The 2013/2014 Academic Session

Congratulations to all our new undergraduate and postgraduate students and thank you for choosing UM as the university to embark on your academic journey. To returning undergraduate and postgraduate students, welcome back. We do hope that you had a memorable holiday and is now all geared up to face another year and one step closer to your dreams.

The academic calendar for the 2013/2014 session is as follows and do take note of the various holidays:

acad-session-2013

All the best from all of us at UM Library.

Dr Nor Edzan Che Nasir
Chief Librarian
UM Library
23 September 2013

USING A STANDARD FORM OF NAME AND AFFILIATION

1. Name of Author

When submitting articles for publication in journals and papers for conferences, it is good practice to adhere to a standard form of name. When other authors cite us, they follow a standard citation style and Malay names will always pose a problem. Chinese, Indian and Western names are easier to handle since they have a family name when compared to Malay names.

For example, previously, I wrote as NOR EDZAN CHE NASIR but now I write under N.N. EDZAN. With the former, I have been cited as follows:

CHE NASIR, NOR EDZAN
NASIR, NOR EDZAN CHE
CHE NASIR, N.E.
NASIR, N.E.C. N

Tracing citings for my various names can be a problem. However, citation databases do establish cross-references for variant names but at times they tend to miss out. So, please establish a standard form of name for which you want to be identified and cited as.

2. Affiliation

This refers to our place of work . Most of us would put in our department and/or faculty and then Universiti of Malaya. Again, please use a standard for of name for our university , i.e. UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA or UNIVERSITI MALAYA. Please do not use UM, U.M., Uni. of Malaya, U. Malaya, UMMC, UNIMAL etc.

Dr Nor Edzan Che Nasir
Chief Librarian
UM Library
4 April 2013

A New Semester – A Warm Welcome!

Semester 2 of the 2012/2013 academic session for UM will commence on 18 February 2013.

The academic calendar for the coming semester is as follows:-

Lectures 7 weeks 18 February 2013 to 5 April 2013
Semester Break 1 week 6 April 2013 to 14 April 2013
Lectures 7 weeks 15 April 2013 to 31 May 2013
Revision 1 week 1 June 2013 to 9 June 2013
Examinations 3 weeks 10 June 2013 to 28 June 2013

Semester 2 will be followed by a 9-week break or an 8-week Special Semester. A warm welcome to returning students from all of us here at the UM Library.

Dr Nor Edzan Che Nasir
Chief Librarian
UM Library
15 February 2013

ZONING THE READING HALL

During the 2009/2010 Academic Session, we received a fair number of comments aka complaints on the amount of noise generated by our users within our Reading Halls. By then we were well aware that different pockets of users use the Library for different reasons – some require total silence whilst others need to hold open discussions. Continue reading

Future of Screen Technology


“This is the result of the Open Innovation experiment. It is an experience video showing the future of screen technology with stretchable screens, transparent screens and e-ink displays, to name a few.”

Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet

UCLA Professor of Information Studies Christine Borgman provides an overview of new developments in scholarly information infrastructure, including policy issues such as open access and intellectual property, and addresses the implications of e-science for cyberlearning.

The video of it is now online.

From the description:

Today’s research and scholarship is data- and information-intensive, distributed, interdisciplinary, and collaborative. However, the scholarly practices, products, and sources of data vary widely between disciplines. Some fields are more advantaged than others by the array of content now online and by the tools and services available to make use of that content.

Three Prize Winners Awarded in Elsevier’s Article 2.0 Contest

Elsevier, a leading global healthcare and scientific publisher, has announced the winners in the Elsevier Article 2.0 Contest, a competition challenging individuals to develop creative and useful solutions for rendering journal articles on the web.

The $4,000 first prize was awarded to Inigo Surguy whose idea demonstrated how Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0/Semantic Web approaches can be combined to add value to article content. His application enhances content navigation, facilitating commentary on specific paragraphs, and assertions about the article and its contents.

The $2,000 second prize was awarded to Jacek R. Ambroziak. His mobile application enables reading Elsevier articles on an Android Smartphone. Stuart Chalk, the $1000 third prize winner, submitted an idea operating on the premise that research articles are inherently non-linear and that researchers view articles in a random fashion, depending on their interests.

Congratulations to Surguy, Ambroziak, and Chalk.