Informit Enhancements

Hey database groupies … Informit (from RMIT) is excellent for Australian content … including TV news and public affairs plus IT in goverment & law.

Now it is enhanced for your researching pleasure:

1. Custom Database Screen

A new custom database screen has been added to Informit.  This screen allows customers to prioritise certain databases to list at the top of the Databases screen. Use Informit Admin – ‘Custom Databases’ field to specify databases to show on this screen.

2. Email Alerts – New Databases

The search alerts functionality has been extended to cover new databases.  Alerts are now available for:

· A+ Education

· AGIS Plus Text

· Australian Public Affairs – Plus Text

· Informit e-Library – Business Collection

· Informit e-Library – Engineering Collection

· Informit e-Library – Humanities and Social Sciences Collection

· Meditext

· RequestTV

3. RSS Feed Changes

Table of Contents RSS feeds are now available for each journal and replace the current Issue Feeds for Journals.   New Title RSS feeds from databases remain the same.

RSS feeds and Authentication

Some RSS Feeds from Informit databases require authentication and a current subscription in order to view the feed content.   Many people use RSS feed aggregators such as Google Reader or Bloglines in order to view RSS feeds. This is not possible with most Informit databases as those aggregating services do not have access to Informit content even though the person subscribing to the RSS feed does.

Only databases with freely available metadata, such as Informit e-Library collections, may be subscribed to via feed aggregators.

The only way to successfully subscribe to RSS feeds from Informit is to use a built in RSS reader on your desktop such as the one in Internet Explorer 7 or “Live Bookmarks” within Firefox.  Many other add-in / plug-in products that read RSS are available for these browsers and Windows / MacOS in general.

4. Other Fixes / Changes

• On the Database screens, ‘Title List’ links have been renamed to ‘Browse Titles’
• ‘Move to top’ (^top) links have been added between sections on Databases screen
• TVNews/RequestTV databases now show episode titles if available on program Title page

Engineering Village Product Updates Are Coming January 8th!

In response to client requests, we are enhancing and updating Engineering Village to make your experience better. Beginning January 8, 2009, the following updates will be available:

• A re-designed “Ask an Expert” section
• A Referex Keyword Cloud of frequently appearing terms
• An expanded Expert Search character limit

The “Ask An Expert” section of www.engineeringvillage.com has always given users the opportunity to ask questions of an expert engineer, EV’s product specialist Colleen Hunter, and/or an organization’s librarian. Expert engineers have experience in a variety of disciplines, including mechanical, chemical, and industrial engineering. By re-designing the “Ask An Expert” page, we hope to make it easy for users to find answers to commonly asked questions, and to direct their more specific questions to the appropriate resource. Users will be able to sign up for online trainings and download training materials via links to www.ei.org and send feedback via email.

To help Referex users navigate through their e-book results, a Keyword Cloud will be added to all titles. The Keyword Cloud, located in the Book Details section of a search result, will show the most frequently appearing keywords in that title. By hovering over a keyword, users will be able to see how many times the word appears in the book. Clicking on a keyword will take the user to a set of results that displays the pages on which the keyword appears.

For advanced users, the Expert Search character limit will be doubled to 8,000. This will allow users familiar with advanced Boolean logic the ability to conduct more complex searches.

Beginning January 8th, information related to these updates will be available in the Engineering Village help guide, which can be accessed by clicking on the “Help” tab on the homepage. If you have any questions regarding these changes or general account information, please feel free to contact us at eicustomersupport@elsevier.com

QUT bluebox research commercialisation workshops

“Taking research to the real world”

bluebox is conducting a one-day workshop for QUT research staff who wish to learn more about commercialisation.

Offering comprehensive coverage of commercialisation issues relevant to the research environment, the workshop will provide attendees with a fantastic opportunity to discover more about taking research to market and gain a deeper insight into commercialisation at QUT.

Session topics include:

• How is QUT research commercialised?
• What is intellectual property and why is it relevant to my research?
• How can I ensure my research outcomes are able to be commercialised?

for more information visit the bluebox website at: http://www.qutbluebox.com.au/news/upcomingeven/workshops.jsp

Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science : Permanent Access Now Available

QUT Library is happy to announce that permanent access is now available to the Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science.

Content is peer-reviewed and organized by series (as listed below). New titles or Lectures in each topical series are added regularly as they become available. Lectures are in PDF format, and enhanced versions including animations, code, or audio are often available. Simple (author, title, keyword) and advanced search options are provided. Intended for use by researchers, advanced developers, and students. Series and titles will be also be revised as necessary. The goal of Synthesis will grow to encompass the entire scope of its subject disciplines.

There is the option to sign-in to personalize your visit.

Synthesis Series
The following is a list of the current Synthesis series and their editors. Within each of these Series are a number of Lectures (50- to 100-page ebook publications).

The list is also available at http://www.morganclaypool.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/page/browseLbS.jsp

• Algorithms and Software in Engineering – Andreas Spanias, Arizona State University
• Antennas – Constantine A. Balanis, Arizona State University
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning -Ronald Brachman, Yahoo! Research and Thomas Dietterich, Oregon State University
• Communication Networks – Jean Walrand, University of California-Berkeley
• Communications – William Tranter, Virginia Tech
• Computational Electromagnetics – Constantine A. Balanis, Arizona State University
• Computer Architecture – Mark D. Hill, University of Wisconsin
• Computer Graphics and Animation – Brian Barsky, University of California at Berkeley
• Computer Science
• Control and Mechatronics -Mark Spong, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Digital Circuits & Systems – Mitchell A. Thornton, Southern Methodist University
• Energy & the Environment: Technology, Science, & Society – Frank Kreith, University of Colorado
• Human Language Technologies – Graeme Hirst, University of Toronto
• Image, Video and Multimedia Processing – Al Bovik, University of Texas
• Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services – Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Information Security, Privacy, & Trust – Ravi Sandhu, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Measurement & Instrumentation – Ferdinanda Ponci, University of South Carolina
• Mobile & Pervasive Computing -Mahadev Satyanarayanan, Carnegie Mellon University
• Power Electronics – Jerry Hudgins, University of Nebraska
• Quantum Computing – Marco Lanzagorta, Naval Research Labs and Jeffrey Uhlmann, University of Missouri – Columbia
• Signal Processing – Jose Moura, Carnegie Mellon University
• Solid State Materials and Devices – Sanjay Banerjee, University of Texas
• Speech and Audio Processing – B. H. Juang, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Technology, Management, & Entrepreneurship – Henry E. Riggs, Founding President and Trustee Emeritus, Keck Graduate Institute
• Web Engineering – James Hendler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The complete collection of lectures is available at http://www.morganclaypool.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/page/coll_one?cookieSet=1
Recently published and forthcoming titles are available at http://www.morganclaypool.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/page/ForthcomingSynthesisLectures

To access Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science go to the QUT Library homepage and select databases. Enter synthesis and click the Search database descriptions box. On the next page click the database name hyperlink to connect to the database. Or you may click the More details link to bring up a full one page description for this database.

Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science provides access to over 100 electronic books (typically 50- to 100- pages in length) in engineering and computer science from Morgan & Claypool Publishers. Each electronic book synthesizes an important research or development topic, authored by a prominent contributor to the field. These are called Lectures.

Please submit any feedback you have on this product to me.