Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

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

Open Access gallops on

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Frank Norman

Note: I see that Stephen has beaten me to it with his post last night (does he never sleep?!?).  This post overlaps with his but not totally, so I decided to put it up anyway. Progress towards the ideal of open … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | 2 Comments

Wordy, wooden, weak-verbed

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Frank Norman

A piece in today’s Times Higher, on the flaws of academic writing styles, struck a chord with me.  It says: If you have ever needlessly added the term “Foucauldian” to a journal article or bludgeoned readers by starting an epic sentence … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | 5 Comments

Collecting, connecting, communicating

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Frank Norman

Librarians collect stuff. To collect is one of the most important verbs in the librarian’s instruction manual. Probably the next most important is to categorise. There is a connection between these two. We do not collect randomly but with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogology, Libraries and librarians, Uncategorized, Writing | 4 Comments

A rearward look at rewards: celebrations and celebrities

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Frank Norman

Last autumn I had the pleasure of attending the awards ceremonies for two science writing prizes. They are similar competitions but have individual characteristics and constraints: the Max Perutz prize is sponsored by the MRC, which is a taxpayer-funded organisation … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | 2 Comments

“Facebook for scientists”

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Frank Norman

Soon after Nature Network launched in 2007 it was being touted as the “Facebook for scientists”. Other sites that had been around longer, such as FriendFeed and LabSpaces, occasionally got that moniker too (and indeed Facebook bought out FriendFeed later on).  … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tools, Social networking | 19 Comments

Answering searching questions

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Frank Norman

For twenty years we have had some sort of desktop access to the scientific literature. At first we only had abstracts of articles, and accessed them through fairly clunky interfaces (anyone remember BIDS?). The introduction of PubMed in 1997 improved … Continue reading →

Posted in Searching | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Library Day in the Life – weekly round up

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Frank Norman

Last year I took part in Library Day in the Life (#libday7). For one week I wrote a daily post on Google+ about what I had done during the day, and an end-of-week round-up. I enjoyed the experience and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Libraries and librarians | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Science policy – my favourite sites

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Frank Norman

In a comment on a recent post, Jamie Christie asked me to list my top ten sites on research policy.  I thought this would be a difficult task; the best sites will vary depending on your particular interests, and some … Continue reading →

Posted in Research management | 3 Comments

The power of music

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Frank Norman

Some pieces of music really should carry a government health warning. The first time I saw Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde live, the Liebestod scene was unforgettable. The intensity of the music mounted and mounted, receded and then mounted again … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Informing science and policy

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Frank Norman

Ian Gibson wrote last month in the Times Higher that we need a new generation of politically savvy scientists. He said “many in the scientific community do not see it as their business to get involved in matters of policy. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Research management | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments