August/September 2005 (Vol. XII, No. 6)
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Library hosts NCBI Field Guide course
The UT Southwestern Library will host instructors from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on Sept. 27-28 to discuss the "Field Guide to GenBank and Other NCBI Molecular Biology Resources," a course covering GenBank and related databases, the effective use of the Entrez databases and search service, the BLAST similarity search engine, genome data, and related resources.
The course is divided into a lecture and a two-hour, hands-on workshop. The lecture will be held Sept. 27 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Room D1.602; attendance at the lecture is strongly recommended before going to the hands-on session.
Several hands-on workshops have been scheduled. Sessions will be held at the following times:
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Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 1 – 3 p.m.
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Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.
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Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 1 – 3 p.m.
The course is intended for basic sciences faculty, staff and students, but others are welcome. For more information or to register, either call 214-648-5073 or click on the "NCBI Field Guide course" link on the library’s class registration Intranet page at http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/education/registration.cfm.
Note: Early registration is suggested as previous sessions have filled up quickly.
Client Services debuts video training with "Self-Service Password Resetting"
Faced with an ever-increasing volume of calls at the Information Resources (IR) Call Center from clients who have forgotten their passwords or gotten locked out of the system, IR’s Client Services division has launched a major initiative to make it more convenient and appealing for clients to reset their own passwords. The initiative is supported by the Development and Operations division.
"It takes more than two full-time analysts to handle the password resetting calls," said Eileen Sandy, Client Services director, "so an investment of money and effort is clearly justified to address this situation."
The centerpiece of the initiative is a Web-based system that allows users to reset their own passwords, rather than contacting the IR Call Center for help. Users must answer three "secret questions," which they have selected and answered previously, for the reset to take place.
"The help desk and security groups will use this system in place of the Personal Codes Form, previously required of all new employees," said Ron Kelley, Information Security Officer for UT Southwestern, "so all employees should set up their secret questions and answers as soon as possible."
"This has to happen quickly," said Sandy, "so we asked Medical Television to produce a video. It was our first venture into this kind of training, and we’re really excited about the results. We think watching this short video will make it easy and non-intimidating for users to set up their secret questions, and to use self-service later, if the need should arise."
To see the video, use the link on the IR home page at http://UTSouthwestern.edu/ir. Versions are available in both Windows Media and QuickTime and in both 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions.
Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) on Ovid
The Library has purchased access to a measurement instruments database through Ovid for UT Southwestern faculty, staff, students, residents and fellows — the Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) database.
HAPI provides ready access to information on measurement instruments in the health sciences, psychosocial sciences and organizational behavior fields. The types of instruments that are included are questionnaires, interview schedules, checklists, index measures, coding schemes/manuals, rating scales, projective techniques, vignettes/scenarios, and other tests.
HAPI also assists researchers, practitioners, educators, administrators, and evaluators — including students — to identify measures needed for research studies, grant proposals, client/patient assessment, class papers/projects, theses/dissertations, and program evaluation.
For assistance using HAPI or any Ovid database, complete the Ask a Reference Question form at http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/reference/referenceRequest.cfm.
Site licenses announced for EndNote, SigmaPlot, GraphPad
Through recent site license purchases, three professional software programs — EndNote, SigmaPlot and GraphPad Prism — are now available at no charge to UT Southwestern students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty and staff.
The licenses were purchased by the Southwestern Graduate School Student Computing Committee to enhance the training environment of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The purchase of an institutional site license was the most cost-effective approach to delivering this benefit.
EndNote
Millions of researchers, scholarly writers, students, and librarians use Thomson ResearchSoft's EndNote (http://www.EndNote.com) to:
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Download searches from online bibliographic databases automatically
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Organize their references and images
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Create bibliographies and figure lists instantly
Instead of spending hours typing bibliographies or using index cards to organize their references, they do it the easy way — by using EndNote!
SigmaPlot
More than 100,000 researchers worldwide use SigmaPlot (http://www.sigmaplot.com), produced by SYSTAT Software, to:
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Create high-quality graphs quickly and easily
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Customize every detail of created charts and graphs
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Publish charts and graphs anywhere, including the Internet
SigmaPlot seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office products, such as Microsoft Excel (for data access) and Microsoft PowerPoint (for presentation). More than 80 two- and three-dimensional technical graph types are available.
The software is available for the Windows NT/2000/XP and Windows 95/98/ME operating systems only; there is no Macintosh version available.
GraphPad Prism
GraphPad Prism combines basic biostatics, curve fitting and scientific graphing in one comprehensive program. The software, produced by GraphPad Software and designed for laboratory and clinical researchers, allows users to:
The software is available for Windows 98/ME/2000/NT4/XP and Macintosh OSX 10.1 or higher operating systems. (The Macintosh version will also run on machines running OS 8.6 through OS 9.4; the software will not operate under the original OSX 10.0.)
How can I get the software?
EndNote and SigmaPlot can be installed through MedNet or downloaded from the Information Resources (IR) Web site at http://UTSouthwestern.edu/ir. One copy may be downloaded on either a laptop or home computer at no charge. Clients requiring a CD should call the IR Call Center to request a CD; individual CDs are $8 each.
To obtain GraphPad Prism, clients must first register for the software at http://graphpad.com/paasl/index.cfm?sitecode=UTSWMED. Once registration is complete, download instructions will be sent to the email address you provide.
Links to all of these products are available on the IR home page at http://UTSouthwestern.edu/ir. Just click on "Software" in the left margin, and then click on "Downloads" at the bottom right.
The Library offers a monthly EndNote Basics class and a phone number for questions or problems. To register for classes, go to the Library's "Class Registration" page at http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/education/registration.cfm. For general assistance or more advanced instruction, call Herldine Radley at 214-648-2589.
Access to MD Consult changes
Access to the popular full-text resource MD Consult (http://home.mdconsult.com) has changed from requiring user names and passwords at all times to using Internet Protocol (IP) authentication. What does this mean? Basically, on-campus use no longer requires a user name or password.
Look to MD Consult as a provider of electronic information resources that meets the clinical content needs of physicians and other health care professionals. A new offering called "FIRSTConsult" provides access to an evidence-based, primary-care clinical information system.
Note: Off-campus access will require either Virtual Private Networking (VPN) software or a personal user name and password. More information about VPN is available at http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/cda/dept28610/files/73794.html.
In response to user demand, the Library also has added more seats to our MD Consult subscription so frustrating turn-aways should be lessened.
To connect to MD Consult, click on the link in the blue bar at the top of the Library’s Intranet home page at http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library.
IR Call Center opens earlier, closes later
The Information Resources (IR) Call Center has recently extended its hours of operation in response to increasing needs for computer and other support, particularly in the hospitals and clinics.
The IR Call Center's business hours are now Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Problems may be reported by calling 214-648-7600 and selecting one of the listed options. Lower-priority issues may also be emailed to IRCALLCENTER@UTSouthwestern.edu.
For more information about the IR Call Center, go to the IR home page at http://UTSouthwestern/ir and click on "IR Call Center."
Library offers new seminar for postdoctoral researchers
The UT Southwestern Library has developed a new seminar to help postdoctoral researchers learn information skills that will be indispensable for their success as researchers. Qualified registrants of the Information Mastery for Postdoctoral Researchers seminar series will earn three credit hours if they complete the seminar's 17 sessions.
Topics covered by the seminar include:
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Searching information resources: PubMed, NCBI (genomic databases) and others
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Learning unique approaches to text-mining: eTBLAST and more
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Finding full-text information in electronic journals and other sources
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Creating alerts
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Finding grants using Community of Science
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Using EndNote to build bibliographies easily and footnote papers automatically
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Creating PowerPoint and poster presentations as well as Web pages
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Learning the nuts and bolts of scholarly publishing and much, much more!
This free, for-credit class starts on Aug. 16. To view the complete class schedule or to find out more information, go to the UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences’ "Information for Current Postdoctoral Fellows" page at http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/home/educ/gspostdocfellows/index.html or send an email to SGSPostdocOffice@utsouthwestern.edu.
