Research Blogging

A while back now, I posted about Blog Scholar, a site which acts as a portal to academic blogs. Another resource I have just come across is Research Blogging. This has similar aims to Blog Scholar but the focus here is on bringing together blog posts about peer-reviewed research. The site guidelines mean that blog writers use a “blogging on peer-reviewed research” icon when they are posting thoughts on research rather than a simple mention or link to the work. In addition, a full citation of the work being cited is generated.

You can view the latest Computer Science posts or view the available RSS feeds from the site to subscribe to areas of interest.

Gameology 2.0

Photo credit: Call To Adventure on Flickr

Gameology is a “scholarly community dedicated to the study of videogames”. The resources have been put together by a group of academics and iinclude essays, videos, and images. The site has a detailed bibliography of articles and other sources on the subject. The articles are likely to have a slant towards humanities rather than a technical approach as they note in the “about” page but other views are welcomed.

You may find the links section useful for further reading and, although they don’t appear to be tweeting much at the moment, you can also follow Gameology on Twitter.

Where is the SCIT software in Harrison Learning Centre?

There are 12 PCs in Harrison Learning Centre which have specialist computing software. These machines have the same software as those in MI building so that when MI is closed, or you are working late and need to access certain programs, you still have somewhere to come and work.

There are six machines on the ground floor and six machines on the third floor (the side with the books, not in the IT suite). Both PC clusters are labelled with SCIT/SEBE software.

Journal Info

I have received a few queries recently about how to choose journals to publish in. If you are a researcher, you may find Journal Info worth a look. Journal Info is a tool to assist researchers in choosing a journal for publication. Indexing major databases, the site currently covers around 18,000 journals, providing details such as cost, quality, and accessibility. Of interest to SCIT research are the information science, mathematical statistics, and numerical analysis and computing categories. For more information about the service, check the FAQs.

Welcome to and Welcome back

A very warm welcome to new SCIT students starting at the University this week, and of course to returning students back from the Summer break. It’s a busy time of year for everyone so this is just a short post about the new “Skills for Learning” webpages on the Learning Centre’s website. This has been revised and updated over the Summer and is now a one-stop place for study skills advice and appointments, details of this semester’s InfoBites workshops, full information about the University’s referencing systems, and the EndNote support webpages. Harvard referencing has been updated to include an example list of different sources which will hopefully make the system easier to follow.

As always, your feedback on the Learning Centre website is welcomed. Please use the online form for comments and suggestions.

IET TV

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) provide a service called IET TV offering webcasts from engineers, technologists, and key industry speakers. The IT channel currently has over 160 presentations. To keep up-to-date with new features, the RSS feed is available here.

View the most recent webcast below, a discussion about cloud computing from Wayne Horkan, CTO, Sun Microsystems:

Cloud Computing Interview Wayne Horkan, CTO, Sun Microsystems A Pre-conference Discussion on Cloud Computing 2009-02-25 03:34:22.0 IT Channel >> go to webcast>> recommend to friend

New Intute tutorial for Computer Science

The Intute Virtual Training Suite has had a make-over and a new tutorial has been developed for Computer Science and Informatics, replacing the previous ICT tutorial. The tutorial is a good place to start when learning how to search the web for academic sites, and to help you to develop your internet research skills, while picking up useful links along the way. The tutorial also features new sections on social media sites and tools in computer science subject area, bookmarking, and RSS feeds.

Trial to InfoSci-Books

We currently have a trial to InfoSci books online. This allows access to chapters from IGI Global, a publisher of scholarly research in computer science and information technology.

To access the login details, visit the Databases A-Z page and click on the Current Database Trials link at the top. You will be prompted for your University IT account username and password to open the document which will provide the username and password for InfoSci books. The trial will run until 31st July 2009 during which time you will be able to search and download full text chapters.

Please feedback any comments about the resource by commenting here or contact me by email.

Summer updates

As it is the 1st of June and the sun is shining (for the moment at least), thought it was time for a few updates on Learning Centre activity over the Summer.

Learning Centres are still open throughout the Summer with extended opening in the evenings and on Saturdays at Harrison and Walsall. Check full details on the Learning Centre website. Our online chat service ASSIST will be on hand throughout the Summer, and outside of operating times you can submit a query via Ask a Librarian or email us direct.

If you are coming into Harrison Learning Centre, you will notice our new Information Point on the ground floor where a librarian will be available to help with any enquiries. There may be some movement of books or journals which are sent off for binding, so if you are after something specific, it may be advisable to telephone first to check availability. Any requests for EndNote training or anything from the InfoBites workshops can also be accommodated – just contact us with the details.

Have an enjoyable Summer break : )

WolframAlpha – will it change search?

There’s a new search service on the block, widely reported to rival Google as search engine of choice. WolframAlpha is the brainchild of Stephen Wolfram, and it sells itself as a “computational knowledge engine” rather than a search engine. The idea is that rather than providing a list of sites to help you with your query, it will bring you the answer from its knowledge base. It definitely has its strengths when looking for facts and figures. View some the examples of what it can do with certain topics including mathematics, statistics and data analysis, and web and computer systems.

Like many others, I have been testing it over the last few days but often being answered by “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” Another criticism has been the fact that at the moment it has a US bias. Time will tell whether the service will improve or interest fizzles out but it is still an ambitious project worth keeping an eye on. You can follow what others are saying about it on Twitter. Let me know your thoughts if you have tested it out.