by Michael Chesnes and Kathleen Lehman

AIP

As announced on PAMnet and elsewhere, AIP is sponsoring two Student Travel Grants for the Electronic Resources and Libraries (ER&L) conference in Austin, TX from April 2-4, 2012. Applications are due Wednesday, February 22, and winners will be notified by February 29, 2012. Note that some websites list the wrong year for the due date. Apply at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ERLTravelGrant

Also take a look at GradschoolShopper.com. This site can quickly narrow down grad school choices for many subdisciplines within physics and astronomy, although most programs listed are limited to the U.S. It includes convenient widgets for selecting locations, degrees, student/faculty ratios, budget, and research areas. The search results appear as both a list and a Google Map.

APS

Check out the the Top 11 Physics Headlines which APS put together for 2011. Developments in cloaking (acoustical, infrared, magnetic) weren’t on the list this time, but couldn’t have been far behind. If you browse the APS journal Physics for metamaterials you can read a number of articles on cloaking, including summaries from Physical Review.

IOP

The Institute of Physics has already released 3 reports for 2012. Of particular interest to librarians is “Collaborative yet independent: Information Practices in the Physical Sciences.” According to IOP’s website, “This report uses seven case studies to understand how researchers in the physical sciences find, access, use and share information.” Particle physicists and gamma-ray burst astrophysicists are among the communities of scientists whose research habits are studied, as well as chemists and Earth scientists.

SCOAP3

The tendering process for SCOAP3 is advancing, according to a recent news release on the cosortium’s website. A list including both for-profit and society publishers has agreed to SCOAP3′s key principles for open access publishing in high energy physics. Over the next year the consortium will send these publishers invitations to tender, and expects to sign contracts and publish through them by the beginning of 2013.

SPIE

There is a nice obituary on the SPIE website to Norman Edmund, founder of Edmund Scientific, which evolved into Edmund Optics. If you ever admired Edmund’s catalogs of scientific gadgets as a child (or an adult) you can appreciate his contributions to amateurs and professionals alike.

RT Reminder

Would you like to facilitate a brief discussion on a hot topic in physics librarianship at the 2012 SLA Conference? You don’t need to be a subject expert, only guide the discussion. Please contact Michael Chesnes or Kathleen Lehman if you are interested.