Mathematica disappeared from Swain Hall Library Public Computers

Some of you noticed last week that Mathematica is simply gone from the nearby machines. I have a call into Library Information Technology...not sure what the root of the problem is but they're looking into it.

60 Years of nature backfile available online (at least for now...)

Just noticed yesterday that the nature backfile 1950-present is available. This is not something Indiana University has picked up (yet); it's quite expensive and we continue to rely on our archived print copies for articles published prior to the 1980s. Anyway, just an fyi for everyone... this has happened in the past, and eventually is spotted by nature and they turn it off on their end, then we abruptly lose access. It's one of, or perhaps the best science journal on the planet. Have a look at some of the old issues while the virtual doors are open.

Mathematical Physiology, 2nd edition, au: Keener, Math Department Permanent Reserve Now Available Electronically

Math Department, biophysicists, and School of Public Health (formerly HPER) - James Keener and James Sneyd's 2nd edition of Mathematical Physiology is available online to the Indiana University community. No restrictions on multiple, simultaneous users, so please let your students and colleagues know of its availability.

1960s print Scientific American added to Swain Hall Library

Thanks to Hans-Otto Meyer, the print version of Scientific American from 1961-1970 is now in Swain Hall Library, so there's no need to stroll over to Optometry or request from ALF. With the exception of the polar bear article below, here are some of the most heavily cited articles from that decade (I just included the polar bear one beause it seems like they're having a hell of a time lately, and a 40+ year old study about their migration may be informative today). We do have e-access to 19th century Scientific American, and to 1993-present, but not to mid-20th century articles. Let me know if you need any articles quickly and we'll get them to you.

3-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF AN ENZYME MOLECULE Author(s): PHILLIPS DC SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 215 Issue: 5 Pages: 78-& Published: 1966 Times Cited: 479

(click on image for better view)

POPULATION DENSITY AND SOCIAL PATHOLOGY Author(s): CALHOUN JB SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 206 Issue: 2 Pages: 139-& Published: 1962 Times Cited: 446

EXPERIMENTS IN INTERGROUP DISCRIMINATION Author(s): TAJFEL H: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 223 Issue: 5 Pages: 96-& Published: 1970 Times Cited: 366

CULTURE OF POVERTY Author(s): LEWIS O: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 215 Issue: 4 Pages: 19-& Published: 1966 Times Cited: 278

ORIGIN OF FORM PERCEPTION - IS MANS ABILITY TO PERCEIVE FORM OF OBJECTS INBORN OR MUST IT BE LEARNED EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT IT IS INNATE BUT THAT MATURATION AND LEARNING PLAY IMPORTANT ROLES IN ITS DEVELOPMENT Author(s): FANTZ RL: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 204 Issue: 5 Pages: 66-& Published: 1961 Times Cited: 251

ECOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY Author(s): BROWER LP: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 220 Issue: 2 Pages: 22-& Published: 1969 Times Cited: 218

PLASTICITY IN SENSORY-MOTOR SYSTEMS Author(s): HELD R: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 213 Issue: 5 Pages: 84-& Published: 1965 Times Cited: 211

ATTITUDE AND PUPIL SIZE Author(s): HESS EH: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 212 Issue: 4 Pages: 46-& Published: 1965 Times Cited: 201

THIRD-GENERATION PESTICIDES Author(s): WILLIAMS CM: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 217 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-& Published: 1967 Times Cited: 194

RELATIVISM OF ABSOLUTE JUDGMENTS Author(s): PARDUCCI A: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 219 Issue: 6 Pages: 84-& Published: 1968 Times Cited: 139

SPLIT BRAIN IN MAN Author(s): GAZZANIG.MS: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 217 Issue: 2 Pages: 24-& Published: 1967 Times Cited: 123

HOW WE REMEMBER WHAT WE SEE Author(s): HABER RN: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 222 Issue: 5 Pages: 104-& Published: 1970 Times Cited: 107

MIGRATION OF POLAR BEARS Author(s): FLYGER V, TOWNSEND MR: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume: 218 Issue: 2 Pages: 108-& Published: 1968 Times Cited: 8

(polar bear photo is a portion of a photo from metro.co.uk 2/2/07 online newspaper; the other image is from the Calhoun paper cited over 400 times).

CIC Librarians visit Bloomington for Conference

It's a veritable SLA-PAM reunion this week...

The famous Kris Fowler (Minnesota), affable gentleman Travis Warwick (Wisconsin), and legendary Bob Michaelson (Northwestern) are visiting Bloomington this week for the Center for Libraries Initiatives Conference "Off the Shelf: Defining Collection Services" Conference. All three came by the Swain Hall Library yesterday after the sessions for a brief tour and walk-a-bout. I think we should invest more in these smaller, local conferences...great to see everyone!

Heros of Dead Week

Dead week, the period of quiet and calm before finals week, is almost over. It seems fitting to identify and recognize the heros of dead week. Is it Arlen Specter, for leaving the Republican Party to become a Democrat? No, it doesn't matter what party he's in, he ought to simply do his homework, think long term when it comes to his state and country, and lead responsibly (Mr. Specter has nothing to do with this topic, but I kept hearing his name all day yesterday.)
Is it Jimbo Wales, co-founder and promoter of Wikipedia, and currently President of Wikia, Inc., is he a dead week hero? No, though he's done, and is doing very interesting things.
The Heros of Dead Week are really two groups of people: the Monroe County Public Librarians who offer and teach free courses on MS Word 2007 and Excel. These classes are often superior to fee-based courses, and help lots of people struggling in a difficult economy learn things, better themselves, and become more efficient, adept computer users. We're all stuck using computers, we may as well use them efficiently so we can walk away from them and do something that's actually meaningful, and an entire day isn't wasted.

The second group of heros are the UITS employed undergraduates working for close to minimum wage in the Wells Library Information Commons and campus clusters; they're often self-taught experts, helping their peers with spreadsheets, web-work, Acrobat, and offering short-cuts and advice to thousands of students trying to finish assignments and semester-end projects.

Hats off to these Heros of Dead Week, the Swain Hall Library salutes you. (Above, this is a World War I poster from Artstor...I added some text to it, so I guess I'm citing this as an Artstor resource, and you're able to view because Artstor makes this available to us. But when I think about it, is it really Artstor that provided this image? Apparently this image is from a University of Minnesota repository. Ok, well who deposited there? I don't know.)

Handbook of Mathematical Functions

For almost a half century Milton Abramowitz's Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables has been poured over by physicists, engineers, and other scientists across the globe. Full-text now available, no fee.

http://tinyurl.com/bp7xof