Engineering & Physical Sciences Libraries Newsletters: Fall 2018

Brian Quigley

Head, EPS Division;

Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science

bquigley@berkeley.edu

 

Lisa Ngo

Engineering

lngo@berkeley.edu

 

Susan Powell

Maps, GIS, and Geography

smpowell@berkeley.edu

 

Kortney Rupp

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

kortneyrupp@berkeley.edu

 

Anna Sackmann

Science Data and Engineering

asackmann@berkeley.edu

Samantha Teplitzky

Physics, Astronomy and Earth Science

steplitz@berkeley.edu

IEEE English for Engineering

 

Through IEEE, the Engineering Library provides access to a series of English for Engineering courses. The online modules are designed for non-native English speakers to improve their listening, reading, speaking, and comprehension levels of technical English. The course improves students' ability to effectively communicate through their writing, presentations, and with group collaborators. The topics covered in the online modules are relevant to all areas of engineering and include interactive exercises and immediate feedback. Each of the 12 modules take about three hours to complete. Check out the courses here, and please let the Engineering Librarians know if you have any questions.

 

Artech Access

The Engineering Library now has access to Artech Access, a DRM free ebook platform for titles published by Artech House. Artech House publishes content in multiple areas of engineering, information security, communications, radar, remote sensing, and other areas of emerging technology. The ebooks offer practical guidance and may be especially useful when first researching or learning about a topic. Browse titles through the interface or access individual titles by searching in Artech Access or the library catalog. Check out the collection here.  

Dissertations Support Series

This series of workshops is designed to address the dissertation writing process for graduate students in engineering. Developed with the help of current and former graduate students, each workshop addresses a different challenge of the dissertation writing process. Attendees will become familiar with writing strategies, literature reviews for dissertations, and tools to improve the writing workflow.

This series is designed for graduate students in engineering, but is open to any member of the UC Berkeley community.

Association for Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Fellows Program

EPS Division Head Brian Quigley is currently participating in the ARL Leadership Fellows Program. This 16-month program helps the fellows to develop effective leadership skills and compelling visions in preparation for future roles as senior-level leaders in large research libraries. Fellows also explore major themes in libraries, information technology, and higher education. As part of this program, Brian has already visited the University of Iowa, and he will be visiting George Washington University, McMaster University, and the University of Florida during this academic year.  

 

Institute for Research Design in Librarianship

2018 IRDL Cohort

 

Kortney Rupp, the chemical information librarian, was selected as a 2018 scholar to attend the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship, an intensive research training at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. The research project supported by this program is probing general perceptions and barriers to electronic research notebook adoption within chemistry and chemical engineering departments at both UC Berkeley and Purdue University.

 

Field Trip to the Hayward Fault

As part of the Earth Sciences & Map Library’s Maps and More pop up series, Professor Horst Rademacher of the Berkeley Seismology Laboratory led a campus walking tour of the Hayward Fault. Professor Rademacher received a grant from the Library’s Affordable Course Content Pilot Program for his related publication, The Hayward Fault at the Campus of University of California, Berkeley: A Guide to a Brief Walking Tour.

 

Conference presentation: Building a historical (20th-century) Mongolian GIS database

GIS & Map Librarian Susan Powell presented at the IASSIST & CARTO annual conference in Montreal, Canada about her ongoing project to build a GIS database for base geospatial data of 20th century Mongolia. After identifying and scanning historical maps of Mongolia from the UC Berkeley Library collections Susan spent six weeks in Mongolia in summer 2017 researching historical maps located in the collections of Mongolian institutions and acquiring scans. Over the past year Susan and an undergraduate student assistant have been geo-referencing the scanned maps and digitizing features to create vector layers. The completed datasets will be made freely available through the UC Berkeley Library geoportal.

Spring 2018 Meeting

 

In our April meeting, we provided an overview of our Cal Day activities in the libraries. We also discussed our approach to the collections budget reduction within the EPS Division and the feedback we received on our proposed cancellations. Generally the feedback was positive and confirmed our decisions. Lastly, we talked about outreach to new faculty - what is important to tell new faculty about both the library and research data management, and how best to reach them. One popular suggestion from committee members was to visit faculty meetings annually to keep the faculty informed about changes in the evolving library, publishing, and data management landscape.