Friday 19 February 2010

An easy new way to check your library account and renew your books - use the Cambridge Libraries Widget

The Cambridge Libraries Widget is available via a Quick Link called "Library Account & Renewals", located on the right-hand side menu of the Balfour Library homepage.

You can check what books you have on loan, and request their renewal. You can also do a quick search of the catalogue and make reservations.

Just log in with your library card bardcode number and your surname, and the rest should be straight forward - though do please ask library staff for help if not.

If you use iGoogle, or Facebook, or CamTools, you can load this "widget" into those pages - see this site for information and instructions: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/camlibwidget.html

eduroam

Eduroam is an international initiative that allows members of educational establishments to gain internet access at other member sites easily, using credentials from their home site in a secure manner.

Authentication details (username/password) are configured into the user's computer and tested at the home site before departure. These details are used automatically at the destination site when the computer discovers the Eduroam network is available (usually via a wireless network SSID called 'eduroam'). The JANET Roaming Service (JRS) is part of eduroam.

Cambridge is a participating organisation in the JRS and has:

  • home organisation status which allows Cambridge users who are visiting an insitution that is a member of JRS/eduroam to access the network using their Cambridge credentials;
  • visited organisation status which allows visitors to Cambridge, from other member institutions, to access the network using the credentials provided by their home institution.

Find out more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/wireless-lapwing/eduroam/

Digital researcher: Managing your networks and building your profile

The British Library and Vitae are running a one day event on 15 March 2010 exploring the use of Web 2.0 in research, networks and building researchers own profiles.

The interactive event, held at the British Library, is for postgraduate researchers and research staff. It will include presentations and interactive sessions on subjects such as microblogging, RSS feeds, social networking and social citation sharing. The day is being held to help develop the skills needed for research in an increasingly digital world and will give ideas for managing information.

See this page for more information http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/56271-205821/Digital-researcher-Managing-your-networks-and-building-your-profile.html#pageInfo

Monday 15 February 2010

New books and theses acquisitions

New books purchased by the Balfour Library:

Animal locomotion, by Andrew A. Biewener. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2003. Balfour Library shelfmark: GES (27ii)

Functional surfaces in biology. Volume 1: Little structures with big effects. Volume 2: Adhesion related phenomena. Edited by Stanislav N. Gorb. Dordrecht: Springer; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: EC (306i-ii)

Handbook of the birds of the world. Volume 14: bush-shrikes to old world sparrows, [edited by] Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott, David Christie ... [et al.]. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: q K (62) (Quarto, large-size shelves)

Primate behavioral ecology, 3rd ed., by Karen B. Strier. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.; 2007. Balfour Library shelfmark: YW.7 (33cii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

New theses:

Intracellular transport: regulation of kinesin activity and cargo recognition, by Philippe Loiseau. Cambridge; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (467)

The role of nonsense mediated mRNA decay in Drosophila melanogaster development, by Paul Samuel Avery. Cambridge; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (466) (Library Office)

A study of the dynamic intranuclear localisation of noncoding human Y RNAs during chromosomal DNA replication, by Alice Tianbu Zhang. Cambridge; 2009. (M.Phil.). Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (468)

Donations:

IGFs: local repair and survival factors throughout lifespan, [edited by] David Clemmons, Iain C.A.F. Robinson, Yves Christien. Heidelberg: Springer; 2010. Balfour Library shelfmark: GEK (55)

In pursuit of the blood-red slavemaker: adventures in neurobiology, by David Wallis. Cardiff: Bioline; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (231)

What does the honey bee see and how do we know?: a critique of scientific reason, by Alan Horridge. Canberra: The Australian National University E Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: QJG (39)

Self-check facility in the Balfour Library is working again

I am very pleased to tell you that the self-issue facility is now up and running as usual again.

Thanks for your patience.

Monday 8 February 2010

Self-issue facility in the library not working

Unfortunately the self-issue system in the Balfour Library is not available until further notice due to a hard disk problem.

This means that you will not be able to borrow books outside of normal library opening hours (i.e. 8:30-5:00 Monday to Thursday, 8:30-4:30 Fridays). Library staff can issue books to you on the system from the Library Office during opening hours, but obviously you will need to make sure that you are there before we leave so that you can borrow Overnight Loan or any other books that you need.

We're really sorry for the inconvenience; hopefully it will be sorted out soon, I'll let you all know when it is.

Monday 1 February 2010

New ebooks in Zoology and Neuroscience available now

The ebooks@cambridge team has acquired the following titles which are on NST Part II Zoology and Neuroscience reading lists:
  • Gluckman, 2006, Mismatch: why our world no longer fits our bodies, OUP
  • Waxman, 2005, From neuroscience to neurology, Elsevier
  • Selzer, 2006, Textbook of neural repair and rehabilitation, CUP
Also of interest to you may be an Anthropology text:
  • Gursky, 2007, Primate anti-predator strategies, Springer
They are available through Newton, the online catalogue for the libraries of the University of Cambridge, at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton/

A list of the whole collection of ebooks is available from the link at:
http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/ebooks@cambridge/collection.html

Printed copies of these books are of course all available in the Balfour Library.