Category Archives: Library Catalog

Protocols at your fingertips

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Over 30 videos filmed at UT Southwestern appear in JoVE Journal of Visualized Experiments, including a recent contribution by Michael Kalwat, PhD and Melanie H. Cobb, PhD, “Measuring Relative Insulin Secretion using a Co-Secreted Luciferase Surrogate,” filmed at UT Southwestern in May 2019.

Protocols—also known as methodologies, procedures, techniques, or experiments—are invaluable and popular resources for anyone involved in scientific research, bench work, grant writing, and/or research project planning. Protocols provide practical guidance by describing the design and implementation of a scientific experiment. The foundational information found in protocols is indispensable for fostering standardized research methods and reproducible results.

Protocols offer many benefits, such as:

  • Save time by accessing highly tested, peer-reviewed techniques and procedures from some of the most established books and journals in your field
  • Stay up-to-date with the latest cutting-edge methods
  • Accelerate scientific discovery by accessing the most reliable protocols in the various scientific disciplines
  • Ensure reproducible results, safeguarding and validating research results
  • Utilize step-by-step guidelines and troubleshooting tips from authoritative, reliable sources
  • Avoid reinventing the wheel

The Library provides online access to many popular protocols resources. Most individual protocols articles appearing in these resources are indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE and Embase. Here are a few major protocols options currently offered by the Library:

  • Cold Spring Harbor Protocols – This resource continues the renowned Cold Spring Laboratory’s long-standing practice of providing trusted, step-by-step laboratory techniques, covering cell and molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics, protein science, and imaging.
  • Current Protocols (Wiley) – Creators of the standard protocol format over 30 years ago, this long-standing, “gold standard” offers rigorously reviewed and curated protocols in fields such as molecular biology, microbiology, and stem cell biology.
  • JoVE Journal of Visualized Experiments – This scientific methods video journal publishes protocols articles along with detailed videos of laboratory procedures for novel methods, innovative techniques of existing techniques, and gold standard protocols for the life and physical sciences.
  • Methods in Enzymology (Elsevier) – This is one of the most popular and heavily used eBook series offered by the Library, with complete full-text access back to volume 1 (1955). These critically acclaimed, individually themed volumes have served as one of the most highly regarded life sciences standards for more than 50 years, covering research methods in fields such as biochemistry, microbiology, cancer research and genetics.
  • Methods in Molecular Biology (part of the SpringerProtocols database; click on “Protocols” link) – This respected series offers step-by-step protocols, tips, tricks, shortcuts, and troubleshooting advice in the more than 2,000 MIMB volumes. MIMB is a standard resource in labs throughout the world with each volume providing focused, in-depth coverage on a specific sub-discipline. Online access to MIMB is now part of the SpringerProtocols database, which combines MIMB and other high quality laboratory protocols in biomedicine and the life sciences.
  • Springer Nature Experiments – SpringerNature developed this specialized search tool for researchers by researchers. It searches more than 60,000 references from the SpringerProtocols database, Nature Methods, Nature Protocols, and Protocol Exchange (open repository for scientific research protocols). Advanced search options allow filtering by technique, video availability, publication year, article category, etc. to identify relevant content more quickly. While this tool is freely available, UT Southwestern affiliates benefit with direct access to the Library funded full-text articles from the SpringerNature suite of resources.

For assistance with these tools or other reference inquiries, please contact us. We’re here to help.

New D2L faculty resources: AcESO Curriculum Builder tutorial and April 3rd Turnitin: Feedback Studio faculty training

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Make Reading Lists in Your Courses Using a New AcESO Curriculum Builder Tool in D2L  

The Library is launching a new discovery tool which allows you to search all Library holdings using one search box. AcESO (Academic Enhanced Search Option) will search books, journals, available full-text articles, and UT Southwestern Archives digital images, as well as Institutional Repository content including theses, dissertations, contributed academic posters, Grand Rounds videos, and more!

Along with AcESO, we have purchased Curriculum Builder, which integrates AcESO with D2L Brightspace (D2L) and provides the ability to create reading lists in class sections that are linked directly to electronic content to which the Library subscribes.

To learn how to use the Curriculum Builder tool in D2L, view the Making a Reading List in D2L using UTSW Library’s AcESo Curriculum Builder Tool brief tutorial on the Library’s YouTube page.

Questions about AcESO or Curriculum Builder? Contact LibWebmaster@utsouthwestern.edu.

Turnitin: Feedback Studio (anti-plagiarism software) Faculty Training on April 3rd

As an instructor would you like to:

  • Know if your students are writing original papers?
  • Help your students write better papers by improving their style and grammar?
  • Show your students how their grade relates to competencies or assignment requirements?
  • Grade quickly using a set of reusable marking tools?
  • Have students provide peer feedback?

Turnitin enables you to do all these things. Turnitin works with your courses in D2L, and you can even use Turnitin without using D2L.

Are you ready to learn how to use it?  A trainer from Turnitin will lead a hands-on how-to webinar that covers how to configure a D2L assignment to utilize Turnitin.

You will also learn how to use the online Feedback Studio tool to:

  • See and evaluate possible plagiarism and writing style problems
  • Use the QuickMark tool to provide drag and drop feedback
  • Link feedback to competencies or assignment requirements
  • Create and use grading rubrics
  • Provide quick verbal or written feedback
  • Push the grade to the D2L gradebook

The training session will be held on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Bring your laptop and join Dr. Yulia Piller, AIS Manager of Educational Technology, and Martha Buckbee, D2L Administrator, in NL03.120 or join from your office. You should be able to follow the steps in your sandbox course. Let Martha know by March 30, 2018, if you do not have a sandbox and would like one.

New year brings new skills!

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aceIs learning a new skill on your list of New Year’s resolutions? Do you want to get organized, reduce stress, or manage time differently in 2017? The UT Southwestern Health Sciences Digital Library & Learning Center can help with that!

More than 22,000 training books and modules housed in the Academy of Career Enhancement’s Books 24×7 collection are available through the Library catalog and includes a variety of topics including project management, time management, work-life balance, stress reduction, and organizational effectiveness. By using the Library catalog to access the entire Books 24×7 collection, you may dive further into a particular topic via the sidebar. Once you locate an item of interest, simply click on the online access link and use your campus log-in to continue. You can quickly jump to particular chapters, take notes, create bookmarks, and more.

This collection – part of the Academy of Career Enhancement (ACE) – is provided to the UT Southwestern community through an enterprise license of online resources for the continuing development and engagement of the UT Southwestern workforce. The multi-year contract is funded by several campus departments, including the Office of Human Resources.

Library Catalog provides alternate access to journal subscriptions

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4/6/2016 UPDATE:  We believe that the issues with the Ejournals AtoZ list have been resolved, but we will continue to closely monitor the situation.

Are you wondering why your favorite journals might not be showing up in Ejournals A to Z or via a full text link resolver in PubMed?

Unfortunately, many of our prominent ejournal collections were temporarily hidden from public view. We are in the process of re-establishing those connections and hope to resolve the matter as soon as possible.

In the meantime, our Library Catalog has all our ejournal listings, including access links with available subscription dates. Please check there first if you find that an established title is temporarily unavailable in Ejournals A to Z or a full text link does not work as expected.

 

Update your bookmark! A new enhanced Ejournals A to Z to replace existing interface this week

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ejazlaunchChanges are coming to your Digital Library! The popular Ejournals and Ebooks A to Z interface you use to connect to the Library’s current journal holdings is being replaced with a new version on Tuesday, October 20, 2015. The enhanced Ejournals A to Z will feature quick auto-populating for journal titles and a smoother interface experience.

All Ebooks are now searchable through the Library Catalog. This provides enhanced searching capabilities, more collection options like the Books 24×7 series, quick linking, and individual record information about usage (i.e. single seat, multi-seat, chapter download restrictions placed by publisher/vendor, etc.).

During the Ejournals A to Z transition period, previous bookmarks for Ejournals and Ebooks A to Z may not work anymore. In addition, full-text linking in resources like PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Scopus may be temporarily unavailable. Please report any issues with access or linking promptly through this online form to ensure quick response and resolution with EBSCO, the vendor responsible for this interface transition.

Status updates will be available from the Library’s home page for any issues that may arise during this transition.

Print or cite from the Library catalog's "cart"

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Use the “Add to Cart” feature in the Library catalog to print or export a list of items to use in a citation manager, such as EndNote or Zotero. Here’s how:

  1. After searching for ebooks or other resources in the catalog, click the checkbox next to an item to add it to your cart.

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  1. To view items in the cart, click in the cart icon area in the upper left corner of the window.

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  1. Don’t want everything in your cart? Select only the items you want to print or transfer as citations.

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  1. To transfer citations, choose “Download” and choose the format desired. Depending upon your computer settings or citation manager, the file will be either downloaded as a “cart.ris” file or opened within a citation manager. For EndNote users, choose the RIS format.

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  1. Once they are transferred into the citation manager, they can be saved to particular reference groups, customized, used with Word documents, and more.

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