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Engineering Library

Electronic Delivery of Articles from the Library Storage Facility

Use the InterLibrary Services (ILS) Article Request Form to request individual journal articles from the Library Storage Facility (LSF) located at the Pickle Research Campus (PRC).

Staff will scan articles and deliver them electronically. Electronic delivery of storage articles through ILS is available to borrowers affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin.

For more information go to http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/ils/electronic.html

Secret to better grades — sleep more

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 21 (UPI) — U.S. researchers have directly linked higher grades with getting adequate sleep.

Researchers said those students reporting few nights of adequate sleep had a mean grade point average of 3.08 compared to 3.27 for those who reported no sleep deficiencies.

“The more days students get adequate sleep, the better GPAs they attain,” study leader Dr. Ed Ehlinger of the University of Michigan’s Boynton Health Service said in a statement. “There is a direct link between the two.”

Other factors tied to lower GPAs were excessive television or computer screen time, gambling, use of alcohol and tobacco and stress.

In the study, 69.9 percent of college students reported they were stressed and of those, 32.9 percent said stress hurt them academically. The mean GPA for stressed students was 3.12 compared to 3.23 for students who did not see themselves as stressed.

“Our study shows that there is a direct link between college students’ health and their academic achievement,” Ehlinger said. “This is the first time that anything like this has been published where grade point average is linked to all these behaviors.”

The study was based on a 2007 survey of 9,931 randomly selected two- and four-year college students.

Source: UPI.com

Access to Science Information Expands with Science.gov 5.0 Launch

200 Million Pages of U.S. Government Science Resources Now Available on the Internet

The latest version of Science.gov—Science.gov 5.0—was launched Sept. 15th, allowing users to search additional collections of valuable science resources; more easily target their searches; and readily find links to information on a variety of science topics. Science.gov is a free, integrated single-search gateway to reliable science and technology information from 17 organizations within 13 federal science agencies.

Science.gov 5.0 improves upon the previous version, Science.gov 4.0, by offering seven new databases and portals which allow researchers access to over 200 million pages of scientific information. New information available includes thousands of patents resulting from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development(DOepatents); documents and bibliographic citations of DOE accomplishments (DOE R&D Accomplishments Database); millions of electronic scientific documents from around the world known as e-prints (Eprint Network); and comprehensive and peer-reviewed toxicology data for thousands of chemicals (HSDB Hazardous Substances Databank) as well as more than 3 million references to worldwide literature on the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms (TOXLINE Toxicology Bibliographic Information).  New information also includes a digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature (PubMed Central) and cancer-related information of all kinds for all audiences (Cancer.gov), including support and treatment resources for patients, comprehensive descriptions of research programs and clinical trials for healthcare professionals and the general public, and funding opportunities for researchers.

Another key feature of Science.gov 5.0 is a “clustering” tool which helps target searches by grouping results by subtopics or dates. This technology was recently developed through a DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program award.

In addition to quadrupling the amount of searchable content and enhancing the search technology, Science.gov 5.0 now provides links to related EurekAlert! Science News and Wikipedia, and provides the capability to easily download research results into personal files or citation software.

Science.gov is hosted by DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), within DOE’s Office of Science.  In addition to DOE, Science.gov is supported by contributing members of the Science.gov Alliance, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Government Printing Office, the Library of Congress, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation, with support from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Student Competition – top price $10,000

The IEEE Presidents’ Change the World Competition recognizes students who develop unique solutions to real-world problems using engineering, science, computing and leadership skills to benefit their community and/or humanity.

Identify a global or local problem, develop a solution, then tell us how you have made a positive impact in the world. You could win US$10,000 and attend the 2009 IEEE Honors Ceremony in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Submissions accepted 1 September 2008 through 28 February 2009.

Find out more at www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/index.html

Changes to Library Copy Cards

Beginning September 30, 2008, the dispensers will not allow credit card transactions; you can still use cash to purchase a card or add money.

Users can use credit cards for purchasing or adding value to copy cards by visiting Library Copier Services in PCL 1.102B.

Library Copier Services Hours are here.

www.lib.utexas.edu/services/copyprint/lcs2.html

Printing via Engineering Computer Labs:

All computers are networked to central hard disks and printers.  There may be some charges for printing.  Call for more information or check online.

www.engr.utexas.edu/computing/labs/

NTIS Technical Reports Newsletter

The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) values its recognition by the technical information community, libraries, and participating Federal Government agencies as the leader in providing must-have U.S. Government technical content.  To this end, NTIS will always strive to acquire, index, abstract, and archive the largest collection of Government-sponsored technical reports in existence.

NTIS is committed to increasing electronic access and electronic delivery of this content to its customers:

• In 2007, NTIS increased access to Federal technical reports by extending the search function at www.ntis.gov to include its entire bibliographic file, which dates back to 1964.
• In addition, NTIS improved the precision of search results by reengineering the advanced search function on the Web site to allow customers to more narrowly define the information they are seeking by year, author, etc.
• Beginning May 2008, NTIS began a program to increase electronic output options.

Now, NTIS wishes to further serve our customers with a free NTIS Technical Reports Newsletter (go to http://www.ntis.gov/pdf/ntrnews-vol1.pdf).  The Newsletter, which will be sent electronically each month, highlights and alerts you to recently indexed and abstracted titles in particular categories – this first issue is about Going Green. Future editions will feature various NTIS content categories as well as showcase the relevancy of past U.S. Government technical reports to the current issues of our times.

To subscribe is easy. Just send us an email with your name and email address to ntrnews@ntis.gov.

10 Great Tech Books

Veteran technology writer Steven Levy names his picks for the top 10 tech books in the July issue of IEEE Spectrum. The list was created to appeal to lay readers and engineers alike, taking into account the actual reading experience along with the impact and significance of the title. This is one top 10 list that engineers, programmers and technology professionals won’t want to miss. For the complete story go to the July issue of IEEE Spectrum at www.spectrum.ieee.org/jul08/6354

All these books are in the UT library catalog. Click on the title to see location and availability.

1. The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, Henry Petroski
2. Mirror Worlds; or, The Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox…How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean, David Gelernter
3. A New Kind of Science, Stephen Wolfram
4. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter
5. Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, Paul Graham
6. The Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman
7. The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
8. The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing, David Kahn
9. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Dava Sobel
10. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes

Blackwell Synergy Journals Moving to Wiley InterScience

As of Monday, June 30th 2008, all Blackwell journal content—including all full-text HTML and PDF versions of articles from current issues, backfiles, and issues published online before print—will be incorporated into Wiley InterScience.

We plan to close Blackwell Synergy at the end of business (Pacific Standard Time) on Friday June 27th and we anticipate that the migration will be completed by Monday June 30th. Over the weekend of June 28th and 29th, there will be a period when both Blackwell Synergy and Wiley InterScience will be unavailable while we transition and re-index data.

After June 30th, Blackwell Synergy will no longer be available.

For more information click here

LibraryThing will be added to the Library Catalog

On Monday, June 23, LibraryThing for Libraries will be added into the Library Catalog.

LibraryThing (www.librarything.com) is a way for any individual to catalog their books.  You just add your book, tag it with whatever keywords come to mind, and add any ratings or reviews.  You are automatically connected with every other LibraryThing user who has that book and can see other reviews, other books they are reading, etc.

For more information see LibraryThing for Libraries.