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ISSN: 1361-9381
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About Internet Resources Newsletter
Heriot Watt University
Heriot-Watt University Library
Heriot-Watt University Library
Issue 75 - December 2000
Edited by:
Roddy MacLeod (R.A.MacLeod@hw.ac.uk),
Catherine Ferguson and Catherine Ure.
Table of Contents:
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JiscMail service A worthy cause |
A-Z New Web SitesInformation and reviews of new and recent Web sites |
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No Nice Web Site this month, but several important sites are noted.
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Internet Detective UnCover@ingenta |
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Network News
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E-Quote E-Web |
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Esp@cenet Tutorial |
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Construction and Building Abstracts (CBA) - networked version
now available to members of Heriot-Watt
How To Find Out guide updated: Civil Engineering |
COMMENT
The Internet Resources Newsletter home page http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn.html has been updated. We hope you like the new design, which now has a SEARCH feature! So now its possible to search the pages of the Newsletter, including the previous issues, the archives, and the 'In Print' sections. PLEASE NOTE, however, that you may find out of date links in the archives, especially from early issues of the Newsletter. Unfortunately we don't have time to keep the archives up to date on a regular basis, as they now contain details of many thousands of sites. The Newsletter is designed to be a current awareness service, and so please keep this in mind when you use the Search facility. Many thanks go to Catherine Ure and Catherine Ferguson for their help with the design.
I have tried not to use this Comment section as a personal soapbox, and I don't want to start doing so now, but I feel that I have something to say about the move from Mailbase and JISCmail. You can get information on the transfer of the service at: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/docs/transition.htm . Mailbase has been a terrific service for a number of years. Hopefully the new JISCmail service will be at least as good. I havn't had time to look at it in detail, and that is really the problem - finding time to cope with the change and read the new documentation. I wonder how many people will have to spend time getting to grips with the new service. Hopefully there will not be too many differences in the way the new service operates, but many people will find that numerous bookmarks to mail archives will have to be changed, email filters will have to be changed, and list-owners will have a new interface to get used to. I must say, however, that the JISCmail helpdesk seems to be very efficient and helpful. I have mailed them a couple of times already, and their responses have been quick and accurate. There is plenty of documentation, as well, including a number of JISCmail Transition Reference Cards.
Here is a worthy information cause which may well benefit from a few minutes of your time. The MAGiC project is a first step towards establishing a new collaborative system for the collection, storage and utilisation of engineering grey literature. Importantly, it seeks to ensure that access to technical reports becomes part of the continuing development of a distributed national electronic resource.
In the UK, collections of engineering technical reports
tend to be scattered across academia, government and industry. One of
the important objectives of the MAGiC project is to map the locations
of these collections. To accomplish this objective the Project needs help
to carry out a survey. If you know about a UK collection of engineering
technical reports, please submit
the details to MAGiC.
A-Z NEW WEB SITES
3th International Conference on Gas Discharges and Their Applications.
http://www.gd2000.freeserve.co.uk/
GD2000 3rd Sept - 8th Sept 2000.
Held at The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
http://www.4metawap.com/
"The first wireless Metasearch Engine."
http://www.heysmarty.com/ae/index.asp
Academic Engine is a natural language search provider. In addition to licensing its technology to academic sites, the company has launched heySmarty.com, a free service for high school students that provides research links and offers specific answers to academic questions via its natural language search. The search provides direct excerpts from educational pages, defines terms, and provides original content when asked about popular figures, events, or concepts. Banner ads exist on the site, but only to prevent Academic Engine from charging any registration fees.
http://www.alphabetstreet.infront.co.uk/
Bookselling from Streetsonline.
http://www.AnywhereYouGo.com/ayg/ayg/Index.po?
AnywhereYouGo.com is the online community and marketplace that:
Helps application developers speed the development of wireless Applications
Helps IT managers speed application deployment
Connects wireless infrastructure providers with target influencers and
decision makers around the world.
http://www.architecture.com/
250,000 pages of useful information about architecture, architects, and the RIBA.
Australasian Virtual Engineering Library for Sustainable Development: AVELSD
http://avel.edu.au/avelsd/
The Australasian Virtual Engineering Library for Sustainable Development was launched recently in Brisbane at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Symposium for Sustainable Australia.
AVELSD is the inaugural website of the planned World Virtual Engineering Library for Sustainable Development. It has been supported by The Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust), The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ), the Australasian Virtual Engineering Library (AVEL), the University of Queensland Library, World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and The Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC). It is envisaged that site will act as a prototype for other international sites on sustainable development.
http://www.biblioalerts.com/
Choose from more than 1,500 reports containing the latest information derived from journals, books, reports, patents, and conference proceedings. Each record within a report includes a complete bibliographic citation with a detailed summary describing the article. All reports are compiled by the editors at CSA, a leading publisher of bibliographic databases and print journals.
http://www.biolinks.net.ru/
The Laboratory of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of Phototrophic Microorganisms presents a collection of Internet resources on bioscience. Topics include biological societies, laboratories, methods and protocols, educational resources, grants, research centers, the history of biology, and related journals.
http://www.blackboard.com/
"Blackboard's technology powers online education and related commerce in the academic marketplace of schools, colleges and universities, as well as the organizations that serve them, such as publishers, test prep companies and other education service providers. Blackboard software products and Web services reach more than 6,500 institutions in each of the 50 states and in more than 70 countries. More than 3.5 million people worldwide teach and learn in online education environments powered by Blackboard."
http://quote.bloomberg.com/newsarchive/
Browsable for free, however there are charges for the archives.
http://www.books4beer.com/
"www.books4beer.com is a new website designed to give students the easiest possible access to other students books to help them save or earn money. In order to give real added value we also giveaway 12 cases of free beer every month to lucky students - just for logging on and looking round the site."
This site has the backing of Scottish Courage, World Careers Network and www.studentuncovered.com.
http://kathyschrock.net/rbs3k/boolean/
A simple but effective way of demonstrating Boolean logic. By Rockwell Schrock.
British Asbestos Newsletter (e-journal)
http://www.lkaz.demon.co.uk/
The British Asbestos Newsletter is a quarterly publication which is distributed to victim support groups, public bodies, lawyers, solicitors, barristers, researchers, doctors, academics and environmentalists in over thirty countries.
British Council's Publications
http://www.britcoun.org/publications/
From here you will be able to search for any in-print British Council publications produced in the United Kingdom, from leaflets, books and posters, through to videos and electronic books.
Business Information for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/161100.htm#feature
An article in a recent issue of the popular newsletter Free Pint, by Diana Grimwood-Jones.
http://www.careernet.com/
High-tech careers. Jobseekers discover career opportunities, job postings, internships, interview and job search strategies FREE.
Employers and recruiters explore Careernet's extensive resume database with high-tech search capabilities.
Also, benefit from ongoing monthly contests for both employers and jobseekers.
Centre for weighing technology
http://www.weighing-systems.com/
"...the only web site dedicated to all aspects of scales and weighing systems world wide."
http://www.ala.org/acrl/resnov00.html
An article in College and Research Libraries News, by Ibironke Lawal.
http://math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math/index/mathmap.html
This page is designed as a visual index to the subfields of mathematics.
Coatings & Composite Materials (e-journal)
http://www.cada.it/coatings/
CadaComminication Net, editorial company, publisher's of the magazine Coatings & Composite Materials present a novel Web Site for the coatings and composite sector.
Consortium for Petrochemical Industry Benchmarking: CPIB
http://www.cpib.org/
The Consortium for Petrochemical Industry Benchmarking(tm) (CPIB(tm)) is an association of petrochemical companies. CPIB(tm) conduct benchmarking studies to identify the practices that improve the overall operations of the members.
Construction & Building Abstracts: CBA
http://www.cbaweb.co.uk/
This subscription-based service is now available on the Web. Members of Heriot-Watt University have access.
http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/libraries/cmmk/gazette_main.html
A monthly Internet source newsletter, plus a bi-weekly supplement.
http://207.8.12.143/
Dan Kurland's innovative approach to critical reading and writing based on an analysis of choices of content, language and structure.
DELOS - Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries
http://www.ercim.org/delos/
DELOS provides an open context in which an international research agenda for future research activities in the digital libraries domain can be developed and continuously updated.
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/digital_egypt/
A learning and teaching resource for higher education.
http://www.diversworldwide.com/
Diversworldwide.com is an on-line diving community allowing the exchange of information throughout all disciplines of the commercial diving industry. The aim of this website is to compile a comprehensive international diving database and provide a forum for the exchange of information.
http://www.dobe.org/
Events to involve you!
Free listings for real-world participatory groups, meetings and events. DoBe.org lists events arranged by individuals or organisations, where participants can make a real contribution, feel recognised as unique individuals and perhaps form friendships with others who share their interests
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/
This was mentioned in issue 44 of this newsletter, but it has been in the media again recently.
The DOE Information Bridge provides free and convenient access to full-text and bibliographic records of Department of Energy (DOE) research and development reports in physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, renewable energy, and other topics.
For the first time ever, each of 60,000 full-text scientific and technical reports sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) is directly accessible on the Internet using a unique URL. These reports reside on the DOE Information Bridge which provides to the public at no charge the capability to search every word of all the reports. A Persistent URL (PURL) allows educators, students, scientists, and engineers to directly access individual documents and to easily direct others to them. The collection is DOE's report literature output since January 1995.
Dutch Current Research Database (Nederlandse Onderzoek Databank - NOD)
http://www.niwi.knaw.nl/nl/nod/nod.htm
New address from the one given in issue 28 of this newsletter.
http://www.ebenchmarking.com/
ebenchmarking(tm) is a monthly newsletter provided via e-mail. The newsletter is currently available at no charge. Subscription is available to individuals in large corporations or governmental organizations who are involved with benchmarking.
http://www.ecdl2001.org/
5th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries September 4-8 2001, Darmstadt, Germany
http://msc.engineering-e.com/
"Engineering-e.com is an e-commerce marketplace designed to serve the ten million independent engineers in the world today and their customers. Independent engineers include entrepreneurs and consultants, engineers in companies large or small, aspiring student engineers and their professors. Our marketplace brings together these customers with merchants offering the essentials for engineering. Qualified providers of software, services, and other engineering resources can apply to be merchants in our marketplace."
e-psyche available at no cost through 31 December 2000
http://www.csa.com/e-psyche/
e-psyche, a new research database in the field of psychology, is now available through the Internet Database Service (IDS) from CSA, at no cost until 31 December 2000.
http://www.eurekalert.org/
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science. A gateway to science, medicine and technology news.
http://www.eventservicenet.co.uk/
A portal for the events industry. Some areas of this site are still under construction.
http://www.eyeforchemicals.com/
"EyeforChem is your on- and off-line Chemicals community. EyeforChem offers you up-to-the-minute e-business forums, information and news for the Chemicals industry. We are your window to cutting edge technologies and how they're impacting the industry."
Facilities & Real Estate Benchmarking Association: FREBA
http://www.freba.com/
The Facilities & Real Estate Benchmarking Association (FREBA(tm)) is currently a free association of facilities and real estate management organizations within major corporations.
http://www.multimedia.alltheweb.com/
Images, audio and video search engine.
http://www.findsame.com/
FindSame is an entirely new kind of search engine that looks for content, not keywords. You submit an entire document, and FindSame returns a list of Web pages that contain any fragment of that document longer than about one line of text.
http://www.freetradezone.com/
The Free Trade Zone is a suite of integrated online services that address design and procurement tasks relating to electronic components. This includes part research and selection at design time, finding parts, buying parts in an e-commerce marketplace, and, in time, other services.
Registration is free.
http://www.womens-library.org.uk/
A Library of information for & about women, a reference & lending library, the only women's lending library in the UK, an archive & resource centre.
Global Knowledge Partnership: GKP
http://www.globalknowledge.org/
The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) is an evolving, informal partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organizations. Partner organizations are committed to sharing information, experiences and resources to promote broad access to, and effective use of, knowledge and information as tools of sustainable, equitable development.
http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/
This site has been overhauled.
Guide to Citing Internet Sources
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library2/html/guide_to_citing_internet_sourc.html
As the "Bibliographic Formats for Citing Electronic Information" from the University of Vermont is about to be 'pulled' this is a good alternative, from the University of Bournemouth.
http://guide.hotlinks.com/guide/
"HotLinks' unique and proprietary model is used to build the HotLinks Guide, the world's first relevancy-ranked web directory. HotLinks' innovative patent-pending technology automatically aggregates link information from multiple sources to create web directories without the costs or bottleneck associated with human editors."
http://www.indev.org/
The British Council's initiative to address problems faced by development managers in accessing development information on India. The first of its kind in India, indev holds and disseminates information that is crucial for decision-makers, researchers, academics and development managers and act as a gateway to development information on India.
International Tracks: Career Paths in the UK and Europe
http://www.tracksdirectory.ndirect.co.uk/careers/
Sample contents of this book from Cv Publications is available here.
Internet Librarian International 2001
http://www.internet-librarian.com/
26 - 28 March 2001 Olympia 2, London.
Internet Librarian International is the ONLY international conference for information professionals who are using, developing, and embracing Internet, intranet, and Web-based strategies in their roles as information navigators, Webmasters and Web managers, content evaluators, product developers, searchers, guides, and more.
Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship - latest issue
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00-fall/
ISTL publishes substantive material of interest to science and technology librarians. The latest issue is now available. The theme of this issue is Instruction in science and technology libraries.
JISC Technology Watch - Helping to plan for the future of further and higher education
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/tech_watch.html
7 February 2001, CVCP, Woburn House, London.
http://www.dil.aber.ac.uk/dils/Research/JUSTEIS/cyc1rep0.htm
Strand A: A general survey of end users of all electronic information
services
Strand C: A general survey of electronic information services provision
Final Report - 1999/2000 Cycle
C J Armstrong, R E Lonsdale, D A Stoker & C J Urquhart
August 2000.
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/docs/
Important information for those using Mailbase.
http://www.kinetic-plc.co.uk/
Temporary and permanent jobs in the engineering sector.
http://www.librarystuff.net/
A daily weblog for librarians.
http://Limu.com/
The online knowledge and learning marketplace where people all over the world teach and tutor others about interesting topics and subjects.
You can register Courses or tutoring topics at Limu that range from a simple one-hour introduction to more complex and detailed courses of several hours over several sessions. You set the course fee (there is no cost to you for registering a course) and take bookings from people interested in your subject. Once details have been agreed upon, you meet and hold the course online and interactively in Limu's browser based virtual classroom from the convenience of your PC.
Contact Vincent Dumas, senior expert content recruitment, Tel: +44 20 7573 4502
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/litc/ltworld/
LITC is continuing to publish Library Technology online as LTWorld.
Managing Access to Grey Literature Collections: MAGiC
http://www.magic.ac.uk/
In the last few years the engineering community has gained enhanced access to electronic information resources. However, little attention has been given to grey literature such as technical reports. The report, with its technical detail and rapid dissemination, is the information medium favoured by engineers.
In the US, some recent report literature from agencies such as NASA and the Departments of Energy and Defense is readily available on the internet. In the UK, apart from the substantial holdings of the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC), other major collections of technical reports tend to be scattered across academia, government and industry. These resources are difficult to identify, locate and access.
The MAGiC project is a first step towards establishing a new collaborative system for the collection, storage and utilisation of engineering grey literature. Importantly it seeks to ensure that access to technical reports becomes part of the continuing development of a distributed national electronic resource.
Includes a survey to which interested parties are invited to contribute.
Manufacturing Times Online (e-journal)
http://www.subcontract.co.uk/
Providing business opportunities and ideas in industry.
Mathematics WWW Virtual Library
http://euclid.math.fsu.edu/Science/math.html
Not new, but not mentioned before, this collection of Mathematics-related resources is maintained by the Florida State University Department of Mathematics as a free service to the online community.
Molecular Biology Today: MBT (e-journal)
http://www.molbio.net/
MBT is the new online journal of Molecular Biology and a major Information Resource Center for Molecular Biologists. MBT publishes primary research papers, short communications, and review articles on all aspects of molecular biology, including plant and animal systems, human genetics, molecular microbiology, virology, and biotechnology. In addition MBT publishes laboratory protocols of general interest to molecular biologists.
Monitoring and Advisory Unit: MAU
http://www.mau.ac.uk/
The Monitoring and Advisory Unit of the JISC, has been in place since 1997 to manage contracts between the JISC and the following information service and network service providers: BIDS, CHEST, EDINA, HEDS, MIMAS, NISS, RDNC, and UK Mirror Service.
http://www.moveo.com/
"Moveo.com is about providing FREE plug-and-go web portals allowing the user to decide what their own portal should be about. Moveo.com has turned the traditional portal upside down and put the user in charge."
http://www.museumjobs.com/
A museum recruitment site for the museum and heritage sectors. As well as jobs the site aims to be a key portal for volunteering and training opportunities across the world.
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts: NESTA
http://www.nesta.org.uk/
NESTA is the UK's first national endowment, set up with £200 million of lottery money.
http://www.newmonday.co.uk/
Jobs in various categories.
http://www.techstreet.com/nisogate.html
NISO stands for National Information Standards Organization. NISO standards and technical reports are available for FREE download!
View the complete list of NISO standards and technical reports.
http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/
Not mentioned before.
The Office of the e-Envoy is leading the drive to get the UK online - the UK Government's strategy for the information age.
http://www.online-information.co.uk/
'The only show to deliver worldwide answers to all your information needs.' This event is the largest information industry event in the world, and brings together over 300 exhibiting companies, showcasing a wealth of information sources for all industry sectors, as well as solutions for information management, retrieval and dissemination.
http://www.partyco.co.uk/
Free information on venues, catering, entertainment, corporate hospitality, speakers, activity events, event management and much, much more.
Portals for business information on the Internet
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/021100.htm#feature
An article in a recent issue of Free Pint, by Sheila Webber.
Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources in Australia: PANDORA
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pandora/
Digital archives.
http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/
All about prime numbers.
http://www.processproducts.co.uk/
Claims to have links to 500 companies. "If you are a process, control, instrumentation or automation engineer then you will find this the easiest site on the web for finding companies and products applicable to your work. In this directory you will find hot links direct to companies offering alarm systems, temperature and pressure sensors, industrial PCs, pumps, valves and many other products for measurement and control."
http://www.programmersheaven.com/
"Choose from almost 9579 files and 2633 links that we have! Whether you are a beginner or an experienced programmer, this is where you will find everything you need!"
http://www.readfirst.com/
Previews of books.
http://reason.com/
Not new, but not mentioned before, this is a magazine for free minds and free markets.
Refugee Services of America's: IRSA
http://www.refugeesusa.org/
This site will be very useful for social workers, teachers, under-supported refugee resettlement centers, immigration and refugee policy analysts, and all others interested in immigration- and refugee-related information.
Renaissance Library Calendar 2001
http://www.isim.org/nominations.htm
"This year, all the featured libraries are in Europe. We plan to make the next edition more international, with libraries from all over the World.
We would like to enlist your help in doing this. If you have a favourite old library that you would like to see included in next year's edition, please let us know."
Robert Gordon University: Centre for Knowledge Management
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/~sim/ckm/ckm.htm
"Our Mission
To enable organisations to build sustainable competitive advantage through
management of knowledge"
Scottish Polymer Technology Network: SPTN
http://www.strath.ac.uk/Other/SPTN/
The Scottish Polymer Technology Network is chiefly aimed at helping small and medium sized companies in Scotland access Scottish Universities' expertise in plastics and polymers.
Search Tools for Web Sites, Intranets and Portals
http://www.searchtools.com/index.html
"There's a paradox: the more information your site has, the more useful it is -- and the harder to navigate! No matter how well you design your site navigation elements, visitors will need other ways to find what they're looking for. Site search tools provide a powerful and familiar means to provide that access. Visitors can just type the words and press the Search button in a form, and get a list of all the documents that match those words on your site.
Luckily, you don't have to write this yourself. There are many site search tools available, for almost every platform, web server and site you can imagine. They range from free to very expensive, from easy graphic interfaces to compile-it-yourself. The information here will give you a head start in choosing the right site search tool for your site."
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/
All about tall buildings.
Suite101's Technical Writing page
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/technical_writing
A site with lots of information, and tips, about technical writing
http://www.techcareers.co.uk/mfwt/parse.html?page=preload
Owned and managed by CMP, the largest producer of information products in the electronics market place; techcareers' key objective is to be the biggest and most comprehensive career management site in the electronics market place.
http://www.telcommunity.co.uk/
Telcommunity is a privately held company that was launched to supply innovative and highly skilled contract and permanent personnel in to the exciting world of the Defence and Avionics Industry.
The Value and Impact of IT Access in Libraries: VITAL
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/cerlim/projects/vital.htm
"The growth in provision of end-user IT services in public libraries, already rapid, is set to accelerate with the implementation of the New Library: The People's Network proposals in the broader context of the National Grid for Learning, the University for Industry and the Green paper, The Learning Age. Already, however, many public libraries are providing Internet access and other IT-based services. If these initiatives are to succeed in creating the public electronic library, there must be robust methodologies for assessing the performance and value of these services so as to enable effective planning, management and review.
The VITAL Project is designed to develop and test measures of the impact and value of end-user IT services, including but not limited to Internet access, in public libraries and to disseminate this knowledge to policy makers and others."
TheJobSearchersSuperstore.com (recruitment)
http://www.TheJobSearchersSuperstore.com/
"Take control of your life, plan your career, get the job you want here at the website of Malcolm Hornby's best-selling book for JobSearchers"
http://www.mkengel.de/thesis/thesis.htm
On this page will be a collection of links and tips where and how to search thesis literature. Any country, any type of thesis !
http://www.thetube.com/
A site from London Underground Limited.
ToogEyes 3-D. Free Universal Language Translator
http://www.toogeyes3-d.com/trans.html
Translator page.
http://ukcrop.net/
New address for the UK Crop Plant Bioinformatics Network.
http://www.diving-uk.com/main-page.htm
A fast and effective way to access diving information and diving related web pages.
http://www.uk250.com/
A selection of 'quality sites'
http://www.ukishelp.co.uk
Read about European support for information society projects.
UKISHELP (the UK Helpline for the European Union's Information Society Programmes) is part of the UK online for business initiative.
The UKISHELP service is operated on behalf of DTI by CRL and Glasgows.
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_archives/
The UNESCO Archives Portal gives access to websites of archival institutions around the world. It is also a gateway to resources related to records and archives management and to international co-operation in this area.
http://www.virtualpurple.com/
This is a 'Global Lifestyle Company', but it is initially focusing on IT recruitment. It uses a community type approach - you can register, and you can build up a network of people you refer, using the 'free enterprise model of network marketing'. Individuals can earn rewards if people in their network get work through virtualpurple.com.
http://www.w3.org/Math/
Not new, but not mentioned before. Information about MathML, etc. MathML is intended to facilitate the use and re-use of mathematical and scientific content on the Web, and for other applications such as computer algebra systems, print typesetting, and voice synthesis.
http://www.w5online.co.uk/
Watch out for the flash at this site. This has something to do with experimental learning in science, but after five minutes at the site I'm afraid I'm not much wiser.
http://www.xanedu.com/
"XanEdu has developed a bold new vision for creating and delivering courseware materials and tools. The foundation for XanEdu comes from its exclusive content distribution agreement with Bell & Howell Information and Learning. Now more than 60 years old, Bell & Howell Information and Learning is recognized as a global leader in the collection, organization, and distribution of value-added information to researchers, faculty, and students in libraries, government, universities, and schools in more than 160 countries."
http://researchengine.xanedu.com/xreweb
"The XanEduTM ReSearch Engine is quite possibly the most powerful research tool on the planet. Created from thousands of journals, magazines and newspapers. Containing millions of documents. Available any time. Accessible from anywhere."
http://www.xrefer.com/
Xrefer have just added all 25,000 entries from the Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001, completely revised and updated for the new millennium.
http://www.yini.org.uk/
"The Year in Industry initiative challenges Britain's brightest students. They get to join the real world of industry, pioneer creativity, innovate, gain respect, and get a taste of personal fulfillment and great rewards before starting university.
For companies, it pays to take part in The Year in Industry. Students available are the very best, literally, in their class. Their natural talent and fresh approach will make a real difference to your business, and your relationship with them may well continue as they go on to become the country's top graduates."
http://www.youth-unlimited.com
"We specialise in revenue generation schemes for University Information Centres and work with an increasing number of institutional partners across the UK."
NICE WEB SITE
In the course of finding sites of interest for this Newsletter, we sometimes come across Web sites which we feel deserve slightly more than a passing mention. Each month we will pick out one or more such sites, and give them a short review. The sites will normally be UK based, may be small or large, and be of interest or potential interest to academics. After lengthy discussions we have decided, with incredible creativity :-), to call these: Nice Web Sites. Details of previous Nice Web Sites are available in the Nice Web Site Archive.
I have not chosen any Nice Web Site this month. Instead here are several useful-looking ones.
http://www.books4beer.com/
I have not had time to register for this service, but if the details below are accurate, then this seems like a good service:
"BOOKS4BEER.COM is about giving students every opportunity to sell unused, or unwanted, books to other students. Providing value for students is now one of the only common denominators across a varied and diverse student population.
The site was designed to bring a little fun to a process that all students come across at some point during their studies. jest8 took a simple idea, backed up with knowledge and expertise of the graduate market and then used complex database and mail server programming to build a site that creates a virtual relationship with students."
Construction & Building Abstracts: CBA
http://www.cbaweb.co.uk/
This is what the producers of this service say: "Construction & Building Abstracts (CBA), the premier source of civil engineering and building journal abstracts on the web. The bibliographic records on this web site are created by Ove Arup Partnership for use by Arup staff worldwide; these records include high quality abstracts written by specialist librarians."
CBA is a most useful service for those wanting to find information in construction and building engineering. If you are a member of a subscribing academic institution (as is Heriot-Watt) (or other subscribing company/institution with fixed IP addresses for their computers) you should be able to use CBA immediately, without needing to obtain a password; other users will need to obtain a username and password from the appropriate member of staff at their institution. Note - if you are a distance learning student at Heriot-Watt you can get a username and password from the Library service desk. Unfortunately CBA does not take advantage of the Athens Access Management System.
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/
A useful, free and convenient service which provides access to full-text and bibliographic records of Department of Energy (DOE).
Guide to Citing Internet Sources
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library2/html/guide_to_citing_internet_sourc.html
A useful guide. I notice that it refers to Mailbase, so this is another example of something which will need to be edited as a result of the change from Mailbase to JiscMail (see 'Comment' above, at the top of this page)
http://www.xrefer.com/
More sources were recently added to xrefer. "xrefer contains encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri & books of quotations from the world's leading publishers. All cross-referenced, all in one place - providing you with a single source for reliable factual information."
Australasian Virtual Engineering Library for Sustainable Development: AVELSD
http://avel.edu.au/avelsd/
A virtual library for engineering and sustainable development. An excellent idea! It includes full-text papers, quality web sites, and online course materials.
Roddy MacLeod
PRESS RELEASES
****PARLEZ-VOUS INTERNET DETECTIVE?****
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html
This month Internet Detective, a free Web tutorial on Internet skills, registered its one-millionth user and launched new versions in French and Dutch.
Internet Detective has proven enormously popular with Web users worldwide, probably because it tackles a universal problem: how to quickly detect the best information on the Web, among the millions of sites available.
BE WARY OF THE WEB
The tutorial encourages you to question the quality of information you find on the Internet. It gives you the valuable skills needed to arm yourself against hoax sites and irrelevant or false information. These skills can help you to get the most from every site that you visit and save you hours when searching the Web.
HELPING STUDENTS TO WISE UP
Universities, colleges and schools have been using the tutorial to teach students to be wary of using information they find on the Web for their coursework, at least until they have evaluated it carefully. With so much information available, from all manner of sources, students need to be able to critically evaluate information and establish for themselves what is reliable, accurate and from a trusted source.
INTERNET INFORMANTS
Internet Detective was produced by staff at The Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) at the University of Bristol, UK, with software from Netskills at the University of Newcastle. The ILRT is home to a number of high profile Web services for education and research, including SOSIG (The Social Science Information Gateway) - one of the first and most enduring Web services for Web-searchers looking for high quality sites.
FREE AND EASY
This is an informal, teach-yourself tutorial with interactive quizzes to lighten the learning experience. It's free for everyone, thanks to funding from the European Union and to translations from The National Library of the Netherlands (Dutch translation) and the University of Lyon (French translation).
THE WORD ON THE STREET
There's been lots of very positive feedback on the site from all over the World. Examples include:
"Internet Detective is a very good example of empowering Internet users with critical skills"
"Too often people quote chapter and verse from a Web site and have no idea about the author's credentials, knowledge or reliability. Thanks so much for this information"
"Internet Detective is a unique reference, teaching the skills that students need in order to surf the net intelligently."
"I found the tutorial extremely helpful, and definitely challenging. (Actually, it helped me develop a lot more caution and a little more humility about evaluating Web sites, since I had much more trouble than I would have expected.)"
"We are a corporation and I feel that any company doing business in the Web space should know as much as possible about how to evaluate the quality and reliability of other organizations' Web presence. Thank you for creating a tool that addresses this need."
GET ON THE CASE!
Internet Detective is freely available to everyone at: http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html
Further information Please contact:
Debra Hiom or Emma Place
Tel: +44 (0)117 928 7183
Fax: +44 (0)117 928 7112
email: desire-demo@bristol.ac.uk
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
University of Bristol
8-10 Berkeley Square,
Bristol
BS8 1HH, UK
****UnCover@ingenta***
The service provides access to the UnCover database, which has long been the principal source of article searching for US academics and researchers. It is a multidisciplinary bibliographic database of articles from over 18,000 journal titles. The database is easy to use, with keyword access to titles and summaries.
UnCover@ingenta offers users access to citation information for more than ten million articles, dating back to Autumn 1988 - and offers users increasing access to pay-per-view electronic or paper document delivery.
The search service is free to any BIDS user.
There is also a brief description of the service through the "more info" link on the Service Selection page.
The search interface is very similar to other BIDS-interfaced services such as the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS Online) and Pascal.
However, unlike these other services, the UnCover search results show 'Full Text' links ONLY if:
(a) the article is available in ingentaJournals AND is free to the user - because the library has a subscription
OR
(b) the electronic version of the article is available for onscreen purchase
OR
(c) if a faxed version of the article is available for onscreen ordering from UnCover.
The onscreen purchasing options require the user to put in credit card details. (Our secure server software (SSL) is the industry standard and is among the best software available today for secure commerce transactions.) There is no charge to the user's library.
If the article exists in ingentaJournals, but is not available to the user by virtue of a library subscription or onscreen purchase, then the Full Text link is only shown if is available by fax from UnCover.
This is the first phase of the integration of the UnCover service with other ingenta services. In the first quarter of 2001, the UnCover and ingentaJournals databases are scheduled to be more fully integrated.
Sam Phillips
BIDS Marketing Manager
s.k.phillips@bids.ac.uk
01225 323 383
NETWORK NEWS
- BIDS News Bulletins
-
http://www.bids.ac.uk/Tfedocs/news.html
BIDS is a UK provider of networked information services for higher education and research.
- NISS News
-
A week-by-week listing of new information resources on the NISS (National Information Services and Systems) Information Gateway selected by experts in the subject area is available at:
http://www.niss.ac.uk/welcome/whatsnew.html
- BUBL News
-
BUBL has retained a strong library element, but now provides a subject-based service to the academic and research community more generally, this via the BUBL LINK Subject Tree. The latest news from BUBL is available at:
http://bubl.ac.uk/news/
The latest updates to the BUBL LINK / 5:15 Catalogue of Internet Resources are available at:
http://bubl.ac.uk/link/updates/current.html
- EEVL News
-
The latest Additions to EEVL, The Hub for Engineering, Mathematics and Computing, are available at:
- http://www.eevl.ac.uk:4321/whatsnew/
The Internet Aviator is now available. -
For subscribers of Compendex via EDINA, the Compendex and EEVL databases are now cross-searchable. This means that you can search both databases at the same time.
- SOSIG News
-
The latest additions to SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway) are available at:
http://sosig.esrc.bris.ac.uk/roads/whats-new.html
- EDINA Newsline
-
The latest issue of Edina (Edinburgh Data & INformation Access) Newsline can be found at:
- http://edina.ed.ac.uk/newsline/
- CHEST News
-
CHEST aims to obtain quality commercial software, datasets, training materials and other IT products for the Education and Research Community at low prices and attractive licence terms. The latest news from CHEST is available at:
http://www.chest.ac.uk/news.html
- MIMAS News
-
MIMAS is a JISC-supported national data centre run by Manchester Computing, at the University of Manchester, to provide the following range of services to the academic community:
Flexible on-line access to strategic research and teaching datasets.
Access to key bibliographic information.
Access to specialist support and training.
Access to software packages and large-scale computing resources.The latest news from MIMAS can be found at:
http://www.mimas.ac.uk/news.html
- New on RUDI
-
RUDI (Resource for Urban Design Information) is a multimedia information resource for research and teaching in the field of urban design in the Western cultural context. The latest news from RUDI can be found at:
http://www.rudi.net/
- BIOME News
-
BIOME is a collection of gateways which provide access to evaluated, quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences, aimed at students, researchers, academics and practitioners. The latest news from BIOME can be found at:
http://biome.ac.uk/whatsnew/
- Netskills: News
-
Netskills aims to help the UK HE community make effective use of the Internet for teaching, research and administration. The latest news from Netskills can be found at:
http://www.netskills.ac.uk/news/
- What's new on Eldis
-
Electronic Development and Environment Information System. A gateway to information sources on development or the environment. What's new on Eldis can be found at:
http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis/wnew.htm
- What's New on Biz/ed
-
Biz/ed is a dedicated business and economics information gateway for students, teachers and lecturers.
http://www.bized.ac.uk/homeinfo/whatsnew.htm
- AHDS Newsletter
-
The latest issue of the AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service) Newsletter can be found at:
http://ahds.ac.uk/newsletter.html
- JISCmail News
-
National Academic Mailing List Service.
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/news.htm
- Data Archive news
-
The Data Archive at the University of Essex houses the largest collection of accessible computer-readable data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. It is a national resource centre, disseminating data throughout the United Kingdom and, by arrangement with other national archives, internationally.
http://dawww.essex.ac.uk/news/
- What's new on the TASI web site
-
TASI is a service funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) set up to advise and support the academic community on the digital creation, storage and delivery of image-related information.
http://www.tasi.ac.uk/new.html
- Chemical Data Service (CDS)
-
CDS provides on-line access to a variety of quality databases in the field of Chemistry, plus support, training and advice. This is available (free of charge) to academics at UK Universities.
http://cds.dl.ac.uk/cds/
RECENT INTERNET BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY
Recent Arrivals
001.645 CUR
Flash Web design
by Hillman Curtis
New Riders, 2000
001.6441 PER
Interconnections: bridges, routers, switches, and internetworking protocols
by Radia Paerlman
Addison-Wesley, 1999
025.04 HOL
The Internet for students
by David Holland
Internet Handbooks, 1999
Quick Reference
608 NEW
How to find information: patents on the Internet
by David Newton
British Library, 2000
A complete list of new books added to Heriot-Watt University Library is available from the Library News page.
http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/news.html
REVISED HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY LIBRARY WEB PAGES
Heriot-Watt University Library
http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/
Heriot-Watt University Library staff have revised the Library's web site, with the aim of making it more helpful to users. The concentration of effort in this first phase has been on restructuring the information, and updating it to reflect in particular the moves to electronic sources of information, and distance learning.
Feedback is welcome, particularly from Heriot-Watt staff and students (see the 'Contact us' section at http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/ ) and in the light of this, they will amend the site as necessary and then look more to the design aspects of the site as the next phase of development.
INTERNET IN PRINT
E-Quote (in Dutch)
Quote Publishing, Postbus 10209, 1101 EE Amsterdam
Monthly
Subscription: ?
What can I say? I'm afraid I don't read Dutch, so it's a tricky one to review. However, this "business and digital lifestyle" magazine is nicely produced, and appears to cover everything "cool" about the Internet and the new economy. It features youth, style and fashion throughout, and there is a focus on personalities. It seems to have a flair and passion for its subject, as well as covering a broad range of subjects from the top 50 e-commerce companies, to a feature on porn sites, complete with pictures! (Oh to be able to read Dutch...)
E-Web
Hewitt and Stott Publishing, 70 Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4QD
Monthly
Subscription: £3.45 cover price
This a a chunky glossy, covering all aspects of the Internet and e-commerce.
It has a varied range of articles, its main sections being - New on the
Web; Money; Computers; New markets and Business on the Internet. Personally,
I felt the range of subjects was simply too broad, and that the magazine
has not quite decided who its intended readership is. It claims to be
for people who do business on the internet; want to do business on it;
internet beginners; internet professionals…have they left anyone out there?
While many of the articles are interesting, there is a danger that people
will be put off by the size - beginners because they see too much complexity;
professionals because they do not have the time. There isalso a large
number of 'advertising features' and 'features which may well be adverts
in disguise', but its not always obvious from first reading.
Catherine Ferguson
Esp@cenet Tutorial
Esp@cenet is a free service on the Internet provided by the European Patent Organisation (EPO) through the EPO and the national offices of its member's states. It is a searchable database of 30 million patent documents worldwide. The tutorial is designed by the Intellectual Property Rights (ipr) Helpdesk to aid users to search the database effectively. To use Esp@cenet and the other tutorials available at the ipr helpdesk your system must be equipped with the "Macromedia Flash" plug-in, this can be downloaded on site.
The tutorial begins with an introduction that clearly defines the scope and limitations of the Esp@cenet database. The Esp@cenet database aims to "promote patent awareness by providing direct free and easy access to up to date patent information, through the Internet, the use of which is expected to "stimulate innovation in SME's." It is "not for exhaustive searches or for discovering the whole state of the art" and for that the assistance of an experienced patent search professional should be sought.
There are 3 methods of using the tutorial, by topic for quick advice, a step by step approach for a thorough coaching and a more selective approach based on a problem. There is also a guide on background information and a glossary. The tutorial is clearly illustrated and in most cases you have the option of doing an example. Navigation is easy with a sidebar menu explaining where you are in the tutorial and on each page there are hypertext links. You can either follow the tutorial logically or choose links and move through it more selectively. The step by step approach is very thorough and explains what search criteria you can enter, how to formulate your search query, what terminology to use, the structure of the databases and finally how to obtain the patent.
The tutorial is an excellent guide to the Esp@cenet database and the graphics illustrate and reinforce the content. The step by step tutorial thoroughly guides the user through the process of searching enabling the user to optimise the search. The user can determine what level of help is required and has the option of examples if more help is needed.
Catherine Ure
GET A LIFE! - LEISURE TIME
- Awesome Guide to all the Nightclubs in the UK, by city and town
-
http://www.nightclubbinuk.com - UK Homebrew Home Page
-
http://web.bham.ac.uk/GraftonG/homebrew.htmNew address
- How to play better basketball
-
http://member.aol.com/HowToPlay/basketball/ - Learn about music
-
http://www.netradio.com/learn/ - All Game Guide
-
http://allgame.com/ - What is Hogmanay?
-
http://www.whatsgoingon.com/coolest/place/20001114/ - Rock's Backpages
-
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/
The online library of rock & roll - What is Hogmanay?
-
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/ - Recorder Home Page (Australia)
-
http://members.iinet.net.au/~nickl/recorder.html -
STOP PRESS!
Construction and Building Abstracts (CBA) - networked version now available to members of Heriot-Watt
http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/cbaweb.html
Networked access to this excellent database, which indexes over 200 journals
of interest to the construction industry, is now available to members
of Heriot-Watt University. The database covers planning, civil engineering
and construction technology, and architecture, including the entire process
from briefing, design, construction, maintenence and rehabilitation, to
demolition of structures. Also covered are topics such as marketing, quality
assurance, legislation and health and safety, law and management when
they relate to the construction industry. CBA concentrates on UK sources,
and is co-produced by Ove Arup Partnership. More information about the
database suppliers is available at: http://www.cbaweb.co.uk/
How To Find Out guides
The following How To Find Out guide, written by a subject exppert at Heriot-Watt University Library, has recently been updated. The guides is aimed primarily at students and staff of Heriot-Watt University, however itmay also be of use to anyone looking for printed or electronic information on the subject covered.
How To Find Out
in Civil Engineering
http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/howtocivil.html
This page has been visited at least
times.
This page is: http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn75/irn75.html