A Piece of Sound Advice: “Use Your Ears!” November 12, 2009
Posted by Zeke Graves in : Cool tools , add a comment
Previous posts have focused mainly on text- and image-based resources. This installment will highlight audio, specifically free resources available on the Internet. Here are a few:
The British Library’s public collections include field recordings of natural and urban soundscapes, music from around the world, a survey of English dialects, early spoken word recordings, as well as historical information on sound reproduction technology.
Xeno-Canto hosts an archive of bird sounds from across the globe and makes good use of Google Maps in its search and information display interfaces.
London Sound Survey is a nice example of how audio can contribute to an overall picture of a geographical place and its culture and history over time.
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds (focusing only on sounds, not songs).
Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal music downloads directed by New Jersey’s freeform radio station WFMU.
This is just a small sample of what’s out there. Now it’s up to you to decide how audio could enhance your research, project or presentation. Here’s some inspiration: http://tenement.org/folksongs/client/
Term papers by the numbers… October 26, 2009
Posted by Linda Martinez in : Citing Sources, Cool tools, Duke researchers, Librarians, Research Help, Tips for students , 2comments
Ready to start that term paper? Not sure how to start? The University of Minnesota Libraries have created an assignment calculator to help students organize their time to meet their research needs. Start with today’s date, enter the date assignment is due, a timeline is provided, with research milestones. Use Duke Library links for local, on-site research assistance. For example, How do I begin my research? or Find a Librarian in my subject area? or ask for help are just a few of the services available to you through the Duke Libraries.
Social Networking for Scientists September 15, 2009
Posted by Jean in : Cool tools, Duke researchers, Research Help , 2comments
We’ve been getting more and more questions in the library about how researchers can find information from other disciplines. For example, how can someone working on membranes in Psychiatry connect up with someone working on membranes in Materials Science? In a world where waiting for the published article is increasingly too late, we’ve been trying to find new avenues.
To answer the question above, I thought, ‘I wonder if there is a social networking site for scientists?’, did a Google search, and voila – Labmeeting!
The interesting part about Labmeeting is that it is only freely available to scientific researchers. You have to either get invited by a scientific researcher you know, or show online proof that you are doing scientific research. Or pay $99. Thus, not being a scientific researcher, nor willing to part with $99 for a look-see, I was unable to join.
A search on Duke presented 120 results and included the following:
- Associate Professor at Duke University interested in the following topics: Monomeric lambda repressor, Ribonuclease P protein, Protein A, NMR, CD, fluorescence, stopped flow, amide exchange, dynamic NMR
- PhD Student at Duke University interested in the following topics: In vivo model systems, genetic screens, immunoblotting
- PhD Student at Duke University interested in the following topics: Photonics
Give it a shot and let us know what you think: http://www.labmeeting.com
Addendum: As William Gunn points out in the comments below, there are other similar tools which you may want to try. They include:
- https://www.researchgate.net/
- http://www.mendeley.com/
- http://www.academia.edu/
- http://www.myexperiment.org/
Upload research articles
- Automatically match them to bibliographic records for reference management
- Search the full text of all your PDFs
- Mark them for fast retrieval and viewing
- Recommend them to your colleagues
Tools for Back to School August 26, 2009
Posted by Michael in : Cool tools, Tips for students , 2comments
Now that classes are definitely back in full swing, we wanted to share some help with some of those consistently vexing issues for students. Refer to previous posts for some information on data backup, free video lectures, and electronic sticky notes.
Finding textbooks – Most know Amazon, but there are some other options out there for online textbook shopping. Bookfinder searches across many online book retailers, making it easy to compare prices. Chegg is a big textbook rental site, allowing for use of books for only a short time.
Lifehacker tips – This site helped inspire the name of this blog and is a great source for little ways to make life better, often with technology, but often without.
- Sleep better: Includes alarm clock suggestions and napping strategies
- Take better notes: Taking notes seems simple enough, but there are three methods here for getting more out of those scribbles
- Memory Hacks: Ten tips for remembering all you’re learning
For a large list of all types of web apps that could be helpful for students, check out this list from readwriteweb. This list is a couple years old, any new apps on the scene since then?
**Photo Credit:
Student raising his hand in a classroom, 1970
William Gedney Photographs and Writings
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/gedney/
Want the Library Everywhere? There’s an App for That July 22, 2009
Posted by Michael in : Cool tools, Database Tip, Research Help, Tips for students , 6commentsThere are iPhone apps for just about anything. They’ve got you covered if you need to get Danish handball scores, calculate alimony, keep track of your pet’s vet records, or create and test palindromes. There is more than just fun in the world of apps, though. Here are some great research tools for mobile devices.
At Duke, there are a number of great ways to work in the library wherever you are. You can use the library’s mobile website to find library hours, available computers, directions, contact info and more. If you’re doing medical research, take a look at Duke’s Medical Center Library mobile site. It’s full of features enabling you to do PICO analysis, browse e-journals, and link to many helpful mobile resources.
On the Digital Collections blog, it was recently announced that you can search, browse and view our Digital Collections on your mobile device. Be sure to watch the short video demonstrating the ease of this feature in their post announcing this new tool. Just announced this week, you can now watch vintage ads from Duke Libraries Hartman Center from Duke iTunes U.
There are other nice mobile tools outside of Duke as well. This is just a partial list and some of these are third-party apps, but this will give you an idea of the possibilities out there. Some useful apps include those for WorldCat.org, the arXiv pre-print server for physics, math, computer science, etc, or the Papers PDF organizer software in mobile form.
I’m sure I’ve missed some helpful mobile resources. What others are out there?
