http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/440.htm

“Security Service records released today include personal files on US film director Carl Nathan Foreman, Irish playwright Brendan Behan and Nazi propagandist Gottfried Rosel, as well as investigations into the dangers posed by bicycling groups of Hilter Youth and the Communist links of Theatre Workshop. The 196 files cover subjects from the pre-war period, the Second World War and post-war. This is the 24th Security Service records release, bringing the total number of its records in the public domain to more than 4,300. Many of the files are available on DocumentsOnline. Downloads are free for a period of one month.” [Source: National Archives, Latest News, 08-03-10]

http://sfxexpress.exlibrisgroup.com/mmu?url_ver=Z39.88-2004;url_ctx_fmt=infofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx;ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8;ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsfxit.com%3Aazlist;sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1;rft.object_id=1000000000294936

Another new subscription, the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions “is an indispensable resource for all those directly involved in, or concerned with,the management of risk in the financial sector in five inter-related areas: strategic and business risk; financial risk; operational risk; regulatory risks; and systemic risk”. Our subscription begins with Volume 3, Issue 1, 2009.

http://sfxexpress.exlibrisgroup.com/mmu?url_ver=Z39.88-2004;url_ctx_fmt=infofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx;ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8;ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsfxit.com%3Aazlist;sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1;rft.object_id=1000000000520094

“Social enterprise is a powerful global concept which describes those businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally re-invested for that purpose in businesses or in the community. [We now have a subscription to] SEJ … the first journal to focus specifically on this aspect of entrepreneurial activity. Social enterprises have not been the subject of rigorous research to determine the current practices and needs of managers within this developing area. It is also debatable whether we have a robust and agreed ‘map’ of the sector. The SEJ seeks to address this void by inviting scholars and practitioners to present their theories and frameworks for understanding social enterprise, and invites research that examines a range of topics related to this developing sector of the social economy.” Our subscription starts with the first issue published in 2005.

http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=6356

“The project collected representative data across Russian regions on attitudes to human trafficking. Since the collapse of the Soviet state, thousands of Russian citizens have been trafficked out of the country as exploited labour, sex slaves, domestic labour, and beggars. This project explored beliefs concerning the origins, nature and extent of human trafficking, and attitudes on what the Russian government should do to address the problem. It captured attitudes on how the state should aid the trafficked and the perceived efficacy of different institutions in dealing with trafficking. It also sought responses on how families should help or not help the trafficked; beliefs on the place of a woman in society, and attitudes towards prostitution.” [Source: Economic & Social Data Service, New Data]

http://ebird.org/content/ebird

“A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 …eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. [Its] goal is to maximize the utility and accessibility of the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by recreational and professional bird watchers. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence.” [Source: ResourceShelf, 07-03-10]

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12619&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nap%2Fnew+%28New+from+the+National+Academies+Press%29&utm_content=Bloglines#toc

“A quantitative characterization of technologies, this book lays out expectations of costs, performance, and impacts, as well as barriers and research and development needs. In addition to a principal focus on renewable energy technologies for power generation, the book addresses the challenges of incorporating such technologies into the power grid, as well as potential improvements in the national electricity grid that could enable better and more extensive utilization of wind, solar-thermal, solar photovoltaics, and other renewable technologies.” [Source: New from the National Academies Press, 05-03-10] Free to read online.

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0910/hc02/0216/0216.pdf

“Over 280 million tonnes of waste were produced in England in 2006. The Government considers that the continued disposal of such materials in landfill sites is not sustainable because it can result in greenhouse gas emissions, other pollution and loss of valuable resources. The Government therefore aims to reduce the tonnage of waste sent to landfill, and it introduced a Landfill Tax in 1996 to encourage recycling and other methods of waste disposal. Businesses generate the majority of waste produced each year. Commercial and industrial waste amounted to 76 million tonnes in 2006, and construction, demolition and excavation waste a further 102 million tonnes. By comparison, municipal waste, which mainly comes from households, amounted to 28 million tonnes in the same year … This report [released on 3 March 2010] examines the impact of the Programme in addressing business waste.” [Source: Official Documents Blog, 05-03-10]

http://dl.begellhouse.com

Until April 8th, MMU has a free trial of Begell Digital Library’s Engineering Research and Biological Sciences Research Collections. The Engineering Research Collection consists of academic, research, and applied work in the field of thermal and fluids engineering. Data are categorized by the area of interest. Retrievable electronic files of data end information allow subscribers access to a wide selection of scientific and engineering research from Begell House journals and reference works. The Biomedical Sciences Journals Collection is a collection of online data of academic, research, and clinical work in the field of biomedical sciences. All information is delivered online in the full-text journal articles and other full text peer-reviewed research data.

The trial is available on-campus only and no password is required. Please let us know if this would be a useful addition to MMU’s electronic library by sending your comments to David Jenkins – d.jenkins@mmu.ac.uk

http://ukpmc.blogspot.com/2010/03/european-research-funders-throw-weight.html

“Four European research funders have today added their support to the open access repository UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) by agreeing that the life sciences research outputs made possible with their funding are made freely available through this repository.

Launched in January 2007, UKPMC is a free-to-access digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed biomedical and life sciences research. As of February 2010, it holds over 1.7 million full text articles. The ambition of the repository is to become the information resource of choice for the UK biomedical and health research communities and eventually to expand to become ‘Europe PubMed Central’.

Today, this aim takes a step closer as four European research-funding organisations - the Health Research Board Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, Telethon Italy and the Austrian Science Fund - have agreed to participate in UKPMC. The funders will mandate that all biomedical research outputs that arise from their funding are made freely available - typically within six months of publication - from the UKPMC repository.” [Source: UK PubMed Central Blog, 01-03-10]

Have you ever used ResearchResearch? It’s a subscription-based service which provides information on worldwide funding opportunities open to UK researchers; information on organizations providing funding; and full-text online editions of Research Fortnight, Research Day and Research Europe. A current awareness option allows you to receive notification of new funding in areas of interest direct to your desktop. Later in March, its name will change to Research Professional and it will have a new web address. We’ll update the record on the library website on the 29th of March. In the meantime, if you haven’t used the service, have a look at the entry on the library website for details.

http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/searchthecollection/trade_cards_introduction.html

Provides details of “a collection of over 700 trade cards collected by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898) in 1891. The database of printed paper ephemera to do with trade has been made available free of charge, and provides images and information for many trade cards dating from the early 17th to the 19th centuries. One hundred of these cards illustrate the highlights of the collection. The database can be searched through a simple search facility. The advanced search facility offers a variety of choices, including searching by date, trades, products, country, designer, or subjects. The website also provides bibliographic material for further reading”. [Source: Intute: Communication & Media Studies, 26-11-10]

http://internetarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/alice-in-wonderland-a-look-back/

A reminder that Tim Burton’s “Alice” is just the most recent in a number of efforts to bring Lewis Caroll to the big screen. This post from the Internet Archive blog provides links to the first movie version directed by Cecil Hepworth way back in 1903 plus a later version (1915) by W W Young with one of the fiercest white rabbits imaginable! [Source: What’s New at the Internet Archive, 06-03-10]

http://www.digibusiness.fi/portal/eu/reports/

“Aims to be a gateway website to research on digital/online business from Finland. Its most useful aspect is a range of full-text reports in PDF format. Research and market reports are freely available and can be found by clicking ‘Reports’ from the front page. Example titles include: ‘Cultural Industries in Russia’ (2010); ‘Playground Worlds - Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing Games’ (2009); ‘Trend Pulse - Catching Global Trends in the Creative Industries’ (2009); ‘Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming’ (2009); and ‘Games without Frontiers: Theories and Methods for Game Studies and Design’ (2008), among others. The reports archive also contains a number of European Commission reports on the creative industries and digital economy.” [Source: Intute: Communication & Media Studies, 26-02-10]

Date: 27 May 2010
Venue: University of Manchester

Aimed at “trainers and other support staff involved with the personal and professional development of early career researchers and academics”, the workshop will provide “case studies highlighting the uses of technology in training; a practical session covering the key skills when integrating technology into training; and group discussions to identify and explore effective use of technology in training”. For further details, the call for case studies plus an online booking form, please see the Vitae website.

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/1393-218431/Vitae-research-staff-conference-2009-report.html

“Vitae’s first UK-wide research staff conference took place on 5 November [2009] with over 60 research staff from over 40 institutions exploring some of the key issues faced by research staff in the current climate. Participants also discussed how to make their voice heard more effectively within institutions and by policymakers. There was a clear consensus for research staff to collaborate and build a collective voice on issues of career and personal development and that researcher issues were common across discipline and institutional boundaries.” [Source: VITAE New Updates, 03-03-10]

http://auctioncatalogs.jstor.org/

“JSTOR is collaborating with the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a pilot project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to understand how auction catalogs can be best preserved for the long-term and made most easily accessible for scholarly use. Auction catalogs are vital for provenance research as well as for the study of art markets and the history of collecting. This prototype site is open to the public through June 2010. If you are interested in this content and the importance to art research, we encourage you to try the site and take the brief survey … In June, we will evaluate use of the content and the feedback we have received in order to help determine the future of the resource.”

http://www.daphne.cnrs.fr/daphne/search.html

A portal providing a single entry point to free subject-oriented bibliographic databases. Search results will provide “bibliographic records covering international literature and resulting from the indexing and analysis of various types of documents (journal articles, books, conference proceedings, exhibits, theses, journals, electronic resources, etc). Records include keywords and abstracts (depending on the analysis specificity) … DAPHNE pools together data from three databases — BAHR, FRANCIS (Prehistory and Protohistory, Art and Archaeology files and part of the History and Science of Religion), FRANTIQ-CCI”.

http://www.molecularautism.com/

A new Open Access journal launched only last week, Molecular Autism “publishes high-quality basic, translational and clinical research into the molecular basis of autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions … [and] … considers studies that relate causal and risk factors with these conditions, including research into genetics, molecular neurobiology, neuropathology, imaging and biomarkers, with a focus on potential applications for intervention”. [Source: BioMed Central Update, 03-03-10]

The THES provides “news and features on policy development for both taught and research postgraduates … plus articles on what makes a good supervisor, improving the structures that support doctoral students, completion rates, changes to masters degrees and the expansion of graduate schools as well as advice to PhD students on topics such as how to survive a viva”.

MMU has online access to the THES via the LexisLibrary.

But the publishers are currently offering postgraduate students (both taught and research) a free three-month trial subscription to the print version. If you’re interested, please contact Kelly Boland at k.boland@mmu.ac.uk in the RED Office. Kelly will provide you with the promotional code and then you just need to ring the THE at 01858 438805 and quote the code to register. Sounds a good deal!

http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=6358

“The massive expansion of the state in post-war Europe has rested on a greatly enlarged fiscal base, yet little is known about how that fiscal base has evolved. This is surprising in view of the fact that the questions of how governments get money, and from whom they get it, are seen to be two of the most important political issues faced in any modern political economy. While most studies of fiscal history try to provide answers to the first question by analyzing the ideological, political and administrative inputs to tax policy, the project’s aim was to provide answers to the second question. The project focused on the outcomes of tax policy; what different households across Western Europe have paid in taxes (income tax and social security contributions) at all points on the income scale since 1958.” The principal investigator was Frances Lynch (University of Westminster). [Source: ESDS New Releases]