Sustainability Watch: evidence-based summaries on over 200 sustainability-related topics; monitoring thousands of leading journals and periodicals, this product presents best practices in a variety of sustainability areas including environmental impacts and pollution prevention initiatives, corporate citizenship, and long-term sustainable business practices”>Sustainability Watch: evidence-based summaries on over 200 sustainability-related topics; monitoring thousands of leading journals and periodicals, this product presents best practices in a variety of sustainability areas including environmental impacts and pollution prevention initiatives, corporate citizenship, and long-term sustainable business practices.

On trial until March 11, 2012

Noel James (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering) was recently appointed a Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to geology and carbonate sedimentology … read more.

A Canadian biologist has been named as one of “10 people who mattered this year” (CBC News)

The School of Environmental Studies is pleased to present a seminar on GHG Emissions and Carbon Footprint Accounting by Guliad Egeh.  Guliad is one of only a handful of certified GHG Inventory Quantifiers in the world. 

The presentation will focus on the methodology and quantification of GHG emissions and carbon footprints. Dr. Adam Fenech, from the Department of Environmental Sciences at U of T, will end the presentation with a brief look at the proposed carbon goals for the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve (FABR). 

WHEN:  Thursday December 1st, 2:30pm

WHERE:  Biosciences Building, Room 1120

Saleem Ali from the University of Vermont will be giving a talk entitled “Minerals and Society: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future” on November 23, 2011, 9:30 a.m. to 11:20, in Kingston Hall room 101.

Saleem H. Ali is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security at UVM’s James Jeffords Center for Policy Research. He is also on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and the visiting faculty for the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica).

Dr. Ali’s research focuses on the causes and consequences of environmental conflicts and how ecological factors can promote peace. Much of his empirical research has focused on environmental conflicts in the mineral sector. His most recent book is titled Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future. He is also the author of Mining, the Environment and Indigenous Development Conflicts.

Everyone is invited to attend.

What if every scientist could share their data as easily as they tweet about their lunch? Michael Nielsen calls for scientists to embrace new tools for collaboration that will enable discoveries to happen at the speed of Twitter. http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_nielsen_open_science_now.html

Queen’s subscribes to hundreds of databases that include millions of journal articles, newspaper articles and ebooks. For each of these databases, Queen’s signs a license that allows students, faculty and staff to use the materials in these databases for different purposes. Most databases allow you to link to material, but some also allow you to include material in coursepacks and/or post materials in Learning Management Systems like Moodle.

In the past, it has been very difficult to find out what rights were included in each license, but we have now put in place a database that allows you to find out exactly what is permitted under the terms of the licensing agreements that we have with each database provider. This information is now integrated into services like Summon and the Get It! @ Queen’s links that appear when searching in Google Scholar – meaning that you will not need to search a stand-alone database to find out what you can do with specific articles.

Watch a quick video of how this new service works here:
Licensing Database 2-Minute Demo.

If you have any questions about the terms of use for these databases, please send an email to Mark Swartz at copy.right@queensu.ca.

Note: This menu will only appear for some of the databases in our collection. This is just a start – over the coming months, we will be adding Terms of Use information for all of the databases in the library electronic collection.

Queen’s University is participating in International Open Access Week (Oct. 24-29). The aim of this event is to engage the research community in discussion about the issues and trends related to open access and promote awareness and understanding of open access – access to material publicly available online. Read more.

The Open Access exhibit will be displayed in the Douglas Library, October 27th-29th.

You can also register to attend several free webinars on open access. For details please see the Queen’s Library website.

The 2011 Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced last night at the 21st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University – for achievements that first make people LAUGH then make them THINK.

The Knovel University Challenge Kicks Off Today!
The Knovel University Challenge may be a multiple choice contest but it goes a long way in introducing you to the tools that are used by engineers at some of the world’s most innovative companies.
There are only 3 questions and lots of great prizes including an iPad 2, $500 cash prize and lots of other cool stuff.

How It Works — Play Two Ways
1. Go to www.knoveluniversitychallenge.com or the Facebook version of the game.
2. Choose your difficulty level.
3. Use the search box to answer 3 questions correctly.
4. Share with Friends — Bonus prizes are available! If your school has 100 student entries or more, an iPod Nano prize is guaranteed for a student at your university, so share the contest to increase your chances.

Contest closes midnight December 1st.