musings and reference questions

Spring 2009

anniezk — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:01:08 +0000

* Can I check out a telescope or binoculars?

* If I’m a researcher in a lab after I graduate can I still use the library?

* Why can’t I open my file? Upload my file to Blackboard? Change the background on a picture on powerpoint? (only 1 of them ended successfully….)

* Does environmental noise effect geese habitats?

* I need books on the politics around deforestation in the Amazon.

* I’m from another college and I need the articles from this bibliography.

* Why is my computer typing in cyrllics suddenly? Can you make it stop?

* I need to find habitat information for the dungeness crab for the Oregon Coast.

* Where are your paper copies of Science and Nature?

* Did you find that journal Marine Biology? (It had been in B90 c-d and is now in the empty range in the A journals, behind the computers)

* Why is the printer putting toner on the edges of the paper?

* Can I use the component cable for the PS3?

Spring Term 2008

anniezk — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:38:00 +0000

I’ve gotten lots of good questions lately. But, I haven’t had time to track them. Here are some of the few I’ve just gotten:

*I need arguments refuting Rachel Carson’s environmental arguments.
*Is the rainforest a carbon dioxide sink or source?
*Where are books on kinematics?
*Do you have Mario Kart for the Wii yet?
*Is there a lot written about Wasson’s teaching principles?
*Where is coffee produced and what happens to it?
*What are the problems with eating too much soy? [This one I answered with the CSPI and the Mothering articles about soy, as well as a search of our fee based databases.
Mothering Magazine Article: Whole Soy Story The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food. (n.d.). . Retrieved May 20, 2009, from http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_story.html.
Mothering Magazine Articles: Whole Soy Story The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food Notes. (n.d.). . Retrieved May 20, 2009, from http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/food/soy_story_notes.html.
Soyonara? Tough times for the "miracle bean". (2006, October 1). . Retrieved May 20, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0813/is_8_33/ai_n27000614/.]

Winter term 2008

anniezk — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:41:00 +0000

*How do I cite a figure in CBE?
*How do I find a full text article on Young’s modulus for ligaments?
*Do you have any change? [Uh. I actually asked him to leave.]
*How do I print single sided?
* How do I download an article on my thumb drive?
* (via meebo) How do I get the article about Ushers syndrome?
* I need to know about genetic mutation and fru+ and fru-. Can you help me? (Sadly the answer was a resounding, no!)
* I want to find books on identifying medicinal plants in the area.
* Do you want these books on saltwater fish?
*Do you have books on how to build a grandfather clock?
* I need books on how to research soliton. I had a list, but don’t have it with me.
*My 2nd graders need pretty pictures of camels, hippos, and walruses? Also information on their life span.
*I need articles on the genetic basis of homosexuality.
*Where are books on nurse sharks?
*Where is your 1973 copy of the Annual report of the Carnegie Institution of Washington?
*Where can I find resources on sea otters?
*I need to find out if this ligand of cobalt (II) was published in the Journal of Chemical Education. (SciFinder Scholar DOESN’T let you limit by journal title. Isn’t that stupid? Did I already learn this, but forgot? Also SFS insists that you write a chemical in a very specific way. JCE lets you search, but not by chemical formula. Isn’t that also dumb. A plain text search was also useless. WoS was the best resource, as it searched the text and let us specify by journal name. BUT, it wouldn’t have found the chemical structure. VM helped me on this. Thank goodness she was here!)
*Where are these call numbers?
*I need a book on the Amazon Rainforest and biodiversity.
*I’m lost! Where is this lab?

End of the Fall Semester

anniezk — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:55:00 +0000

*What’s the molecular heat of transfer? [I'm at a loss for this one. Anyone? Is this a formula?]
*I need resources on folklore of US football.
*Where is this article from PubMed?
*What about an article on kinase from a long time ago? Author unsure.
*How many bones in the human body?
*What reference style should I use for my Human Physiology lab report?
*When is Guitar Hero 3 going to be ready to check out?

Week 8 – Fall 2007

anniezk — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:13:00 +0000

I’m learning new things all the time.

Human Physiology students from the Environmental Physiology class need books and encyclopedia articles on their subjects, NOT a pubmed search. Hyper and hypothermia are covered nicely in some of our books (although we could stand some new ones) and in the Encyclopedia of Human Biology.

Other questions I’ve had recently I keep forgetting to write down.

*Where are the proceedings from this 10th conference from Cambridge?
*Where are these journals located?
*Why are the only issues of Nature on the shelf from 2006? (We went e only as of 2007)
*Can hypothermia help save your life?

In the news!

anniezk — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:23:00 +0000

Thanks to this lovely piece in the Oregon Daily Emerald, we got to be on KVAL news, last night. Still working on a video clip of that.

At the end of the day yesterday, we were the 5th most emailed article:

In the news!

anniezk — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:23:00 +0000

Thanks to this lovely piece in the Oregon Daily Emerald, we got to be on KVAL news, last night. Still working on a video clip of that.

At the end of the day yesterday, we were the 5th most emailed article:

Fall 2007 – part II

anniezk — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:26:00 +0000

*Where do I find peer reviewed articles on GMO (genetically engineered, transgenic, etc.) things?
* Where do I find articles on the genetic basis for sexuality?
* Where are the photocopiers?
* Articles on the use of omega 3 fatty acids and female athletes.
* How do I make a graph using Excel 2007?
* Where is this Russian journal from the 1950s? Where are the ones from the late 1940s?
* Can we check out an Xbox 360 and Guitar Hero?
* I need information on transforming energy into different kinds of energy. Where can I get that?
* Do you have photos of the bicep and tricep from the side?
[There were lots of them, but I forgot to write them down and now they are gone forever]

Fall 2007 – part II

anniezk — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:26:00 +0000

FIGs – some thoughts

anniezk — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Either they should have a research project AND a topic in mind, or don’t bother with the library assignment.

What worked:
* Environmental footprint and finding tips to reduce their footprint (also had 1/2 class answer as if living in dorms, and 1/2 living at home. Nice way to show the difference!)
* Death in the Science Library: Crime Scene Investigation
* Having students find web sites with contradictory opinions and post to bulletin board – Although, I should have done more to talk about how they did this and what they found out.

Needed more work:
If you have students looking up topics on different sites (I used Mayoclinic, medline plus?, cdc, webMD), make sure it is somewhat controversial. (We did ACL injuries, try ulcers or cold/canker sores)
Have students look into bottle bill, plastic bags ahead of time