Fogler Library, University of Maine - Library newsletter for faculty

FOGLER LIBRARY NEWS SERVICE
Publicizing events, collections, acquisitions and services at UMaine's library
-- Wednesday, September 26, 2006--

SUMMARY
1. News
     A.  The Information Commons
2. Databases
    A. New Additions to SciFinder Scholar
    B. Historical Statistics of the United States Now Available
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1.    NEWS
A.   THE INFORMATION COMMONS
A collaboration between Fogler Library and Information Technologies, the University of Maine’s Information Commons is a state of the art education and technology facility. It offers a single information and service access point for students and researchers. Library users can get help using both print and electronic resources to do research, they can get advice on how to write a paper or report, and they can get assistance using the technology they need to produce a report, presentation, or web site.
Located on the first floor of the Library, the Commons includes open space, workstations, and study tables. Students can interact and work together in groups or individually. There is a central information desk staffed by both reference librarians from Fogler and technology experts from Information Technology. There are also new area studies sections for easier access to print resources. The areas include: Fine Arts, Business and Economics, Atlases, Middle East/Asia, and Southern Hemisphere. A floor plan and more detailed information is available at: http://www.library.umaine.edu/about/info_commons.htm

2. DATABASES
A. NEW ADDITIONS TO SCIFINDER SCHOLAR
The SciFinder Scholar database now includes 3 sets of experimental spectral data:

1) More than 142,000 Carbon-13 NMR spectra (provided by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc.)
2) More than 38,000 mass spectra (also from Wiley)
3) Roughly 28,000 IR absorption spectra (from the Integrated Spectral Database System of Organic Compounds, provided by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan).

To find this data, search for a compound in the REGISTRY section of the database. (Click on the CAS Registry Number within a bibliographic reference, or use Locate > Locate substances and then click on the microscope icon.) Click "Experimental Properties" and click on a link for an individual spectrum. Spectra display as images in a separate browser window.
For more information about the SciFinder Scholar 2006 software, contact Nancy Curtis, Science & Engineering Librarian, on FirstClass email (external email address: nancy.curtis@umit.maine.edu) or at 207-581-1679.

B. HISTORICAL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES NOW AVAILABLE
Thanks to funding from the University of Maine System Libraries, Fogler Library is pleased to announce the availability of the Historical Statistics of the United States (HSUS) database. This Cambridge University Press publication updates and expands the Census Bureau's 1975 work of the same name. It contains quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations, all from the earliest times to the present. Also covers topics that received little or no coverage in the 1975 edition: American Indians, slavery, poverty, race, and ethnicity.
HSUS allows one to graph and combine data from different tables into custom tables, and to download tables for use in spreadsheets and other applications. HSUS is also available as a five-volume print set in Reference (Ref HA202 .H57 2006). To access, go to www.library.umaine.edu/indexesdb/Indexes.asp. For assistance with the database, please contact Reference at 207-581-1673.

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Distributed by the Fogler Library, The University of Maine, Orono, Maine.
Please send comments or requests for more information on news items to
Gretchen Gfeller 207-581-1696 gretchen.gfeller@umit.maine.edu or Frank
Wihbey, 207-581-1681 frankw@umit.maine.edu. Newsletters are also posted and
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