British Standards Institute database - the bad news & the good news

 The bad news: due to budget cuts DIT Library's subscription to the BSi British Standards Institute database is cancelled effective Monday 29th November 2010.

The better news: the National Standards Authority of Ireland database (NSAI) will be available in the new year. This provides full text access to Irish and International (ISO) standards. An interim trial access point is available until 17/12/10 at http://www.standards.ie/ . Please contact the library for log-in details.

Accelerate your search using Searcher

Accelerate your database searching with Searcher which allows users to search across up to 16 DIT library databases at once, with more databases to be added in the next few weeks. A list of the databases covered is available on the Advanced Search page. At the moment the DIT Library subscription to Searcher is available on the Kevin St Library Blog and Kevin St Library website. Searcher offfer the following options:

• Searcher  removes duplicate results, and then weighs the relevance of each result.
• Define your search using including specific phrases and complex Boolean operators.
• Advanced search - search for the precise details needed, like an author name or a publication date.
• Downloadable results - email or download your selected results to a citation reader for easy reference.

Online Exam Papers

Kevin St Exam papers (2009) are now available online 

 (2010 papers will be available shortly)

• At the DIT Library website click on Find Exam Papers (on the upper right side)
• Click on Quick Link to Recent Exam Papers.
• Select College of Science or College of Engineering (Kevin St) or College of Arts (Kevin St).
• Select the year, your course code and then the module you require.
• Exam papers are displayed by course code/year/module name. 

You will be asked for a login and password for the DIT Student Intranet where the exam papers are hosted - contact Kevin St Library. Or click here and enter your student number and PIN to get the login listing.

Hadron Collider creates a 'mini-big bang'

The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons. The scientists working at the enormous machine on Franco-Swiss border achieved the unique conditions on 7 November. The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.

Up until now, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator - which is run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) - has been colliding protons. Read more and see a clip here
LHC lead-ion collisions image from www.bbc.co.uk