Tuesday 28 July 2009

August Holiday Weekend


Kevin St Library is closed on
Monday 3rd August.

Usual opening hours apply from Tuesday 4th August: 9.30am-5.15pm.

Friday 24 July 2009

Scholarpedia v Wikipedia

Scholarpedia is a free open access peer reviewed encyclopedia written by experts in their respective fields covering physics, computational intelligence and dynamical systems.

It aims to publish "living reviews" as opposed to research papers. The (ambitious) goal of Scholarpedia is to be a useful encyclopedic reference for scholars of different levels and is aimed at advanced undergraduate or graduate students in similar areas.

Each article in Scholarpedia has its own copyright policy, freely selected by the authors from the choices such as Creative Commons etc. Probably a better idea to cite from this resource than something from wikipedia?

Thursday 23 July 2009

Irish scientists develop healing bone graft material

A high-performance material has been developed to fight infections and fractures. From sugar-like particles that serve as bone cement to rods strong enough to carry your weight, intensive efforts are under way to discover new materials that can substitute for damaged bone. Dr Daniel Boyd of Medic in Cork Institute of Technology collaborated with Dr Mark Towler of the Materials and Surface Science Institute in UL to develop a new kind of bone replacement. Full details here.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Twitter for beginners: 5 steps for better tweeting


Don't know your tweets from your tweeple or your twellow? Social Media Guide gives some useful geting started tips for newbies who want to make the most of Twitter. Have a look at http://mashable.com/2009/07/20/twitter-new-users/ and get going.

INTUTE is changing - for the better


Lots of staff and students in DIT Kevin St are fans of the INUTE academic subject links site and changes are afoot to make this even more useful for September. So what’s new?
  • The main change is that content will be organised around 19 subjects, making it much easier for students to find the resources they need for their studies.

  • The Virtual Trainig Suite tutorials will be much more prominent, highlighting relevant titles from the new subject pages. The tutorials will also be shorter and easier to read.

  • MyIntute personalisation service has also been simplified, making it easier to set up alerts by email and RSS, and export bookmarks to social bookmarking sites such as Delicious user friendly and subject specific than before. Keep an eye out at the Intute blog or Twitter sites.

Friday 17 July 2009

New Physics Database : IOP Science


A new physics database is now available on the DIT Library website.

IOP Science is part of the Institute of Physics and the database offers access to the ejournal archive as well as database options such as personalisation services, an online tour, most cited function, latest article listings as well as access to the fulltext IOP journals.

Click on the website link above to use the new resource. Remote access will require your DIT id number and your Library PIN.

Thursday 16 July 2009

Have your say about science


Do you want a voice in the nanotechnology revolution? Then air your views through the Your Science Your Say initiative. Scientists have three minutes on camera to explain their work in nanotechnology, then members of the public can leave comments or a video response on YouTube. The Environmental Protection Agency will use the results to gauge public response to nanotechnology. So grab your chance at Your Science Your Say: Nano at Dublin’s Science Gallery until July 31st, or see the YSYS website.

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Google launches new operating system


The kingdom advances? Google announces a natural extension of the Chrome project: Google Chrome OS which is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks and will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. More info and news n views here