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Department Blog

Physical Sciences & Engineering Library

PSE Library moving into Shields by 2011

October 21st, 2009 by Karen Andrews

This is an important update on the future of the UC Davis Physical Sciences & Engineering Library.

To meet its budget reduction goals, the UCD Library will downsize from 4 to 3 locations. By July 1, 2011, the Physical Sciences & Engineering Library collections, staff, and services will be integrated into the Shields Library, primarily on the 3rd floor. You  may view the full UC Davis Office of Research, Management and Planning recommendations for the General Library.

To make space for the move, much of the biological and agricultural sciences collection, currently on 3rd floor of Shields Library, will be relocated and integrated into the Carlson Health Sciences Library building to form a health, life sciences, and agriculture collection. This  redistribution of science collections will optimize the amount of unique  print library materials that can be kept on campus.

We are developing criteria for what will stay on campus and what will go to the NRLF (Northern Regional Library Facility, the UC Libraries storage building in Richmond.) NRLF staff provide rapid web delivery of journal articles, while books and journal volumes are delivered to campus in 2 days.  In the fall, we will share the criteria for storing items and seek broad input.

This outcome is a difficult one for all of us, and we will work with you to continue providing the best possible configuration of collections and services that you have come to expect from the PSE Library staff.

Comments may be sent to Karen Andrews at: klandrews@ucdavis.edu.  I welcome your comments.

INSPEC moving to Web of Science site

April 8th, 2009 by Karen Andrews

INSPEC (Information in the Sciences, Physics, Electrical/Electronics and Computers), is moving to the Web of Science platform on April 20. INSPEC is the most comprehensive article index for these disciplines. It covers conference proceedings, workshops, seminars and books in addition to standard journal articles.

Special features are the ability to get review articles, limit topic by experimental or theoretical approach, applications, and do numerical range searching for properties of materials. One can search for articles on astronomical objects or chemical compounds. The INSPEC database will also be searchable via the current Ovid interface through June 30, 2009.

Access INSPEC here, or through the PSE Library database list. (Note: you must be on campus or logged in through the VPN for this to work. From this link, you will be able to choose whether you want to search through Ovid or Web of Science).