Archive for October, 2009

Access to Journal of Phycology

With the merger of Blackwell with Wiley, Journal of Phycology is now published by Wiley.  I thought we used to have acces to volume 1 with Blackwell’s premium subscription package.  Now, we have to 1997 only.  Has anyone else had a change in access from the change in publishers?

Thanks.

Janet Webster

Oregon State University

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Stanford dissertations no longer going into Dissertation Abstracts

Stanford is finally going to move to digital submission of dissertations and theses.  I know most of your institutions made the switch a long time ago.  We were waiting for our registrar to retire to get this moving.

What is probably different for Stanford Univeristy is we are not planning to submit them to ProQuest for deposit.  We are going handle their distribution ourselves.  On the one hand I think this is great.  It probably means you won’t have to pay to have access to Stanford dissertations and theses.  My main concern is that it appears that the citations and abstracts will not be in Dissertation Abstracts unless the student is willing to pay to have this done.  In the past I believe University Microfilms added this information for free, and only charged to make the microfilm copy for distribution.  Back when I got my degree, University of Southern California (along with Harvard) did not deposit their dissertations with University Microfilms.  I could have had mine added, but I would have had to pay as USC was not paying for this.  I declined, but it is now in the Aquatic Commons along with several other USC dissertations we have scanned.  I checked Dissertation Abstracts and it appears Harvard and USC are now both depositing their dissertations with ProQuest.

I have always used dissertation abstract to confirm if/when someone got their Ph.D., but if Stanford (and others?) are not even submitting the citation and abstract for its graduates, this means you can no longer rely on Dissertation Abstracts for this purpose.  Maybe our ProQuest colleagues (Craig & Vicki) can verify whether or not ProQuest charges even to submit just a citation and abstract.

If you want to read about how Stanford plans to handle dissertations, there is a URL to the news story below.  You will find embedded links to download the PowerPoint slides used by the University Librarian when he presented this plan to the Faculty Senate.  You can also download the full Faculty Senate minutes with all the details including the faculty questions and discussion that followed the presentation.

Joe Wible
Hopkins Marine Station

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/october26/electronic-dissertation-pilot-102909.html

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Draft guidelines for making information accessible

The CIARD (Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development) is a consortium of organizations invloved in agricultural development.  It just produced draft guidelines for best practices for making information accessible. To From the CIARD website:” To ensure that public domain research outputs – in the form of information, data and knowledge – form part of a global ‘knowledge commons’ for agriculture, these outputs should be created, assembled, handled and disseminated in ways that ensure that they will be as Available, Accessible and Applicable as possible.”

The checklist could also apply to those of us involved in fisheries, aquaculture and oterh natural resource information.

http://www.ciard.net/index.php?id=604

Janet Webster

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Waypoint Newsletter

The latest edition of “Waypoint”, the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s quarterly online newsletter, is ready for navigation.

To go direct to the newsletter, please follow this link: http://www3.aims.gov.au/docs/publications/waypoint/014/index.html

Key coordinates to visit include:

New WA Marine Bioresources Library to aid medical research

A huge step forward in understanding the nature of Western Australian marine biodiversity and facilitating sustainable use of it was marked in March 2009 with the opening of the state’s first Marine Bioresources Library, known as WAMBL. For more details, please go to: http://www3.aims.gov.au/docs/publications/waypoint/014/headlines-01.html

Research reveals cyclone’s ravages on the Reef

The Great Barrier Reef was severely buffeted by Severe Tropical Cyclone Hamish, which roared down a substantial part of the reef system, causing widespread though variable damage and in some places reducing coral cover from 70 per cent to 10 per cent. For more details, please go to: http://www3.aims.gov.au/docs/publications/waypoint/014/headlines-02.html

Sponge farming takes off at Masig Island

The establishment of Australia’s first sponge farm at Masig Island in Torres Strait highlights the impact and uptake of AIMS’ sponge farming research. For more details, please go to: http://www3.aims.gov.au/docs/publications/waypoint/014/headlines-03.html

Environment Minister announces multimillion dollar boost to CReefs

An influx of resources worth a total of $2.7 million to support the CReefs project that is systematically surveying life on Australian reefs has been announced by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts the Hon Peter Garrett MP. For more details, please go to: http://www3.aims.gov.au/docs/publications/waypoint/014/headlines-04.html

In brief

AIMS has welcomed the announcement in July that the Great Barrier Reef is among the finalists for the title of “New 7 Wonders of Nature”.  AIMS Western Australia staff have moved into the new temporary headquarters of the University of Western Australia’s Oceans Institute.  AIMS has taken out a prestigious national award for its occupational health and safety regime associated with the Scott Reef Research Project off the Western Australian coast. For more details, please go to: http://www3.aims.gov.au/docs/publications/waypoint/014/in-brief.html

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Dates and place of 36°IAMSLIC CONFERENCE 2010

 

The next 36° IAMSLIC ANNUAL CONFERENCE and 2nd LATINOAMERICAN REGIONAL GROUP MEETING will be held in Mar del Plata, Argentina during OCTOBER 17 to 21.

We share with you the information announced during Brugge, on behalf of Marcia Croy-Vanwely (DFO, Vancouver, Canada) – President elect (on holidays until mid-November) and myself Guillermina Cosulich (INIDEP, Argentina) – Host IAMSLIC 2010.  

A year from now !! Include it in your Agenda !!

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IAMSLIC Election Results

For President-Elect the winning candidate is Amy Butros of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library .

For Secretary the winning candidate is Kathleen Heil of the University of Maryland, CES, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

Congratulations to our new executive members and many thanks to Geoffrey Salanje of the University of Malawi who agreed to run as a candidate for President-Elect.

Thanks also to Natalie Wiest and the Nominating Committee for finding excellent candidates and to Steve Watkins and Kristen Metzger for assisting with the electronic voting system.

– Elizabeth Winiarz, IAMSLIC President 2008-2009, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Science Librarian

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Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC, Canada – New Librarian

Pamela Wilkins is the new librarian at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Pam took charge of the IOS library in September and will be joining IAMSLIC soon.  She received her MLIS from the University of British Columbia and came to Fisheries and Oceans Canada from the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range library.
The previous librarian, Pamela Olson, who operated the IOS library since 1997, retired after a 25 year career with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.  Pam O. had the opportunity to work in all three DFO Pacific Region libraries, beginning with Regional Headquarters in Vancouver, moving on to Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, then to IOS in Sidney.  The Institute of Ocean Sciences library hosted the IAMSLIC 2000 conference held in Victoria, BC.

Link to IOS Library: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/libraries-bibliotheques/pacific-pacifique-eng.htm#sidney

Posted by Pamela Olson

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Easy opportunities to promote open access

At last week’s conference, a number of speakers touched on issues related to open access publishing. Here is a link to a concise set of tips for using various situations as opportunities to discuss and inform on open access issues and related topics.  Interesting — and useful!

http://www.acrl.ala.org/scholcomm/node/43

–Steve Watkins, California State University, Monterey Bay, Library

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