Author: steplitz
Over 200 students “escape” the Earth Sciences and Map Library
For the third year in a row, we challenged undergraduates in Earth & Planetary Sciences and Geography courses to “escape” from the library by answering a series of questions related to the library’s platforms and services.
Over 200 students participated this year from September 1 – 30, 2023. At the conclusion of the contest, five winners were randomly drawn from eligible entries to receive prizes.
Try it!
Reading about something is never the same as a hands-on experience. The room remains open for visitors at the following link:
ENTER THE ESCAPE ROOM
The Escape Room is restricted to UC Berkeley affiliated students, staff and faculty. A “berkeley.edu” email address is required to participate.
History
Read about the creation of the 2021 Escape Room in this blog written by a member of the Earth Sciences & Map Library staff.
Updates & Audience
The 2023 Virtual Escape Room continues prior year’s Stranger Things theme with relevant updates to reflect changes in the library catalog as well as staffing and hours updates.
The Escape Room is open to all, but targets undergraduates taking EPS and Geography courses. In order to encourage camaraderie among departments housed within McCone Hall, affiliated students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to participate in the Escape Room’s simultaneous Battle of McCone competition. The main majors–Earth and Planetary Sciences and Geography–with the highest number of players will earn bragging rights as the winner of the friendly competition!
Questions?
We welcome questions and comments about the Earth Sciences & Map Library Virtual Escape Room. Email eart@library.berkeley.edu.
Seismica is live!
As Open Science Editor of Seismica, a new diamond open access journal in Seismology and Earthquake Science, I’m pleased to share that Seismica is live!
The root of the Galapagos hotspot plume is as wide as Ecuador, according to Cottaar et al. They mapped it using data from Chilean earthquake waves traveling along the core-mantle boundary.
Read Seismica's 1st published article 🎉🥳: https://t.co/3jCweB07lt#DiamondOpenAccess pic.twitter.com/ZdUxgl5jnB
— Seismica (@WeAreSeismica) October 28, 2022
Our first article by Sanne Cottar et al. was published today.
For the open science enthusiasts out there, this paper does it all!
- Data availability ✅
- Code sharing ✅
- Author contributions ✅
- Public peer review ✅
This paper was free for the authors (no APCs) and is free to read, the first of many in the pipeline at Seismica.
Escape the Earth Sciences & Map Library!
Last year we challenged undergraduates in the Earth & Planetary Sciences and Geography Departments to “escape” from the library by answering a series of questions related to the library’s platforms and services.
The Virtual Escape Room is back again this fall!
Details
ENTER THE ESCAPE ROOM
The Escape Room is open August 22 – September 15, 2022.
The Escape Room is restricted to UC Berkeley affiliated students, staff and faculty. A “berkeley.edu” email address is required to participate.
History
Following the pandemic closures, the Earth Sciences & Map Library reopened in August of 2021. With the start of that new academic year, the Earth Sciences & Map Library staff wanted to welcome back students and remind them of our available library services and spaces. Read about the creation of the 2021 Escape Room in this blog written by a member of the Earth Sciences & Map Library staff.
Updates & Audience
The 2022 Virtual Escape Room continues last year’s Stranger Things theme with relevant updates to reflect changes in the library catalog as well as staffing and hours updates.
The Escape Room is open to all, but targets undergraduates taking EPS and Geography courses. In order to encourage camaraderie among departments housed within McCone Hall, affiliated students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to participate in the Escape Room’s simultaneous Battle of McCone competition. The main majors–Earth and Planetary Sciences and Geography–with the highest number of players will earn bragging rights as the winner of the friendly competition!
Try it!
Reading about something is never the same as a hands-on experience. Now that you have read all about our virtual escape room try it out for yourself! Only students are eligible for prizes, but all @berkeley affiliates are welcome to participate!
Questions?
We welcome questions and comments about the Earth Sciences & Map Library Virtual Escape Room. Email eart@library.berkeley.edu or tweet us @geolibraryucb
Olympic physics, a reading list
Just in time for the summer olympics, check out the Physics-Astronomy Library’s summer reading display about the physics of sport and leisure.
For a full list of books and articles, visit: http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/physicssports
or visit the Physics-Astronomy Library, 351 LeConte Hall, M-F, 10-5.
ADS gets a new interface
The Astrophysics Data System or ADS, a tool for finding astronomical and planetary science, has introduced a beta version of its new interface, Bumblebee. Bumblebee builds on the ADS “Classic” and ADS “2.0” interfaces, and introduces new filtering options and the ability to search full-text.
For the time being, the myADS notification service will remain unchanged, but look forward to a new custom notification service in the coming year.
For help constructing complex searches, visit: http://adsabs.github.io/help/search/
And for the hackers among you, visit github to check out Bumblebee’s publicly accessible code.
Princeton Primers in Climate
Princeton Primers in Climate is a series of short, authoritative books that explain the state of the art in climate-science research. These primers reveal the physical workings of the global climate system with accessibility and detail. Princeton Primers in Climate is the ideal first place to turn to get the essential facts, presented with uncompromising clarity, and to begin further investigation–in the library or wherever your summer travels take you.
All seven titles are available at the Earth Sciences and Map Library in McCone Hall including: Paleoclimate; Climate and Ecosystems; Planetary Climates; Climate and the Oceans; the Cryosphere; Atmosphere, Clouds and Climate; and the Global Carbon Cycle. Four more titles are forthcoming.
IOP ebooks
UC Berkeley now has access to two IOP ebook collections, Expanding Physics which offers in-depth texts on key areas in Physics, and Concise Physics which contains shorter texts focused on rapidly advancing areas.
The IOP digital offerings include:
- one platform for book and journal content
- DRM-free simultaneous access for users
- e-reader compatibility with HTML, PDF and EPUB formats
- integrated multimedia content
View the collections on the IOPscience platform: http://iopscience.iop.org/books
Physics Department Colloquia
Did you know that webcasts of the weekly Physics Department Colloquia are hosted and preserved by the Library? Links to the weekly talks as well as the annual Oppenheimer and Segre lectures from 2007-present can be found on the Physics Department’s Colloquia and Webcasts page. Earlier talks are cataloged in Oskicat.
NOTE: The older webcasts are provided as QuickTime files. To view a webcast, download the free QuickTime Player software from the Apple website then click on the colloquium you would like to view.