BANR

Blogging has taken some disciplines by storm - most notably journalism. But where does blogging fit into the realm of scientific communication? Like most professionals, scientists are using blogs to comment on the new, notable and less notable developments in their fields. ScienceBlogs http://www.scienceblogs.com/ is a collection of 40 Science Blogs hosted by Seed Magazine and authored primarily by scientists in academia. A couple notable blogs in this collection are:

Aetiology http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/ - written by Tara C Smith, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology. This blog "discuss[es] causes, origins, evolution and implications of disease and other phenomena"

Pharyngula http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/- written by PZ Myers, an Associate Professor in Biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris. This blog critiques Intelligent Design and averages 13,000 hits a day.

The first Science Blogging Conference http://wiki.blogtogether.org/blogtogether/show/HomePage was held at the University of North Carolina, CH January 18-20, 2007.

Information for this posting provided by Joanna Blair and uploaded by Allison Level

Posted by Allison Level at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AGRICOLA Has Been Re-scoped
New Indexing Policy in Effect as of January 1, 2007
The National Agricultural Library has completed the process of re-scoping the AGRICOLA Index and has published its list of titles recommended for indexing in 2007. The decision to re-scope was necessary because our appropriated resources were not sufficient to keep the AGRICOLA Index current and permit us to increase the number of items indexed.

The over-arching goal of the re-scoping of AGRICOLA was to create a sustainable index that filled a unique niche. Specifically, the re-scoped Index will better serve NAL's current customers by offering more links to full-text articles and by avoiding duplication with other abstracting and indexing services.

In order to achieve these goals, it was determined that publications indexed in AGRICOLA must meet at least one of the following criteria:

1. be a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication or contain articles or chapters authored by USDA personnel;
2. support NAL's Information Centers;
3. contain articles or chapters on core agricultural topics, written in the English language;
4. not be indexed by any other abstracting and indexing service.

For more information, visit the National Agricultural Library

Information for this blog posting is from an NAL press release.

Posted by Allison Level at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)