• Microsoft Office
• And much, much more

There are consultants available to help if you’re using this software for the first time.

To learn more about this great new learning resource or to access their online instructional handouts visit their website at http://www.lib.umn.edu/smart/walter/

Did you notice that MNCat, the library catalog, has been looking a little different lately?

The libraries have upgraded our catalog—we’re calling it MNCat Plus. Here are some new features:
• Google-style Searching
• Real-time Availability Features
• Reviews and Tagging—Add your thoughts
• Easy saving to RefWorks and Del.ci.ous

For more information here’s a link to the campus-wide library blog’s entry on the new features. If you prefer the older version of the catalog, it’s still available (We’re calling it MNCat Classic). If you have any questions or comments, let me or another librarian know.

Let the library’s help! Next week (Thursday, August 24, 9:00-10:15 a.m.) librarian Jody Kempf will be offering a workshop on searching grant databases to locate sources of funding for your research projects. Knowledge of these resources will help you throughout your academic and post-academic career.

(image provided by Yersinia via Flickr CC)

Jody will give demonstrations and searching hints for the following resources:
Community of Science (COS)
Sponsored Program Information Network (SPIN)
Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS)
Foundation Directory Online

You will also learn how to set up alerts to get notifications of funding opportunities sent directly to your email account.

If you’re interested you can register for the class here: http://www.lib.umn.edu/registration/

I just put together Course Lib pages for all of the course being offered by the Biomedical Engineering Department for the Fall 2008 semester. On these pages I tried to match students with relevant library resources for their classes. Resources such as article databases, the library catalog, and online reference materials.

(example Course Lib Page)

The pages can be found at http://courses.lib.umn.edu/. Each course’s page has its own url that you can link to, bookmark, or include on handouts. If you’re offering or taking a course and you don’t see a page, let me know and I can make one (I tried to be thorough, but a class or two may have missed my notice).

Also if you’re using a page and have suggestions for additions just let me know…these pages are easy to update.

The library recently purchased access to a new electronic reference book, SAGE Sourcebook of Modern Biomedical Devices: Business Environments in a Global Market . A print version lives at Wilson Library (HD9999.B442 S24 2007) but now you can access the material remotely as well.

The book states that it "covers an important area of the commercial performance of major existing biomedical devices in today's global markets." You can search by keyword or browse by thematic categories.

Are you using Scitopia? Scitopia is an Internet search engine that searches the research of 21 professional and academic societies in the hard sciences. Societies such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Automotive Engineers allow their material to be searched using this search engine. So instead of wading through the millions of results you might find in a generic search engine, you can limit your search to only retrieve information provided by your colleagues in the field.

Scitopia is a free search engine--you don’t have to be affiliated with the university to search it. Some of the results will have links to full text. If full text isn’t available and you're affiliated with UMN, get in touch with me or another librarian and we can help you get access to the document you need.