Thursday, 19 January 2012

LSHTM publications freely available online!

We are pleased to announce that LSHTM Research Online is now available http://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/

LSHTM Research Online is the freely accessible database of the School's research, it holds the bibliographic details of research outputs together with the full text, wherever possible. At present there are over 19,000 records with more than 1,800 full text items, all authored by LSHTM researchers.

Material covered includes articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and reports.
LSHTM Research Online is part of the growing Open Access movement to facilitate the open exchange of scholarly research.

Benefits:
Increased visibility, usage, citations and impact of research
Showcase for LSHTM of our research output
Rapid dissemination of research which allows further research to be conducted
Access to research not dependent on geography or finance
Availability of publicly funded research provides transparency

Features:
Browse by year, faculty, centre, author
Search by name, journal, author, funder, item type, PubMed ID, Web of Science ISI Id
Ability to hold various formats for text, image and video
Access to individual download/viewing statistics by article, researcher, department
Indexed by Google, Google Scholar,
Export to endnote, excel, reference manager
Embed list of publications in your own websites via RSS feeds

The LSHTM Research Online team can provide research with support on any issues relating to copyright, publisher permissions and open access. In the next few months we will be adding more full text to LSHTM Research Online, improving features and visiting researchers in the School to further publicise this new resource and answer any questions.

If you have any questions or comments please let us know on researchonline@lshtm.ac.uk

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Collection of the month: Major HS Leeson

Image reference: List of camping equipment for Leeson’s expedition across East Africa, 1936 (GB 0809 Leeson/01/03). Image credit: LSHTM Library & Archives Service.

To coincide with our exhibition on travel, expeditions and discovery currently on display in the Library we have chosen to focus on the papers of Major HS Leeson who travelled extensively during his career as an entomologist (someone who studies insects) for this month’s blog post.

Born in Liverpool, Leeson began his career in the Entomological Department of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1909. Leeson served in the Royal Army Medical Core during the First World War and on returning he passed his sanitation examinations and became an Associate of the Royal Sanitary Institute. He began his association with LSHTM in 1925 after being chosen as collector-demonstrator to Colonel A Alcock in the Entomological Department.

Leeson travelled widely for his studies of the Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus mosquitoes, which transmit the malaria parasite. His research took him to: Southern Rhodesia (1926-1928 and 1933-1936); East Africa, including Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika (1936); Greece (1938) and Albania (1938). During the Second World War he played an important part in malaria prevention in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Cyprus by carrying out anopheline surveys as the entomologist of No.2 Malaria Field Laboratory. From 1943-1945 he was also in charge of the malaria wing of the Middle East School of Hygiene. When the War ended he returned to LSHTM to work as lecturer in the Department of Entomology.

The Leeson collection, held in the School’s Archives contains a wealth of documents relating to his career and expeditions including scientific notes, reports, photographs, correspondence, maps, itineraries, menus and drawings. We also have a film of Leeson’s 1936 expedition across East Africa, which provides a fascinating record of the expedition’s journey from Croydon airport, travels and work in East Africa, the people they met and wonderful views of the scenery and wildlife they encountered.

If you would like to find out more about or make an appointment to consult the Leeson collection please see the Archives website or email us at archives@lshtm.ac.uk for further information.

The exhibition on travel, expeditions and discovery is on display in the Library until the end of this month.