New issue of Educause Review published

Educause Review is a useful publication for Faculty interested in IT, and how it can be used to enhance the student learning experience. The September/October issue focuses on Faculty development - giving staff a run-down on the latest developments in IT and Web 2.0.


Articles include:

• Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs! Oh, My! What Is a Faculty Member Supposed to Do? - Patricia McGee and Veronica Diaz.
  Given the demands of teaching, service, and research, faculty are today expected to embrace learning technologies along with everything else, challenging the institution to help them make sense of what works and how to work it. PDF (749k) | HTML
  
• Active Learning and Technology: Designing Change for Faculty, Students, and Institutions - Anne H. Moore, Shelli B. Fowler, and C. Edward Watson.
  Transformational faculty-development efforts must involve systematic, goal-directed, sustained activities that are integral to the daily work of academic community members. PDF (628kb) | HTML
• Faculty 2.0 - Joel L. Hartman, Charles Dziuban, and James Brophy-Ellison.
  As faculty members confront the expanding impact that technology is having on their scholarship, research, teaching, and students, IT organizations must assess their role in shaping, implementing, and supporting the assimilation of IT into the teaching and learning process. PDF (725kb)| HTML
• ...and much more
  

EDUCAUSE Review is also available via RSS feed. Click the icon on the EDUCAUSE Review home page to access the XML required to subscribe.

Current Issues of JADA now available online

The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) is now available online from Volume 126 (1995) and onwards, including the the latest issues. Access should be from both on and off-campus, including Westmead, but if you experience any problems please let me know and I will investigate.

JADA also offers free Table of Contents Alerts via email. Why not sign up for this valuable current awareness tool today?

Finding the best evidence - an update

This morning at Westmead I presented a session to 3rd Year Dentistry on Finding the Best Evidence, which is an update session designed to refresh their Evidence-based Dentistry Literature searching skills. I thought it would be worthwhile posting it here for any postgrad or Faculty member who would be interested in improving their searching skills.

You can view the embedded presentation below or download it in PDF format.

Keeping up to date: journal table of contents feeds

Keeping up to date with what's being published in dentistry is easy if you make the most of RSS feeds. Most publishers now offer RSS feeds for their journals - look for a icon somewhere on the page of your favourite online journal. For those new to RSS, what it does is 'push' content out to you, rather than you having to go hunt for it. Ideal for time poor academics or students.

Medworm is a RSS feed aggregator that provides access to over 40 dentistry online journal titles, ranging from the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation to the British Dental Journal. To subscribe to a dentistry journal feed in Medworm:

1. Go to Medworm [http://www.medworm.com/]

2. Choose Publications Directory

3. Select Dentistry [http://www.medworm.com/rss/Dentistry-11.php>

4. Select the title for which you would like to receive a Table of Contents Feed. Example: Journal of Oral Rehabilitation.

5. If you have a Medworm, Bloglines, Google Reader, or My Yahoo account, click on the appropriate icon to add the feed to your account.

6. If you are using a reader that is not listed, click on the icon to subscribe in your reader.

7. The Feed will appear in your reader, with posts of articles from the most recent issue. The next time an issue is published you will automatically receive posts in your reader.

The University of Sydney Library does not subscribe to every title appearing on the Medworm Dentistry journals list, so you may not be able to access the full-text of every article. However, you will be able to access at least the abstract, and so keep up to date with research in your discipline

Information Sources in Dentistry

Last thursday I presented at the Faculty's lunchtime research seminar series out at Westmead, which typically involves postgrad students giving updates on their research to their peers, with some Library content in the form of Library lectures thrown in as well. In the past I have presented on using Endnote, making the most of current awareness services, and using Medline, but this time I thought I would take a different tack and focus on on resources that would be of use to the average postgrad or member of Faculty, but may have slipped below their radar. I focused on statistics, images, and reference tools.

You can view the embedded presentation below or download it in PDF format.

New Publications by University of Sydney Faculty of Dentistry Staff and Students

New articles added to PubMed in the past 30 days:

Armstrong, D, Shen, G, Petocz, P & Darendeliler, MA 2007, 'A comparison of accuracy in bracket positioning between two techniques localizing the centre of the clinical crown and measuring the distance from the incisal edge', European Journal of Orthodontics. Jul 27; [Epub ahead of print]

He, LH & Swain, MV 2007, 'Influence of environment on the mechanical behaviour of mature human enamel', Biomaterials.Jul 18; [Epub ahead of print]

Lyle, D, Klineberg, I, Taylor, S, Jolly, N, Fuller, J & Canalese, J 2007, 'Harnessing a University to address rural health workforce shortages in Australia', Australian Journal of Rural Health, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 227-33.

Wang, XY, Crowston, JG, Zoellner, H & Healey, PR 2007, 'Interferon-{alpha} and Interferon-{gamma} Sensitize Human Tenon Fibroblasts to Mitomycin-C', Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 3655-61.

Xie, ZH, Mahoney, EK, Kilpatrick, NM, Swain, MV & Hoffman, M 2007, 'On the structure-property relationship of sound and hypomineralized enamel', Acta biomaterialia. Jun 26; [Epub ahead of print]

The top 10 E-learning tools

The UK Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT) recently asked e-learning experts from around the world to list their top 10 tools. 79 experts have responded so far, with FireFox being the top pick. To view the complete list, go to the top 10 favourite tools.

They have also compiled a learning toolbox, of both personal and producers toolsets. The top items in the personal toolset are:

1. Web browser: Firefox
2. Calendar: Google Calendar
3. RSS Reader: Google Reader
4. Email: Gmail
5. Start Page: iGoogle
6. Social bookmarking tool: del.icio.us
7. Podcast/music player: iTunes
8. PDF Reader: Adobe reader
9. Social network site: Facebook
10. Instant Messenger: Skype
11. Useful resource site: Google search
12. Desktop search/organiser: Google Desktop

This is just the main list, and the site also suggest alternatives. Personally, I would use 6 of the services on the main list, and 10 on the alternatives, but what I find is that I tend to try tools out, and retain or discard them depending on how useful they are and how well they fit into my workflow.

C4LPT have also developed a producer's toolkit, which will be of more use to the e-learning designer who wants to know what else is available for their use. Go to the learning toolbox to find out more.

Dentistry Library New Books Received July '07

32 items were added to the Dentistry Library collection in July. Go to the New Titles List for July to find out what's new.

For the postgraduate student or member of Faculty based out at Westmead, a reminder that items can be sent out to the Westmead Hospital Medical Library for collection. Use the Inter-Library loans/Document Delivery book request form to do so.

You will need to register if you have not used the Document Delivery service before.

Improvements to the Library Catalogue

As a result of your feedback, we've made the following changes to the Library Catalogue:

• Different colour buttons to make Start Over, Another Search and Request Item options easier to see.
  


• Simpler layout on the first brief results screen:
  • The call numbers and location details are now in the full record. Click the Full details link to view.
  • Request this item button only appears on items available for request.


• Full record view shows all the information about the item - no need to click on any tabs.
  


• The permanent link to this item is now at the bottom of the full record. This is a URL (or web-link) which you can save or bookmark and will always link you to that item.

Did you know that you can:

• tell if an item is available online by looking at the Item Location? Electronic item means that book or article is available online.


• find electronic items by limiting your search? Select e-books or e-journals from the entire collection pick-list by the search entry box.


• re-sort your results on keyword search? Click on the links title or date near the top of the search results page.