Friday 17 December 2010

Research Funding Update - Fellowships and Studentships

 
Photo by nosillacast
 
Post by Anna
The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

Monday 6 December 2010

Christmas and Flash Mobs





Posted by Andy

Seeing as Christmas is less than 3 weeks away we thought we'd share a couple great videos that bring out the real Christmas spirit, or certainly a great human spirit. When I say the word Christmas, what's one of the first things to spring to mind for you? That's right, flash mobs. Enjoy.

Friday 3 December 2010

Research Funding Update: Projects and Programmes

 
Post by Anna
The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

December edition of Take Five

Photo by Rich Jacques

The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.
You can view it here

To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Anna Cantrell by email a.j.cantrell@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220894

An archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here

Thursday 2 December 2010

Share and the Hive Community

Share and the Hive Community
View more presentations from Andrew Tattersall.

These are the slides from a recent presentation I gave at the White Rose Research Information Forum on the 29th Nov 2010 on Web 2.0 and why it is under-valued as a way of working.

10 Tools for Better Working should a Crisis Happen




Photo and Posted by Andy

Considering the recent weather events and closure of the University, I thought I would list a few tools to help you work better at home.


In this day and age with a bit effort, there is little reason why meetings can't still take place, documents be co-created, resources built, references collected, PDFs stored, meetings organised, presentations delivered, files shared and diagrams co-designed.

Whether it be the adverse weather, Swine Flu, petrol shortages or Icelandic ash clouds keeping you away from work, there are several tools out there you can employ freely to help you carry on your work and collaboration any where that little bit better.

Here's just a sample of some of them through the medium of 10 short videos, if you want to have a rest after battling through the snow to get a pint of milk, take ten minutes out with a cup of coffee and see if anything interests you. Many of these tools will be covered more in future IR Bite Size sessions. ALL OF THESE TOOLS ARE FREE


Thursday 25 November 2010

IR Bite Size #2: Prezi!


Image courtesy of Prezi.com



Next week, the second of IR's 'Bite Size' sessions will look at the zooming presentation tool, Prezi. Prezi is free, easy to use, and creates visually stunning presentations that can enhance engagement and understanding. And did I mention that it's free? No? Well, its free! How about that! Come and see me blather on adoringly about it next week on Weds 1st December at 2.30pm in the Eric Wilkes room. Be there or be a sad old PowerPoint rectangle.

Posted by Claire

Friday 19 November 2010

Research Funding Update - Fellowships and Studentships


Photo by edtechie99
Post by Anna
The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

Tuesday 16 November 2010

November's edition of Take Five

Photo by Lst1984
 
The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.

You can view it here

To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Anna Cantrell by email a.j.cantrell@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220894

An archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here


ScHARRBucks - More Bite Size Learning

Posted by Andy

In collaboration with the ScHARR Library bitesize research sessions, the ScHARR teaching committee are running a series of bitesized teaching sessions, the first of which is tomorrow (16th Nov) at 2.30 in the Pemberton, details below.
'All you ever wanted to know about presenting with Powerpoint, but were afraidto ask..... (in 20 minutes)'. with Paul Wigfield

Come along and find out something new - what have you got to lose, it is only 20 minutes and we will supply biscuits. Apologies to those of you who can't make it but we were keen to get the programme up and running as soon as possible. .
As this will form the first of a programme of 20 minute talks each dealing with a different teaching issue please feel free to let Jenny Freeman know you have anything suggestions for future sessions.

If you want to see how NOT to use PowerPoint - watch the video below



Thursday 11 November 2010

Mendeley on Prezi




Posted by Andy

Following on from this week's inaugural  IR Bite Size session that focused on the excellent reference management and social networking tool Mendeley, I came across this Prezi presentation by Sjúrður Hammer.
The next IR Bite Size session will be run by Claire Beecroft on Prezi!

Tuesday 9 November 2010

IR Technology Bite Size



Posted by Andy


ScHARR Library are launching a new series of short 20 minute 'coffee break' sessions to give staff and PhD students a taste of the many tools, websites and techniques you can employ to work smarter. Ask yourself these questions...

Have you ever wanted to be more flexible with your work?
Have you ever wanted the ability to stay in touch with your research areas any where on the globe?
Do you want to learn about new tools and websites and just don't feel you have the time?
Do you want to form new networks and find people with similar research interests from any where in the World?
Do you want to find the hot topics in your area?
Do you want to create innovative presentations, learn better search techniques, have access to documents any time on any PC and manage your references whilst discovering new research?
Imagine Swine Flu returns, an Ash Cloud leaves you stuck abroad, Regent Court has a power cut - could you still work effectively?
Do you only have 20 minutes free and fancy a cake to go with that mid afternoon hot drink?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, read on....
The sessions aim to be about 20 minutes long and are presented by ScHARR's team of Information Specialists. Over the course of the next few months we hope to show you some of the latest tools that can help you to work more flexibly, efficiently and smarter. All we ask is you give at least one of them a go, all you need to do is turn up with a beverage and we'll supply the tubs of bite size flapjacks and mini rolls.


Bite Size Session #1 - November 10th - 2.30pm - Eric Wilkes Room - Go beyond Reference Manager - Mendeley

Billed as the iTunes for scientific research, Mendeley is one of many next generation reference management tools. Andy Tattersall will give a brief insight into what Mendeley does and what sets it apart from its counterparts, especially traditional reference management tools such as Endnote and Reference Manager.
Foe more information go to:

Future sessions:
All 2.30 pm till 2.50pm in the Eric Wilkes Room

Bite Size Session #2 - December 1st - Claire Beecroft - Prezi


Prezi- Prezi is an on-line tool for creating presentations using 'zooming' to make the presentation more entertaining and more user-friendly. You can zoom in on text and images to highlight key areas and improve student engagement and understanding. It is very quick to learn and you can store your Prezi's both on and off-line, share them or make them private, and copy a completed Prezi so that you can make minor amendments and re-use it for a different purpose! It's fab, its free, and it kicks PowerPoint in to touch. Its the single easiest way to give your teaching or research presentation the 'wow' factor and you can learn it in less that 20 mins- what's not to like? 
Homepage: www.prezi.com
A Prezi about Prezi: http://prezi.com/7okmswx_ex40/
Twitter group for Prezi support: http://twitter.com/#!/prezi
Wikipedia entry on Prezi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi


Bite Size Session #3 - December 15th - Anthea Sutton - PBWiki, uSpace Documents and Disposable Web Pages

Fed up of email attachments clogging up your inbox? Collaborating with others on a document and struggling to know which is the most recent version? Spending lots of time collating comments on a document? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this could be the session for you!
This session will cover several ways to make collaborating on writing documents a whole lot easier.  You may already be familiar with Uspace but did you know you can upload documents allowing others you are working with to edit and add comments.  In addition, in this session we will also look at the Wiki PBWorks, which is a free online workspace which allows the easy creation of a project website which can be used for discussions and to upload documents to name a few functions. Finally, we will show you how to create disposable web pages – web pages that are easy to create and that can be set to self-destruct after 90 days – great for any short-term project work you want to do.
So, come along, see what’s what, and help make email attachments a thing of the past!*

January 12th 2011 Andy Tattersall - rss for Research
January 26th 2011 Angie Rees - Pubget / Louise Guillaume - Google Scholar
February 9th 2011 Andy Tattersall -  Professional Social Networks
February 23rd 2011 Andy Tattersall - Visual Social Bookmarks


Can any PhD supervisors please inform your students of these sessions. 

Monday 8 November 2010

Changing Education Paradigms



Posted by Andy

An excellent animation of a Sir Ken Robinson presentation - best watched on a full screen.

Friday 5 November 2010

Research Funding Update - Projects and Programmes


Posted by Andy 

The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link.

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

HEDS Get Blogging!


Posted by Andy

For those unaware The ScHARR Library is nicely nestled in a much larger organism under the name of Health Economics and Decision Science (HEDS). With the aid of my good self, Professor Simon Dixon has launched HEDS first venture in the realm of blogging with a site that has regular interesting posts about what we do - all of which don't extend beyond 200 words. So no long reams of text, it's all straight to the point, and considering how the average attention span has shrunk to a.........you've stopped reading this haven't you?

More about HEDS
Health Economics and Decision Science (HEDS) is part of the School for Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield.  It comprises of around 80 research staff with expertise in economics, mathematical modelling, systematic reviewing, Bayesian statistics and information sciences.  HEDS is built around reserach funding from several national sources and consultancy from a range of NHS and pharmaceutical organisations.  It runs one Masters degree and its staff teach modules on several others.  In the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise, ScHARR was ranked number 1 for research power.


Friday 22 October 2010

Dream Bigger Dreams



Posted by Andy

At last! The truth about medical research...

                                                                         Image courtesy of Mike Licht, NotionsCaptial.com


For those of you that have never heard of  Dr John Ioannidis and his controversial but brilliant ideas about the state of medical research, you would do well to check out David H.Freedman's article in online magazine 'the Atlantic' this month. And for those of you who want to read Ioannidis' groundbreaking article from PLoS Medidine, you can read the full text at: http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Posted by Claire

Thursday 21 October 2010

Research Funding Update - Fellowships and Studentships

 
 
Posted by Andy 



You can download the latest Research Funding update by going to our Research Funding page or you can view it directly here
 
The archive of the Research Funding Update can be viewed here


For more information please feel free to contact The Information Service @ ScHARR Library on 0114 2225420 or by email scharrlib@shef.ac.uk

Net Neutrality - The Empire Strikes Back?

net neutrality




Posted by Andy

Thursday 14 October 2010

Recommended Website of the month - Speedtile

 
 Posted by Andy

There is absolutely no shortage of innovative online bookmarking tools out there, obviously the established big players are Delicious and Diigo, but more recently there has been a move towards visual bookmarking tools. we've already seen the wonderful Pearltrees which creates wonderful tree structures of favourite websites, and can be best used as a teaching or learning resource. 
Another great tool is Speedtile, which takes all of your favourites and places them with small screen shots in a tile formation on your browser. It's very quick to use, and looks really good. You can create shared collections and place content over several tabs. The only downside is that it does not recognise certain Website extensions such as.pdf. Nevertheless it is well worth the visit.

If you want to see it in actioon have a look at the one I created for a course we ran in Switzerland last month.

Web 3.0 and the Future of the Web


Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.


Posted by Andy

Friday 8 October 2010

October's Edition of Take Five

Posted and Photo by Andy


he latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.

To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Andy Tattersall by email a.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220702

You can view it here


Whilst an archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here


Friday 1 October 2010

Thursday 30 September 2010

CASP Checklists have moved

 Photo by mykpwedding
Posted by Anthea

Looking for the CASP critical appraisal checklists? They now reside on the Solutions for Public Health NHS website at: http://www.sph.nhs.uk/what-we-do/public-health-workforce/resources/critical-appraisals-skills-programme

A day in the life of New York City, in miniature


The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Posted by Andy

Truly, truly amazing - take a few minutes out of your working day for this amazing video, that makes you feel really, really small - in a good way, that is.

A day in the life of New York City, in miniature. 

Winner: Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction 2010

Original Music: composed by Human (humanworldwide.com), co-written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong. 

Please view in HD and full screen for best effect. For a description of the shoot, camera, lenses and workflow, please see here: bit.ly/​aFmaPZ

Friday 24 September 2010

Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning returns to ScHARR!

                                           Photo © Claire Beecroft

This morning the Macmillan 'Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning', organised by Kirsty Woodhead, returned to the 2nd Floor common room at ScHARR. Cakes on offer included Chocolate Cherry Muffins, Guinness® Gingerbread, Rose Cliff's sensational Coffee and Walnut Cake and Jon Tosh's infamous Walnut Brownies. As you can see from our picture, the staff ate through them like a plague of locusts, leaving nothing but a trail of sticky crumbs in their wake and returning to their offices, content and sleepy. Here's to next year!


Posted by Claire

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Two million filters can't be wrong...



A study recently published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases has developed optimal search filters for retrieving renal-related information from EMBASE. The research team tested nearly two million unique filters in their search for perfection- phew! You can read more at the American Journal of Kidney Disease Website.

Posted by Claire, with thanks to Andrew Booth for drawing this study to our attention!

Friday 17 September 2010

Research Funding Update - Fellowships and Studentships

Photo ©   fishbone1
Posted by Andy 



You can download the latest Research Funding update by going to our Research Funding page or you can view it directly here


For more information please feel free to contact The Information Service @ ScHARR Library on 0114 2225420 or by email scharrlib@shef.ac.uk