Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

I am a retired librarian. I spent 40 years working in biomedical research libraries.

Running, motivation and toys

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Frank Norman

Mo Farah, double gold medal-winning distance runner, showed us this summer how important strategy is to winning a race. He runs the race from the back of the pack and then over the last 500m or so accelerates to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

A look back at the future

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Frank Norman

I am indebted to Dr R.A.C. for bringing to my attention a spoof exam paper drawn up by J.B.S. Haldane. Originally published in the journal Brighter Biochemistry (“the illustrated journal of the Biochemical Laboratory, Cambridge”), the paper was republished in Trends in … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

A snapshot of our collection – history

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Frank Norman

Earlier this month I hosted a meeting of CHILL. It is a group of independent health libraries which meets three times a year in the premises of one or other of the members. The meetings are an opportunity to share … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Libraries and librarians | 2 Comments

PLOS shift

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Frank Norman

Camel case (the practice of writing words with some inner uppercase letters) is one of my pet hates, as it demands sufficient finger dexterity to make sure you hit the shift key at just the right point in the middle … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing | 11 Comments

Flying through the Crick

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Frank Norman

Quick update to my post about the Crick Institute building site. The Crick has now released a fly-through video animation to show what the interior of the building will look like. It is just 4 minutes long, and includes some … Continue reading →

Posted in Crick | 4 Comments

Another collection of essays

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Frank Norman

Last year I gave a shameless plug for the Mill Hill Essays that I produce each year.  Here is another plug, for the latest collection – Mill Hill Essays 2011-12. The printed booklets have been distributed (free to libraries and other … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Reading recommendations | Tagged | 3 Comments

A very large building site

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Frank Norman

Last week I went on a short tour of the Francis Crick Institute construction site. The Crick is a new research institute due to open in 2015, and will be formed out of two existing institutes in London plus three … Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating science, Crick | 7 Comments

Megajournals

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Frank Norman

The trend towards Open Access has catalysed the creation of many new journals and new publishers. BioMedCentral, established in 2000, was a pioneer of open access publishing, launching a large number of journals. Public Library of Science (PLoS) initially established … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing, Open Access | Tagged | 11 Comments

M and S

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Frank Norman

I am back at work after a three-week break. I had a good holiday, visiting Manila and Singapore.  I really managed to switch off, totally ignoring the temptation to look at my email or Twitter. The part of my brain … Continue reading →

Posted in Froth | Tagged | 5 Comments

Evidence of corruption?

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Frank Norman

Guilty.   Not guilty. The moment in the courtroom when a verdict is delivered is a moment of high drama, potentially a life-changing decision for the accused. Reading newspaper reports of court cases makes me feel uneasy. Is the verdict correct? How … Continue reading →

Posted in Peer review | 1 Comment