We are receiving continuing reports of individuals who are being shown a paywall screen when trying to access articles from Nature journals that we should have access to, from various locations around campus including departmental computers and the UCSD-PROTECTED wireless network.   This is very intermittent and the journals are working at most locations.  The licensing folks at UC’s California Digital Library are working on this with the publisher.

Tips that have worked for some users:

• clear your browser cache.
• clear your browser cookies – bear in mind this can reset some settings you might have for other websites.

If you are still unable to connect to the journals, please email tmvogel@ucsd.edu with the following:

• Details of the article you were trying to access (citation or URL).
• Your computer’s IP address (you can use http://ipmonkey.com to check).  If you’re on the campus wifi, make sure you’re using the PROTECTED wifi and not the GUEST wifi. If you’re using VPN, make sure you selected “althruucsd” instead of “split” when you logged in. Also, if VPN access isn’t working and you’re off-campus, try using the proxy server.
• Go to http://www.nature.com/debug.html  and use your browser’s “Save as” or “Save Page as” to save the page that results.  Include this as an attachment.

Also, Nature does publish some journals we don’t subscribe to. If you’re not sure if we have a journal, you can check it out in our library catalog.

(h/t: Biomed)

Enjoy the first solar eclipse of 2012 this coming Sunday.  Here’s the map of the path of the annular solar eclipse of May 20th.  A partial eclipse may be viewed in San Diego starting at 4:27 pm PDT and ending at 6:41 pm.

Table of times (beginning, max, end)  for your city in the United States.

For eye safety and viewing tips, read this article at NASA.  Pinhole camera techniques work best if you don’t have welders glass 14 or the correct kind of mylar.  Or just look at the sidewalkor ground under a small leafed tree to see many tiny eclipse images.

The UCSD community now has access to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s e-book collection: more than 1,000 books from 1968-2012, including the Specialist Periodical Reports series and Tutorial Chemistry Texts. RSC publishes books in chemistry and biochemistry, as well as materials and polymer science, nanotechnology, medicine and pharmacology, environmental science, food science, and toxicology & drug discovery. Some recent titles:

The mystery of magic and the art of juggling have surprising links to interesting ideas from mathematics.

May 31, 2012
3:00 – 4:00 pm
Science & Engineering Library Events Room

In the fourth companion lecture to the exhibit, Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine,” Professor Ronald Graham, one of the world’s best known mathematicians, computer theorists, and technology visionaries, will explain the math behind magic in his talk, “Juggling Mathematics and Magic.”

Graham, who calls himself a “mathemagician” will explore the mystery of magic and the art of juggling and their surprising links to mathematical concepts. Graham is the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering and the co-author of Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks. A skilled magician and juggler, Graham is the ex-president of the International Jugglers Association.

Dr. Graham will be signing copies of his book which will be available for purchase at the talk.

The talk is free and open to students, faculty, staff and the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Please register here.

More information on the exhibit and to register for other lectures in the series: http://libguides.ucsd.edu/harrypotter

The Science & Engineering Library is pleased to announce the third and last in a series of faculty lectures by researchers from Calit2, featuring  Dr. Jurgen Schulze speaking on “Advanced Virtual Reality Applications.”

Thursday, May 3, 2012
3:00 – 4:00 pm
Science & Engineering Library

The lecture is free and open to students, faculty, staff, and the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Please register online at http://tinyurl.com/ucsd-schulze-lecture.

The Immersive Visualization Laboratory at the California Institute for Telecommunications and
Information Technology focuses on virtual reality (VR) software applications, which leverage its
unique features, including user tracking, 3D input devices, immersive displays, multi-user capability,
and high-end graphics hardware. In 2007, the StarCAVE was built by the Laboratory which is still
one of the most advanced virtual reality systems in the world. Since then, the NexCAVE VR system
was developed, which consists of an array of 3D TV displays instead of projectors.  This presentation will unveil some of the more recent virtual reality software applications the Laboratory has been working on.

Jurgen P. Schulze is a Research Scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2), and a Lecturer in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of California San Diego.  His research interests include scientific visualization in virtual environments, human computer interaction, real-time volume rendering, and graphics algorithms on programmable graphics hardware.  He holds an M.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. After his graduation he spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher in the Computer Science Department at Brown University.

More information.

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Science & Engineering Library’s Award for Best Use of the Literature  at the Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo.    Each won a $75 giftcard for the UCSD Bookstore, and their posters (along with others from the Expo) will be on display in the S&E Library through the Spring Quarter. Each is shown below receiving his prize from Mary Linn Bergstrom, Head of the S&E Library.

Calvin James Gardner (“Smell-o-Vision: Remotely On-Off Switchable Odor-Releasing Capsules”)

Wei Gao  (“High Efficient Microrockets and Their Biomedical Applications”)

Rauno Cavallaro (“Non Linear Aeroelastic Analysis of Joined Wing Configurations“)

With their latest release, IEEE has included a new set of enhancements to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, including:

• Enhanced abstract pages that display IEEE index terms for the paper, as well as tabs for references and citing documents.
• Sort results by most-cited papers
• Easier to create your personal IEEE account to create search alerts and set preferences
• New browsing features, including the ability to filter (narrow) your results
• Easier to see on the results page which articles are part of UCSD’s license (or available to all as Open Access
• HTML full-text articles (coming soon) – several IEEE journals are already piloting this
• A What’s Popular tab on the homepage, to see what searches and papers are the most popular at the moment

As many of you are aware, the UCSD Libraries are consolidating collections as we reduce the number of buildings and plan how we can best utilize the Geisel and Biomedical Library spaces.  To summarize: As a result of budget cuts and the consolidations that have accompanied them, the Libraries are transitioning from a discipline-based and decentralized structure to a comprehensive library in two locations that offers a suite of services across its facilities.  The Associate University Librarian for Collections has posted an update on the progress made and the proposed plans going forward:  http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/consolidation-qa.html

Of special note:

Q.  What about the Science & Engineering Library?  Where will those materials reside?
A.  Our current plans call for the physics and chemistry resources to be integrated in the Biomedical Library building, where they will complement the existing life sciences collections in that facility, sometime in 2013.  This includes the current periodicals and books. Those materials in engineering and mathematical sciences will continue to be housed in the Geisel Library building, where they will remain in close proximity to the Jacobs School of Engineering.  This decision is not final, however, and we encourage feedback from affected faculty to ensure that our decision about the location of the collections best meets the needs of the campus community. (Pre-2000 print journals will be stored offsite at the Annex. We will continue to scan articles on demand.)

Your feedback on this is critical. If you have questions, concerns or comments, you can contact your liaison librarian directly or use the form on the webpage. We’ll compile all feedback received between now and the end of the academic year, when the final decisions on the collection dispositions will be made.

• Teri Vogel: tmvogel@ucsd.edu
  Chemistry & Biochemistry, Materials Science, Chemical & Nanoengineering
• Deborah Kegel: dkegel@ucsd.edu
  Physics, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science
• David Schmitt: dschmitt@ucsd.edu
  Bioengineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Structural Engineering

Wednesday, March 14 is both Pi Day AND Albert Einstein’s birthday.  Each year,  the S&E Library celebrates by holding a photo shoot with Albert.  See this year’s photos here.

The Science & Engineering Library once again celebrates Women’s History Month by reprising our 2011 display of 21 women faculty in the physical sciences and engineering at UCSD.

The research interests of these women cover a wide and diverse range of endeavors, but they all express a passion for what they do.  Reading their personal statements is testimony to that passion – as scientists and engineers, as teachers, and as mentors to young women and men pursuing careers in science and engineering.

Stop by the Science & Engineering Library to see this inspiring exhibit, on display through March 31.