Category Archives: Science

Database Trial – Polymer Library

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19985223,192x192,r-2We’re re-trialling a database this month that may be of considerable interest to chemists and engineers alike.

The Polymer Library is the world’s largest abstracts database dedicated to plastics, rubber, polymer composites and adhesives. Compiled and written by an expert team, this database sources information from journals, conference proceedings, books and reports to give you a comprehensive look at the information in your field. Find out more about the database and what it can do for you.

To obtain the trial details please login with your University username and password at https://internal.lboro.ac.uk/diss/lb/uniwide/webpages/Trials.html

Access is valid to 6th October 2016.

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn.

Database Trial: Polymer Library

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19985223,192x192,r-2Our second trial this month will likely be of great interest to chemists and engineers.

The Polymer Library is the world’s largest abstracts database dedicated to plastics, rubber, polymer composites and adhesives. Compiled and written by an expert team, this database sources information from journals, conference proceedings, books and reports to give you a comprehensive look at the information in your field. Find out more about the database and what it can do for you.

To obtain the trial details please login with your University username and password at https://internal.lboro.ac.uk/diss/lb/uniwide/webpages/Trials.html

Access is valid to 19th June 2016.

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn.

Calling All Ergonomics Students!

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ergonomicsIf you need to find articles on universal design, assistive technology, cognitive ergonomics, user experience, driver vehicle ergonomics, health and safety, sporting equipment and lots, lots more – try Ergonomics Abstracts.

With nearly 200,000 online records covering more than 25 years of ergonomics research it also includes trade magazines for the latest trends, as well as books chapters and conference proceedings.

You can find Ergonomics Abstracts from the link in the Design School Subject Guide – http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/subjectguides/design/– or from the Select Databases tab in Library Catalogue Plus http://lcp.lboro.ac.uk/

Or just ask your Academic Librarian – http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/contact/academiclibrarians –  for more information.

Earth Day 2016

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earth day 2016As today is International Earth Day, what better time to remind you of the University’s very own Sustainability project and website.

The University is committed to acting in a socially responsible way that maximises its positive impact and minimises its negative impact on society and the communities in which it is based. This is reflected in the University’s strategy Building Excellence which states that “we will embed sustainability and social responsibility into all of our processes, operations and developments” and also “will work closely with local partners to enhance the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the communities and regions in which we reside”.

Why not visit the Sustainability website to find out more?

Earth Day has been celebrated globally since 1970, with the aim of inspiring and motivating people to action over environmental issues. Every year the campaign tackles a new theme, and this year the theme is Trees For the Earth, a plan to plant 7.8 Billion trees by Earth Day 2020 – one tree for every person on the planet!

To find out more about the campaign – and how to participate – visit the Earth Day website below:

http://www.earthday.org/

British Science Week Resources – Library STEM Subject Guides

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531843326_81c9b2cff2_zTo conclude our look at Library resources for British Science Week, we’d like to turn the microscope around and take a look at the bigger picture of available resources, and how to find them.

Finding the right sources of information for any subject can be tricky, given the vast amount of resources there are available to you via our own Library Catalogue Plus database. This is especially true of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (or STEM) disciplines. With that in mind, our Academic Librarians have created a set of online guides tailored to these subject areas.

You can find the complete A-Z list of all the guides by following this link:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/subjectguides/

Each link gives you a concise run-down of everything you need to know about finding information for your subject, including the contact details for the Academic Librarian responsible for the School/Department concerned.

Be sure to visit and bookmark the links for future reference – you’ll certainly find them useful!

Image by Philip Bond, reproduced under CC License from Flickr.

British Science Week Resources – Compendex

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Ei comp pngSearching for Engineering information? Why not expand your search and try Compendex?

Compendex is the broadest and most complete engineering literature database available in the world. It provides a truly holistic and global view of peer reviewed and indexed publications with over 17 million records from 73 countries across 190 engineering disciplines. Every record is carefully selected and indexed using the Engineering Index Thesaurus to ensure discovery and retrieval of engineering-specific literature that engineering students and professionals can rely on. By using Ei Compendex, engineers can be confident information is relevant, complete, accurate and of high quality

Useful for the following subject areas; Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics and many others, links to Compendex can be found from the relevant Subject Guides and from Library Catalogue Plus.

British Science Week Resources – Reaxys

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reaxys

Next up in our look at useful resources for British Science Week is the multi-faceted scientific formula database Reaxys.

Reaxys is a unique web-based chemistry database consisting of deeply excerpted compounds and related factual properties, reaction and synthesis information as well as bibliographic data, navigated and displayed via an actionable interface. Offering a wealth of experimentally validated information, Reaxys brings a fresh look to synthetic chemistry with powerful functionality, combined content and relevant information.

Why not have browse?

http://www.reaxys.com/

British Science Week Resources – Science on BoB

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bobAs part of British Science Week we’re to take the opportunity to highlight some of the fantastic science & technology resources you can access at the Library, starting with the very wonderful Box of Broadcasts (or just BoB for short!)

BoB is an off-air recording and media archive service. BoB is available to staff and students of member institutions of the British Universities Film & Video Council that hold an ERA+ license. This TV scheduling service allows you to record TV and radio programmes that are scheduled to be broadcast over the next seven days as well as retrieving programmes from the last seven days from a selected list of recorded channels. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons access to BoB is not available from outside the UK.

Now as BoB, in theory, offers you everything, there’s a veritable gamut of science programmes you can catch up on, including the BBC World Service’s popular weekly science series The Science Hour, which highlights the top science and technology news of the week, as well as Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, an irreverent look at the world of science through the eyes of Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince, and classic archive science television like the ground breaking Horizon. Why not give it a browse and see what you can dig up?

British Science Week 11th-20th March

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BSW2016RGBMID_BPINKThis weekend sees the start of British Science Week, a UK-wide programme of events and activities, aimed at people of all ages, celebrating science, technology, engineering and maths.

The University is marking the occasion with a special community day on campus tomorrow (12th March) beginning at 1pm, including stands and activities run by a number of academics from across our Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths  departments. These will be supported by a number of sessions from local schools as well as various ‘science busking’ demonstrations. The day is free to attend and designed to cater for all ages, with a wide variety of hands on activities and demonstrations throughout the day to ensure a fun but engaging environment for the whole family.

Over the coming week we’ll be highlighting some of the science resources that are available to you from the Library – be sure to look out for them.

Calling All Computer Scientists!

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Computer mouse

Your library provides access to a fantastic resource called Computer and Information Systems Abstracts, which provides access to the latest research articles and hard-to-find conference papers.  Updated monthly with the latest theoretical research and practical applications from around the world.  Don’t let the term ‘abstracts’ put you off as this resource also provides many full-text PDF articles or provides you with an SFX link which will search other resources for the full-text.

Image courtesy of abac077, Computer World: My home office, 2007. Shared under a 2.0 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence.