Author Archives: Mark Chalmers

Nearing the Limit – UC Libraries Read & Publish Deals with Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley

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As a member of OhioLINK, the state’s academic library consortium, University of Cincinnati authors have access to all Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer journals in addition to open access publishing benefits that are subject to an annual limit.

The Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer deals have a maximum number of articles per year that may be published as Open Access under this agreement. It is very likely that University of Cincinnati will reach its limit in 2024 for all 3 publishers. Find more details below. When the 2024 calendar year limit is reached, corresponding authors will no longer see the option to publish Open Access at no charge during their article publishing process.

Corresponding authors have two options: 1) they can choose to publish Open Access on their own and pay the APC, or 2) if they are submitting to a hybrid journal, they can choose to publish the article under the traditional subscription access model at no charge.

Contact Sharon Purtee with questions – purteesa@ucmail.uc.edu.

You can find more information and stay current here: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/OA_APC

Elsevier

Springer

Wiley

Board Games at the CEAS Library!

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Whether you’re nostalgic for Candyland or interested in trying something new like Gloomhaven, the CEAS Library’s new board game collection has you covered. Games are available to all UC faculty, students, and staff for one-week check outs. Learn more about the library’s collection and keep up with upcoming game outreach events on the CEAS Library’s Board Games Collection LibGuide. 

Happy gaming!

The Chemical Atlas – A gem from the Oesper Collections

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Edward Livingston Youmans’ The Chemical Atlas was recently returned to its home in the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry library after receiving conservation treatment from UC Libraries’ Preservation Lab. Youmans’ famous book features eye-catching illustrated and hand-colored plates that frequently motivate myself and others to display the item and engage visitors of the Oesper Collections with stunning visual depictions of the unseen world of chemical processes.

Edward Youmans was a renowned science communicator and popularizer in the 19th century United States. In the 1850’s, a reviewer called his Chemical Atlas “without exception, the best popular work in the English language” (Miles, 1964). When he was a young teen, he was afflicted by a disease of the eyes which grew more severe with time, leaving him nearly blind and suffering from frequent eye inflammation between the ages of 13 and 35. During these years, Youmans was unable to read, and learned as much as he could through the second-hand teaching of his sister, Eliza Youmans. His second-hand learning caused him to imagine and visualize chemistry concepts. As he overcame his misconceptions and worked to make his understanding more definite, he wanted to share his scheme for picturing atoms and their combinations. This led to him creating chemical charts which visually depicted atoms of different elements, binary compounds, and more as well as an accompanying book, Classbook of Chemisty. The Classbook of Chemistry was a huge success. “Brief, clear, and devoid of technicalities, it has an astounding and continuous sale; it was revised and sold more than 144,000 copies in its three editions. This was truly a remarkable record and would be envied even in these days of widespread chemical instruction” (Oesper, 1957). Continue reading →

IEEE Xplore Planned Downtime 7/23 & 7/30

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IEEE Xplore Digital Library Logo

The IEEE Xplore Digital Library has planned maintenance that includes downtime on July 23rd and 30th 2022. On these dates, content on the IEEE Xplore Digital Library will be unavailable from approximately 9am-11am and 1pm-3pm EST.

The IEEE Xplore Digital Library provides full-text access to high-quality technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, electronics and related disciplines, including journals, magazines and standards published by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and conference proceedings from both IEEE and the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology).

American Astronomical Society Journals Now Fully Open Access in 2022

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Starting January 1st, 2022, the full journal portfolio of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) are now completely open access. The journals include the Astronomical Journal (AJ), the Astrophysical journal (ApJ), Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL), and the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS). The Planetary Science Journal is not affected by this transition as it is already open access. These journals consistently feature some of the most read and highest impact scientific research results in the astronomical sciences.  The AAS views this transition to open access as directly impacting the quality of scientific research, as stated by Editor in Chief, Ethan Vishniac, “Science works best when it is as transparent and as accessible as possible.” They also view this move as supporting their diversity, equity, and inclusion work in the astronomical community, as referenced in the following statement from their press release.

“The transition to OA will allow everyone to access this high-quality and trusted research, and it will offer scientists low-cost fully OA options for publishing their research in astronomy and related disciplines. The new publishing policy aligns with ongoing efforts by the Society to center diversity, equity, and inclusion in its work within the astronomical community.”

Read the full press release here: https://aas.org/press/aas-journals-open-access

Upcoming Engineering Webinar Series from Elsevier

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Elsevier has developed a new series of webinars which are designed to be of interest for professional engineers, scientists, researchers, students, librarians, and professors. Elsevier company logo

Engineering Webinar Series V:

  • T-Shaped Engineer Webinar
  • A Day in the Life of an Engineer – Disruptive Innovation with Daniel Christie
  • Graduate Student Boot Camp
  • A Sneak Peak into the Life of a Drone Engineer
  • Energy Transition – How an Industry Redefines and Refocuses its Future

Please see details and registration information below.

T-Shaped Engineer Webinar

Date: July 15, 2021

Time: 12pm, EST.

Description: Today we’ll discuss some of the skills that companies are looking for in Engineers. We will look at ways that a more rounded engineer brings more insight and value to themselves, their role and their company.

Registration Link: https://elsevier.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_c6kXl2IGRJyxdVyqY2UqVA

A Day in the Life of an Engineer – Disruptive Innovation with Daniel Christie

Date: July 29, 2021

Time: 12pm, EST.

Description: Join us for a special session with Innovation Technical Champion Daniel Christie of WL Gore & Associates. Daniel will share a perspective on how Gore teams harness the lean startup methodology & a permissive culture to unlock new opportunities for disruptive innovation in a wide range of industries. As a result of its unique organizational model and culture of empowering small teams, Gore has experienced tremendous success in deploying its core technology into 1000 different products spanning Gore-Tex outerwear, guitar strings, medical devices, headlight vents, and more.

Registration Link: https://elsevier.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1y8AJpNXS82dUbB5XhjOZg 

Continue reading →

New Major Reference Works in Science and Engineering

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The UC Science and Engineering libraries have recently added a new collection of major reference works to its electronic resources. The books are on topics relevant to active research areas such as nanosensors and manufacturing.

 Nanosensors for Smart Cities

This book covers the fundamental design concepts and emerging applications of nanosensors for the creation of smart city infrastructures. Examples of major applications include logistics management, where nanosensors could be used in active transport tracking devices for smart tracking and tracing, and in agri-food productions, where nanosensors are used in nanochips for identity, and food inspection, and smart storage.

https://uc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128198704/nanosensors-for-smart-cities

 

 

Intelligent Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery Applications

This book discusses intelligent nanomaterials with a particular focus on commercial and premarket tools. The book looks at the applications of intelligent nanomaterials within the field of medicine and discusses their future role. This includes the use of intelligent nanomaterials for drugs used in cardiovascular and cancer treatments and examines the promising market of nanoparticles for biomedical and biosensing applications.

 

https://uc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128178300/intelligent-nanomaterials-for-drug-delivery-applications 

Continue reading →

A Different Approach to Public Engagement with Science – Great Lakes Science Boot Camp Virtual Talk

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On Thursday, July 23rd, I gave a talk to ~60 Science Librarians across the country. This talk was a reflection on my experience taking a graduate course in the spring called “Public Engagement with Science” and was a way to inform fellow librarians on how they can make public engagement activities more intentional and meaningful. The final project of the course was to accomplish a public engagement with science activity in conjunction with a community partner drawing on the theoretical framework developed throughout the semester. My group worked with the Cincinnati Nature Center to host a poster contest that was in line with the mission of the Nature Center by aiming to increase awareness of the importance of native plants in the local ecology and to encourage people in the community to plant native plants.

I focused on ways the Center for Public Engagement with Science at the University of Cincinnati is working with community partners to engage in more intentional and informed science engagement activities. I discussed the process of working with community partners, the philosophy of public engagement that motivated our interactions and activity, the project we implemented including the development of relevant learning standards and a grading rubric, and shared some of the winning submissions.

If anyone would like to discuss my talk, my experience in the course, or see my slides, please email me at mark.chalmers@uc.edu.

New E-Books in Engineering and Computer Science

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The UC Science and Engineering libraries have recently added the newest collection of Morgan & Claypool’s Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science to its electronic resources. The books are on topics relevant to active research areas such as natural language processing and Human Computer Interaction.

 

 Natural Language Processing for Social Media

This book reviews the current research on NLP tools and methods for processing the non-traditional information from social media data that is available in large amounts, and it shows how innovative NLP approaches can integrate appropriate linguistic information in various fields such as social media monitoring, health care, and business intelligence. The book further covers the existing evaluation metrics for NLP and social media applications and the new efforts in evaluation campaigns or shared tasks on new datasets collected from social media.

https://www-morganclaypool-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/doi/10.2200/S00999ED3V01Y202003HLT046 

Arduino I: Getting Started 

This book, Arduino I: Getting Started is written for those looking for a quick tutorial on the Arduino environment, platforms, interface techniques, and applications. Arduino II will explore advanced techniques, applications, and systems design. Arduino III will explore Arduino applications in the Internet of Things (IoT). Arduino I: Getting Started covers three different Arduino products: the Arduino UNO R3 equipped with the Microchip ATmega328, the Arduino Mega 2560 equipped with the Microchip ATmega2560, and the wearable Arduino LilyPad.

https://www-morganclaypool-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/doi/10.2200/S01001ED1V01Y202003DCS058 

For the full list of recent books, click the “Continue Reading” link below.

Continue reading →

The Cooperative Engineer and The Great Depression

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We are taught that the Great Depression started with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929 or what is called “Black Tuesday”. In The Cooperative Engineer magazine, the quarterly publication of the students and alumni of the College of Engineering with its focus on industry partnered education, the word depression was not used to describe the current circumstances of the day until the October 1931 issue.  Over the course of 4 issues, starting in October 1931 and running through to the June 1932 issue, the editors ran a series of “Faculty Articles” dealing with that they termed “Present-Day Trends in Problems of Commerce and Industry” or what we would now call The Great Depression.

The first of the four Faculty Articles is a reflective piece titled “The Fourth Great Era” by Hermann Schneider, the then-current Dean of the College of Engineering and

known widely as the founder of cooperative education.  Schneider reflects on a talk he heard at a meeting of the Institute of Politics where the speaker argued there were

three great eras throughout history, defined by equality of legal status, religious liberty, and political liberty. The fourth era would be equality of economic status where

individuals are equal in their ability to be “masters of their livelihood”. But Schneider values engineer’s deep understanding of philosophy, art, and psychology and thinks engineers must synthesize their well-rounded knowledge to lift their fellowmen. This last bit is something Schneider thinks is too often left out of the definition of what it means to  be an engineer. Continue reading →