Benchmark Sources for Canada and (mostly) B.C.

From the CARTA-L (Canadian Maps & GIS Libraries and Archives) email list, April 19/07...

Pictures of benchmarks, many on this page from B.C. at Canadian Benchmarks, A waymarking.com Category:
http://www.waymarking.com/cat/
details.aspx?f=1&guid=ebb67127-d531-4798-9d17-c6b77f235c49
"Canadian Benchmarks will include several types of permanently fixed survey markers, monuments or other devices that are used for taking accurate measurements within Canada."

See Mascot on this page:
http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/bmgs/gsr/index.htm
"The MASCOT system consists of a network of over 50,000 survey control monuments situated in the valleys and mountains throughout British Columbia. This network of monuments was established from mapping and control surveys conducted over the last century. During the 1960's, through a partnership between the provincial government and local governments, the physical control system was extended to developing areas. MASCOT is a database of the provincial control survey's physical system and provides published coordinates and elevations and related data for public access and use."

Faculty Technology Days - You're Invited!

Faculty Technology Days: Teaching and Learning with Technology

May 2 - 4, 2007

Libraries and Cultural Resources, the Teaching and Learning Centre and Information Technologies are pleased to present the annual Faculty Technology Days: Teaching and Learning with Technology, May 2 - 4, 2007.

All Faculty and Graduate Students are invited to register and attend the free sessions. You are also invited to register for a complimentary lunch – a time to chat and reconnect with colleagues. All sessions will be held in the Education Block.
Whether you are interested in new resources, the latest in blended learning techniques, or refreshing yourself on the basics, there are sessions for you.

Research sessions will include citation tracking tools, EndNote and RefWorks a new web-based bibliographic software product, tips on getting started on your thesis and a DSpace update.

Specialized Resources sessions will include an introduction to the new classical music library, GIS data on the Internet, and finding Canadian legal information.

Technology sessions will provide an opportunity to catch up on what’s new plus a refresher on the basics of Blackboard, PowerPoint and Word collaboration tools.Plan to attend a PeopleSoft session on PER, the new PeopleSoft Faculty Centre or PeopleSoft Student Centre.

Instructional sessions will focus on enhancing inquiry based learning and instruction through the use of technology to develop blended learning approaches, develop assessment techniques and hear from your colleagues on how they have applied successful blended learning strategies in their course.

A three part session on starting, researching and writing your thesis will be of interest to graduate students.

New sessions of interest:
Hard play: digital game based learning and information literacy
Taylor Family Digital Library – a look forward
Psychology Instruction Project: bootstrapping blended learning with student instruction.
Podcasting – an overview of the Podcasting initiative.
All sessions are free to Faculty and Graduate students

Registration deadline is May 1, 2007

Register Online at http://www.ucalgary.ca/ftd starting April 19, 2007
Phone registration: 220-8895

For further information contact:
Susan Beatty, Head, Information Commons
sdbeatty@ucalgary.ca Phone: 220-2629

Find tables, figures, graphs, charts etc. from scholarly research and technical literature - CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences

The library has just subscribed to a neat new product, CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences.

It searches for tables, graphs, maps, images, etc. in the scholarly literature. For example, if you are looking for maps of the grizzly bear's range in Kananaskis (or a picture of the grizzly itself), you can use Illustrata.

The database is not in our Research Databases list yet, so use this link in the meantime:
http://ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca:2048/login?url=
http://www.csa.com/htbin/dbrng.cgi?
username=ucab&access=ucab282&db=objectsclust-nats-set-c

From CSA:
CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences is interdisciplinary, covering a wide variety of journals from all major areas such as: biology, earth sciences, environmental studies, medical sciences, agriculture, fish and fisheries, education, geography, veterinary science, food and food industries, pharmacy and pharmacology, meteorology, public health and safety, water resources, conservation and forests and forestry. CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences is the first in a series of CSA Illustrata databases of searchable tables, figures, graphs, charts and other illustrations from the scholarly research and technical literature. Coverage includes 1977 to current.

NRCan: Free GIS Data

Our Geography Librarian has posted this to her blog:
Geography - Library News: Natural Resources Canada frees GIS data

What is this GIS data? Well, according to the web site:
"The collections include raster data, such as satellite images or scanned topographic maps, vector data, such as national-scale frameworks (grouped by theme), and a database of ground control points."

A quick browse shows that there is:
Land Cover Data
Satellite (SPOT, Landsat)
Canada Land Inventory
Digital Topo Maps
Federal Electoral Districts of Canada\
Atlas of Canada National Frameworks data
National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) data
North American Conservation Areas Database data
North American Atlas data
Population ecumene data
...etc.

Backfiles of Journal of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Society Bulletin Online

JSTOR, an electronic archive of journals is now providing access to the Journal of Wildlife Management, Vols. 1 – 68, 1937-2004 and Wildlife Society Bulletin, Vols. 1 – 32, 1973-2004.

Access will soon be available via the catalogue, but for now, access these volumes via JSTOR (click browse then Biological Sciences)

Current electronic issues can be accessed via the catalogue as usual.

Happy Reading!