Alumni Room

Ester asked me to remind everyone that the Alumni Room is available only to those Baruch alumni who have paid their membership dies for the current year.

Distant ed. courses in digital reference

The College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland is offering five distance ed classes this spring, three of which are on digital reference: Virtual Reference Workshop 1.0; Virtual Reference Software Selection; and Virtual Reference Legal Issues.

VITA Program Hours

VITA program will operate in room 320 as follows:

Wednesdays, 10:00am to 8:00pm

Thursdays, 10:00am to 5:30pm

Fridays, 10:00am to 5:30pm

The student "shift leaders" will go to the security desk on the ground floor to request that someone unlock the door. No library staff should be involved in the VITA volunteers accessing room 320

Topic suggestions for papers on business ethics

A student logged in to chat last night and asked for help finding a topic for a business ethics class. The student needed to write a paper on some company that has been accused of being unethical. The student clearly had no idea how to begin to identify a company or a business ethic topic. The librarian suggested, among other things, this Google Directory page listing "allegedly unethical firms." While there are clearly many ways to get students started with finding a topic for such a paper, this particular one (the Google Directory page) was new to me.

Tax forms now available in 2nd floor copier room

Alfredo Garcia posted this message yesterday on BBLIBS-L about tax forms:

The following Federal tax forms and publications will be distributed WHEN AVAILABLE and in LIMITED SUPPY. They will be on a black forms rack inside the 2nd fl. copy room:

Forms 1040; 1040 Schedules A & B and D with 1040 instruction booklets
Form 1040A; 1040A Schedule 1 with 1040A instruction booklets
Form 1040EZ with 1040EZ instruction booklets
Form 4868 Appilication for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

Publication 17 Your Federal Income Tax

I will be giving several IRS booklets to Reference soon (e.g. Pub. 1132 Reproducible copies of forms & instructions).

There are NO New York State tax forms & instructions available.

Very Important: Do Not Send Patrons to the Circulation / Reserve / Periodicals & Media service desks. Please (Library staff, not patrons) call me at ext. 1677, if you have questions. I will strive to keep tax supplies running in the copy room, until they run out.

If you don't see the items you want, please visit the following websites for tax forms / instructions:

Federal (Internal Revenue Service):
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html

New York State:
http://www.tax.state.ny.us/forms

Datastream Advance

Today, I noticed a patron using the Datastream Advance database, which can only be accessed from the two rear PCs at the reference desk. Not knowing much about these databases, I thought I'd search the BBLIB-L archive to find any messages there about it. Doug's May 9, 2003, message announced it and offered these helpful links to guides to using the database:

Columbia Univ. Libraries guide

Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries guide

ABI and the NYT

I accidentally and happily discovered that one can retrieve the current full text of the NYT (back to 1995) while in ABI by selecting Multiple Databases, then clicking on the ProQuest Newspaper Collection (or Newsstand, a subset). Thus both the full text of the WSJ and the NYT can be retrieved and examined together! (It will also retrieve the Daily News and the NY Observer among other local papers). The NYT and other listings for the Newspaper Collection does not appear in Serials Solution. (Coll Mgt has been notified).

VITA Program Update

Here is the latest information concerning the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program:

1. The students will be staffing the service in room 320, 3 days per week, Weds-Fri.
2. The exact hours will be posted as soon as I get a definitive listing.
3. They intend to move their supplies in on Tuesday, Feb. 22 and begin the service on Weds., Feb 23rd, but that is only their intention (please don't tell patrons that the service is actually up and running until an announcement to that effect is posted).
4. Patrons who wish to reach the VITA program should call 646-312-1647. They can leave voicemail messages if they choose.
5. They may also call Dean Ron Aaron at 646- 312-4570. Dean Aaron is the adviser to the program. Please do not refer calls to Annette or anyone else on the library staff.

Stat Abs covers 2 years, 2004-2005

I just used the latest Stat Abs, (the print was received in late Jan. 2005) and discovered that
for the first time, it covers a two year publication cycle, 2004-2005.
According to explanatory materials, the cutoff date is for data available by summer 2004.

It will go back to covering only 1 year in 2006. The change was instituted "so that the year in which most of the sales occur will be reflected in the title," a practice held by many private
almanacs and yearbooks.....

Diane

Additional source for information about the Gay & Lesbian Market and other markets

Peggy Teich reminded me that the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) database, which requires a password (available at the Reference Desk) has a lot of information about specific markets, including the Gay & Lesbian Market. The information is available in the Instant Background Reports. The sources of the information are provided, which would require some additional research to obtain the full text. For example, I looked at the instant background report for accountants/tax services, which provides adults 18+ who referred to the Yellow Pages for accounting/tax preparation services in the past year, which includes Simmons 2004 as a source, among others.

Rita

Library Student Intern at Newman

Andrew Leykam, a MLS student at Queens College, is joining us this semester as an intern. Andrew graduated in Anthropology from Hunter College and has worked in the Access Services department at FIT. He will be on staff Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Please welcome him.

FARS disc is missing

Does anyone know where the FARS disc that we have been keeping here at the reference desk might be? It is not in the case, and it is not in the drives of the two computers at the reference desk. If you know, please let me know. Thanks, Rita

An interesting take on the online catalog

After reading Andrew Pace's latest monthly column in American Libraries, I thought I'd take another look at RedLightGreen, which RLG offers as a new take on online catalog interfaces. Here's what Pace likes about RedLightGreen:

[It] indexes over 120 million records, ranked in order of relevance to the search term and based on how many copies of a title exist in libraries. RedLightGreen not only retrieves relevant results, it does so in a timely manner, with a simple-to-use interface. One of its most impressive features is the way it clusters various editions and manifestations of a work into a single display. For example, there are 59 variations of Death of a Salesman; most library systems would scatter these throughout search results, but RedLightGreen renders them in a single display. The system is also set up to link to numerous local catalogs so that users can use RedLightGreen to discover appropriate titles and then look up holdings in a local catalog.

Text of Bluesocket message on public PCs

As a follow up to Louise's previous posting about revising the message that appears on public PCs about the Bluesocket system for logging in, I am posting the actual text of that screen message here:

A Bluesocket network authentication process starts by opening the Internet browser. Small logout/status window will appear on the lower right corner of the screen.

To end your session you must click on Logout. Closing this window (clicking ‘x’) will allow others to use your account. In case you close it unintentionally, click on the Login-Logout icon on the desktop to logout and end your session.

If you have any comments or suggestions for revision, click the Comments button below this posting and add your thoughts.

Login/Logout Message

Saad has set up an on screen message on the student computers in the reference area. It explains the procedures for using Bluesocket -- how to logout and what to do if you inadvertantly logout during your session. Please take a minute to read this and if you feel the message is not clear, please let me know.

A graduate student Thursday night asked for help locating the size of the gay/lesbian/bisexual market. We found some recent articles mentioning a survey by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications. (The survey has been taken several times.) For information on the survey results, released in late Jan. 2005, please see:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=889">
Harris Interactive
National Survey Shows Gay-Specific Marketing Practices May Influence Brand Loyalty and Purchase Decisions of Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals and

Witeck-Combs Communications at
http://www.witeckcombs.com/show.news.asp?id=311&format=pdf.

Study Guide for CIS Exemption Exam

The study guide on reserve for the SimNet test is Stephen Haag and Jame T. Perry's I-Series:Microsoft Excel 2002:Introduction. The Reserve call number is HF5548.4 .M523 2002. The easiest way to find the reserve call number is to do a "Title Contains" search for the word "exemption." You can also find the book listed under the course number CIS2200.
If you are trying to get the call number by searching for "I-Series", the process becomes a little trickier as Spencer and I found out last night. If you search by "Title starts with" you must enter "Haag." If you search by "Title contains" you must be exact and enter "I" space hyphen space "Series".

Reference Schedule Posted

Next week's reference schedule has been posted.

Reference Schedule

There has been some confusion about the reference schedules that I'd like to clear up. I have removed the schedules for the next few weeks from the shared drive because they included a substitute librarian for Anne Essler who, in the end, did not take the job. I will let you all know as soon as the new schedules are ready and posted.

Staplers

This semester we have been unable to set up a program where the security personnel are willing to take care of the staplers for our students, so we are looking into buying secure staplers that we could put in the printing room. In the meantime, we have put a stapler back at the reference desk. Please try to leave the stapler on the front counter (in your view) and ask the students to use it there. Hopefully, this will help cut down on abuse and the problem of lost and broken staplers.

Update: printing from grad student PCs

According to Saad, as of 11:45 AM today, the only grad student PCs in the library that can be used for printing (by grad students) are the ones on the 5th floor. Saad is working on getting the grad student PCs on the other floors to be able to print.

Google Maps

Google just launched a new service today: Google Maps. As an example of what the maps look like, here are the search results for our library's address.

Update: Vendor Card Printing in the Library

As of this morning, the only printers that can send jobs to the vendor card printer are the eight terminals behind the reference desk. The standup terminals, the three at the index tables, and the two at the reference desk can't access the vendor card printer. Theresa says that Systems is working on a fix to this problem

Update: Baruch student printing in the library

According to what Theresa told me this morning, the student printers can now be used in the library. There is now one new element to the printing procedure for using student printing accounts: after the user clicks "Print" and enters their Baruch username, they will be prompted to enter a password (this is the new step). Users should type in their PIN number. They will then be asked to type a job name. Getting their print jobs from either of the two student printers still required typing in a Baruch username and the PIN number as the password.

Internet Evaluation Reports from Consumer Reports WebWatch

Throught the Pew Internet & American Life Project, I came across some Web Evaluation reports by ConsumerReports WebWatch which may be of interest.

One, "Experts v Online Consumers" evaluates, using experts in the field, public health care web sites and finance web sites (eg Merrill Lynch, E-Trade, etc. ) for the consumer using criteria with which we are all familiar. It's worth a look!

http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/financial-reports-experts-vs-online-abstract.cfm


Diane


" Consumer Reports WebWatch Consumer Reports WebWatch is a project of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org. The project is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which invests in ideas that fuel timely action and results; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities; and the Open Society Institute, which encourages debate in areas in which one view of an issue dominates all others. Consumer Reports WebWatch's Web site launched April 16, 2002."

Student printing service down...

as of 2 PM. Will post new message when back up.

Business Source Premier-problematic default

A new default, Suggest Subject Terms, seems to have appeared directly above the (advanced) search interface box. After entering terms in the search box, BSP now goes directly into the Subject/thesarus screen and prevents any modification to the search. I emailed Doug several days ago since he has the administrative rights to the database and probably can change this but he is not here. Mike is investigating to see if he can do something.

To do a search "the old way" simply remove the check from the Suggest Subject Terms box.

Password to access Solutions Manual for Acc 3200

If a student in Acc 3200 needs the password to access the Solutions Manual which is available electronically in Course Reserves, the password to use is "solutions."
(This was changed and not all faculty knew the new password, from what an accountancy professor told me.) Some students have thought they needed to put in their library id numbers. Only "solutions" works.

Rita