Introducing the Prairie Research Institute Library

On June 13, 2011, the libraries of the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, and Illinois Sustainable Technology Center merged to form the Prairie Research Institute Library. The Institute Library, located in the former Illinois Natural History Survey Library space (1816 South Oak Street, Champaign), represents both a merger of print collections and collaboration among the State Scientific Surveys and the University Library to provide library service to Institute Staff, the University of Illinois community, and the citizens of Illinois. Like the Natural History Survey Library before it, the Institute Library is open to the public, and all are welcome.

News from the Institute Library will be posted henceforth on the Prairie Research Institute's News From the Library Blog.

ZooKeys in PubMed Central

ZooKeys has been accepted for archival and display in PubMed Central, the world's leading archive for biomedical literature, based at the National Library of Medicine.  ZooKeys articles in PubMed Central are here:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/1355/

ZooKeys becomes the first journal in biodiversity science to use a domain-specific extension, TaxPub, of the general NLM mark up schema that permits automatic extraction and retrieval of specific information on biological taxa, such as taxon treatments and their features from an article’s text.  Managing director Dr. Lyubomir Penev, Managing director of Pensoft Publishers, credits Donat Agosti and the team of Plazi with the inspiration for this accomplishment.

The experience accumulated by ZooKeys with TaxPub paves the way for other taxonomic journals to make biodiversity information openly accessible and easy to use.

Endangered Species Day

Celebrate Endangered Species Day on May 20, 2011!

Endangered Species Day is an opportunity for people young and old to learn about the importance of protecting endangered species and everyday actions that people can take to help protect our nation’s disappearing wildlife and last remaining open space. Protecting America’s wildlife and plants today is a legacy we leave to our children and grandchildren, so that all Americans can experience the rich variety of native species that help to define our nation. more information

Quick links to INHS Bulletins

Volumes 1-36 of the INHS Bulletin were digitized through the University Libraries participation in the Open Content Alliance, and they are now available via the Biodiversity Heritage Library. 
The Bulletins are available from the following links:
volumes 1-12: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/8196
volumes 13-33: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/14605
volumes 34-36: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/15103

Individual Bulletin articles may be retrieved using author or title searches, but you can browse the volumes from the links above.

President Obama requests $242,605,000 for Institute of Museum and Library Services

The current Newsletter for the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections reports that President Obama has requested $242,605,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Susan Hildreth, director of IMLS is quoted saying "Rapid societal shifts are challenging museums and libraries to reinvent themselves. With this budget, IMLS is rigorously examining all of its grant programs, research and leadership initiatives to ensure that every dollar is helping libraries and museums meet this challenge in a world where the ability to access and use information is essential to competitiveness, IMLS must help frontline institutions use new technology, adapt services to meet the needs of today's information seekers, and work in partnership with a host of community organizations" SPNHC Newsletter, vol.25:1, 2011, pg.36.

For more information about the IMLS and their programs see http://www.imls.gov/pdf/01-11_AppropriationsTable.pdf.

The current issue of the SPNHC Newsletter is available at the INHS library, call number, 508.075 Sp59.

Winter 2011 Access (NBII)

The winter 2011 issue of Access, the newsletter of the National Biological Information Infrastructure, is available <http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt/community/access_newsletter/392>.

NEWS/FEATURES
*  ITIS Updates and Expands Its Coverage on Grasses
*  Latest Enhancements to Butterfly and Moth Site Net Sold Gains for USGS
*  Raptor Search Has A New Home!
*  The Inouye Database: An Interactive Bibliography of Pollination Publications
*  NBII Provides Leadership for Data Management Working Group

REGULAR COLUMNS
*  Invasive Species Toolbox – In Memoriam: Dr. Les Mehrhoff; IPANE Shares Its Training Manual Online; Explore and Provide Feedback on the Beta Version of the Alberta Risk Assessment Tool (RAT); Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States; Other Contributions in Memory of Les Mehrhoff
*  International Connections – Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS-USA) Passes 6.5 Million Records, Enables New Geospatial Data Tools

Red List species spatial data

The 2010 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species contains assessments for almost 56,000 species, of which about 28,000 have spatial data. There are several new and updated species distribution datasets available to download from the Red List website. All the datasets have no restriction for non-commercial use and can be downloaded freely.  Visit http://www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/spatial-data for details.

Spring schedule: The Savvy Researcher

The Savvy Researcher
http://www.library.illinois.edu/learn/basics/workshops.html

small class size * hands-on * one-hour sessions

The Savvy Researcher workshop series is designed to address the advanced research and information management issues our university community faces in their daily work. Sessions on citation management, data services, current awareness tools, scholarly communication, open access, organizing research materials and presentation skills are offered. The spring schedule is now live

For registration information, please visit: http://www.library.illinois.edu/learn/ and click on the "Workshop Calendar" in the upper left column, or explore other LEARN services.

Federal Depository Library Survey

A short, 16-question survey is open through the end of February. Your answers, which will focus on depository access to, services for, and collections of federal government information, will help the Library better meet your needs and improve your federal depository library experience.

URL: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HSLCRRB

Library closed Feb 2

University Library units, including the INHS Library, will be closed on Wednesday, February 2 due to weather.  

Journals implement data archiving policy

Via Dryad News & Views.

It's January 2011– do you know where your data are?

It would be a good idea to know and be ready to deposit your files in a data repository, because this month marks the implementation of the Joint Data Archiving Policy.  The policy, endorsed by a consortium of prominent journals and societies, states that journals will require as a condition for publication, that data supporting the results in the paper should be archived in an appropriate public archive.

The policy can be customized by each journal, and enables both embargoes and editorial discretion to make special exceptions. Blanket exemptions apply to sensitive data such as identifiable human records and endangered species localities.

The journals (and corresponding societies) implementing the policy this month are:

• The American Naturalist (American Society of Naturalists)
  
• The Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (Linnean Society of London)
  
• Evolution (Society for the Study of Evolution)
  
• Evolutionary Applications
  
• Heredity (The Genetics Society)
  
• Journal of Evolutionary Biology (European Society for Evolutionary Biology)
  
• Molecular Biology and Evolution (Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution)
  
• Molecular Ecology<
• Systematic Biology (Society for Systematic Biology)
  

A sampling of the revised Instructions to Authors includes:

The American Naturalist: “The American Naturalist requires authors to deposit the data associated with accepted papers in a public archive. For gene sequence data and phylogenetic trees, deposition in GenBank or TreeBASE, respectively, is required. There are many possible archives that may suit a particular data set, including the Dryad repository for ecological and evolutionary biology data (http://datadryad.org). All accession numbers for GenBank, TreeBASE, and Dryad must be included in accepted manuscripts before they go to Production. Any impediments to data sharing should be brought to the attention of the editors at the time of submission.”

Journal of Evolutionary Biology “The editors and publisher of this journal expect authors to make the data underlying published articles available. An investigator who feels that reasonable requests have not been met by the authors should correspond with the Editor-in-Chief. Authors must use the appropriate database to deposit detailed information supplementing submitted papers, and quote the accession number in their manuscripts.”

Molecular Ecology: “Data Accessibility: To enable readers to locate archived data from Molecular Ecology papers, as of January 2011 we will require that authors include a ‘Data Accessibility’ section after their references. This should list the data base and respective accession numbers for all data from the manuscript that has been made publicly available…. Please note that this section must be complete prior to the submission of the final version of your manuscript. Papers lacking this section will not be sent to Production.”

At Dryad, we have been working for some time now with editors and publishers at these and other partner journals to support the implementation of this policy. If you submit an article to a “JDAP journal,” you will be invited to simultaneously submit your data to Dryad. This may occur either prior to review or, depending on the journal, at the time your article is accepted. Dryad and the journal communicate behind the scenes to make it as easy as possible for you to deposit your data, and also ensure that a permanent, resolvable, and citable data identifier is published in the final article. That way, in the future, no one need be frightened by the question "do you know where your data are?"

Why Can’t I Use My Netid Password Anymore to Login to Library Resources?

As of January 16th, 2011 Library patrons using on-line library resources from off-campus will be greeted with a different screen when trying to access electronic resources. Users will be required to login using their netid and an Active Directory password.

If you do not remember your Active Directory password click on the link below the “Forgot your Active Directory password?” when connecting to an electronic resource to reset your password or click on this link.

For more information about the Active Directory, and changing/establishing an Active Directory password please go to the Cites "Managing Your Accounts and Passwords" page.

The Library had been using Ezproxy to authenticate and authorize remote users. They switched to Shibboleth which is an Internet2 initiative.

Massive Online Plant Database Unveiled

Read the full story at Red Orbit.

Researchers from the US and UK unveiled a new online database of plant names on Wednesday in what they are calling an attempt to help global conservation, medicinal, and agricultural efforts. The Plant List, as it is known, is a collaborative effort by workers at London's Kew Gardens and the Missouri Botanical Garden, located in St. Louis. It is said to be the most comprehensive list of botanical life ever assembled, featuring the names of 1.25 million plants "ranging from essential food crops such as wheat, rice and corn to garden roses and exotic jungle ferns," according to AFP reports.

Update of Draft National Wetland Plant List Available for Review and Comment

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is soliciting public comments on the updated draft National Wetland Plant List (NWPL) developed as part of an ongoing interagency effort to identify and assign wetland plant ratings (indicator status) to species found in the United States and its territories. The NWPL provides a list of wetland plants by species and their wetland ratings that is used extensively by federal, state agencies, the scientific and academic communities, and the private sector in wetland delineations, the planning and monitoring of wetland mitigation and restoration sites, and serves to provide general botanical information about wetland plants.

In the early 1980s, the four primary federal agencies involved in wetland delineation –USACE, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service – realized the importance of utilizing plants and soils as indicators for wetland delineation purposes. These agencies agreed to assemble panels of wetland ecologists to review and revise the various plant lists for 10 regions of the country. The updated NWPL will replace the currently used National List of Plant Species that Occur in Wetlands, which was published by the FWS in 1988.

In 2006, the administration of the NWPL was transferred from FWS to USACE. That same year, the USACE Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., created a Web site used to update the scientific names and ratings for 8,558 wetland plants on the 1988 list. This process, which included academic and independent peer reviews of the process, resulting in the updated draft list announced today.

A public notice on the updated draft NWPL is published in the January 6, 2011, Federal Register and will provide the public the opportunity to participate in this national effort to supply input by region on the wetland rating of each species and to provide comments on the draft plant list.

Comments must be received within the 60-day notice period and submitted on-line at http://wetland_plants.usace.army.mil/. Comments received will be compiled and included as part of the administrative record. Regional interagency panels, in cooperation with the national interagency panel, will review and incorporate any needed changes resulting from the information received during the comment period. A final NWPL will be published in the Federal Register.

Journal of Integrated Pest Management : New Entomological Society of America Journal

The Entomological Society of America has recently released the Journal of Integrated Pest Management, a new open access, peer reviewed, extension journal covering the field of integrated pest management. More information...