Posted On: May 4, 2015
This month’s hands-on workshops to learn more about some of the best resources for your science and engineering research. Classes are free, but registration is strongly encouraged. Note that some classes are in the Geisel Library Building, and others are at the Biomedical Library Building.
The UC San Diego Library is hosting a live-streaming webinar from the University of Michigan’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Discovery Workshops, which will be held May 5 & 6. Each 2.5-hour session consists of hands-on work emphasizing a different set of NCBI resources, using specific examples to highlight important features of the resources and tools. The workshops will be broadcast in the Biomedical Library’s Classroom 3, and computers are available.
Gene Expression Resources at the NCBI (register)
May 5 (Tues),
Biomed Lib Bldg, Classroom 3
10:00 – 12:30 pm
You will find, display and analyze microarray and sequence-based expression data that are stored in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), Sequence Read Archive (SRA), UniGene, and Epigenomics databases to investigate the potential for expression of transcript splice variants and examine the levels of expression under varied experimental conditions as well as in different tissues and disease states. You will analyze Microarray data the on-demand GEO2R tool and will explore the precomputed transcript analyses that are displayed on the UniGene and GEO Profiles pages. You will explore genome-aligned RNA-Seq data through the Gene database’s sequence viewer displays and analyze raw RNA-Seq reads in the SRA database using NCBI’s SRA-BLAST service.
NCBI Genomes, Assemblies and Annotation Products: Microbiome to Human (register)
May 6 (Wed),
Biomed Lib Bldg, Classroom 3
10:00 – 12:30 pm
NCBI BioProject, BioSample, Genomes and Assembly databases Annotation products from the Eukaryotic and Microbial genome annotation pipelines Environmental and organismal metagenomes Accessing wgs data in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) Specialized genomic and SRA BLAST services Downloading genome sequences and next-gen reads from the NCBI FTP and Aspera sites.
SciFinder Essentials for Chemists and Non-Chemists (register)
May 6 (Wed),
Geisel Lib Bldg, Classroom 1
10:00 – 11:30 am
SciFinder is one of the core information resources for exploring the chemical literature, but it’s not just for chemists. It can also be helpful to researchers in engineering, environmental sciences, physics, and radiology and other health sciences.
This hands-on workshop will cover the SciFinder essentials: topic and author searching, improving your search results, accessing the full text articles, and how SciFinder compares with other databases like Web of Science. You’ll also learn to search CAS Registry to find chemical substance information, and get an introduction to the built-in editor for drawing chemical structures and reactions.
Patents & Patent Searching (register)
May 13 (Wed),
Geisel Lib Bldg, Classroom 1
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Patents are critically important in protecting intellectual property and companies are investing fortunes in them to safeguard their inventions. It is estimated that between 2010 and 2012 in the smartphone industry alone, over $20 billion was spent on patent purchases and litigation. Without the protection afforded by patent coverage, technological innovation would dry up.
In this class, you will learn how patents protect your intellectual property and what rights they confer, what to expect in the patent application process, how to read and interpret patent documents, and why international patents matter. Learn how you can work with the UCSD Technology Transfer Office to manage and protect your inventions. Finally, learn about free web search engines you can use to discover if your invention has already been patented. Even if you don’t have an invention on the drawing board, this class will give you valuable insight into how patents work.
PubMed Essentials (register)
May 14 (Thurs),
Biomed Lib Bldg, Classroom 3
11:00 – 12:30 pm
This hands-on workshop focuses on what every user needs to know about PubMed, whether doing a search for a specific author or topic using keywords. Learn to focus your results with limits, become familiar with the features of the advanced search screen, and know how to use UC E-Links to easily get to full text articles.
PubMed: Beyond the Essentials (register)
May 28 (Thurs),
Biomed Lib Bldg, Classroom 3
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Move beyond the basics to refine and expand your searching skills. Learn about MeSH terms and how to use them in a search. Use MyNCBI and its numerous tools to keep you updated and to customize PubMed for your most frequent types of searches. Great for the frequent searcher.