Sciences Library News

Nov 28 2018

Red Planet Day 2018

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

On this day in 1964, the Mariner 4 spacecraft launched and completed the first Mars flyby, marking today as Red Planet Day. Mariner 4 took snapshots of the surface of Mars and gave us our first up-close view of the planet. While Mariner 4 was meant to capture data only for a few months, it stayed in orbit collecting solar wind data for several years.

Just two days ago, NASA landed the InSight spacecraft on Mars. InSight will go under the surface of Mars to learn more about its interior structure by measuring its temperature and seismic activity. Knowing more about the Mar’s interior structure will help us learn about its geological formation. As the geology and climate of Mars match most closely to Earth’s of all the planets, Mars stands out as the most promising planet for possible human settlements and the most likely place to search for signs of alien life!

Celebrate Red Planet Day with some of our books about Mars!

We have fun films too!

Hope you have a Happy Red Planet Day!

Photo of Mars — Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS

Oct 19 2018

Mole Day at the Sciences Library

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

In celebration of Mole Day on Oct. 23 and National Chemistry Week, Chauncey invited all of his mole friends over to hang out at the Sciences Library. Now the moles have taken over the library! Find a mole hidden at the Sciences Library during National Chemistry Week (Oct. 22-26) and bring it to the Sciences Library service desk for a treat!

Picture of audience with Dr. Hendrix at the front

Oct 11 2018

Lessons Learned About Iowa’s Wild Bees

Posted on October 11, 2018October 11, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

In Dr. Hendrix’s talk “Protecting Iowa’s Wild Bees: Your Backyard Counts,” we learned that honey bees are the only type of bees that are social. Most bees are solitary bees! Solitary bees create nests in holes in wood, bamboo, or in the ground. These solitary wild bees are important pollinators of almonds, berries, and other crops. Wild bees are more effective at pollination than honey bees because when wild bees visit flowers, the wild bees typically stay for a longer amount of time compared with honey bees. There are over 300 species of solitary wild bees in Iowa!

We learned a little about what life is like for bees who live in Iowa City! What spaces have a lot of greenery and flowers? Where are they located? How does the supply for bee foraging compare with demand?

And, finally, we learned what we can do to help bees thrive!

Bees will flock (or buzz?) to native prairie plants, so it helps to plant the following:

Zizia aurea (golden alexanders)
Dalea purpurea (purple prairie clover)
Amorpha canescens (leadplant)
Ratibida pinnata (grayhead coneflower)

The four plants listed above are known to be exceptional at attracting bees. However, planting any species of native flower will be helpful! Size doesn’t matter—even small gardens and potted plants will help!

You can create nesting spots for bees, such as this bee house:

You can reduce your use of lawn chemicals to help bees. You can even let your lawn grow a little longer and take a break from mowing. You can leave stems and be a little less tidy! The bees will like this, and you will too!

We appreciate everyone who came out to learn about Iowa’s wild bees! Thank you to Dr. Hendrix for sharing the scoop on Iowa’s wild bee population with us!

Goodbye, Dr. Hendrix and biology students!

Sep 13 2018

Protecting Iowa’s Wild Bees: Your Backyard Counts

Posted on September 13, 2018September 13, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

Join us at the Sciences Library for “Protecting Iowa’s Wild Bees: Your Backyard Counts” presented by Dr. Stephen D. Hendrix, UI Professor Emeritus.

Wed., Oct. 3, 12:30-1:30 PM, Sciences Library 3rd floor

Pizza & beverages provided while supplies last. Free & open to the public.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Laurie Neuerburg in advance at 319-467-0216.

Aug 29 2018

Fall 2018 Workshops at the Sciences Library

Posted on August 29, 2018August 30, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

The following workshops are open to all students, faculty, and staff. There is no need to register in advance.

Staying Current Workshop – Thursday, September 20, 3:30-4:20 PM, SL 102

In this workshop you will learn how to:

Keep up with the news and research in your field
Use the library to find new sources of information
Learn how to set up email alerts and notifications

EndNote Workshop – Tuesday, September 25, 11-11:50 AM, SL 102

In this workshop you will learn how to use EndNote to:

Collect references for articles, books, websites, and other sources using Google Scholar, InfoHawk+, and popular databases like Web of Science and Scopus;
Organize your references into groups and share your reference library with collaborators;
Use the Cite While You Write plugin for Microsoft Word to insert citations into your papers and format them into thousands of different styles.

EndNote Web is available for free to all members of the University of Iowa community. EndNote Desktop is available for free to all UI graduate students, faculty, and staff.

EndNote Workshop – Wednesday, October 10, 1-1:50 PM, SL 102

In this workshop you will learn how to use EndNote to:

Collect references for articles, books, websites, and other sources using Google Scholar, InfoHawk+, and popular databases like Web of Science and Scopus;
Organize your references into groups and share your reference library with collaborators;
Use the Cite While You Write plugin for Microsoft Word to insert citations into your papers and format them into thousands of different styles.

EndNote Web is available for free to all members of the University of Iowa community. EndNote Desktop is available for free to all UI graduate students, faculty, and staff.

Scholarly Journals Workshop – Tuesday, October 23, 11-11:50 AM, SL 102

In this workshop you will learn how to:

Identify the most critical journals in your field
Learn about impact factors and other measures of quality
Recognize important characteristics of journals, such as whether they are open access, refereed, or predatory

Evaluating Science Workshop – Thursday, November 1, 3:30-4:20 PM, SL 102

In this workshop you will learn how to:

Assess science articles and news for credibility
Look for original sources of research
Investigate misinformation, bias, and retractions

Search Strategies Workshop – Wednesday, November 14, 12-12:50 PM, SL 102

In this workshop you will learn how to:

Choose which places to search
Improve the relevancy and precision of your search
Quickly evaluate search results

If you’re interested, but unable to attend these workshops, private appointments and webinars can be arranged. If you have any questions or if you’d like to request a workshop for your class or group, please contact Laurie Neuerburg (319-467-0216 or laurie-neuerburg@uiowa.edu) for more information.

Aug 16 2018

Top 10 Things to Know About the Sciences Library

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

10. You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

9. You can email, call, or schedule an appointment with one of our librarians (Laurie Neuerburg or Leo Clougherty) if you need help finding books, articles, or anything else for your research.

8. You can use our scanner on the 1st floor for free.

7. You can take a rest and study comfortably using our bean bag chairs, tables, armchairs, and carrels.

6. It’s easy to visit us from downtown–you will find us on Iowa Ave across from Joe’s Place.

5. Our mascot is a gorilla named Chauncey.

4. We can help you find datasets online and properly manage your own research data.

3. Our building was designed to be an anatomical theater for medical students and so the back of the building has a semicircular shape!

2. You can use our subject guides to find the best resources for your research in astronomy, biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics, and more.

1. We provide free coffee and tea!

Aug 10 2018

Natural Language Searching in NCBI Databases

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

NCBI has improved its search functionality in the “all databases” search to be compatible with natural language searching. In the past, natural language searching for sequence data brought up too many results or sometimes zero results. Now you can search NCBI more intuitively than before and receive good results for genes, nucleotides, and assemblies! How do you get started with NCBI’s new natural language searching?

Go to the homepage of NCBI. The default search shows “All Databases” in the drop-down box. Here you can try out some of the improved search queries:

Genes

[Species name] + [gene symbol]
- Chelonia mydas SDHA

Rat B2M

Nucleotide Sequences

[Species name] + [gene symbol] + mRNA/transcript/CDS
- Salmo salar SUMO1 mRNA

Mus musculus Abcg2 transcript

Cow CA2 CDS

Genome Assemblies

[Assembly name]
- GRCz11

[species name] + assembly/genome
- Chicken assembly

Escherichia coli genome

Aug 09 2018

Beekeeping 101 Event is the Bee’s Knees!

Posted on August 9, 2018August 9, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

There was a lively “hive” of people at the Sciences Library for Beekeeping 101!

We heard an informative talk about bees and beekeeping from Jim Davis.

Then we made a bee-line for the courtyard to take a closer look at bees and how they compare with other insects.

Finally, some of us acted out the waggle dance of the honey bee!

A huge thanks to Jim Davis of the East Central Iowa Beekeepers Association and the Iowa City Science Booster Club for making this an enjoyable and educational day for everyone!

Jul 12 2018

Sunsetting of the Open Access Fund

Posted on July 12, 2018July 12, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

For several years, UI Libraries has maintained an Open Access (OA) Fund to help researchers pay for the article processing charges (APCs) on open access publications. This fund supports authors choosing to make their publications open for anyone to read, broadening their audience and providing wide access to important research. We have decided to sunset the OA Fund for APCs within two years due to budget constraints. We found that the fund did nothing to offset our rapidly increasing journal subscription costs. In fact, the fund largely supports the same publishers to which we pay our pricey subscriptions. Given this reality, the final year that funding will be available is 2020, and the amount of funding for 2019 has been reduced from $3,000 per article to $2,000 per article. Additionally, each author will only be eligible to receive funding from the OA fund one time per fiscal year in 2019. Articles must have been accepted into a high quality, peer-reviewed, open access journal with ethical standards.

Though the OA Fund will be sunsetted, there are other options to support open access publishing. Authors can take advantage of green OA through the Iowa Repository Online (IRO) or pre-print and post-print repositories. Additionally, authors might be able to find grants or ask their departments to fund APCs. In the meantime, the UI Libraries will be exploring sustainable models to fund open access publishing in the future. If you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to Mahrya Burnett, Scholarly Communications Librarian, mahrya-burnett@uiowa.edu or 319-335-5937.

Bombus huntii, M, face, Pennington County, SD_2012-11-14-15.34.51 ZS PMax. Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

Jun 26 2018

Beekeeping 101 at the Sciences Library

Posted on June 26, 2018July 2, 2018 by Laurie Neuerburg

Join us for Beekeeping 101 at the Sciences Library for an all-ages beekeeping talk and activities on Tuesday, July 31, 2-4 pm!

2-3 PM (Sciences Library room 102): Jim Davis of the East Central Iowa Beekeepers will give a talk on the management of bees, why bees are important, and what you can do to help all bees.

2-4 PM (Sciences Library courtyard): The Iowa City Science Booster Club will lead activities for learning about bee diversity and the bee waggle dance.

Free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.