Library Classes Descriptions
Click here to see classes being offered this quarter.
All classes will be held in the Sherman Fairchild Library Multimedia Conference Room, third floor, Room 328.
For more information send >email to webclass AT library.caltech.edu.
Business Resources
This class will focus on business research strategies and methods for finding information on companies and industries.
Why you should take this class:
- You are starting to apply for jobs and wonder what companies you might like to work for.
- You have a job interview and want to find out more about a company and its industry.
- You are planning to start your own business and want to do background research on the industry and companies within the industry.
Chemical Compound Data Searching
In addition to SciFinder Scholar/Chemical Abstracts and Beilstein/Gmelin Crossfire, Caltech researchers have access to a wide variety of specialized chemical compound databases.
These databases provide extensive information on: industrial chemicals, enzymes, natural products, stability constants, thermodynamic/spectral data, solvents, polymers and synthetic methods. A comprehensive handout is provided.
Chemical Structure Searching
Search with chemical structures (both drawn and from templates) for physical property data and chemical reactions in DiscoveryGate (Beilstein, Gmelin, SPRESI, et.al.), SciFinder, and the Combined Chemical Dictionary (Dictionaries of Organic Chemistry, Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry, Natural Products, etc.)
Chemistry Information Resources
How do I choose which database to search . . . Combined Chemical Dictionary, Beilstein/Gmelin, Web of Science, SciFinder Scholar, etc.
What do I do if I don't retrieve enough? Too much?
Session objectives are to learn to make the most of chemistry information tools and services provided by the Caltech Library.
CODA: If You Publish, You Need CaltechAUTHORS
CaltechAUTHORS is an institutional repository providing free access to articles written by, with, or in close association with Caltech professorial faculty. Come and see how quickly and easily author postprints (author-formatted, post-peer review and copy-edited) can be uploaded and made easily retrievable by a global audience.
Copyright and Your Publications
Confused by all the copyright forms you have to fill out for the publishers?
Do you wish you could retain control over your own work? Anyone who is planning to write and/or publish articles, books or theses will find something useful in this workshop.
Copyright for Researchers in Academia
Presented by Kimberly Douglas, Director of the Caltech Library and Peggy Luh, Office of the General Counsel
In the scholarly community researchers are active authors and readers, producers and consumers. This seminar will discuss the rights and responsibilities of these roles as governed by U.S. Copyright Law. Issues of photocopying, fair use and scholarly publisher copyright agreements will be included.
Crystallographic Databases
Illustrative examples of searching for online crystal structure data are presented, including Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD), Mineralogy Database, ASM Alloy Phase Diagrams Center, Beilstein/Gmelin, SciFinder Scholar, and more.
DiscoveryGate (MDL)
A search/display interface to a multi-database collection that includes both Beilstein and Gmelin thru 2010.
It includes specialty databases (such as MDDR, Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry, NCI database) can be searched either individually or as a group.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Are you working on your thesis? Did you know that electronic copies of theses must be submitted? Are you aware of the formatting requirements for theses? You are encouraged to attend a brief overview of techniques useful in the production and publication of Caltech electronic theses. The session will include tips on formatting and submitting, and will touch on intellectual property considerations and access. This class is held on a walk-in basis.
EndNote For Beginners
Are you writing a research paper or ready to start your thesis? Want an easy way to store, manage and search for bibliographic references? EndNote for Beginners may be just the quick start session you need. Learn what EndNote is and the basics of how it can work for you to organize the articles you’re reading and create bibliographies within a word processing document. We’ll cover how to get your references into EndNote and what to do with them once they’re there.
IEEE Xplore
Covers the IEEE Xplore interface and will include insider tips on search strategy and how to take advantage of the latest value-added features. Faculty, students, librarians, and other technical researchers who have an interest in IEEE Xplore will want to attend. This is approximately a one hour session and will cover:
- How to save searches, set-up alerts and other personalization features
- New, easy-to-navigate design
- New search engine and how it works including advanced search options
- Improved search tools--refine and drill down into searches by multiple criteria
- How to search by author affiliation, including academic, government or corporate
- Improved browse options -- browse by subject, most popular or what's new
- Enhanced online support tools
Introduction to CaltechTHESIS for Option Coordinators
Do you work with graduate students who are working on their thesis? Did you know that electronic copies of theses must be submitted to CaltechTHESIS as part of the PhD graduation requirement? How often do you get questions about formatting, printing, or binding theses? Do you maintain web pages that include information about theses? This class is geared toward option coordinators or other Caltech staff who work with graduate students or their theses, but is open to anyone interested on campus. We will give you an overview of the CaltechTHESIS database, brief you on the steps the students need to take to deposit their thesis, and touch on intellectual property considerations and access. We will also give you tips on using the information in the database to populate your web page more effectively.
Lexis/Nexis Academic: A Universe of Social Science Information Resources
The academic version of Lexis/Nexis offers a wealth of social science resources with powerful statistical, congressional, legal, business and full text newspaper databases. The class will survey these features with a special focus on statistical and congressional resources. We'll show you how to:
- Find and create tables from government statistical reports.
- Retrieve Congressional records.
- Find federal laws and regulations.
- Find full text newspaper articles and radio & television transcripts.
Life Sciences Information Resources
Covers various bibliographic databases to consider for interdisciplinary information retrieval related to life sciences, as well as options for automatically updating yourself on new literature on your topic, use of subheadings in PubMed/Medline, and other database functions and features.
Making the Most of Your Presentation
Effective presentation skills are a major asset for engineers, scientists, and other professionals, all the more so in the highly competitive context of the 21st century. Professional presentations hold a persuasive power not found in printed documents or electronic exchanges. Join us for this seminar that presents a five-step methodology that leads to effective presentations, and will address your delivery, design, and visual presentation questions.
MathSciNet
Come learn the ins and outs of MathSciNet. Learn about the Mathematical Subject Classification, as well as other tricks of the trade, and why it’s the best way to search the mathematical literature – Yes! It’s even better than Google!
MathSciNet for EAS
The mathematical literature is not just for mathematicians. Discover MathSciNet
and see how the reviews written by professional mathematicians can help you
find the articles you truly need, that help you solve the some of the complex
mathematical problems in your research.
Online Resources for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Need quick access to electrical engineering and computer science information resources? Confused about distinctions between IEEE, ACM, NCSTRL and CaltechCSTR? Not sure how or when to access the ACM Digital Library? This speedy session is designed to help all members of the EE and CS communities improve their research skills and expand their access to information options.
Open Access
An overview of the many faces of Open Access. Topics covered will include disciplinary archives, dissertations, institutional archives, overlay journals, born-OA journals, converted OA-journals, Walker-Prosser OA-by-the article journals, and scanned heritage (EMANI, Gallica, ...). There will be a special update on the NIH policy.
Papers for Mac OS X
Do you have dozens of PDF files from your favorite scientific articles scattered on your hard drive? Do
you also try to desperately organize them by renaming and archiving them in folders? Do you run Mac
OS X? Then come learn about Papers, a personal PDF library.
Patents
Hannah Dvorak-Carbone (Office of Technology Transfer) will present a review of the patenting process. This will be followed by a quick review of patent searching, locating English language patent equivalents, legal status issues, and current awareness techniques by Dana Roth.
Physical Property Data Searching
Illustrative examples of searching for physical property data in both print and online resources, including: Landolt-Bornstein, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data, Thermodex, Beilstein/Gmelin and SciFinder Scholar.
Quick Overview of Information Resources
New on campus? Have you seen a listing of the 100+ databases available at Caltech? Updating your CV and need to find a citation? Looking for a proceedings paper? Want to find out if the library subscribes to an electronic journal? Let us show you the most effective ways to use library services and resources! This session is designed especially for graduate students, post-docs and research staff, but all are welcome. Please note: this class is held on a walk-in basis.
Quick Review of HUMSS Information Resources
Review the content and use of the Library's subscription databases most useful for Humanities and Social Sciences. The main emphasis will be on Web of Science, MLA and FirstSearch for locating and verifying journal article citations and books. We will talk about how to identify and access full text e-journals, including JSTOR. There will be extra time for questions and hands-on.
Reaxys
The new combined web interface to Beilstein, Gmelin and Elseviers Patent Chemistry database.
It runs on both MACs and PCs and replaced both the Crossfire client software and DiscoveryGate access at the end of 2010.
Beilstein is based on Beilsteins Handbuch der Organischen Chemie (1771-1980) and selected organic chemistry journal articles beginning in 1981.
Gmelin is based on Gmelins Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie (1771-1994) and selected inorganic/organometallic chemistry journal articles since 1995.
The Patent Chemistry Database is limited to English-language US(1976+), WO(1978+) & EP(1978+) patents, with "organic chemistry" IPC codes:
Reaxys content and format coverage (journal articles & patents) will be reviewed and search techniques for topics, chemical substances and reactions will be displayed.
We will also briefly compare and contrast Reaxys with other important databases: Combined Chemical Dictionary, SciFinder, Web of Science, and PubMed.
An extensive description of the Reaxys database is available: http://library.caltech.edu/learning/classhandouts/Reaxys2010.pdf
Reaxys/SciFinder
Reaxys provides a combined web interface to Beilstein, Gmelin and Elsevier’s Patent Chemistry database.
Reaxys content and format coverage (journal articles & patents) will be reviewed and search techniques for topics, chemical substances and reactions will be displayed.
An extensive description of the Reaxys database is available: http://library.caltech.edu/learning/classhandouts/Reaxys2010.pdf
SciFinder is a premier database for science and engineering. In addition to chemistry and chemical engineering, SciFinder coverage extends to the chemical aspects of biology, environmental engineering, geology, materials science, medicine, and physics.
SciFinder content and format coverage (journal articles, patents, theses, etc.) will be reviewed and search techniques for topics, chemical substances and reactions will be displayed.
We will also briefly compare and contrast Reaxys & SciFinder with other important databases: Combined Chemical Dictionary, Web of Science, and PubMed.
An extensive description of the SciFinder database is available: http://library.caltech.edu/learning/classhandouts/scifinderwebhandout.pdf
Researching Caltech Online
Looking for information about retired faculty, Caltech buildings, or Seeley G. Mudd? Interested in when a specific speaker gave a Watson Lecture? Wondering when Bill Nye the Science Guy was the Commencement Speaker? Want to know where to find information about current student activities, as well as what was going on in 1972? Come and familiarize yourself with CaltechCampusPubs (http://caltechcampuspubs.library.caltech.edu/) and other web sources for Caltech information available on campus.
SciFinder Web
SciFinder (Chemical Abstracts Service) is a premier database for science and engineering.
In addition to chemistry and chemical engineering, SciFinder coverage extends to the chemical aspects of biology, environmental engineering, geology, materials science, medicine, and physics.
SciFinder runs on both MACs and PCs and will replace the SciFinder Scholar client software in June 2011.
SciFinder content and format coverage (journal articles, patents, theses, etc.) will be reviewed and search techniques for topics, chemical substances and reactions will be displayed.
We will also briefly compare and contrast SFS with other important databases: Combined Chemical Dictionary, Reaxys (Beilstein/Gmelin), Web of Science, and PubMed.
An extensive description of the SciFinder (web) database is available: http://library.caltech.edu/learning/classhandouts/scifinderwebhandout.pdf
Web of Knowledge/Web of Science
This session will provide a wide variety of strategies for searching Web of Science including topic, & author searching, retrieving citing articles, linking to full-text, exporting records directly into EndNote or the new Web EndNote, and creating search and citation alerts.
You and Your Thesis
Are you working on your thesis? Did you know that electronic copies of theses must be submitted? Are you aware of the formatting requirements for theses? You are encouraged to attend a brief overview of techniques useful in the production and publication of Caltech electronic theses. The session will include tips on formatting and submitting, and will touch on intellectual property considerations and access.
All classes will be held in the Sherman Fairchild Library Multimedia Conference Room, third floor, Room 328.
For more information send email to webclass AT library.caltech.edu.
