March 2011 Archives

Material Connexion is now available from the VCU Libraries. This unique online resource focusing on materials and material research permits searches by keyword or browse by category, process, sustainability, usage, or property. Information on the materials includes descriptions, manufacturing information, and basic properties, as well as high-quality photographs and company/vendor contact information. There are currently over 4,500 samples in the database, including: polymers, naturals, metals, glass, ceramics, process, cement-based, and carbon-based. This resource will be useful to designers of all disciplines, including industrial, furniture, packaging, graphics, fashion, interior design, landscape architecture, and transportation.

Grzimek's Animal Life encyclopedia is described by Library Journal as the most comprehensive and authoritative information source on animals ever published.This online version of the 17 volume print edition is available in a powerful new knowledge portal complete with accurate and detailed descriptions of every single animal genus in the animal kingdom, from the largest mammal to the smallest creature you can only see with the help of the microscope. Descriptions also covering endangered species and critically endangered species are written by notable experts in the field. Each description is enhanced with colored interactive maps and animations. MP3 files give in-depth account of physiological or behavioral activities of animals. These files can be downloaded to mobile devices or incorporated into scholarly papers and presentations.

Groups of animals covered are:

• Mammals
• Birds
  
• Reptiles & Amphibians
• Fishes
• Invertebrates

The database also includes sections on Biomes and Evolution. Grzimek's interface is user friendly, making it easy to search and returning displays that are attractive and informative.

Access Science is the premiere online science platform featuring fully searchable content of McGraw-Hill's encyclopedia of science and technology.

In this new generation of Access Science, vast amounts of information are organized to give fast, easy, and accurate access to authoritative articles in all major areas of science and technology. It features more than 8,500 online articles, plus:

• Research Updates from the McGraw-Hill's yearbooks of science and technology
• Over 110,000 definitions from McGraw-Hill dictionary of scientific and technical terms
• 15,000 illustrations and graphics, and bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citations
• Content contributed by more than 5000 researchers, including 36 Nobel Prize winners
• Biographies of more than 2,000 well-known scientists from the Hutchinson dictionary of scientific biography (Q141 .H88 2004eb)
• The latest news in science and technology from Science news and ScienCentral video

In addition to the continuously updated, fully-searchable, media-rich content, terms, images and videos the content is enhanced with illustrations, animations and images.

Access Science uses the most up-to-date technology. Apart from the fast sophisticated search capability, it features RSS feeds, Flash animations, podcasts, video, and more. Weekly Q&A resolves queries posted by users.

SPIE Digital Library has been added to the VCU Libraries collections. Published by the International Society for Optics and Photonics, SPIE Digital Library gives unlimited access to the world's largest collection of optics and photonics research and provides user-friendly tools that save researchers' time. The database provides the broadest range of applied optics and photonics science and engineering papers anywhere.

Over 40,000 SPIE papers are cited in more than 20,000 high-technology U.S. patents and several thousands more in international patents.

• 6,000 volumes of conference proceedings and eight journals form the base of this digital library.
• Over 300,000 articles have been published from 1990 to 2010 and 17,000 new articles are added annually.
• Eight SPIE journals are featured: Optical engineering, Journal of biomedical optics, Journal of electronic imaging, Journal of micro/nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, Journal of applied remote sensing, Journal of nanophotonics, SPIE reviews, and Journal of photonics for energy.

Benefits of the SPIE Digital Library include timely e-first publication, multimedia, CrossRef links, and RSS alerts.

With over 75,000 pages of original material from the 1960s to today, along with more than 25,000 pages of interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines, Underground and independent comics, comix, and graphic novels is the first-ever scholarly online collection for researchers and students of adult comic books and graphic novels. The comic book has shown itself to be a medium capable of both the offensive and the sublime. This collection documents the entire spectrum of underground and independent North American and European comics and graphic novels. It provides researchers with tools to understand the wealth of material held in the VCU Libraries Special Collections at Cabell Library and its renowned Comic Arts Collection.

.Access Engineering has been added to the VCU Libraries' collections. This new addition is a dynamic resource of world renowned engineering content, supporting all levels of scientific and technical research. It features over 250 authoritative and up-to-date references in 15 categories.

World News Connection (WNC) is an online news service that offers an extensive array of translated news and information sources compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources. WNC covers significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events. New information is entered into WNC within 24-72 hours from the time of original publication or broadcast. Regions covered include:

• Africa (Central, East, North, Southern, West)
• Americas (Caribbean, Central, North, South, Antarctica)
• Asia (East, South, Southeast)
• Eurasia (Caucasus, Central, Russia)
• Europe (Balkans, Central, North, South)
• Middle East
• Oceania

WNC is a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to monitor non-U.S. media sources.