Fall Workshops @ the Library

This fall's workshops include topics such as: professional social networking, RefWorks, citation searching and bibliometrics, and online research for Graduate and WebCampus students. View the full schedule, descriptions and sign up @ http://scwlibrary.eventbrite.com.

Spring workshops!

The library is offering an extensive workshop schedule this spring, covering every topic from term paper research, to using LaTeX to prepare your thesis, to online networking, to GRE test prep...

Library YouTube Channel

The library has created a YouTube channel for all of our videos and online tutorials. Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/stevenslibrary and let us know in the comments if there's anything you'd like us to cover in future screencasts! (Professors, you can also contact us at library [at] stevens [dot] edu to let us know if you'd like us to create a customized tutorial for your class or subject area.)

Fall Workshops

The Dangers and Advantages of Social Media (part of the Graduate Student Affairs Professional Development Series)

This presentation covers how to use social media in a positive fashion while avoiding common negative branding downfalls, and will be relevant to graduate students, club leaders, staff, and faculty.

Thursday, Sept. 23rd, 4 - 5 p.m. (Fielding Room, Howe Center)

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Utilizing Library Resources & a discussion about Plagiarism (part of the Graduate Student Affairs Professional Development Series)

Thursday, Sept. 30th, 4 - 5 p.m. (Fielding Room, Howe Center)

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Searching the Deep Web

Tuesday, Oct. 19th, 4 - 5 p.m. (Library Research Training Room 204)

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Thesis and Ph.D. Dissertation Formatting and Submission (part of the Graduate Student Affairs Professional Development Series)

Thursday, Oct. 21st, 4 - 5 p.m (Fielding Room, Howe Center)

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Using RefWorks

Learn how to use this online tool to manage, sort, and create citations and bibliographies from your research resources. This really is an incredibly useful tool if you are working on your thesis or dissertation, or doing research for a book or article.

Tuesday, Oct. 26th, 4 - 5 p.m. (Library Research Training Room 204)

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Utilizing Library Resources from Off Campus: a Wimba live presentation

Tuesday, Nov. 9th, 4 - 5 p.m. (Online via Wimba)
Please send an email to linda.beninghove@stevens.edu if you would like to participate.

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Utilizing Library Resources: Research for final papers & projects

Tuesday, Nov. 16th, 4 - 5 p.m. (Library Research Training Room 204)
Learn research tips and tricks for finding scholarly and professional articles & books to support your final papers and projects. We will also discuss citing sources. If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact linda.beninghove@stevens.edu

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Using library research tools from off-campus (live online via eLearn)

Thursday, Nov. 18th, 4 - 5 p.m. (live online via eLearn)
Please send an email to linda.beninghove@stevens.edu if you would like to participate. You will receive an email with a link to the online classroom.

Library Workshops

The library will be offering several workshops to help students learn how to use the library's resources & services for professional development and how to use the library resources to prepare papers, projects, theses, and dissertations.

• Thursday, April 8, 5:00-6:00 p.m. Graduate Professional Development Series - Office of Graduate Student Affairs. Graduate students will learn how to use the library resources for academic assignments and career development. This seminar is offered through the Office of Graduate Student Affairs. Location: Babbio 304.

• Monday, April 12, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Library Research for Graduate and Ph.D. Students. Graduate students will learn how to use the library resources for academic assignments and career development. Location: Library Training Room 204. Refreshments will be provided.

• Wednesday, April 14, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Thesis and Dissertation Workshop. For all students working on a thesis or dissertation, this workshop will provide details about formatting & submission requirements. Location: Library Training Room 204. Refreshments will be provided.

• Wednesday, April 21, 12:00-1:00 p.m. Scopus Lunch & Learn. (RSVP required to linda.beninghove@stevens.edu - lunch will be provided, so we'll need to know how many people are attending!) All members of the Stevens community are welcome to attend. Attendees will learn about the latest features of the scholarly Scopus database. Location: Library Training Room 204.

If you have any questions about the library workshops, please contact Linda Beninghove, Head of Reference and Research Services, at linda.beninghove@stevens.edu or 201-216-5412.

Please join us at our workshops! We look forward to seeing you there.

Upcoming Library Workshop!

The library will be giving a workshop as part of the Office of Graduate Affairs Professional Development Series, held every Thursday from 5-6 p.m. in Babbio 304.

***Thursday, February 25***

Library Resources

There is a plethora of resources that are available for students to use and reference in the library such as databases, information about companies for job searching, journals, and more. Learning to use these resources is a critical tool for writing research papers.

The library research lecture will teach graduate students how to use library resources to support their papers & projects and to improve their academic writing skills. Students will learn how to find scholarly and professional journal articles & books, how to find company & industry information, how to cite sources properly, and how to use the library website effectively to find high-quality information.

PLEASE NOTE: This workshop has been postponed due to inclement weather. Information will be posted here regarding a rescheduled date. Thank you!

April Research Workshops

Are you writing a paper or working on a final project? Do you need to find journal articles and books to support your research topic?

Come to a Research Workshop at the Library!

Choose from 3 convenient workshop dates:

1. Wednesday, April 8th @ 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
2. Monday, April 13th @ 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
3. Tuesday, April 21st @ 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

You will improve the quality of your paper/project by learning:
- How to quickly find the full text of top-quality research sources (journal articles, books, e-books, conference papers, newspaper & magazine articles)
- How to cite your sources correctly in your paper and your bibliography
- How to find & use the best research resources for your papers and projects
- How to go beyond the free Internet and start using the innovative, scholarly, & professional research databases available through the Library website

All members of the Stevens community are welcome. All Undergraduate students, Graduate students, Ph.D. candidates, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend.

Questions? Contact Linda Beninghove, Head of Reference and Research Services, at linda.beninghove@stevens.edu or 201-216-5412.

Location: Workshops will meet in Library Research Training Room 204 on the second floor of the Library.
We look forward to seeing you there.

Nature's Publishers Make Genome Papers Available Through Creative Commons License

From the Nature website: "In the continuing drive to make papers as accessible as possible, Nature Publishing Group is now introducing a 'creative commons' licence for the reuse of [papers reporting full genome sequences]. The licence (see http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html) allows non-commercial publishers, however they might be defined, to reuse the pdf and html versions of the paper. In particular, users are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the contribution, provided this is for non-commercial purposes, subject to the same or similar licence conditions and due attribution."

Click here for full article from nature.com.

Keep Your Research Skills Sharp with Scopus Tutorials

Did you know that the Scopus database now offers an interactive tutorial series?

Helpful topics include how to search for an article, how to save a search, and how to set up alerts to let you know when your paper is cited.

Check them all out at: http://help.scopus.com/robo/projects/schelp/tutorials/sc_menu.html

Creating the Perfect Password

Some of us here at the library were just discussing (read: complaining about) websites' rules for creating a password. It seems that every time we create an account somewhere new, there is a longer list of requirements... For example, I recently visited a site that required your password to be a minimum of 8 characters, containing at least 2 numbers (which could not be at the beginning or end) and at least one capital letter. It just seemed a bit ridiculous and overly-complicated, until I came across this article.

As more and more personal information goes online, this serves as a good little reminder that though we may be becoming more comfortable putting ourselves out there into the virtual world, we still need to remember to proceed with some caution.

Weblogs 101

Ok, since we are introducing this new library blog, perhaps we should first post about blogs (also known as weblogs) in general. This is probably not new to most of you, but we figured some background information couldn't hurt... :)

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a blog as follows:

"A frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary."

Today's blogs, however, are so much more... They are a daily source of news and information for many people, and can be contributed to by multiple authors, some of which are experts or at least highly regarded individuals in their fields. They help many of us keep up-to-date in what's important to us, be it world news, technology, business, or our specific field or research interest.

Finding blogs on topics of interest to you is often a serendipitous process. There are several blog search engines, most notably Technorati and Google Blog Search, but you could of course just do a web search for "insert topic here blog". Very often, you find out about blogs you like through other blogs you like... For example, blogs very often reference other blogs, or include a list of links to the blogs that the author or contributors are reading (often called a blogroll).

Once you start reading a bunch of different blogs on a regular basis, it often becomes cumbersome to visit each one every day to see if there are new posts. Enter the RSS feed aggregator. What is an RSS feed you ask? Well, simply put, it's just a constantly updated stream of information from a particular website or blog. (Want it less simply put? Here's some more info...) You can use an aggregator to compile the feeds from all your favorite sources into one place. Keep in mind that not only blogs have RSS feeds, you can also get them from many websites, especially news sites, which provide constantly updated headlines.

There are many aggregators to choose from, and which one you use is purely a matter of personal preference. Here is a list of what's out there, and here's a chart with some comparisons among them...

Creating and maintaining your own blog is also a great way to share information about yourself or your research with the rest of the world. There are many websites that allow you to create a blog for free, some of the more popular ones are: Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Vox, WordPress and Xanga (just to name a few...)

To sum all this up nicely, we found a great little video on web 2.0... Enjoy!

welcome to eSource!

It is our mission at S.C.Williams Library to provide the Stevens community with not only the traditional resources you need to complete your education, research and scholarship, but also the guidance to help you identify and navigate the plethora of resources available to you in this high-tech world.

In that spirit, we are excited to announce the launch of eSource, a new blog featuring information on finding information. eSource will keep you updated on new library resources and events, as well keep you informed about our databases, including updates, new features, tutorials and system down-times. We will also focus on new and interesting technologies in the world of information sharing.

We will try our best to not only help guide you through the resources we provide here at the Library and on our website, but also through the World Wide Web, focusing on what technology is out there and how are people using it…