RSS FEEDS

A handy way of keeping up-to-date in your field of research is to use RSS feeds. RSS (short for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a format that allows for the syndication, or sharing, of Web content. Its use enables you to aggregate and rapidly scan information gathered from blogs, databases, news, current event Web sites and other Web sites that update content frequently.

Josh Clark, one of the Liaison Librarians in the College of Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, has created an RSS tutorial which shows the basic steps to creating an account with a Web-based RSS feed reader, and how to subscribe to a sample RSS feed.

Links to further information are included at the end of the presentation.

The RSS tutorial is linked from the researchers' page:

LIBRARY WORKSHOPS FOR RESEARCHERS

2007-2008

Hello All,

A Happy New Year to you!

The Library resumes its Library Workshops for Researchers series on Thursday 17th January with “Business Information Resources”.

Workshops will then be run on a weekly basis up to March 6th (Thursdays, 2.30 – 4pm, in the Information Skills Room, Health Sciences Library). Topics will cover:
- Finding evidence-based health and medical information (24th January)
- Government Publications and the E.U. Documentation Collection within UCD Library (31st January)
- World Bank & Source OECD (7th February)
- Bamboozled by Google? (14th February)
- Electronic newspapers (21st February)
- Finding images (28th February)
- UCD as Gateway – to other libraries and collections (6th March)

Full details of each of these Workshops will be circulated in due course.

Booking is available online at:
www.ucd.ie/library/researchbooking/
best regards,
Julia

SCIFINDER SCHOLAR

Researchers in the field of chemistry may be interested in the latest upgrade to SciFinder Scholar,


The above link provides installation instructions for Windows and Mac. SciFinder Scholar can only be downloaded, installed and used on campus (on UCD registered computers). It cannot be used on the public access machines in UCD Library. There is, however, a dedicated SciFinder Scholar standalone PC on Level 4 of the James Joyce Library which can be used while in the Library.

We hope you all enjoy the Christmas break!

National Digital Learning Repository - Workshop

The National Digital Learning Repository (NDLR) is a HEA funded pilot project between all Irish Universities, ITs etc. It is an online resource tool designed to support collaboration and sharing of teaching and learning resources within the Irish 3rd level education sector.

Richview Library is piloting the use of the NDLR to make images available in digital format. To this end, as a first step, 250 of its slides, copyrighted to the School of Architecture, have been added.

It is hoped to roll out this pilot to academic staff who will be invited to add their own images. The resulting and growing image databank will be available to all to add to, to share and use in teaching, learning and research activities.

The NDLR is managed in UCD by the Centre for Teaching & Learning (CTL). The CTL is running a workshop on the morning of Wed. 5th December (10am – 1pm), outlining its work, with a specific focus on images.

Anyone with an interest in this area is invited to attend.

Please contact Julia Barrett before Friday this week (30th) if you would like to attend. julia.barrett@ucd.ie Tel: + 353 (01) 716 2741

Software tool for publishing and managing bibliographies

Library at Lunchtime: EndNote Sessions

EndNote is an application that helps researchers store and manage references, and makes creating bibliographies easy. UCD Library offers workshop training and demonstration sessions for groups, in addition to Endnote Lunchtime Sessions

REQUIREMENTS:

Introduction to EndNote: Good PC skills; some familiarity with using online databases

Advanced EndNote: These sessions are intended for regular users of EndNote, who can already enter and download references and use the Cite While You Write feature.

For advance bookings please Telephone 7167368, or Email: endnote@ucd.ie
Any places not booked will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis on the day.

A BRIEF WORKSHOP

Many of you will know that the Library has recently purchased the online version of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP).

The HCPP is a comprehensive collection of parliamentary papers in full text on British policy, covering Britain and its colonies from 1801 to the present. It is a primary source for historical records, and for multidisciplinary research.

The company selling this service will give a brief workshop on how to use, search for and locate information on this resource, on:

Monday 5th November, 2.00 - 3.30pm

In the Information Skills Room, Health Sciences Library

If you would like to attend this workshop, which will also be attended by some library staff, please let Ros Pan know:

rosalind.pan@ucd.ie

Environmental maps at your fingertips

ENVision, “Environmental maps at your fingertips” is a service from the Environmental Protection Agency.

ENVision gives access to a variety of environmental maps for the Republic of Ireland, including Corine land cover mapping, soils, river catchments, mapping associated with the Water Framework Directive (e.g. groundwater risk assessment) etc.

All environmental data is overlain onto aerial and topographical mapping; administrative boundaries (e.g. townlands) can be included.

Links to this service are also available from the Library’s maps’ page