News & announcements for the staff of the Information Desk
Monday, May 31, 2010
Research Reader Information
You will find the page at: http://discover.library.utoronto.ca/external/visitors-from-other-universities
More information for users from the public available here:
http://discover.library.utoronto.ca/external/public/
Edited by Jeff, Jan 2011 (broken link)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Email alerts for Google Scholar
FYI:
"Until now Google Scholar users had to use a variety of methods to create alerts to notify them of new content in Google Scholar. Well, the wait is over and as of this weekend, Google Scholar E-Mail Alerts are now available. It’s Google, of course they’re free."
May 11, 2010
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Student barcode printout request for Metropass purchase
It does not need to be printed.
Just look it up and write it down for them...and they can use that to go and purchase their Metropass.
As always, those without their Tcard should show you photo ID before you give them any personal information from a SIRSI user record. (if they have no photo ID you could ask them to recite all their personal information while you are looking at thier SIRSI record...and decide for yourself if they are who they say they are)
August 2010 Update: first time users of this benefit are asked to "print out" a specific page. They are asked to "pre-register". These users are asked to go to "http://www.datacard.com/ttc" and use this code "uot75011". More information on this can be found at: http://www.utsu.ca/index2.php/content/1427
Monday, April 19, 2010
Retrieving ILL Items when Resource Sharing Closed
Please follow the procedures outlined below in the absence of full-time Resource Sharing staff:
SITUATION 1
User wants to pick up a book requested via ILL from Resource Sharing.
Procedure for intercampus delivery items:
Take the 'DocDel' key from the lower reference desk and open the Resource Sharing door.
Books and articles are on shelves under the ILL service desk, arranged by user last name (but be prepared to check first and last).
Find the book and hand it to the user. It should already be desensitized.
Exit and lock door.
Please be aware that intercampus delivery books (ICD) may also be found shelved behind the Circulation desk.
Procedure for non UofT items:
Take the 'DocDel' key from the lower reference desk and open the Resource Sharing door.
You will notice that the white ILL Picklist report is in the book as well as a yellow flyer. Remove the white form and get the borrower to sign it, where they sign is not important.
Place the signed form in the metal filing box that is on the desk above the books. The filing box is marked "Charge out file. Books that have been signed out". Give the user the book with the yellow flyer in it.
Exit and lock door.
NOTE: this is for material borrowed from other institutions only, not UofT intercampus deliveries.
SITUATION 2
User wants to pick up and pay for an article requested on ILL from Resource Sharing.
Procedure:
Use key to enter Resource Sharing.
Find the required article - envelopes are arranged by user last name.
Check the envelope: is there a charge slip?
- If no, hand envelope to user.
- If yes, ask him/her to pay at the Loan Services desk. If the cash is closed, take patron's contact details, and ask him/her to pay at a later time. Give contact information to Renata next day.
Please do not withhold articles if Loan Services cash is closed.
Exit and lock door.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Post Docs access
For example:
UTORid: bellalli
PIN: alli
Cou can check this by 'verifying' it on the UTORid page (under 'Problems with your UTORid):
https://www.utorid.utoronto.ca/
Friday, March 26, 2010
Practising with a Stats Question
"When I got back to the office yesterday after the Gerstein event, there was a perfect question waiting for me:
The user wanted annual smoking rates for Ontario, from about 2000 to the latest. We checked CANSIM, but each time series from the Canadian community health survey seemed to consist of only one year per series, and it would have required 'gluing' together a series of numbers from disparate CANSIM tables.
So we went to the Canadian tobacco use monitoring survey. Selecting (in
SDA) each annual person file, and doing a cross-tabulation of the smoking status question (Q10 or Q010 in most years) and province, and noting down the % of daily smokers, occasional smokers, and non-smokers.
I encourage you to try the same thing, in SDA, and in
One major difference: in SDA the resulting table is by default weighted to the population, while in Nesstar (ie
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Qualitative Research Nursing assignment
"Hi _______,
I am attaching a handout with some tips for using CINAHL. Feel free to email ask.gerstein@utoronto.ca if you need any assistance with it. [CINAHL 2010 handout is located in the sidebar of the blog])
As for finding qualitative research articles you can copy and paste this text and search for it in CINAHL (**Make sure you UNCHECK the box that says 'Suggest Subject Terms' before searching for this. That will allow it to be searched as a phrase**)
(MH "cluster sample+") or TX life experiences or TX human science or TX discourse* analysis or TX narrative analysis or TX lived experience* or TX field research or TX field studies or TX field study or TX giorgi* or TX husserl* or TX merleau ponty* or TX van kaam* or TX van manen* or TX spiegelberg* or TX colaizzi* or TX heidegger* or TX participant observ* or TX data saturat* or TX semiotics or TX heuristic or TX hermeneutic* or TX etic or TX emic or TX focus group* or TX purpos* sampl* or TX constant comparison or TX constant comparative or TX grounded research or TX grounded studies or TX grounded study or TX grounded theor* or TX phenomenol* or TX ethnon* or TX qualitative or (MH "ethnological research") or (MH "ethnography") or (MH "phenomenology") or (MH "focus groups") or (MH "discourse analysis") or (MH "theoretical sample") or (MH "field studies") or (MH "constant comparative method") or (MH "thematic analysis") or (MH "content analysis") or (MH "observational method+") or (MH "purposive sample") or (MH "qualitative validity+") or (MH "grounded theory") or (MH "ethnonursing research") or (MH "phenomenological research") or (MH "ethnographic research") or (MH "qualitative studies")
This will look for all qualitative studies. If you want to, you can modify it and take out any of the terms that you are not interested in finding.
Then you can combine these results with your search subject terms (__[suggest some relevant terms based on their topic]__) in the search history screen.
These terms were found here: http://www.library.vcu.edu/tml/bibs/nursingevidencefilters.html (scroll to bottom)
There's also a good article on search strategies here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/4/5 for your information."
email dated March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Door Alarm Procedures
Exceptions are the " English Wing" (i.e south end, 2nd floor) and "7 King's College". This set of alarms also sound at the Circ Desk and can only be turned off by Peter, Vidya, Bonnie or Renata. Alternatively, in the evening Building Patrol can also turn them off. (Note that these alarms are programmed to turn off after 3 minutes if nobody is available to attend to them.)
Please leave a note for Peter Gurney of all instances of alarms going off. (location, date, time, and any other specifics you think may be important)
Monday, March 22, 2010
Printing - Document Queue
This is occasionally a problem for alumni or other researchers who may sit at a computer for hours at a time. If you help anyone that fits this description, please let them know to print out their documents every 2 hours (at least).
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Public Equipment Updates
-Other computing facilities on campus: http://life.utoronto.ca/get-online/internet-access.htm (scroll down)
Monday, March 15, 2010
USB monitor ports active
Friday, March 12, 2010
Arts and Science Online Exams
I've just introduced a new feature to the Library Resources feed [in Blackboard] for St.George Campus Faculty of Arts and Science courses -- for courses that have previous exams online, a link to the course's old exams now appears in the Library Resources feed ....
The collection so far includes Faculty of Arts and Science exams for the last three years (December 2006 - August 2009).
Monday, March 08, 2010
Finding NTIS Documents
http://search3.scholarsportal.info/ids70/advanced_search.php?SID=bcc0d51ef3990af9dfd2947de5ca9b49
Sam-chin
---------------------------------------------
I just did a title search in WorldCat--sort of banking on someone cataloguing it. Two records appeared, one was a dissertation record (probably could get it, then, from DissFT, the other record had the direct link to the .mil site.
Sheril Hook
------------------------
google gets you there as well.
Cris Sewerin
Monday, February 22, 2010
Papers software page updated
There are three routes to this page:
Gerstein home page - Faculty - Supporting research
Gerstein home page - Students - Accessing e-resources
Gerstein home page - Services - Accessing e-resources
Occassionally there are email questions (usually via ask.gerstein) about Papers.
Thanks, Heather
Feb 19, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
BioMed Central Cancellation Information
a) retain rights to their intellectual property by requesting that an author addendum be appended to the contract they sign with each journal (More info about this at http://carl-abrc.ca/en/scholarly-communications/resources-for-authors.htmlhttp://carl-abrc.ca/en/scholarly-communications/resources-for-authors.html) andFor more information please contact Sandra Langlands, Director of the Gerstein Science Information Centre, at s.langlands.melvin@utoronto.ca or 416.978.6370.
b) to deposit in T-Space via the Faculty of Medicine's Office of Research and International Relations: http://www.medresearch.utoronto.ca/
Jan 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
ChEMBLdb - Open access drug discovery database launches
ChEMBL is a database of ca. 500,000 bioactive compounds, their quantitative properties and bioactivities (binding constants, pharmacology and ADMET, etc). The data is abstracted and curated from the primary scientific literature and the data made available due to funding by the Wellcome Trust.
Direct link to the database website:
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembldb/
The database is part of the ChEMBL resources at the EMBL-EBI (European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute).
Press release at: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Information/News/pdf/Press18Jan10.pdf" "ChEMBLdb is a unique resource because of its focus on drug discovery and its size: information on an additional 100,000 compounds has been added to the database for its launch, taking the number of small molecules to over 520,000, and it contains over 2.4 million records of their effects on biological systems. The data include information about how small molecules bind to their targets, how these compounds affect cells and whole organisms, and information on the molecules' absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity."
This is a new resource and the creators invite feedback so that they can make future improvements.
Gail Nichol
Jan 26, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Visitor card - reason for refund
they think they are adding money to their TCard. Starting immediately
we will refund this money to them. Here is the process.
1.The user hands over the visitor card to the staff member.
2.The staff member fills out a TCard claim form.
Where the form says Reason for Refund in the Notes field on the right
say "card purchased in error"
HAVE THE USER SIGN THE FORM. It doesn't matter where
3.Attach the visitor card to the TCard claim form and give it to Peter
or Renata
4.Give the user $5 _from the float of $5 bills_
5.Peter or Renata will leave a note on the $5 float, alerting staff that
the float will not be $100.
Peter or Renata will send the TCard claim form and the card to Julian
and who will return the funds to Peter or Renata.
WE DO NOT REFUND MONEY IF TOO MUCH VALUE WAS ADDED TO A VISITOR OR TCARD
Renata, Jan 8, 2010.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
NEJM Videos in Clinical Medicine
Link to the videos through the EIR: http://main.library.utoronto.ca/eir/EIRdetail.cfm?Resources__ID=893655&T=M&FID
They are also available via the Highwire version of the NEJM, they are easy to find by typing 'videos' in the search box at top of the page.
About this title: Since April 13, 2006 the New England Journal of Medicine added a new journal feature, Videos in Clinical Medicine. The Journal's table of contents includes this new type of article. For optimal viewing, the instructional videos will be displayed as streaming video in a version that includes chaptering and captions. The videos will also be available both in a downloadable file (of about 20 MB) and in a version compatible with handheld digital devices.
Each video will be from five to eight minutes long and will be accompanied online by a printable summary to supplement the video. Access to the Videos in Clinical Medicine is limited to subscribers, including all those who access the Web site with institutional subscriptions such as UofT.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Receipts for adding money to print cards/student cards
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Refworks Alumni Program
Lifelong access to RefWorks will be an added benefit for alumni, and help academic institutions maintain the healthy alumni relationships that are so essential for donations, rankings and other ongoing involvement.
To learn more about the Alumni Program, please click here.