IoA Library Bulletin
No. 48 May 2012
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SPIE for us!
Trial access has been set up to the SPIE Digital Library by the Journal Co-ordination Scheme (in conjunction with ebooks@cambridge) and will run until 14th June 2012.
This is an expensive resource, which we have not had access to for many years (the RGO Library subscription to SPIE Proceedings stopped in 1997 and the Cambridge University subscription stopped in 2002, since then we have had to rely on inter-library loans, mainly from the British Library).
The SPIE Digital Library has more than 310,000 conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles and eBooks. Particularly ontelescopes, astronomical instruments, bio-photonics, nanotechnology, sensors, lasers, electro-optics, communications, imaging, and associated subjects. SPIE is the international society for optics and photonicsand a not-for-profit educational society with over 17,000 Members around the world.
The journals can be found in the ejournals@cambridge A-Z listing and include:
Proceedings of SPIE : From Volume 1200
Optical Engineering : from Volume 29 (1990)
Journal of Electronic Imaging : fromVolume 1 (1992)
Journal of Biomedical Optics : from Volume 1 (1996)
Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS Starting at Volume 1 (2002)
Journal of Applied Remote Sensing : from Volume 1 (2007)
Journal of Nanophotonics : from Volume 1 (2007)
Journal of Photonics for Energy: from Volume 1 (2011)
SPIE Reviews: from 2010
SPIE Letters Virtual Journal: from 2005
A user guide with information about the SPIE Digital Library and tips on how to search the site is available. It also shows how to set-up RSS feeds and utilize bibliographic, bookmarking, and research tools.
This trial is available both on and off campus. Off campus access is available via Raven logins.
Use the ejournals@cambridge A-Z listing for journals or the URL at the end of this article. Shibboleth access (Institutional login) is being set up but is not yet available.
Please try out this resource which can be accessed from:
Send all feedback on this trial resource to
by 16th June 2012.
A Humorous Find
In the (ever fascinating) library pamphlet collection, which we are slowly cataloguing onto Newton, we recently found this delightful "Collins' Penny Library: The Life of Lord Kelvin" (c.1908) with a portrait with a lovely, art-noveau border.
This advert was found in the Kelvin pamphlet, which has the Solar Physics Observatory (SPO) library stamp. I wonder if it caused some amusement at the time, as the Director of the SPO was Norman Lockyer!
NEWTON AT YOUR SERVICE
The Library catalogue is called Newton and is shared with many others in Cambridge. You can access the catalogue from the IoA Library webpage.
But our records can also be accessed via LibrarySearch on the Cambridge University Library website.
Library records are moving beyond simple author/title listings and now can include all types of additional information such as abstracts, cover photographs, contents pages, links to electronic resources, details of previous owners and much more. Of course, all of this is not yet available for every book.
Because of the wealth of information in records, and the multitudinous ways in which they can be searched, library catalogues can offer fascinating ways to browse and discover information.
If you just want to find a particular book, normally the quickest way to find it is by the surname of the author as a Keyword. However if the author’s name is common, you might want to switch to Boolean Search where you can bring in the operators AND, OR, NOT. Combining the author with a word from the title is often effective, eg. “Binney AND galactic”. Be wary of using the NOT operator, as it often excludes records in unexpected ways.
Electronic catalogues are not perfect and there is still much uncatalogued material, so you might still want to ask a librarian!
Mark Hurn (Departmental Librarian)
Email:
Telephone: 01223 337537