New ebooks purchased

Several new e-books have been purchased by ebooks@cambridge, of note for the biological sciences are the following:

Duranti - Companion to linguistic anthropology

Hastie, Tikshirani & Friedman - Elements of statistical learning

Housecroft - Inorganic chemistry

Jobling - Human evolutionary genetics

Kemp - Origin and evolution of mammals

Mithen - Creativity in human evolution and prehistory

Palsson - Systems biology : properties of reconstructed networks

Pinhasi & Mays - Advances in human palaeopathology.

Sharma - Bioinformatics

Waldron - Palaeopathology : Cambridge manuals

Xiong - Essential bioinformatics

The books are available via Newton, the online catalogue for the libraries of the University of Cambridge, at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton/

For more information on ebooks@cambridge see http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/ebooks.php

Essential Easter Term information

As the Easter term begins I thought it would be useful to mention a few things that will be helpful for you to bear in mind, to ease the stressful exam period when you will (hopefully!) be hard at work revising in the Balfour Library. Be aware that much of it applies to cardholders only however.

Help us to help you keep the Balfour Library a pleasant place to study.

If you have any further queries on this then please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to help. Good luck with your exams!

Lone working

• Remember that if you are working in the library outside of opening hours then you will effectively be "lone working". Inform someone at home/college where you are and when you are expected to return. Keep to your agreed time of return, or ring to say you have left early, or will be late leaving.
• Such calls using your mobile phone should preferably be made outside of the library, so that you do not disturb other readers. However there is a network phone available on the wall opposite the Library Office should you need it.

New Museums Site archway gate

• This closes at 10:00pm each night.
  
• The gate to the site is opened very early in the morning.
  

Access cards

• Please remember that your access card is for your use only. You should not lend it to anyone else to gain entry to the department or library. This also means that you cannot bring any friends who are not access card holders into the department or library with you outside of opening hours.

Valuables

• Please do not leave these unattended in the library as we cannot guarantee their security.
• Try to secure them to the desk in some way, or take them with you when you leave the library for any amount of time.

May Bank Holidays on the 4th and 25th May

• The library will be open as usual. Reception will be open from 9:00am to 4:30pm but will be closed for lunch between 1:00pm and 2:00pm.

Priority for study places

• Please remember that Part II Zoology/Neuroscience/BBS students will take priority for use of the limited amount of study places available in the library. Other students may be asked to leave.

New ebooks available

Several new e-books have been purchased by ebooks@cambridge, of note for the biological sciences are the following in the field of anthropology:

Duranti - Companion to linguistic anthropology

Waldron - Palaeopathology : Cambridge manuals

Mithen - Creativity in human evolution and prehistory

Jobling - Human evolutionary genetics

Pinhasi & Mays - Advances in human palaeopathology.

The books are available via Newton, the online catalogue for the libraries of the University of Cambridge, at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton/

For more information on ebooks@cambridge see http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/ebooks.php

Resources on trial - BNA Online and Springer e-books

Trial access has been arranged to the resources below for evaluation purposes. If you feel that they would be of value to you or your department please let us know by e-mailing it_services@lib.cam.ac.uk.

Birds of North America Online

On behalf of the Department of Zoology (Balfour & Newton Libraries), the University Library has arranged for trial access, on campus only, to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's "Birds of North American Online" resource which can be accessed until May 26 2009 via the URL: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/

BNA Online provides comprehensive life histories for each of the 716+ species of birds breeding in the USA (including Hawaii) and Canada.

Trial expires: 26th May 2009

Springer e-books 2005-2009

A 6-month trial licence of the Springer ebooks collection is now available. For the duration of the trial users will have access to more than 13,000 key eBooks, eBook Series and eReference Works published by Springer between 2005-2009 on the SpringerLink interface through which Springer ejournals are already accessible. Springer is the world's second-largest publisher of journals in science, technology, and medicine, and the largest publisher of books in this field.

Access is available on-campus without passwords and off-campus with a Raven password at http://www.springerlink.com. The books accessible through the trial are indicated by green boxes on the search results lists in SpringerLink. A browsable view of the books can be found at http://www.springerlink.com/books/; limit to subect area, date of publication and language using the option on the bottom right-hand of the screen.

This is the largest trial of ebooks to date in the university. Comments would be welcomed on any aspect of the trial, the collection as a whole or individual titles, and should be sent to it_services@lib.cam.ac.uk.

Trial expires: 31st August 2009

Oxford Scholarship Online: a leap forward in electronic resources for learning

Thanks to a generous benefaction the University Library has been able to take a significant leap forward in improving its support for undergraduate learning by acquiring access in perpetuity to all titles in the Oxford Scholarship Online collection of e-books published to the end of 2008.

BIOLOGY books cover topics such as animal biology, aquatic biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, biodiversity, conservation biology, biotechnology, disease ecology, epidemiology, ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, microbiology, natural history, field guides, ornithology, plant sciences, and forestry. See http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/biology/subject_home.html

This collection provides quick and easy access to the full text of over 2,500 books published by Oxford University Press in a wide-ranging group of subjects from biology to religion, ranging through business and management, economics, classical studies, history, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, and political science. It is widely viewed as one of the most impressive ebook collections available and one of the few to be aimed principally at undergraduate students. Its acquisition helps to meet the fast growing demand for access to textbooks anywhere and at any time, relieves pressure on the most sought-after titles , and complements ebook collections already in heavy use in the university including the Cambridge Companions Online and MyiLibrary.

Oxford Scholarship Online is easy and intuitive to use and designed to make incorporation of its content into online reading lists and course packs as simple as possible at book and chapter level.

Individual ebooks will be accessible from Newton. The collection can be found at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/. The books are accessible on campus without passwords and off-campus with a Raven Id and password.

Biology Collection

University Library Research Skills Programme

The University Library's Research Skills timetable for Easter Term 2009 is now available at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Courses/Descriptions.html. On offer this term:

• Referencing for your dissertation or thesis (hands-on session)
• Drop-in help and training every Thursday from 4pm until 6pm, IT Training Room
• 30-minute orientation tours to help you get the most out of the UL

Easter closing dates

The Balfour & Newton Libraries will close for Easter at 5:00 pm on Thursday 9th April and will re-open at 8:30 am on Tuesday 14th March 2009.

We wish our readers a very Happy Easter!

Clair & Jane

New library books and theses acquisitions

Books:

Bird census techniques, 2nd ed., by Colin J. Bibby ... [et al.]. London: Academic Press; 2000. Balfour Library shelfmark: K.8 (62b)

Cell signalling, 2nd ed., by John T. Hancock. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005. Balfour Library shelfmark: EC (298b) (Overnight Loan shelves).

Eckert animal physiology: mechanisms and adaptations, 5th ed., by David Randall, Warren Buggren, Kathleen French. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman & Co.; 2002. Balfour Library shelfmark: qGD (7eii)

Encyclopedia of insects, edited by Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Carde. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2003. Balfour Library shelfmark: Q (86)

The insects of Australia : a textbook for students and research workers, 2nd ed. (2 vol. set), by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Division of Entomology. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press; 1991. Balfour Library shelfmark: Q (51bi-ii)

Parks in transition: biodiversity, rural development and the bottom line, edited by Brian Child. London: Earthscan; 2004. Balfour Library shelfmark: GGW (209)

Primate origins: adaptations and evolution, edited by Matthew J. Ravosa and Marian Dagosto. New York, NY: Springer; 2007. Balfour Library shelfmark: YW (38)

Responsible tourism: critical issues for conservation and development, edited by Anna Spenceley. London: Earthscan; 2008. Balfour Library shelfmark: GGW (210)

Thesis:

Function and evolution of song in a duetting neotropical passerine, the gray-breasted wood-wren (Henicorhina leucophrys), by Caroline Elise Dingle. Cambridge; 2008. Thesis (458)