Did you know that our databases don’t just contain scholarly musings on obscure issues, some of them are intensely practical, like the engineering and materials information database, Knovel, which you can use to build practical things, like bicycles, race cars, …

Practical engineering Read more »

Anyone who has ever ventured into the realms of science, religion, mysticism or philosophy will have encountered their fair share of paradoxes: apparent contradictions that highlight where our understanding is insufficient to grasp a deeper truth. That’s the case here, …

Fun with physics: the spinning disc paradox Read more »

I’ve plumbed the depths of Knovel before now but having just chatted with the lovely lady from Elsevier who teaches people like your lecturers about the latest developments in our academic information resources, I wanted to pass on news of these latest exciting new tools and features that have been added recently.

BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) remains the simplest programming language, first used at Dartmoor College, New England in 1963, to teach Humanities students and other non-mathematicians to code, and specifically to build a time-sharing programme for mainframe time-sharing. This was back in the day when powerful computers filled a room, and people queued up for time to use it for advanced computational calculations – much as they continue to do today for modern supercomputers, telescopes, and other expensive and rare pieces of shared technology. This interview with one of the lecturers explains where BASIC came from and how the first coding class came about.

From Admiralty maps of the oceans to historical maps showing translucent overlaid layers from different time periods overlaid on the same map, maps of the agricultural census and land coverage maps showing the distribution of geology, biogeography and hydrology there are so many maps you can access, annotate, overlay, manipulate and download sections from online through our Digimap service.

When it comes to things as diverse as precision manufacture to emergency signage, things that really matter are designed to international standards. This facilitates trade between countries because products are manufactured to a known (no pun intended) standard and can be relied upon to be safe, effective and work as expected. A question we are frequently asked is where these elusive standards can be found.

Artist's impression of librarians upon the arrival of new eresources

Good news, everybody! We now have many more information resources of interest to surprisingly wide audiences, from everything tangentially related to computing to resources that help diversify the curriculum and more archives on British history from Victoriana to the modern day. Whether you are into History, Design, or Electronic Engineering, we have something new here for you.

Knovel is a truly original novel approach to presenting scientific and engineering information, designed to supply data for real world problems and experiments. What experienced users might not know is that you can now personalise your Knovel experience, organising your favourite content for easy reference and sharing folders of content with groupmates.

We are delighted to be able to add two new free ebook collections: Morgan and Claypool Synthesis Digital Library – everything you wanted to know about robotics NOW Computer Science eBooks – a wide variety of ebooks on everything from …

Introducing two new computing and robotics ebook collections Read more »