International Nuclear Information System Database now available free

From the International Atomic Energy Agency website:

3 April, 2009 - We are pleased to announce that access to INIS [International Nuclear Information System] database has been now opened to all Internet users around the world. Free, open and unrestricted access is available from the INIS Homepage (http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm), or directly from the following link: http://inisdb2.iaea.org

This initiative provides easy access to reliable nuclear information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, including nonconventional literature, and makes nuclear knowledge readily available worldwide.

Established in 1970, INIS represents the world's largest database of scientific and technical literature on a wide range of subjects from nuclear engineering, safeguards and non-proliferation to applications in agriculture, health and industry.

Currently, the INIS Database contains over 3 million bibliographic records and almost 200,000 full-text nonconventional documents, consisting of scientific and technical reports and other non copyrighted information.

New Industry Database

Our friends at the Foster Business Library recently let us know about First Research, a new database featuring industry profiles. According to the First Research website, they cover over 700 industries and update every 90 days.

So if you are interested in researching an industry, First Research may be a good place to get started. If you'd like more information about industry research, check out the very long list of resources available via Foster's business research guides.

ScienceDirect scheduled outage

FYI: ScienceDirect will be down due to scheduled maintenance on Saturday, April 4, 2009 @ 3:00 pm PST for approximately nine hours. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Special IEEE Xplore Workshop

Wendy McCarville from IEEE will be on campus next week and will be offering a special one-hour workshop on IEEE Xplore just for UW faculty, staff, and students. She will go over new features and enhancements to IEEE Xplore and show you tips on how to get the best search results in the database. She'll also be able to answer any questions you may have about IEEE Xplore.

Workshop details:

Thursday, March 12
10:30-11:30 am in the Engineering Library Instruction Center (3rd floor of the Engineering Library)

If you would like to attend, please send an email to lcwhang at u.wash or call 206-685-8370.

Wendy will also have some great IEEE items to give away!

Possible problem with PDFs from Knovel

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UPDATE:

As of 2/17/09, Knovel has "developed and implemented a patch. We have tested this solution extensively, verified it with individual customers and believe that it resolves the issue." So things should be back to normal, but if you have any problems, please contact us.

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An alert for Knovel users:

[Knovel] recently discovered a conflict that occurs with the combination of Firefox 2 or 3 and the new Adobe Reader (version 9) web browser plug-in when downloading Knovel PDF’s. This conflict will interfere with users ability to view PDF documents. While we have determined that the problem does not occur with Internet Explorer 6 or 7, or with Adobe Reader 8, we have yet to identify a fix. We are treating this as an urgent matter and are working with Adobe to find a solution. We will provide updates as we learn more.

So, if you are unable to download a PDF using Firefox and the new Adobe Reader 9, you can try using Internet Explorer (or another alternate browser). Hopefully, this will be fixed soon.

Tiny Motors, Tiny Robots

The BBC has an interesting article/video about the development of nano-motors to power tiny robots. The innovation, which has applications in surgical procedures, was reported in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. I believe the article is titled, "Piezoelectric ultrasonic resonant motor with stator diameter less than 250 µm: the Proteus motor," and is authored by James Friend and colleagues from the Micro/Nanophysics Laboratory at Monash University in Australia.

If you want to read the the original journal article, you're in luck! The University of Washington has a subscription to the electronic version, which means the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (from 1991 to the present) is available to UW students, faculty, and staff online.

According the the BBC article, the "researchers' prototype measures a quarter of a millimetre wide - not much more than a couple of hairs side-by-side, and 70% smaller than the previous record holder."

If you need help accessing this (or any) article, just ask us.

Safari Tech Books Online

Safari Tech Books Online offers full-text technical reference books on topics such as networking, Java, Linux/Unix, Perl, .NET, desktop productivity, web development and more from O'Reilly and other publishers of IT books.

The UW Engineering Library provides you access to Safari for books published in 2007, 2008, and 2009 (such as the brand new title Beautiful Architecture shown below).

So take advantage of this awesome resource. If you're working from off-campus and need help connecting, refer to this previous post for more info, or ask us here.

Online Handbooks and Reference Books

Most of our reference books are library-use-only, which means they can't be checked out. But that doesn't mean you can't get the information you need outside of the library. Here are some of the best online reference sources:

ASM Handbooks Online, featuring the complete content of twenty-four ASM Handbook volumes plus two ASM Desk Editions. Use this resource to find materials property data. If you are seeking properties for a specific alloy, an effective strategy is to start by doing a search for the name, or designation, of the alloy.


Offering over 500 of CRC Press' bestselling handbooks and references, ENGnetBASE continues to provide all fields of engineering with access to essential formulas, updated codes, and late-breaking developments that are shaping the field. Winner of the Best Reference Award from the American Society of Engineering Education.


Knovel is an online technical resource used to quickly locate relevant and reliable technical information. Knovel's interactive graphs and tables enable engineers to locate and extract the precise items of interest.

Remember to log in for off-campus access if you're using these outside of the library.

Get the Access You Deserve

If you have ever tried to access library databases, electronic journals, or other UW-restricted content from off-campus, you may have found it more difficult than it should be. Make life easier by downloading our proxy bookmarklet.

The proxy bookmarklet will let you access UW-restricted content with the click of a button.

Now, if we could only make all our content available online...

Knovel Enhanced!

Knovel (a database with almost 2000 electronic engineering reference books) has improved its interactive tools that allow users to analyze and manipulate data.

The official announcement includes examples of how you can use these interactive tools, and if you find you need more help you can sign up for one of their free webinars.

You can access Knovel from the Engineering Library's list of databases. (Remember to log in for off-campus access if you're not in the library.)


Questions? Ask here.