Author Archives: Frank Norman

Peer review is one of those old chestnuts that people never seem to tire of discussing. Does it work? What is it? Do we like it? Can it be improved? Do we need it? Why won’t it just go away? … Continue reading →

I went to another meeting today about UK PubMedCentral . For the first time I began to feel a bit excited about the resource this project is building. Whenever I hear the phrase “one-stop shop” I groan inwardly. Since bibliographic … Continue reading →

From the DIUS website : The Football Association has today confirmed Ian Watmore as its new Chief Executive. Mr Watmore is currently Permanent Secretary at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). He will take up his new post … Continue reading →

I’ve been struggling to think of something to say about Darwin or evolution. And then, walking down to the coffee area, I passed this sculpture that I pass every day and thought – aha! Example 10, by Emily Wardill (2003). … Continue reading →

You probably have too much to read about Darwin already, but as a Librarian I feel strangely obligated to burden you with still more reading material on this topic. So here are a few bits and pieces. I make no … Continue reading →

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A colleague sent me the latest issue of Research Trends – a bi-monthly newsletter from Elsevier with short features on bibliometrics. Cynics might say it was a thinly veiled marketing ploy to help embed their Scopus database as a worthy … Continue reading →

I’m rather proud of my Science Blogging 2008 T-shirt. Brown isn’t my favourite colour, but the logo looks good and I wear it in the knowledge that it’s a pretty exclusive brand. So I spent a day last month parading … Continue reading →

I spent Christmas and New Year in the Philippines. It was lovely to be somewhere warm and lovely to enjoy being somewhere quite different, but also strangely familiar. Relics from their colonial history (first Spain and then USA) makes the … Continue reading →

As a service manager, my first impulse is always to give people what they want. My primary objective is to keep the customer happy (yes, I’m afraid even in Libraries these days we have started to call our users ­customers). … Continue reading →