Improvements to the Princeton University Library catalog

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There has been further developments — improvements — in the utility of our Main Catalog: Finding the location of a specific book, and finding related material.
Look up a title in the catalog, and you will note, toward the bottom of the record:

1a. Item details: Where to find this item This link gives you a picture of the library building and a map to help you locate the site on campus.

1b. Location details: More information about this location This link gives you specifics of the whereabouts of the particular copy you are seeking. For Firestone books, a picture of Firestone shows while the floor plan loads. Then, from the central elevators & stairs, “anttracks” may take you to the approximate location of the book. In addition, locations may be highlighted and annotated.

2. Notice that there is an additional button just at the top of the record reading: more like this.

This terminology may be more familiar from other database searching, but here it mainly condenses the key links from the long view.

Renewable Energy — website & business note

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RenewableEnergyAccess.com is “a leading online-only publication and business-to-business (B2B) community for renewable energy”. Even though, PennWell Corporation, a business-to-business (B2B) publishing corporation, has become the major owner of the website, its founders, Jim Callahan and Oliver Strube will continue to direct operations.

“RenewableEnergyAccess.com serves 50,000 registered readers by providing comprehensive industry information and insight with its daily news, weekly podcasts, and regular columns and interviews. The site covers finance, policy, and technology for renewable energies including solar power, wind power, biomass and biofuels, geothermal, hydrogen/fuel cells, and hydropower.”

Princeton University has most of the journals listed in the extended entry. However, as always, if anyone needs an article we don’t own, Interlibrary Loan or Document Delivery is encouraged.

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Environmental Impact Statements records added to transportation database

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Northwestern University has added ~19,000 bibliographic records for environmental impact statements and drafts, to the TRIS database. “The Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database is the world’s largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation information. TRIS is produced and maintained by the Transportation Research Board at the National Academy of Sciences.” This is a free web-based database.

The Library has recently subscribed to the Environmental Impact Statements database from CSA: Environmental Impact Statements: Full-Text & Digests

The collections do not appear to overlap, so there must be at least some unique EISs in each. Both these databases are listed in the “Articles and Databases” groupings.

UN Environment Programme — Global Resource Information Database

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The UNEP has added another to its panoply of resources: The Global Resource Information Database (GRID) has been developed by the USGS EROS Data Center and Google Maps by employing remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and online mapping tools to create this free resource for use of geographers, political scientists, environmental researchers and policy decision-makers. “The atlas highlights sites around the world that have witnessed such dramatic environmental changes as glacial melt, desertification, deforestation, pollution, and population growth.”

Source: “Best Free Reference Websites, Ninth Annual List”, Reference & User Services Quarterly, Vol. 47(1), Fall, 2007.

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IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

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The IPCC shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

The IPCC has a useful website that was just re-reviewed by today’s Scout Report. Notable is their new calendar of events, and especially the series: annual climate assessment reports. ‘Scientists and policymakers will also want to look at some of their exhaustive scholarly works which include “Safeguarding the Ozone Layer” and “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage”.’ The “Activities” area includes information on their National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme.

Energy Economics databases — two new resources

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The Library has subscriptions to Global Insights and EIU ( Economist Intelligence Unit). These services cover economic issues worldwide, by region, or country. There is data, economic and financial analysis, forecasting and marketing intelligence for various sectors of the economy. Energy is now a segment in each.

These databases can be found listed under the “Articles and Databases” . Global Insight is a monolithic heading, whereas EIU, lists various sectors separately.
The EIU market sector databases are brand new and are currently listed under “New & Featured Databases”.

“The Economist” (London), the highly respected and popular periodical, is also published by EIU. Similar to Global Insight, EIU contains news of critical issues, reports and briefings, and data and market analyses.

ORNL Review: Climate Change Research

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The title of latest issue, Volume 40, Number 3, 2007, of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review is entitled:

“A Matter of Degrees: The Future of Climate Change
Research—Slowing CO2 Emissions, Adapting to Climate Change Impacts:”

The Review is the laboratory’s research and development magazine. It is open access.

Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research

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“Established in 1998, the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research (PIER) is a non-profit organization ‘dedicated to education and research of the marine environment.’ From their headquarters in Oceanside, California, their team of scientists continues to work on a variety of studies on thresher sharks, roosterfish, and the giant sea bass. One rather nice highlight of the site is the ‘Field Notes’ area. Here visitors can learn about some of their ongoing research projects, which have included work on the swimming muscle physiology of the common thresher shark and the fine-scale movements of roosterfish. Visitors can also click on the “Publications” section to read the results of some of their scientific endeavors over the years. [KMG]”
From The Scout Report, Oct. 5th.

Cuba, alone, is achieving sustainable development

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New Scientist [newsletter@email.newscientist.com] 4 October, 2007

Cathrine Brahic, Online Environment Reporter, writes:
“World Failing On Sustainable Development ”
“If the world is to start developing in a sustainable way, we are going in the wrong direction. This is the message from the first study to show the ecological impact of our changing lifestyles. The international team looked at 93 nations over the last 30 years and found that just one nation – Cuba – is developing sustainably. Cuba was the only nation found to provide a decent standard of living for their people without consuming more than its fair share of resources”…MORE

Well, it appears that we can’t read more — at least not until the issue arrives in any of these 3 libraries: Chemistry, Stokes or Engineering. (It is embargoed for 1 month from being electronically available on EBSCO, and it won’t be available on Omnifile (Wilson) or ProQuest for 6 months.)

Science Reference Center — new database

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The Science Reference Center is a new database among several that Princeton is now offering, thanks to the State of New Jersey.

It is perhaps in a league with AccessScience, the online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, but it offers reviews and articles from key, authoritative journals, and there are sections aimed at a much younger audience.

From EBSCO’s description:
Science Reference Center is a comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full text science-oriented content. Designed to meet every student’s science research needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for nearly 640 science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, etc. Topics covered include: biology, chemistry, earth & space science, environmental science, health & medicine, history of science, life science, physics, science & society, science as inquiry, scientists, technology and wildlife. Science Reference Center also satisfies the demand for standards-based content by providing teachers and librarians with articles correlated to state and national curriculum standards.