Wednesday 9 December 2009

Histoire naturelle: générale et particulière, servant de suite á l’histoire des animaux quadrupèdes. Quadrupèdes, Tome Huitième. Par feu M. le Comte de Buffon. Paris: De l’Imprimerie Royale; 1789. Balfour Library class mark: HBD (2) 14

The book is open at: Plate XXXIII, p. 118, “Le grand mongous”. This is a beautiful engraving, apparently of a lemur. The amount of detail in the animal’s fur and limbs is quite impressive. The illustration sits alongside Buffon’s description of the animal. Buffon’s biographer Jacques Roger has observed that his style of writing makes the animals he describes come alive before the reader’s inner eye.

Georges Louis Buffon, 1707–1788, was a French natural philosopher, most famous for his work Histoire naturelle. Originally a mathematician, Buffon gained admission to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1734. By 1739 his writings on organic nature had won him sufficient renown to secure his appointment as keeper of the Jardin du Roi in Paris, a prestigious establishment of museums, gardens and menageries.

Buffon’s interests then turned to geology, chemistry and natural history, and he published his famous work Histoire naturelle. This was a huge project; it was published in fifteen quarto volumes which appeared at intervals over an eighteen-year period from 1749 to 1767. Seven supplementary volumes followed, the last of which did not appear until after Buffon’s death.

Linnaeus had selected one defining characteristic as being of primary significance and thus created a hierarchical classification. Buffon however grouped animals into classes and genera which shared particular characteristics of morphology, anatomy, or behaviour. He described a loose network of similarities and relationships between different classes, genera and species, with some species bridging the gap between classes (e.g. bats bridge the gap between quadrupeds and birds, apes bridge the gap between quadrupeds and man). His system was homocentric and he structured the Histoire naturelle in order to reflect man’s relationship with animals, dealing first of all with domestic animals.

Sources:

Browne, Janet (March 1999) Buffon, Georges Louis. In: Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester http://www.els.net/ [doi:10.1038/npg.els.0002378]

King’s College London libraries, Special Collections Online Exhibition: From the four corners of the earth. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/spec/exhib/allnature/fcorners.html

WOKLER, ROBERT (1998). Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved October 14, 2005, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/DB010SECT1

See also the full text of the complete works of Buffon on the Buffon et l'histoire naturelle : l'édition en ligne / Histoire Naturelle by Buffon : the web edition website at http://www.buffon.cnrs.fr/

Friday 27 November 2009

CUP 2010 Neuroscience and Primatology / Animal Behaviour catalogues out now

Follow these links to view the new and forthcoming titles available from Cambridge University Press:

Neuroscience: http://issuu.com/cambridge.org.uk/docs/neuroscience2010

Primatology / Animal Behaviour: http://issuu.com/cambridge.org.uk/docs/primatology2010

Remember that the Balfour Library can purchase books that you recommend. We do have an annual allocation from CUP, usually of around £525, so we can get many for free! Just provide Clair with all the bibliographic and price details, stating how the book(s) would be of benefit to you and / or your colleagues.

University students and staff are also entitled to a discount of 20% on book purchases at the Trinity Street shop upon production of your University Card.

Wednesday 25 November 2009

End of term information and Christmas period closing dates

End of term information

The last Saturday morning that the Balfour Library will be open before the Christmas Vacation starts is Saturday 28th November. Saturday morning opening will begin again on the first Saturday of the Lent Term 2009, i.e. Saturday 16th January 2010.

Michaelmas Term 2009 ends on Friday 4th December. All books on loan from the Balfour Library must be returned by this date. Books may be renewed for further periods, but please remember that they cannot be taken away from Cambridge. This is because all of our books are subject to recall by other readers and we would need to be able to get them back easily if another reader requested them.

During the Christmas Vacation the loan period for Overnight Loan books changes to two weeks, but books still cannot be taken away from Cambridge.

Please see http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/library/booksborrow.html for more information on how to borrow, return and renew books on loan from the Balfour Library.

How to access online resources when you are away from Cambridge (and you are still a valid member of the University)

It is strongly recommended that you check the University Library's ejournals@cambridge page at http://sfx7.exlibrisgroup.com/cambridge/az to see whether you will actually be able to access particular online journals away from the University network (cam.ac.uk domain) BEFORE you leave Cambridge (or see http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/ for access to particular databases). See the 'Access Route' link next to the journal or database title to do this. Some online journals are not accessible outside of the University network so you may wish to download or print off articles from these before you leave Cambridge.

If you do not currently have a Raven password and think you may need one to access the Web of Knowledge or Scopus (to search scientific literature) or online journals and databases when you are away from Cambridge, you should apply for one following the instructions given on the University Computing Service 'How do I get a Raven password?' website at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/docs/faq/n5.html This page will also help you if you have lost your Raven password.

Finally, if you are having trouble accessing eresources from off-campus using your Raven password please see the guidance provided on the Central Science Library's "Raven FAQs" website at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/CSL/ravenqanda.htm

Christmas period closing dates

The Balfour Library will be closed from Friday 25th December 2009 and will re-open on Monday 4th January 2010.

Thank you for your cooperation.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes,

Clair & Jane

Tuesday 24 November 2009

New books and theses aquisitions

New books purchased by the Balfour Library:

Atmosphere, weather and climate, 9th ed., by Roger G. Barry and Richard J. Chorley. Abingdon: Routledge; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: GGI (23i1-2) (Overnight Loan shelves).

Biological oceanography, by Charles B. Miller. Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishing; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: GHN (175i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves).

Design for a life: how behaviour develops, by Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin. London: Vintage; 1988. Balfour Library shelfmark: GFU (253vii-viii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Ecology of butterflies in Europe, edited by Josef Settele ... [et al.]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: QN.8 (2)

Mathematics for biological scientists, by Mike Aitken, Bill Broadhurst, and Steve Hladky. New York, NY: Garland Science; 2010. Balfour Library shelfmark: EBA (33i-iv) (3 copies on the Overnight Loan shelves and one on the Open Shelves)

Perspectives on animal behavior, 3rd ed., by Judith Goodenough, Betty McGuire, Elizabeth Jakob. [Hoboken, N.J.]: John Wiley & Sons; 2010. Balfour Library shelfmark: qGFU (12c) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Sex wars: genes, bacteria, and biased sex ratios, by Michael E. Majerus. Woodstock: Princeton University Press; 2003. Balfour Library shelfmark: EO (322i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

New theses:

The genetic mechanisms of phenotypic diversity in Heliconius butterflies: to code, regulate, or splice?, by Grace C. Wu. Cambridge; 2009. (M.Phil.) Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (464) (Library Office)

The influence of inbreeding and parasites on sexual behaviour in birds
, by Daniel James Morrish. Cambridge; 2009. (Ph.D.) Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (465) (Library Office)

Patterns of biological and cultural diversity and their consequences for conservation
, by Heidi Eager. Cambridge; 2009. (M.Phil.) Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (463) (Library Office)

Cambridge Libraries web tools for igoogle, Facebook and CamTools

These web tools are part of the Library Toolbox, developed by the University Library, which enables you to access library information from wherever you work best - ensuring you can get key information without ever having to access the library web site.

Do you want to:
  • See and renew your books on loan, or search Newton without accessing the catalogue? Try their iGoogle gadget - view and renew books on loan, view and cancel outstanding requests and access any Newton catalogue from your iGoogle homepage with this widget: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/igoogle.html. A Raven username or library card barcode is required.
  • There is also a Facebook application for this tool at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/facebook.html
Do you want to:
  • Access your library account in CamTools? Log in to CamTools at https://camtools.cam.ac.uk/, then click on (Customise) next to "My Startpage" and select Cambridge Libraries Widget from the list

Thursday 19 November 2009

New acquisitions

New books purchased by the Balfour Library:

Animal behavior: an evolutionary approach, 9th ed., by John Alcock. Sunderland, MA.: Sinauer Associates, Inc.; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (102i1-2) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Baboon metaphysics: the evolution of a social mind, by Dorothy L. Cheney and robert M. Seyforth. Chicago, IL.: The University of Chicago Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: YX.7 (1)

The better to eat you with: fear in the animal world, by Joel Berger. Chicago, IL.: The University of Chicago Press; 2008. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (336)

Biological anthropology: the natural history of humankind, 2nd ed., by Craig Stanford, John S. Allen and Susan C. Anton. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Pearson Education International, Inc.; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: qYYV (3b) (Overnight Loan shelves)

A biologist's guide to mathematical modeling in ecology and evolution, by Sarah P. Otto and Troy Day. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: EBA (32)

Biology of plants, 7th ed., by Peter H. Raven, Ray F. evert and Susan E. Eichhorn. New York, NY.: W. H. Freeman and Company Publishers; 2005. Balfour Library shelf mark: qFA (5g) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Birds in counties: an ornithological bibliography for the counties of England, Wales & Scotland, the Isle of Man & the Channel Islands. Second supplement: errata, corrigenda et addenda and a new section on Ireland, by David K. Ballance. Minehead: Published by the author; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: K.2 (18iii)

Collins buttefly guide, by Tom Tolman, illustrated by Richard Lewington. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: QNB (39)

The dictionary of cell and molecular biology, 4th ed., by J. M. Lackie. Burlington, MA.: Academic Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: EC (304d)

The emerald planet: how plants changed Earth's history, by David Beerling. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: FA (55) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Encyclopedia of insects, 2nd ed., editors Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Carde. Burlington, MA.: Academic Press; 2009.Balfour Library shelf mark: Q (86b)

The essential difference, by Simon Baron-Cohen. London: Penguin Books; 2003. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFE (59i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Evolution: the first four billion years
, edited by Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis, with a foreword by Edward O. Wilson. Cambridge, MA.: the Balknap Press of Harvard University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: EO (320)

The evolution of animal communication: reliability and deception insignaling systems, by William A. Searcy and Stephen Nowicki. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press; 2005. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (334i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

The evolution of plants, by K. J. Willis and J. C. McElwain. New York, NY.: Oxford University Press; 2002. Balfour Library shelf mark: FA (56) (Overnight Loan shelves)

The evolutionary biology of plants
, by Karl J. Niklas. Chicago, IL.: The University of Chicago Press; 1997. Balfour Library shelf mark: FA (54) (Overnight Loan shelves)

A field guide to the birds of eastern Africa, by Ber van Perlo. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: KZ.6 (25)

A field guide to the birds of Mexico, by Ber van Perlo. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: KZ.72 (17)

A field guide to the birds of South America, by Jorge R. Rodriguez Mata, Franciso Erize and Maurice Rumboll. Illustrations by Jorge R. Rodriguez Mata. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2006. Balfour Library shelf mark: KZ.8 (30)

A field guide to the birds of southern Africa, by Ber van Perlo. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: KZ.6 (24)

A field guide to the birds of the Palearctic: passerines.
Text and illustrations by Norman Arlott. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: K (229)

A field guide to the birds of the Palearctic: non-passerines. Text and illustrations by Norman Arlott. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: K (228)

Field guide to the dragonflies and damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland, rev. ed., general editor Steve Brooks, illustrated by Richard Lewington. Gillingham, Dorset: British Wildlife Publishing; 1997. Balfour Library shelf mark: QC (18)

Field guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland, by Paul Waring and Martin Townsend. Illustrated by Richard Lewington. Gillingham, Dorset: British Wildlife Publishing; 2003. Balfour Library shelf mark: QNA (23)

A field guide to the reptiles and amphibians of Britain and Europe, 2nd ed., by E. Nicholas Arnold, illustrated by Denys W. Ovendon. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 2002. Balfour Library shelf mark: WZ.4 (2b)

Gorilla society: conflict, compromise, and cooperation between the sexes, by Alexander H. Harcourt and Kelly J. Stewart. Chicago, IL.; The University of Chicago Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: YYP.7 (1ii)

Handbook of the mammals of the world. Volume 1: Carnivores. Chief editors Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: qY (19)

Introduction to ecological biochemistry, 4th ed., by J. B. Harborne. London: Elsevier Academic Press; 1993. Balfour Library shelf mark: GG (166d) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Introduction to physical anthropology, 11th ed., by Robert Jurmain, LynnKilgore, Wenda Trevathan, with Russell L. Ciochon. Belmont, CA.: Thomson Wadsworth; 2008. Balfour Library shelf mark: qYYV (4k) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Invertebrate vision, edited by Eric Warrant and Dan-Eric Nilsson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2006. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFS (40ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Life in the undergrowth, by David Attenborough. London: BBC Books; 2005. Balfour Library shelf mark: L (44i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Lizards in an evolutionary tree: ecology and adaptive radiation of anoles, by Jonathan B. Losos. Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: WQ (8)

Macachiavellian intelligence: how rhesus macaques and humans have conquered the world, by Dario Maestripieri. Chicago, IL.; University of Chicago; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: YXV.7 (3)

The maladapted mind: classic readings in evolutionary psychopathology, edited by Simon Baron-Cohen. Hove: Psychology Press; 1997. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (332i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Mammals of Britain and Europe, by David MacDonald and Priscilla Barrett. London: Harpercollins Publishers; 1993. Balfour Library shelf mark: YZ.4 (8)

Manipulative monkeys: the capuchins of Lomas Barbudal, by Susan Perry with Joseph H. Manson. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; 2008. Balfour Library shelf mark: YXS.7 (1)

Mismatch: why our world no longer fits our bodies, by Peter Gluckman and Mark Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2006. Balfour Library shelf mark: GG (288i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

The mismeasure of man, by Stephen Jay Gould. Revised and expanded. New York, NY.: W. W. Norton & Co.; 1981. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (333i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Mountain gorillas: biology, conservation, and coexistence, by Gene Eckhart and Annete Lanjouw. Baltimore, MD.; The John Hopkins University Press; 2008. Balfour Library shelf mark: YYP (4)

Neural networks and animal behavior, by Magnus Enquist and Stefano Ghirlanda. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press; 2005. Balfour Library shelf mark: GFU (335i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Neuroscience of birdsong, edited by H. Philip Zeigler and Peter Marler. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2008. Balfour Library shelf mark: K.7 (41i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Orangutans: geographic variation in behavioral ecology and conservation, edited by Serge A. Wich ... [et al.]. New York, NY.: Oxford University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: YY (6)

Pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, edited by Mark P. Mattson. Tatawa, NJ.: Humana Press; 2001. Balfour Library shelf mark: GF (230) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Perspectives in animal phylogeny and evolution, by Alessandro Minelli. New York, NY.: Oxford University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: EO (321)

Plant life, by Roland Ennos and Elizabeth Sheffield. Oxford: Blackwell Science; 2000. Balfour Library shelf mark: FA (57) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Primate behavioral ecology, 3rd ed., by Karen B. Strier. Boston, MA: Pearson and Allyn and Bacon; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: YW.7 (33ci-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Principles of animal behavior, 2nd ed., by Lee Alan Dugatkin. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: qGFU (11bi-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Principles of biochemistry, 3rd ed., by Donald Voet, Judith G. Voet and Charlotte W. Pratt. [?]: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2008. Balfour Library shelf mark: qEH (8ci-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Reproductive skew in vertebrates: proximate and ultimate causes, edited by Reinmar Hager and Clara B. Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: UU.5 (7)

Sexual coercion in primates and humans: an evolutionary perspective on male agression against females, edited by Martin N. Muller and Richard W. Wrangham. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: Y.7 (9)

Spiders of Britain and northern Europe, by Michael J. Roberts. Ilustrated by the author. London: HarperCollins Publishers; 1996. Balfour Library shelf mark: R (7ii)

Statistical and data handling skills in biology, 2nd. ed., by Roland Ennos. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: EBB (88b)

Sustainable energy - without the hot air, by David J. C. Mackay. Cambridge: UIT; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: GGW (213i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

The unnatural history of the sea: the past and future of humanity and fishing, by Callum Roberts. London: Gaia; 2007. Balfour Library shelf mark: VZ (42i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Why evolution is true, by Jerry A. Coyne. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: EO (319i-ii) (Overnight Loan shelves)

Theses:

Ant community structure in a rain forest microcosm, by Tom Fayle. Cambridge; 2009. Balfour Library shelf mark: Thesis (462)

Friday 13 November 2009

Library images on the digital signage screen at Zoology Reception

Several beautiful images, taken from books in our special collections, can now be viewed on the digital signage screen at Zoology Reception.

They were all photographed for and reproduced in The wisdom of birds: an illustrated history of ornithology, by Tim R. Birkhead. London: Bloomsbury; 2008. ISBN 9780747592563. Hardback. £25. A copy can be found at Balfour Library shelfmark: K (227).

It was The Guardian's 'Book of the week' on Saturday October 18th 2008. You can read their review at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/18/tim-birkhead-ornithology and see http://wisdomofbirds.co.uk/ or http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/The_Wisdom_of_Birds/9780747592563 for more details.

Wednesday 11 November 2009

Your chance to win £500 - The Rose Book-Collecting Prize

Attention student book-collectors!

The Rose Book-Collecting Prize

Your chance to win £500

You can enter any type of collection provided it is solely owned by you and has been collected by you. The books do not have to be especially valuable - a collection of paperbacks, put together with imagination, is equally eligible. The contest is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Cambridge.

The closing date for entries is the first day of Lent Full Term:

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Full details of how to enter are given on the University Library website at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/bookprize.html

Book-Collecting Workshop, Friday 20 November, 2:30, Morison Room, University Library

This year there will also be a very informal workshop on book-collecting in the Michaelmas Term. So if you're thinking of entering for the Rose Book-Collecting Prize, or are just interested to learn more, do come along to explore what makes a collection, how to get started, what to look for when you buy a book etc. The workshop will be led by some of the adjudicators of the Prize, as well as last year's winner.

All welcome!

For further information, please contact Jill Whitelock (jw330@cam.ac.uk; 01223 765691).

Monday 9 November 2009

Reminder: Access to electronic resources off-campus with a Raven password, important changes from 1 August 2009

Access to subscription electronic resources, including ejournals, ebooks and online databases, is available off-campus to current staff and students of the university and is controlled by Raven ID and password.

Your Raven ID and password may be used off campus wherever you are prompted to log in using one of the following links:

  • Shibboleth login
  • Login via your home institution
  • Institution login
  • (Sometimes you actually have to click on "Athens login" and then select your home institution to eventually reach the Raven login page)

From 1 August 2009 it will not be accepted in place of an Athens password.

A small number of services do not support direct Raven logins but are routed through a secure proxy server which prompts users for their Raven IDs and passwords. The simplest access route to an ejournal or other electronic resource is through ejournals@cambridge and eresources@cambridge, which have up-to-date links.

Information about Raven, including how to obtain a Raven password, is available on the Computing Service web site.

A list of Frequently Asked Questions are also available; other questions and requests for support on Raven should be addressed to the University Library Raven helpdesk at lib-raven@lists.cam.ac.uk.

Handbook of the Mammals of the World - new library subscription

The Balfour Library has set up a standing order for all 8 volumes of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World, as they are published. We recently received volume one, Carnivores, and the volumes will be shelved on the Quarto (large size) shelves at the shelfmark qY (19-). The publication schedule is as follows:

Volume 1
: Carnivores
Volume 2: Hoofed Mammals
Volume 3: Primates
Volume 4: Sea Mammals
Volume 5:
Marsupials
Volume 6: Rodents
Volume 7: Insectivores
Volume 8: Bats

According to the publisher, Lynx Edicions, the "series will cover every species of mammal on Earth with the combination of scientific rigour and readability for which Lynx Edicions has become well known. This series of eight volumes will describe every currently recognized mammal species, along with an overview of each mammalian family. It will provide up-to-date information on the systematic relationships, natural history, ecology, and current conservation status for all mammals. Every species will be illustrated and each chapter will also include many color photographs. HMW will provide comprehensive worldwide coverage by involving an international group of expert authors."

For more information on HMW see the publisher website at http://www.lynxeds.com/catalog/hmw

HMW is a companion work to the Handbook of the Birds of the World, to which the Balfour Library also subscribes. It is shelved at qK (47-). See the publisher website for more information at http://www.lynxeds.com/catalog/hbw

Friday 16 October 2009

Mendeley - organize, share and discover research papers

What is Mendeley?

Mendeley is a free, award-winning, desktop and web solution designed for managing and sharing research papers, discovering research data and collaborating online.

It combines Mendeley Desktop, a PDF and reference management application (available for Windows, Mac and Linux) with Mendeley Web, an online research paper management tool and social network for researchers.

Feature highlights
  • Create your personal bibliographic database using Mendeley's automatic extraction of document details (author, title, journal, keywords, etc.) and cited references from PDFs, as well as automatic retrieval of additional information from CrossRef, PubMed, ArXiv, etc.
  • Read, full-text search, annotate, and highlight your PDF research papers in Mendeley's integrated PDF viewer.
  • Synchronize your bibliographic database across multiple machines, share it with colleagues, manage it online, or embed bibliographies on blogs and websites.
  • Quickly cite your papers in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer and create bibliographies with a single click.
  • Capture citations from websites using Mendeley's crossbrowser Web Importer or via synchronization with CiteULike.
Mendeley is for:
  • Researchers
  • Scholars and educators
  • Graduate and undergraduate students
  • Information management professionals
  • Librarians
I went to a demo of this recently and was quite impressed. It's a young start-up business, founded by three Germans, but Cambridge University is now the third largest user of Mendeley in the world (after two large and prestigious US universities). They are willing to give demonstrations to researchers, just contact them. They also invite input on how to improve Mendeley. They have several developments in the pipeline, especially for the social networking aspect of the software.

To find out more and to register with Mendeley for free visit http://www.mendeley.com/

Wednesday 14 October 2009

I'm an e-book!

Balfour Library printed books that are also available as e-books now have yellow fluorescent stickers on their front cover saying “I’m an e-book!”. Hopefully this will make you more aware of e-book availability, and encourage you to use them. Click on the photo to see the new stickers.

The Balfour Library contributes funds to e-books@cambridge every year and more and more of the books on students' reading lists are being purchased on a monthly basis.

The ebooks@cambridge collections comprise hundreds of the books most used by Cambridge students and they are available online 24/7 through Newton, the online library catalogue, at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/newton/


There may be many more e-books relevant to you that we don’t have in printed format so for a full list of ALL the e-books available see http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/ebooks@cambridge/09_05%20All%20titles%20available.pdf and the printouts on the top of the Overnight Loan shelves in the library.


Tuesday 13 October 2009

New books purchased by the Balfour Library

New books added to the Overnight Loan shelves:

Bad science, by Ben Goldacre. London: Fourth Estate; 2008. Balfour Library shelfmark: D.7 (39i-iii)

Behavioral genetics, 5th ed., by Robert Plomin ... [et al.]. New York: Worth Publishers; 2008. Balfour Library shelfmark: ENY (44ei)

Biochemistry and molecular biology, 4th ed., by William H. Elliott and Daphne C. Elliott. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: EH (58d)

Brain damage, brain repair, by James W. Fawcett, Anne E. Rosser and Stephen B. Dunnett. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2001. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (228)

The cell: a molecular approach, 5th ed., by Geoffrey M. Cooper, Robert E. Hausman. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: qEC (23e)

The developing brain, by Michael Brown, Roger Keynes. Andrew Lumsden. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2005. Balfour Library shelfmark: GFE (58)

Ecological developmental biology: integrating epigenetics, medicine, and evolution, by Scott F. Gilbert and David Epel. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: EEB (74i-ii)

Evolution: what the fossils say and why it matters, by Donald R. Prothero. New York: Columbia University Press; 2007. Balfour Library shelfmark: GJ (38i-ii)

From neuroscience to neurology: neuroscience, molecular medicine, and the therapeutic transformation of neurology, edited by Stephen Waxman. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press; 2005. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (224)

How humans evolved, 5th ed., by Robert Boyd. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark : EO (278ei-ii)

Injured brains of medical minds: views from within, compiled and edited by Narinder Kapur. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1997. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (227)

Molecular biology, 3rd ed., by Phil Turner. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis Group; 2005. Balfour Library shelfmark: EM (82ci-ii)

The new brain sciences: perils and prospects, edited by Dai Rees and Steven Rose. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2004. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (226i-ii)

Only a theory: evolution and the battle for America's soul, by Kenenth R. Miller. New York: Penguin Books; 2008. Balfour Library shelfmark: EO (318i-ii)

Principles of population genetics, 4th ed., by Daniel L. Hartl and Andrew G. Clark. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.; 2007. Balfour Library shelfmark: ENY (42di-ii)

The student's guide to cognitive neuroscience, by Jamie Ward. Hove: Psychology Press; 2006. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (225)

Textbook of neural repair and rehabilitation. Volume 1: Neural repair and stability, edited by Michael E. Seltzer ... [et al.]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2006. Balfour Library shelfmark: GF (229)

Vertebrates: comparative anatomy, function, evolution, 5th ed., by Kenneth V. Kardong. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill Higher Education; 2009. Balfour Library shelfmark: UU (26ei-iii)

Books added to the Open Shelves:

Biometry: the principles and practice of statistics in biological research, 3rd ed., by Robert R. Sokal and F. James Rohlf. New York: W. H. Freeman and Co.; 1995. Balfour Library shelfmark: EBB (21ciii)