On January 14, 2008 Andrea sent an email regarding publishing fees for Public Library of Science & BioMed Central.

McMaster researchers receive a 10% discount on author fees when publishing through PLoS and 15% discount  when publishing through BioMed Central.

I am repeating the information as Liz and I encountered the question at the Reference Desk this morning.

I would much rather learn by playing than by having someone stand before me and lecture at me. Games are being developed for use in Medical and Nursing schools to simulate diagnosis, treatment and surgery. Laser tag, for hand eye co-ordination in laser and laporscopic surgeries. I could see us developing a game to teach database searching or to give virtual tours of the library while introducing the resources at the same time. Given how fast new tools are being developed, how about a Virtual Librarian sitting at the Reference Desk.

I actually don’t understand why Facebook is as popular as it is. I found MySpace to offer far more options, both in searching capacity and in the types of information available. I liked that I was able to browse by age group, country, marital status etc. for the purposes of networking, watch videos, or comedy routines and have the same functionality as Facebook. Think I’ll sign on for awhile.

I obviously missed telling you of my experience in online applications & tools. Found Zoho to be extremely helpful. For anyone using Univmail, which is a horrible system having access to Zoho could make life a lot simpler. Sharing the calendar, being able to collaborate in projects. I like the idea of signing on to all my email accounts through one place. Hope to get my calendar up shortly.

Snipshot – I like it. Simple and effective. I’ll have to keep this in mind for when I get a digital camera.

Had some trouble loading Firefox and add-ons. Turns out our IT department locked us out of downloading anything to our computers. Was finally able to do it after a call to IT.  Added Del.icio.us to Firefox, now when I sign in to Firefox my Del.icio.us bookmarks and tags automatically show to the left and a Google search to the right. Two steps in one. Love it.

Oh no, no, no!!!! I had sooooo much fun playing the free slot games at www.freeslots.com.  The best so far. Played Yahtzee and Pop Cap Games at Zuma (made it to level three, but couldn’t get past there.) Now this is something I could get used to. I think I’ll try the recommended game Bejeweled, the one I played was Peebles? okay I didn’t write down the name. Gotta get back to stats, but will look at Browser tools today.

Wow!! Now I understand how you get hooked. It was interesting to search for friends in Facebook. There doesn’t seem to be anyone my age on there. Did find my niece and my godson (I think), I’m waiting for a response to my ping. I even added a picture of myself, and updated my profile. Feels like a dating service given the questions to answer when adding a profile. Looking forward to my next encounter with the virtual environment, especially when I am addicted to gambling, (slot machines) and yahtzee.

Will let you know how my gambling goes.

Maybe someone could explain to me why I would want to use RSS instead of adding the site to my favourites. I have feeds for Scientific American and the New Scientist. Both of these are journals I used to read in print more for interest than work related, although questions have come to the Reference desk where the information comes in very useful. While browsing through del.icio.us and Flickr, I  came upon a website call the Diabetic Gourmet. As a diabetic I am always looking for receipts that are quick but tasty. I enjoyed using del.icio.us and have added it to my tool bar.

I am currently looking at online applications and tools, thought I’d try Snipshot but have been unable to find it. Did I miss something or is it gone.

All for now, talk to you soon.

Tazzcat

Well its just del.icio.us! I can see myself using this social bookmarking tool just to be able to control and organize my favourites. I also discovered a number of new web sites which I added to my list. Flickr is interesting, but not useful to someone who doesn’t take picture, own a camera or design web pages. The one thing I liked about Flickr was the alphabetical list of “Popular” tags, if this were in del.icio.us there would not be so much duplication. I will have to add del.icio.us to my toolbar.

Well I tried PBWiki and Wetpaint and decided I liked the setup of Wetpaint the best.  Added a geneology site I have used in the past.

I don’t know if it is just me but am finding it difficult to remember the new vocabulary, blogs, wiki’s, rss. It is all rather confusing. I hope this is just because most of the things we are doing in the programme is new.  Time constraints mean I have had to review the past few weeks activities before I can move on. I will catch up soon.