“The Bioenergy Blog is devoted to the identification and promotion of key primary and secondary/tertiary literature relating to biorenewable fuels, most notably bioethanol and biodiesel.

It will focus on the technical aspects and technologies associated with the production of these fuels, as well as other bio-based fuels.

It will seek to identify significant monographs as well as conference proceedings, dissertations and theses, reports and other grey literature, as well as popular works and relevant digital sources, notably DVDs and significant Websites. Select major review articles will also be profiled.

With proper support, it is hoped that the major publications and presentations cited in The Bioenergy Blog will be compiled into a Web-based annotated bibliography.”

The Encyclopedia of Earth is an open-access encyclopedia of topics in the biological and earth sciences, with articles written by reliable professionals in their fields, but aimed at a non-technical audience. The Encyclopedia is free and fully searchable.

The homepage includes a featured article, as well as a biography on a featured contributor, country profile, featured ecosystem, and a featured “classic” paper in environmentalism. The content can be browsed as well as searched by title of article, author, or topic.

The Encyclopedia also offers RSS feeds which alert users to new articles, new featured articles, and new revisions of older articles.

arXiv is an archive of full text journal articles in the areas of physics, mathematics, and computer science.

The mathematics arXiv was formed from a number of smaller mathematical archives, with some in the arXiv system and some elsewhere, at the beginning of 1998. The system as a whole has over 200,000 articles in physics, over 20,000 in mathematics, and over 2,000 in computer science. The ultimate goal is to distribute all new research literature in all three disciplines worldwide, to store it permanently, and to keep it freely available.

This week’s resource shows just how specified some of the bibliographic resources out there can get. The Avian Literature Database from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory provides access to information on the effect of wind energy development on birds.

The Association of Research Libraries has launched a new site http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/ to provide a concise guide to teaching faculty on exactly how copyright law affects the classroom. This is a great resource, so check it out.

From http://www.animalbehaviorarchive.org/:

“The Macaulay Library is the world’s largest archive of animal sounds.We have more than 160,000 recordings of 67 percent of the world’s birds, and rapidly increasing holdings of insects, fish, frogs, and mammals.”

These recordings, as well as selected video recordings of animal behavior, are available to be listened to or watched free on the site. Really great place to go if you’ve ever wondered just what a particular animal sounds like in the wild.

CQ Researcher is a unique resource in that it presents material in a very different way from most databases. CQ Researcher profiles a single “issue” every week. While many of these issues are political in nature, quite a few are relevant to the sciences, including Global Warming, Stem Cell Research, Fishing Rights, Environmental Policy, Evolution vs. Creationism, and others.

For each issue profiled, CQ Researcher provides a historical overview of the topic, essays defending all sides of the issue written by experts in the field, an explanation of the current status of the issue in the US and worldwide, and links to related topics. Most profiles include useful information such as a chronology of events relating to the issue, maps (where appropriate), and statistical data in the form of charts or graphs.

But by far the most useful aspect of CQ Researcher is the footnotes and bibliography sections. For each issue profiled, a glance at the footnotes and bibliography attached will provide the researcher with plethora of sources from which to begin investigating the issue more deeply. CQ Researcher is particularly ideal as a starting point for lower-level students writing term papers.

The LSU Libraries recently joined the Plant Management Network (please see the description below). In order to access this resource, visit the LSU Libraries home page, click on “Indexes and Databases” (listed under “Research Tools”), select “P” (listed under databases by title), and scroll down to the “Plant Management Network”.

The Plant Management Network offers an online suite of applied science information, including four fully citable peer-reviewed journals, field trials, and databases, which contain an ever-growing collection of more than 5,000 applied plant and agricultural science documents and 2,800 images. A not-for-profit online resource supported by partners and subscribers, PMN provides an ideal medium for anyone interested in applied agricultural information.

Resources include access to: Crop Management Journal, Plant Health Progress Journal, Forage and Grazing Lands Journal, Applied Turfgrass Science Journal, PMN Image Collections, PMN Plant Science Database, PMN Education and Training Center, Fungacide and Nematicide, Arthropod Management Tests, and Biological and Cultural Tests for Control of Plant Diseases. Additional benefits include: Page Charge-Free Publication in PMN Peer-Reviewed Journals, Complimentary Personal Subscriptions for All Institutional Faculty, Students, and Staff, Inclusion of Institutional Web-Based Documents in PMN Searchable Database, and Representation through the PMN Advisory Council.

Food Science and Technology Abstracts – FSTA – is the essential source of
information on food science, food technology, and human nutrition for
professionals working in the food sector at all stages of the food
manufacturing cycle.

Specialist scientists from the International Food Information Service
(IFIS) extract the food-relevant information from the original literature
to form concise, comprehensive summaries. This provides a quick and easy
way for busy food professionals to keep up with new developments and
research in the food community. Source publications include journals,
books, proceedings, reports, theses, standards, and legislation. FSTA
covers the Literature from 1969 to present, and includes over 700,000
records. FSTA is available as part of Web of Knowledge interface and the
LSU Libraries list of indexes and databases.

This week’s resource is our very own Louisiana Coastal Ecology Collection from the LOUISiana Digital Library.

The collection includes maps, geographic surveys, aerial photographs, climate data, and other research materials related to the Louisiana coast. The collection is primarily based upon the research materials of LSU geologist and geographer Richard J. Russell.