Monthly Archives: January 2012

SAGE Reference ebook trial until March 20, 2012

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Now until approximately March 20, 2012, UAH faculty, staff, and students will have access to a SAGE Reference ebook trial.  If you are interested, simply call us at 256-824-6529 or come by the Reference Desk at the library to get the login information for this trial.  Once you have the login information, you will go to this link http://www.sage-ereference.com/login and enter the username and password.

Subject areas include Business &  Management, Communication & Media Studies, Economics, Education, History, Politics & International Relations, Psychology, Science, Philosophy & Theology, Sociology, among others.

The SAGE Reference ebook collection is comprised mostly of encyclopedias and handbooks.  You can browse titles without logging in here:  http://www.sage-ereference.com/PublicBrowseTitles

Questions?  Contact us at http://libanswers.uah.edu/ or give us a call at 256-824-6529.

Trial subscription to Eye Journal until 2/29/12

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Take advantage now of a one-month trial subscription to the Eye.  Eye is the official journal of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists. It aims to provide the practicing ophthalmologist with information on the latest clinical and laboratory-based research. 

You can access articles from the current issue (January 2012) here:  http://www.nature.com/eye/journal/v26/n1/index.html

To view archived issues (1987-2011), please click here: http://www.nature.com/eye/archive/index.html

Please note that you must be on campus to view these articles.  If you have any questions or comments about this trial, please let us know at http://libanswers.uah.edu/ or 256-824-6529.

Historical plaque recognizes 25-year old UAH superconductor discovery

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As a graduate student 25 years ago at UAH, Jim Ashburn invented the first high-temperature superconductor. (The Huntsville Times/Eric Schultz)

Recognition denied for a quarter century finally arrived for a UAH graduate student who played a key role in the development of superconductivity. In a Sunday afternoon ceremony in front of UAH’s Wilson Hall, Dr. Jim Ashburn witnessed the unveiling of a plaque commemorating his achievement.

The plaque, placed by the Alabama Historical Society, recognized Ashburn’s research and efforts in the discovery of a quartet of elements that combined in the right way allows the conductivity of electricity with virtually no losses to resistance. It termed the discovery “a major advance in science.”

In January 1986 Jim Ashburn was a young, first-year graduate student at UAH, pursuing his Ph. D in Physics. He and Dr. M.K. Wu, who directed the UAH physics lab at that time, were working on a NASA research project involving various metal alloys to be processed in space.

NASA allowed the team to alter the research project to focus on a search for a better superconductor, following a breakthrough in superconductivity that had occurred a few years earlier.

Aided by friends and colleagues, Ashburn worked 12-14 hour days, often alone, before hitting on the right combination of three elements, yttrium, barium, copper and oxygen that form the basis of his superconductor. His research became the subject of his doctoral dissertation.

To learn more about Dr. Ashburn and his discovery, you can read the full article in the The Huntsville Times here:

http://www.al.com/42/index.ssf/2012/01/historical_plaque_recognizes_2.html

For the rest of the story, check out the UAH News article here:
http://uah.edu/news/items/9-campus/1105-uahuntsville-student-recounts-discovery-of-first-high-temperature-superconductor

To read Dr. Ashburn’s historic article on his discovery from the March 1987 issue of Physical Review Letters , which has been cited 769 times in Scopus since 1996, click on the below link (courtesy of the UAHuntsville Salmon Library):

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.908

Please note that if you are off campus, you will need to log in using your Angel credentials.

Please contact the library at http://libanswers.uah.edu/ or 256-824-6529 if you have any problems accessing the article.

Announcing our Nook Color winner!

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David Moore, Interim Library Director, with Stephen Smith, our Nook Winner

Congratulations to Stephen (Seth) Smith for winning our Nook Color Tablet giveaway at the Library Open House!  Seth is a freshman majoring in biology.  He visits the library often and came in yesterday to study and decided to take part in the library scavenger hunt. He said the most interesting thing he learned on the hunt was about the Library Archives and the neat things that were available there. He said he had been borrowing his father’s older Nook to read books, but now looks forward to using the new one for reading and researching. 

Thank you to everyone that participated in our Open House.  We had over 150 students in attendance!

 

What’s new at the library for 2012?

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 Here is a recap of some changes we’ve already made at the library in 2012 and a few to come:

  •  Two new reading lamps have been installed in the coffee shop area.  It really makes a big difference when you are reading.  Be sure to grab one of the spots near the lamps and give your eyes a break!  
  • All of the electrical work that goes along with the new furniture in the coffee shop has now been completed.  You should be able to plug in your laptops now anywhere you see a plug (many of the new furniture pieces have built-in outlets).
  • Three new rolling white boards have appeared!  There are currently two in the coffee shop area and one in the east bay study area.  Bring your own dry-erase markers or you can check out some markers from the User Services Desk (first desk on your left when you walk into the library) with your Charger Card.  Feel free to move these around to where you need them.  These will be great for your study groups or an impromptu game of Pictionary! 
  • Onesearch is here!  Search for books, journals, and more all from one search box.  Learn more here.
  •  The UAH Library will be extending our biannual LAN Party initiative this semester by holding weekly Game Nights every Tuesday at 6pm in Room 111.  Each week, a different campus gaming club will host some of the most popular games.  Some of these include a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Game Night presented by the UAH FPS Club, as well as a number of informational sessions from the UAH Starcraft 2 Club.  These events will be held every Tuesday at 6pm, and are free and open to everyone, including non-UAH students!  These will all lead up to our next LAN Party on April 13th!
  • We now have a giant plasma TV in our lobby broadcasting UAH and Library News.  Take a look as you walk through the lobby to stay up-to-date on Library and UAH events and news.
  • We are working on a library catalog kiosk in the lobby.  This will allow students and guests to quickly search for a book in our library.

    Questions?  Contact us at 256-824-6529 or http://libanswers.uah.edu.

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OneSearch is now available

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Have you ever wished you could search everything the library has with one search box?  Well, look no further.  OneSearch is the name of our new EBSCO Discovery Service which allows you to search most of the Library’s online resources in a single search and represents the next generation of library search technology.  Books in the Library’s catalog, journals from selected subject databases, and more are searchable via OneSearch.   Please note that this box does not search our Website! 

NEW!  You can now search OneSearch directly from our library homepage at http://lib.uah.edu/.  It’s in the bottom right corner.  You may need to scroll down just a bit to see the search box.  Just type in your search term and click the OneSearch button.  You can even type in the title of a journal article!

NEW!  Install a plugin and make OneSearch a search option on your browser (IE, Firefox, or Chrome).   Google may be your default search engine now, but not for long!  Here’s the link to install the plugin:

http://www.wyrmis.com/uahuntsville/uahsearch.html

Please give it a try and send your comments and suggestions to http://libanswers.uah.edu/.