You may be a skilled investigator on the topic of science or engineering, but what do you know about business research? This session will introduce you to library-supported databases that cover company and industry information. We will use hands-on exercises to demonstrate strategies for researching two key components of a business plan: competitors and industry trends.
Learn about new tools to support your research, collaboration, and personal knowledge management. Three developers will demonstrate their applications.
QUOSA Information Manager can help streamline your literature management. Search for articles and retrieve one or many PDFs in a single step from PubMed, Web-of-Knowledge, and other databases. Organize and manage your existing article PDF collections, and share them with your group in real time.
WebNotes Academic is the world’s first research tool that allows you to annotate PDF documents and web pages, all seamlessly while online.
ResearchGATE is a scientific network that connects researchers. Find research partners, collaborate with scientists and explore journal articles.
While you won’t come out of this session qualified to be a patent attorney, you will be able to successfully find patent references from all over the world and know how to obtain patent text and diagrams.
The session will be a hands-on practicum that will help de-mystify the patent literature and expose attendees to key resources for finding patents through free resources available on the web.
No pre-registration, but space is limited so come early!
WHEN: Wednesday, January 20, 5 – 6pm & Thursday, January 21, 12 – 1pm (duplicate session)
Want to know more about how BLAST works and how to use it more effectively in your research? Then this class is for you! This class will follow up on Bioinformatics for Beginners and lead into Advanced Bioinformatics, although attendance at the other sessions is not necessary.
What’s an RSS feed? How can I use it to keep up with new information in my field? We’ll show you how RSS and other current awareness tools can help you stay up to date!
This will be a hands-on session on Windows PCs. You are also welcome to bring your own laptop.
Are you new to teaching or TAing at MIT, or are you an Admin Assistant who supports teaching faculty? Or do you just want to learn more about course reserves and copyright?
The MIT Libraries can help! We’ll help you navigate through the ins and outs of print and electronic courses reserves, and provide an overview of “fair use” and other copyright restrictions for course materials. We’ll also cover details about submitting required textbook information so that it can be displayed for students in Stellar.
Reserves staff from around the MIT Libraries will be available to answer questions.
A couple hours in the Library can save you a couple of weeks in the lab. Don’t waste your time reinventing the gelatin sponge-choriallantoic membrane assay. Improve your efficiency by learning strategies for finding published research protocols and methods. This session is a hands-on practicum and an excellent introduction to resources that support bioscience bench research.
Come and hear Jack Turner, Associate Director of the MIT Technology Licensing Office and patent attorney Sam Pasternak, recently of Choate, Hall and Stewart and now at the TLO, discuss the ins and outs of obtaining patents.
This popular session covers a bit of patent history and a lot about current practices, processes, and issues surrounding obtaining a patent; the focus is on the process used at MIT for ideas/inventions developed by the MIT community. A portion of the session is devoted to questions and answers. If you think you will ever invent something, you need to be here.
For researchers struggling to manage their data, basic strategies will be provided for
• best practices for retention and archiving
• effective directory structures and naming conventions
• good file formats for long-term access
• data security and backup options
• metadata, tagging, and citation
• other relevant issues
WHEN: Tuesday, January 12, 11am – 12pm or Tuesday, January 26, 10 – 11am (duplicate session)
Using citation management software to create and maintain a collection of references is becoming more common and important in today’s academic world. These software packages allow users to search databases, retrieve relevant citations, and build a bibliography to be added to a paper or thesis or stored for future reference. But which software package should you use, and how do you get started?
This session will focus on EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero, the three major options for bibliographic software at MIT. We will include a discussion comparing and contrasting the three softwares, and we will introduce some of the basic concepts and functionality of each program.
WHEN: Monday, January 11, 5 – 6pm & Thursday, January 28, 12 – 1pm
Learn how to use the BIOBASE Knowledge Library (BKL) and Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD) bioinformatics tools licensed by MIT Libraries. Interested in systems biology, biomarkers, drug target discovery, and high-throughput data analysis? Learn to use HGMD, a comprehensive database on human germ-line mutations associated with disease, to determine whether a newly identified gene lesion is novel, search for an overview of known mutations within a given gene, or search for a particular type of gene mutation within a specific chromosomal location.
Information on energy is everywhere! How do you find the scientific and technical information you need and keep on the cutting edge of what is published? Attend this hands-on session to find out.
If you are a researcher in chemistry, or chemistry related subjects like chemical engineering, materials science, environmental science, biological sciences, etc., then you should know about SciFinder, the most comprehensive chemical information database.
This hands-on workshop will teach you the basics of SciFinder on the web!
“Riding the space shuttle is like strapping yourself to a gigantic beast….you go from 0 to 17,500 miles per hour in eight and a half minutes,” MIT alumnus, Astronaut Mike Massimino said in a talk at MIT last month.
After nearly 3 years of training, in May 2009 Massimino rocketed 5.3 million miles into space on a mission to repair NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The veteran astronaut spoke about the extensive preparation for the journey, as well as the risks and thrills that were a part of the historic final trip to Hubble.
He also returned an item to MIT that he took into space with him—a book loaned from the MIT Libraries’ collections. The book, a limited edition facsimile of Galileo’s landmark publication Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), was chosen to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s astronomical research, the first recorded planetary observations using a telescope. It is on display through December 2009 in the Science Library (14S-134).
If you regularly use the SciFinder client, you have probably noticed challenges in logging in. We have been dedicating fewer and fewer seats (of 11 total) for the client. All of the seats will be unavailable as of Monday, November 2.
You will have to access SciFinder via the Libraries proxy server, which requires the use of the MIT Touchstone authentication system. Note that this is only available for MIT faculty, students, post-docs, other researchers and staff with certificates installed on their machines.
If you have any questions, please contact the Chemistry Librarian, Erja Kajosalo.
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009
4-5pm
Killian Hall, Building 14
Veteran Astronaut and MIT Alumnus Dr. Mike Massimino (SM TPP 1988, Engineer ME 1990, PhD 1992) will come to MIT on Wednesday Oct. 28 to talk about his recent work servicing NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and to return a book to the MIT Libraries.
In May 2009 Massimino and six other astronauts boarded the space shuttle Atlantis for a journey that took them 5.3 million miles for a final servicing of the telescope. Massimino and other STS-125 crewmembers conducted five spacewalks to upgrade the Hubble, enabling it to send back spectacular images of the universe well into the next decade. While on the mission the crew captured photographs and video, and Massimino became the first astronaut to ‘Tweet’ from space—sending back updates on the mission through his Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/astro_mike), which has surpassed 1 million followers.
Accompanying Massimino on the mission was a rare book loaned from the MIT Libraries’ collections. The book, a limited edition facsimile of Galileo’s landmark publication Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), was chosen to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s astronomical research, the first recorded planetary observations using a telescope.
In his talk, Massimino will discuss his work and show images and video from the mission. He will also present the well-traveled book back to the MIT Community and the Libraries.
Power Supply: Energy Resources in the MIT Libraries is a new exhibit in the Maihaugen Gallery that showcases “energy resources” in the Libraries that have supported and resulted from research and education throughout the Institute’s history. Included are books and articles from historical collections, examples of rich working collections, theses by MIT students, and video (below) highlighting MIT’s current efforts in energy research.
The MIT Community is invited to an opening reception on Friday, October 23, 1-3pm in the Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130). Check out the exhibit and enjoy refreshments with friends!
You may be a skilled investigator on the topic of science or engineering, but what do you know about business research? This session will introduce you to library-supported databases that cover company and industry information. We will use hands-on exercises to demonstrate strategies for researching two key components of a business plan: competitors and industry trends.
While you won’t come out of this session qualified to be a patent attorney, you will be able to successfully find patent references from all over the world and know how to obtain patent text and diagrams.
What’s an RSS feed? How can I use it to keep up with new information in my field? We’ll show you how RSS and other current awareness tools can help you stay up to date!
Information on energy is everywhere! How do you find the scientific and technical information you need and keep on the cutting edge of what is published? Attend this hands-on session to find out.
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