Scientific Information and Communication

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Scientific Information and Communication

• Scott Warren
• Librarian for the
• Physical and Mathematical Sciences

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Scientific information

• 1) How does science get communicated?
• 2) How do I find this stuff?
• 3) Is all/any of it free?
• 4) Who manages, sells, and buys these resources?
• 3 and 4 determine 2 and influence 1

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Why scientists need information

• Scientists must know what is happening in their
  field(s)
• For research funding (Money!!)
• For professional reputation

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Scientific Discourse

• Writing defines the ways of thinking of a
  discipline
• Each field has a discourse found in the
  professional literature
• Thinking - Doing - Writing - Reading

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Types of Information (how science is communicated)

• Citations
• Articles
• Preprints
• Colloquia, Conferences
• Patents
• Standards
• Raw data sets (genomics, physics, astronomy)
• Technical reports
• Government documents
• Web sites

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Different Tools

• Catalogs Free
• Databases Restricted
• Aggregators Restricted
• Ejournals Restricted
• Search Engines Free
• Preprint Servers Free
• Specialized tools/databases Restricted
• Science Citation Index citation maps Restricted

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Organization of Information

• What tools do you use? When?
• Why are some resources free? Which are some
  restricted?
• Why dont search engines work for finding
  articles?
• Why arent all journals digitized and online?
• Why must I use databases and the library catalog?

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Science Publishing

• Science publishing is a HUGE business
• Journals can cost in thousands of dollars
• Databases tens of thousands of dollars
• Only libraries can afford to buy these
• No one person or even department can own all the
  books and journals they need
• Publishers negotiate with Librarians over costs
• Electronic copies are bought too

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Publishers

• Elsevier
• Kluwer
• Springer-Verlag
• Institute of Physics
• BIOSIS
• American Chemical Society

Scientists work for these organizations too.
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Groups involved in science information

• Scientists
• Take data, write articles, submit to editors at
  journals
• Publishers
• Package articles into journals, Sell journals to
  libraries
• Database Companies
• Create indexes abstracts of journal literature,
  Sell databases to libraries
• Librarians
• Buy, redistribute information in journals
  databases to campus

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Journals and scholarly books
Research libraries
Web sites and books
Different audiences for science communication
effect how that communication takes place.
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Science Communication can be complicated and flow
in many directions at once.
Professional information
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What the Library does

• Not just book repository
• The only place you can get research journals
• Both electronic and in print
• Buys electronic content
• Journals, books, citation databases
• Teaches people how to use these resources

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Facts about the Library

• Ranked 32nd among all research libraries
• About 18th among public universities
• Focuses on new technologies and services
• Won Library of the Future award in 2003
• Fantastic science collection
• Millions of dollars spent each year for new books
  and journals and databases
• We develop new tools to access our collections

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Sciences and Math are on the 6, 7, and 8th floors
of the library.
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Browsing

• Q Sciences
• R Medicine
• S Agriculture
• T Technology/Engineering

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Science Call Numbers

• QA Mathematics
• QA 273-280 Statistics
• QB Astronomy
• QC Physics
• QC 850-999 Atmospheric Sciences
• QD Chemistry
• QE Earth Sciences

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Physics Call Numbers
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Searching

• What do I want to find?
• Books?
• Articles?
• Which tool do I use to find each?

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Science relies on articles

• Represent current research
• Published in journals
• Bought in groups by Libraries
• Indexed in Databases
• Bought by Libraries
• You must use these to locate articles by subject

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Catalog

• Used to show local NCSU materials
• What books we own
• Call numbers where is it physically located?
• What journals we subscribe to
• Print version --- Call numbers
• Electronic version --- link provided
• Years we have
• Created by the NCSU librarians
• http//catalog.lib.ncsu.edu

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Databases

• Use to find
• abstracts of journal articles in a discipline
• Search by subject or author
• Do NOT contain fulltext articles
• Are commercial products that are bought
• 210 total
• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/eresources/dbfinder.html

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One journal in one year. Imagine how much is
printed in all journals over decades!
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Citation from database look for the
Findtext/NCSU button
Fulltext article is available from ejournal the
library subscribes to.
Menu lets you know if online version of article
is available.
Databases can connect to ejournals
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Use for books and journals
Use for journal articles
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Contact Information

• Scott Warren
• scott_warren_at_ncsu.edu
• 513-0303
• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/risd/staff/warren/