ebrary, one of the best known ebook aggregators, has created a publicly available research center featuring an interactive, searchable, and browsable database of documents pertaining to the H1N1 influenza pandemic – the H1N1 (Influenza) Searchable Information Center.

The H1N1 (Influenza) Searchable Information Center contains a growing selection of reports, papers, newsletters, posters, and other important materials from government agencies and other trusted sources.

DeepDyve is the largest online rental service for scientific, technical and medical research with over 30 million articles from thousands of authoritative journals.  A DeepDyve user can rent an article and read its full-text for up to 24 hours for as little as $0.99 per article. These articles can only be viewed at DeepDyve and cannot be downloaded, printed or shared.

You also have the option of choosing the Silver ($9.99 per month) or Gold ($19.99 per month) monthly plans. These plans provide even greater flexibility and more peace of mind by allowing you to easily rent more articles per month, for longer periods of time. Free trial.

The American Academy of Microbiology has published a colloquium report “Bioinformatics and Biodefense: Keys to Understanding Natural & Altered Pathogens.” The report outlines the recommendations made by the world’s leaders in bioinformatics at an Academy colloquium held in November 2008.

The report can be downloaded at no charge at http://academy.asm.org/colloquia.

The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) is the nation’s premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. The HSDL is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Every two weeks, the Homeland Security Digital Library identifies a targeted collection of recently-released documents of particular interest or potential importance. You can view the documents at the HSDL’s site – Critical Releases in Homeland Security. You can also receive critical releases by email alert.

Following in the footsteps of its sister journal the prestigious Genome Biology, Genome Medicine is BioMed Central’s premier medical journal. To celebrate the launch of Genome Medicine, all subscription content has been free to access throughout 2009.

From January 2010 non-research articles including the following will be accessible via subscription only:

Comprehensive review articles
Research-related editorials
Wide-ranging meeting reports
Expert commentaries

University Libraries will be celebrating Open Access Week, October 19-23, 2009.The highlight of the week is a presentation about copyright options that allow authors to retain specific publishing rights for the purpose of increasing the availability and impact of their research worldwide. “Author’s Rights, Publishers, and Open Access: Why You Should Read That Contract!” by Madelyn Wessel Associate General Counsel, University of Virginia

Please join us for this discussion held at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21, in the Edwin Meese Conference Room, Mason Hall, Fairfax campus. Stop by the Open Access kiosk in the Johnson Center Atrium (or in the North Plaza, weather permitting) during the week to learn more. Representatives from the Copyright Resources Office, Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS), and University Dissertation and Thesis Services will be on-hand to answer questions and distribute information about OA, publishing in refereed OA journals, and depositing your work in MARS. The kiosk hours will be 12:00-2:00, October 20-22. If you don’t have time to stop by, please visit our wiki openaccessweek2009.pbworks.com or contact Claudia Holland chollan3@gmu.edu.

We look forward to sharing what University Libraries is doing to promote Open Access at Mason!

A new report from the National Research Council, RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH WITH BIOLOGICAL SELECT AGENTS AND TOXINS, assesses the efficacy of regulations, procedures, and oversight that have been instituted to safeguard against the deliberate misuse of biological select agents and toxins (BSAT) used in research. The report looks at security programs designed to protect against external threats, as well as internal threats from laboratory personnel. The report also makes recommendations on refining security programs and procedures with the aim of informing policy discussions in the U.S. on balancing the security risks and benefits of BSAT research.

This news release and report are available at http://national-academies.org/