Individual Article:
New initiative funds acquisitions in nanotechnology and cognitive science
The Library’s nanotechnology and cognitive science collections are currently in the process of aggressive expansion, as part of the Library’s Collections of Excellence Initiative. This initiative targets specific collections to receive enhanced support in order to ensure they reflect the University’s programmatic priorities. The University is supporting the initiative with additional funding that substantially improves the Library’s ability to build truly distinctive collections in these subjects.
“Our goal with nanotechnology and cognitive science is to fully support the leadership Northwestern is taking in research and scholarship in these areas,” says assistant University librarian for collection management Jeffrey Garrett. “And since these are interdisciplinary fields which are themselves still new and evolving, it’s important for us to get a broad, interdisciplinary perspective on critical resources.”
The University’s new funding has already led to a number of important acquisitions in nanotechnology. Responding to strong faculty demand to increase the number of “seats” for SciFinder Scholar, the Library has recently added two more, bringing the current total to nine. Subscriptions to important databases—including ISI's Proceedings Index and Derwent Innovations Index, Wiley's Database of Polymer Properties, and ASM's Handbooks online and Alloy Center--have been added, as well as access to the Knovel Library , a collection of 800 engineering e-books. As new nanotechnology journals are published, the Library is adding new subscriptions. Recent acquisitions include the International Journal of Nanoscience, the Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, and Nature Nanotechnology. Faculty with questions about these resources, or with suggestions for journals, monographs, handbooks, conference proceedings, or other resources, should contact Anna Ren at the Seeley G. Mudd Library, x1-2910, or annawu@northwestern.edu. She particularly welcomes suggestions about journals relating to social, political, and business aspects of nanotechnology.
In cognitive science, new journals will also be added, for example, the frequently requested Cognitive Neuropsychology, as well as current, full-text access to journals for which the MIT CogNet database only includes abstracts, such as Developmental Neuropsychology. (Currently, database access to both these journals does not include articles published during the past 12 months, due to publisher restrictions.) Since Northwestern’s cognitive science program spans at least 17 different departments, from anthropology to speech and language pathology, identifying the most critical resources for the field is a process that is enhanced by faculty participation and suggestion. Please contact bibliographer Leslie Bjorncrantz at the Main Library, x1-7602 or l-bjorncrantz@northwestern.edu, with suggestions or questions in this area.