UC Berkeley's Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF) recently announced its Fall 2009 workshop schedule. Classes include:

• Intro to GIS (with either a Social Science or a Natural Resource Science focus)
• Intro to GPS
• Intro to Remote Sensing
• Intro to open source GIS
• Visualize your data in Google Earth, ArcGIS, etc.

and more!

Workshops fees are available at a subsidized rate of $57 for all UC students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty, and staff. Workshop fees are $224 for all non-UC affiliates. Undergraduate students can apply for financial assistance to take a workshop through the GIF Undergraduate Scholarship Program.

The GIF also offers online guides, fee-based consulting, equipment rentals, and more. Check it out!

Finding course reserves is a cinch in OskiCat!

Click the Course Reserves tab, then search by either course or instructor. Present the call number to the Circulation Desk staff; reserve items are shelved behind the Circulation Desk.

NOTE: To search for Public Health courses by course number, you must use either "public health" or "ph."  This represents a change from Gladis, the old UCB catalog for finding reserves.

Questions? Feel free to call our circulation desk, 642-2511.

1. What databases should I use to find articles, etc., on Public Health topics?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/indexes.html
   

   • PubMed contains journal article citations in biomedicine and health care, and is the primary article index for most public health topics
   • Global Health contains citations on public health topics from journals, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, and more from more than 150 countries and in over 50 languages translated into English
   • PsycINFO contains citations for journal articles, book chapters and dissertations in psychology, behavior, and related disciplines
   • Sociological Abstracts covers demography, education, social psychology, and sociology. Sources include journals, books, conferences, and dissertations
   • TOXLINE contains citations on the biochemical, physiological, toxicological, and societal effects and aspects of chemicals and drugs
   • BIOSIS Previews is a comprehensive life sciences database, including biology, ecology, agriculture, environmental science, and more. Includes citations to journal articles, books, and meeting abstracts
   • Business Source Complete contains citations for articles in business, marketing, economics, and finance
   • ERIC provides access to educational literature from journals, books, conferences, reports, curricula, dissertations, and audiovisual media. ERIC also includes materials on tests, measurement, and evaluation
   • Web of Science is a large multidisciplinary journal article database. It is the best tool for cited reference searching

2. How do I find online journals and journal articles?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/jrnlnews.html
   

   • Browse or search for online journals using the UC-eLinks Electronic Journals Search, or use the OskiCat or Melvyl catalogs (see No. 4, below)
   • Click the UC-eLinks icon next to a citation in an article database (see above) or in NextGen Melvyl (see below) to access items available online

3. How do I access electronic library resources from off-campus?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/connecting_off_campus.html
   

   • Use the proxy server, which allows remote access to web-based electronic resources licensed by the UC or UC Berkeley Libraries after a quick browser configuration
   • Use the Campus VPN (Virtual Private Network), which requires a software download, and then establishes a secure "tunnel" to the UC Berkeley network

4. How do I find books, journals, dissertations, reports, etc?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Catalogs/guide.html
   

   • Use OskiCat, the UCB catalog, for print and electronic publications, course reserves, and items stored at NRLF, the off-campus storage facility
   • Use the NextGen Melvyl or Current Melvyl, the catalogs for all the UC libraries (and more). Click the title (in "NextGen") or Details/Location (in "Current") to see details about the location and availability of books, journals, etc.

5. How do I get books, articles, etc. that are neither at a UC Berkeley library nor available online?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/otherlibs.html
   

   • Click the UC-eLinks icon then Request It to request an article, book, or other item found in a database or NextGen Melvyl. Articles are generally delivered to you  electronically
   • Click the Request button in the Current Melvyl catalog to request books and journals from other libraries
   • Other options are listed on our web page

6. What books do I have checked out and how do I renew them?
   See: https://oskicat.berkeley.edu/screens/help_renew.html
   

   • Log in to My OskiCat
     
   • All items may be renewed online except for journals, reserve materials, microfiche, and items on which you owe fines

7. How can I keep up with new research in my field?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/keeping_up.html
   

   • Use alerts for updates on topics you’ve searched in PubMed, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, etc. Create cited reference alerts in Web of Science
   • Receive electronic tables of contents from journal publishers
   • Use RSS feeds for tables of contents, database alerts, or updates from grant funding entities

8. How do I organize references and cite them correctly in my papers?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/endnote.html
   

   • Use RefWorks – licensed by UC Berkeley and free to use for UCB students, staff, and faculty
   • Purchase EndNote and install it on your computer. A student discount for EndNote is available at The Scholar's Workstation
   • Use Zotero, a free Firefox add-on you can download.  It is already installed on Firefox on the library’s public PCs

9. What other online resources are available on my topic?
   See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/internet.html
   

   • Explore the Public Health Library’s web pages on such topics as Statistics/Data,  Environmental Health, International Health, and more
   • These web pages provide access to selected resources not generally available via article indexes or book catalogs, each with a descriptive annotation

10. How do I get help?
    See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/reference.html
    

    • For help with researching a topic or finding print or online resources, come to the Public Health Library Reference Desk: Mon-Fri 10-12 and 2-4, or call (510) 642-2511 during those same times
    • For help at other times, reference service via IM chat, email, and text are also available
    • For help with what you have checked out, renewals, placing holds, etc., come to the Public Health Library Circulation Desk or call (510) 642-2511

"The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Data.gov enables the public to participate in government by providing downloadable Federal datasets to build applications, conduct analyses, and perform research."

Data.gov offers access to a large and ever-growing compilation of data sets, tool, and more. The site is divided into:

"Raw" Data Catalog, where you can search for data by keyword, file type, federal agency, or category.

Tool Catalog, containing "simple, application-driven access to Federal data with hyperlinks. This catalog features widgets, data mining and extraction tools,
applications, and other services"

Geodata Catalog, with links to download geospatial datasets and a metadata page with details on the datasets, as well as links to more detailed Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata information. 

Folks are taking these data and creating all kinds of mashups and other tools. Check out apps like Local Recovery (how much Recovery Funding has gone out in your current location), Superfund Finder (discover more about the nationwide distribution of Superfund sites as well as sites near you, or Geodata Explorer (get a true sense of the economic situation at the city or block level).

Did you know you can set up Google Scholar to ...

... export citations directly to EndNote or RefWorks?

... link to UC-eLinks, so you can find the article, book, etc. online or in the Melvyl catalog?

Both are true and take only a couple of minutes to set up!

1. In Google Scholar, click Scholar Preferences
2. Scroll down to Library Links
3. Type "berkeley" in the box
4. Check all the boxes that refer to UC Berkeley
5. Scroll down a bit more to Bibliography Manager
6. Click the radio button for Show links to import citations into
7. Select EndNote or RefWorks
8. Click Save Preferences

Now after you perform a search, there will be an Import into EndNote [or RefWorks] link below each search result and a UC-eLinks link and icon below or to the right of each search result.

Detailed instructions with lots of nice screen shots are available on the library web.