The top 20 downloads from Spiral for November 2009 is now available to view on the Library website.

Spiral, the Digital Repository for research output of Imperial College London, aims to:

• increase the visability of the College’s research publications
• allow free and open access to all material added to it, and
• provide links to academics’ professional web pages

To find out more about Spiral, click here.

Please see the attached lists for new books received at the Central Library in December. Just click on the book title to go straight to the library catalogue record to see if the item is on the shelves, if it isn’t, you can place a hold on the item.

Biology and Biochemistry New Books December 2009

Humanities Collection New Material Dec 2009

Please let Elizabeth know if you have any suggestions for titles to be purchased for the library.

The Silwood library will close for Christmas at 1pm on Wednesday 23rd December and re-open at 10 am on Monday 4th January 2010.

Any books you borrow which would normally have a return date during the closed period will be due back on 4th January.

The Central Library offers extended loan periods on books over the Christmas vacation. You can see the full list on the library website.

The following special arrangements will apply at the Central Library:

• From Saturday 12 December, short and standard loans will be issued on request to Monday 11 January to all borrowers, providing there are still 4 copies in the library.
• From 09.00 on Friday 18 December, core texts will be issued to 11.00 on Monday 4 January.

Please ask if you want any books issued for the vacation, otherwise the usual loan periods will apply.

You can also check the Christmas Vacation opening hours on the Library website.

If you are an international student currently studying for a higher education qualification awarded by a UK institution (university or college), you can win a £25 book token for your views on referencing in assignments for your courses in the UK.

Your views will contribute to a research project:  ‘International Students, Referencing and Writing’ sponsored by the LearnHigher and Write Now Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) networks.

The researchers are  interested in your comments in the following two areas:

1. Your previous experiences in your home country of referencing sources in course work; and
2. Your current experiences of referencing for UK course assignments.

Find out more and take part by visiting the Learn Higher website.

To mark the start of its 350th year, the Royal Society has made 60 historic papers available online in a science timeline on the Trailblazing website. The papers cover such topics as Mr Franklin’s kite flying electricity experiment of 1752 and a paper from 1970 on black holes with authors including Professor Stephen Hawking.

To read the full BBC News article, including comments from Lord Rees, President of the Royal Society, and to view an audio slideshow click here.

A BBC News story today highlights findings published in the Journal of Applied Ecology into the new technique. The researchers used four microphones to record birdsong and, using a computational method, converted it into an estimated population desnity within the given area.

Dr Andy Musgrove, of the British Trust for Ornithology, feels that the new technique could be a particularly valuable approach for hard to reach areas, such as reed beds.

To read the full BBC News story click here.

The top 20 downloads from Spiral for October 2009 is now available to view on the Library website.

Spiral, the Digital Repository for research output of Imperial College London, aims to:

• increase the visability of the College’s research publications
• allow free and open access to all material added to it, and
• provide links to academics’ professional web pages

To find out more about Spiral, click here.

Online access to the Scientific American journal has been enhanced with additional web functionality for users. Articles are now available in HTML format as well as PDF and the Advanced search and Saved search options have been improved. Imperial provides access to Scientific American from 1995 to the current issue. Try it for yourself here.

Complete the 2009 Library Survey now!

The library wants to know what you think about our services and how you use them. Do you love e-books or want more books on the shelves? Is it easy to find what you want? Is the library too noisy or too quiet?

Tell us what you think by completing our survey – it only takes five minutes of your time and you could win one of three £50 Amazon vouchers in our prize draw!

Take the survey now at: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/library/survey

The survey closes on Monday 30 November so don’t wait too long!

We’ll be publishing the results of the survey in early 2010 and what you say will help inform us how we can improve services for you.

Paper copies of the survey are available on request.