copy machines signs requested

Since the copy machine is gone from the 2nd floor, I've asked Jerry about getting some signs made and posted about where students have access to other machines.

What's going up at 23rd and 3rd?

See this post from the Curbed blog for a rendering of the condo being built now.

Census Bureau report on educational attainment and income

Yesterday the Census Bureau released it 2005 report on educational attainment and income.
According to the report: Adults age 18 and older with a bachelor’s degree earned an average of $51,554 in 2004, while those with a high school diploma earned $28,645, according to new tabulations released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Those without a high school diploma earned an average of $19,169

Cambridge researcher to pick up book at "hold for pickup" box

J. Ruescas, a Cambridge University researcher, will return Friday morning to look at The Western Saharans, which is held for him at the "hold for pickup" box at the reference desk. He was referred to us via a Metro Card from NY Public because their copy of this book has gone missing. He appreciates our help.

Tips for accounting assignment re Gift Cards

A number of accounting classes will be working on an assignment dealing with accounting for gift cards. I will be doing some short workshops to help the students as for many, this is their first time searching the FASB literature, trying to understand what they are saying; searching a database, and completing an assignment.

Some faculty have told me that they like it that the library can help students search for the information but can't tell them the answer. (If pressed to tell the "correct" answer, I tell them my grade in financial accounting and that puts an end to asking me for the answer. Also, as with much of accounting, there may be alternatives that are permitted. The alternatives may or may not have specific advantages or there may be a preferred method, but that's for the students to find out.


RIA Checkpoint is the database we have that allows you to search FASB documents. I'm revising a more detailed search guide from last year. (The FARS discs are not being used this year.) I'll post the longer guide when it is available.

Here are some tips:

Tips for the “Gift Card” assignment for Accounting students

This is the first time many students will be using the official accounting standards issued by The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Some things they need to consider: From the facts presented, what might be the significant of the details presented: Time periods? Relationship(s) of the parties? Whether there is any thing that is uncertain or remains to be performed? Whether this is one transaction or a series of transactions, Whether there is a projected income or loss? That the company is public?

The standards are difficult to understand. So, before searching in a database for the standards, students may want to do some background work, looking for explanations that might be helpful.

Several sources:
Listed in databases in Search & Find:
CCH Business Research – Most of the accounting sources are not available on this database but Search Tools offers a thesaurus that students can use to find synonyms to gift card. This may give clues for other terms to search in other databases.

CCH Accounting Research Manager—a keyword search for gift cards, or keyword searches for synonyms, will bring up some interpretative information and explanations, that will refer to FASB documents. (Unfortunately, FASB documents are not available in this database—a restriction of FASB to the academic community.)


Before searching the databases, students might want to look for articles about gift cards and accounting. (These keywords work in ABI Inform Global and Business Source Premier, and result in a short list of articles that can be helpful in explaining the issue(s) behind accounting for gift cards.) One could also use a popular search engine. (Don’t tell the students but there is uncertainty about this issue and as their assignment indicates, two ways that one can account for gift cards.)


RIA Checkpoint is the database that includes FASB and AICPA statements.
§ Change practice area from Federal to Accting, Audit & Corp Finance.
§ A basic search to get started is: gift card or gift certificate in the search box and limit the search to FASB




From here on, this is where the accounting students need to read and interpret and come to their own conclusions.

If students want to search specific parts of the FASB publications, after selecting FASB, they should click Table of Contents and keep drilling down until a list of the publications appear. The Current Text has general standards and industrial standards. The general standards, arranged by topic, may be helpful. The current text is not officially part of GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) but it provides hyperlinks to the statements and other documents that are part of GAAP, as well as links to explanatory information.

The FASB website, http://www.fasb.org/, does not include the Current Text. It is not easy to search the site by keyword if one does not know the source document needed.


I hope that this is helpful.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Rita

Citation styles come with articles sent from Ebscohost

Now, when sending an article from EBSCO Host Databases, the user can also select a particular style (MLA, APA, etc).

Video crew in the library today

As Jerry reported on BBLIB-S this morning, there will be a video crew on the 4th floor of the library today between 2:45 and 4:00 taping an interview with Dean Myrna Chase.

Halloween stats

In case anyone asks for Halloween related statistics, some can be found thru the US Census Bureau on their "Facts for Features & Special Editions" site at this page.

Some stats on this page include: date of first official citywide celebration, # of potential trick-or-treaters, # of occupied housing units that are potential trick-or-treating stops, # of costume rental establishments, etc.)

"Facts for Features and Special Editions consist of collections of statistics from the Census Bureau's demographic and economic subject areas intended to commemorate anniversaries or observances or to provide background information for topics in the news. "

Problem with computer 2085

I've reported to the help desk that on computer 2085 Yoda is now the screen saver. I can't get it back to the normal setting.

Mediaweek's Marketer's Guide to Media

Prof. Luna's MKT3520 class is working on an assignment using this reference title which we have put on reserve.

Thomson Research Down This Saturday

Thomson Research will be upgraded this weekend and will be unavailable from 10 PM to 2 AM on Saturday.

Great new site for Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ)

A week ago, RUSA launched a new RUSQ site that has a blog feed and the full text (!) of articles in the current issue (read the ALA press release here).

Also freely available to the world on this site are the reviews of reference materials from the "Sources" section of RUSQ. At the moment, reviews from 1997-2002 can be found in full text; plans are underway to offer reviews from 2003-2006.

Launching this site is the best thing RUSA has done in years.

What is RefWorks?

On Monday, Rita and I attended a training session for RefWorks, a new web service that is available to all CUNY students, staff, and faculty. You can find it listed with all the databases on our Databases page.

So what is it? Rita and I will likely do a brief presentation on it at an upcoming ISD meeting, but for the moment here are the basics of what you can do with it:

• save your citations in a web-based service
• manually enter your citations (you type them in, one by one)
• automatically enter your citations from a database or catalog search (you export to RefWorks the citations you've saved within the database interface)
  
• generate a formatted bibliography from your citations (you first pick one citation style from one of the hundreds available)
• insert in-text citations as you type in Microsoft Word (requires a small plug-in for this bonus feature)

To get started, you'll need to set up an account. One great thing about the service: you can create as many different accounts as you'd like. Why would you want to do that? What if:

• you were working a group assignment or project and wanted to have a shared space to store citations
• you wanted to keep separate work-related citations from those tied to personal research needs

More details will be provided at an ISD meeting later this fall. It is also likely that the library will offer a special workshop for Baruch faculty to introduce them to this new tool.

No remote access to RefWorks

At the moment, there is no remote access to RefWorks. I've notified Mike about this problem.

USB Flash Drives and Graduate Computer Workstations

If asked ... Please advise graduate students to LEFT click on the USB flash drive icon (it is the one with the green arrow over a flash drive on the lower right corner of the screen) to "eject"/remove their flash drives from the Graduate Computer Workstations. If they try to remove it another way, they will see an error/security restriction message.

(Students are used to right-clicking on the icon, or choosing the drive under My Computer to remove it. Due to the security set-up on the Grad. Workstations, these options are not available.)

Are log-in problems increasing?

In an admittedly unscientific study, based on my perceptions from working on the reference desk and supported by responses from other librarians of whom I inquired, I have concluded that it seems that log in problems are on the increase from last year. I was asked to blog about it.

It may be that use and problems move in the same direction. Assuming that I have made a correct conclusion, is there something that can be done to reduce the problem? Is there something more that the librarians should know to tell students? If I have reached an invalid conclusion, I'm sorry and I'll do an extra shift of guest log-ins.

Citation Indexes at CUNY and NYPL

The Web of Science citation indexes are available online at these libraries:

City College

Science Citation Index - from 1995-

Graduate Center

Social Sciences Citation Index – from 1990-

Hunter

Arts and Humanities Citation Index – from 1996-

Science Citation Index – from 1996-

Social Sciences Citation Index – from 1996-

Note: There is a 3 user limit for each database

Queens

Science Citation Index – from 1999-

Social Sciences Citation Index – from 1998-

New York Public Library –SIBL and Humanities & Social Sciences

Arts and Humanities Citation Index – from 1975-

Science Citation Index – from 2002-

Social Sciences Citation Index – from 1956-

NASDAQ CEO on writing and critical thinking

In his interview here at Baruch last night, Robert Greifeld, President and CEO of the Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., told Baruch students he was an English graduate from Iona College. When asked later by a student how being an English major had helped him, Greifeld stressed the importance of writing in business. Being an English major had helped his writing as it developed critical thinking skills. He stressed the importance of well-written e-mail communications. The interview was taped so I am sure that it will be available in the future. (Greifeld also earned an MBA from NYU.)

Databases at NYPL

The New York Public Library has been adding to its website. I just noticed that they have a direct link to a list of Databases available from Home.

Update on copy Machines; Coin Machine Down

The status of the copy machines in the library is as follows:

2nd floor - copy machine is down because of an electrical problem - Will not be resolved soon.

3rd floor - 4 copiers are working but copy machine #3694 (located in the middle of the room) is down . Copico needs to replace a part but we don't know how long that will take.

4th floor - copy machine is down - needs a part - Expect this to be fixed Monday.

5th floor - copy machine is working.

Also the coin machine is down; it is not giving correct change.

COPY MACHINES and COIN MACHINE DOWN

Annette Ruiz posted this to BBLIBS today:

I just wanted to bring to your attention that there are several copy machines down. I have put in a call directly to the company and a call to the field service supervisor. At this point we have the machine on the 5th floor and one on the 3rd floor working. The rest are down. The coin machine is also down. I spent over an hour on the copy machines trying to fix what I could and put paper into them. I have informed them that we are at a critical stage and that service must be provided today because we are open on the weekend. I will call again if the tech doesn't come within an hour or so. If anybody spots him let me know. The tech doesn't work the weekends. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

Books about Financial Globalization

If you haven't read Federal Reserve Governor Mishkin's speech at the Weissman Center Distinguished Lecture Series (blogged by Rita yesterday) he makes a good case for why rich countries should support financial globalization. He mentions several books that make the case, for and against, his thesis. All the books are in our collection.

• Global Capital Markets by Maruice Obstfeld and Alan Taylor (HG3881 .O2633 2004)
• Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz (HF1418.5 .S75 2003)
• In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati (HF1359 .B499 2004 & in Ebrary)
• On Globalization by George Soros (HF1359 .S65 2002)
• The Elusive Quest for Growth by William Easterly (HC59.72 .P6E17 2001)
• The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando De Soto(HB501 .S778 2000)

Automobile Manufacturing in Russia

The other day a student asked for a profile of the automobile industry in Russia. The two best sources turned out to be ISI Emerging Markets and Business Monitor Online.

Executive Biographies in Mergent

Mergent Online just announced it has significantly expanded its biographies of corporate executives. The profiles now include a list of board memberships and affiliations, past employment history, and education. It looks like the data is gathered by mining the web because after each profile there is a statement that says, "This summary was automatically compiled using x number of sources:" followed by excerps from web sites like the SEC, CBS Marketwatch, Crain's, and the company's own website. I looked at the profile of Leon Black who is on the board of Sirius Satellite Radio. Some of the excerpts were from web sites as old as 2000 and 2001. I wonder how the data is vetted and how accurate the profile is?

To see these web bios, first select a company, then from the "company details" menu open "executives." Next to the name of each officer is an information icon marked "web bio."

Library open 24 Hours for Mid-Terms

The Newman Library will remain open 24 hours for mid-term examinations. The library will open at 7:00 a.m. on October 18 and remain open continuously until 11:59 p.m. on October 25. After midnight, access to the library will be restricted to Baruch College students. Service desks will close at their usual scheduled hours.

Ericsson 20-F filing for 2005 requests

There were 2 individual requests tonight from Executive MBA students for the "10K" filings for Ericsson, which is based in Sweden. Initially, one student said he had been told he could use Reuters here in the library to get it. He approached the desk wondering where in the library he could access Reuters. I explained it wasn't available, except in the Subotnick Center and we consulted the Center's hours.

I asked what it was he needed, and he explained about the needed Ericsson filing for 2005. Both students said that they had searched the SEC Edgar filings for the 10-K, but they weren't able to find it. Since Ericsson is a Swedish corporation trading in the U.S. (and other exchanges), it files a 20-F annual filing so there wouldn't be a 10-k. I didn't help them check the SEC Edgar filings for it, which I am sure would have the filings but we obtained it from Thomson Research and from the corporation's U.S. web site.

However, I would recommend the Thomson Research site as the complete filing with attachments is there (409 pages) and the version posted on the corporation's U.S. web site is 100+ pages. This appears not to have all the attachments but I didn't spend a lot of time looking at the filing. And, of course, it depends upon what information the students need. (The filing would be available in other databases.)

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Rita

Federal Reserve Board Governor Mischkin's speech about Globalization given at Baruch today

"Globalization: A Force for Good?", the speech that Federal Reserve Board Governor Frederic S. Mischkin gave as the Weissman Center distinguished lecture today has been posted on the Federal Reserve Board's web site. I didn't realize it was his first speech since being named a governor. I missed the speech because of the Accounting Resources workshop and so far I've just read the introduction where Governor Mischkin talks about his late father, a City College graduate of 70 years ago, and a benefactor of Baruch.

computer 1158 in room 130

There is a problem logging onto computer 1158 in room 130. The screen to enter logon information is upside down. I have sent a message to Saad about it.

Rita

Extended Hours for Circulation

Access Services staff will again offer extended weekend hours beginning this Friday, October 13th.

The circulation desk will be open Friday, Saturday & Sunday until 7:50PM to enable students to borrow circulating and reserve items.

Frederic Mishkin at Baruch This Thursday

Prof. Terry Martell asked me to share this with you.

The Weissman Center for International Business is sponsoring a talk by Frederic Mishkin on "Globalization: A Force for Good" on Thursday, October 12, 2006 in VC 14-220. (Details here).

Professor Mishkin just joined the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and chose Baruch for his initial speech as a governor. His father is a graduate of Baruch. Please encourage your students to attend.

Flash Drives, CD's, DVD's and Floppy Discs

What options are available on the student workstations?

• There are no floppy drives on any of the student computers.
• At the seated workstations, students can save to flash drives. They cannot open flash drives.
• At the standing workstations, students can save and open files on flash drives and CD/DVD's. In order to use CD/DVD's, they must be formated for Read/Write.

Margin of Safety

Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor written by Seth Klarman in 1991 is a title we own and all librarians should recognize. The book is notorious because it is long out of print and and sellers on Amazon and other websites are asking prices that range from $700 to $2,500 for used copies. Others have tried renting it out on eBay. Recently the book was featured in an article in Business Week ("The $700 Used Book" August 7, 2006). The article is worth reading because it explaines some of Klarman's theories. It says the book has taken on "iconic stature among value investors" and the book is "especially hot among those seeking jobs with value-oriented investment firms."

As for libraries, Business Week claims only 262 libraries worldwide own the title and it is one that is most claimed as lost. Our copy is in our Archive collection and students wanting to read it should make an appointment with Sandra Roff. Because of its condition, the book does not circulate nor can students photocopy pages or chapters.

Pre-CINAHL merged with CINAHL

EBSCO has integrated Pre-CINAHL into its CINAHL database, so now we can access that content as well.

Computer Problems

This morning (Saturday 10/7), I encountered two computer problems both reported earlier to BCTC. First the work station on the gray counter at the southwest corner of the reference desk won't boot up. Second the "Technical Report" page in "Library Forms" won't send in the machine on the southwest (adjacent corner) on the granite counter.
David

Blackboard (Plagiarism & tutorial) quizzes, permissions, and lockouts

Nelson has found out that there is apparently a new policy in uploading the plagiarism quiz to a particular class's Blackboard. The faculty member must contact BCTC either by email (helpdesk@baruch.cuny.edu) or
or by phone (646-312-1010) and ask them to add Nelson Santana as a TA (Teaching Assistant) in her class so that he has rights to upload the plagiarism tutorial.

Note that a high number of lockouts have been occuring when students take a quiz (plagiarism quiz, for example, or the library FRO quiz) in Blackboard.
Students often forget to use the submit button, or may have firewall issues on their home computers. Aisha and Nelson do try to clear them as soon as possible.

GDP and external debt sources

Several students have asked at the reference desk about GDP and external debt sources by quarter. With Harry's help, listed below are possible sources that I have found. If you know of any more, please comment. I have included some that include annual statistics too.

There is a new joint external debt database, a project of the Bank of International Settlement, the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank.

The OECD provides GDP figures by quarter. See SourceOECDStatistics in our databases. (Of course, not all countries are members of the OECD.)

Yearly External Debt by Country in World Development Indicators from the World Bank. See WDI (World Development Indicators in our databases.)

The International Monetary Fund (Build a table using data and statistics)
www.imf.org (There is a possibility of a five day trial to their data, and it appears individuals can give it a try.)

In print, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Financial Statistics Yearbook in Reference at REF HG 61.157 2005 has the GDP. Also, in print, in periodicals, the monthly International Financial Statistics from the IMF has quarterly figures for the most recent five years. You will need to look in past volumes to obtain the quarterly figures for all the years.

Another possible source may be a particular country's Central Bank Statistics, frequently available from web sites, or in the database ISI Emerging Markets (in our database list) under Sources, and then look for Central Bank, after a particular country is selected.

Zicklin grad student happy with online directories

Last night while I was on the reference desk, and shortly before 8:50 pm., a Zicklin grad student called to see if we had Nelson's Directory of Investment Managers as he wanted to use it for his job search.

As we don't have a current edition, I told him I would e-mail him information about electronic access to the S&P directories that Mike Waldman alerted us to earlier in the week and also explain how to get the Securities Dealers of North America online. I e-mailed the information to him, as well as that the Nelson directory is at SIBL and Brooklyn Business. He has e-mailed me twice with thanks, the second time to thank me for saving him a great deal of time.

So, here's the information about the directories:

From Mike Waldman:
As part of out subscription to the Money Market Directory of Pension Funds
and their Investment Managers, Standard and Poor's has lauched a new
electronic directory, MMD eDirectories.
It is unfortunately only available via password at this time.
Go to: http://www.mmdwebaccess.com
Click on MMD eDirectories
See the password and log-in information in the wiki, under Passwords


To get to the Securities Dealers of North America, go to Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage. Click on Directories. You can search by company name or personal name or use the Advanced Search to select criteria, including location.

Nelson's Directory of Investment Managers is available at SIBL. At Brooklyn's Business Library the 2006 edition is shelved with Services Directories under Financing (not by call number.)

Rita

SIBL Small Business How-to Videos and Podcasts

http://www.nypl.org/research/sibl/smallbiz/video.html
Taken from the website: "View a smallbiz how-to do business seminar! Each session can be viewed in parts, watch the video and text slides together, or download the audio only to an MP3 player. Choose high-speed version for Broadband connections, dial-up for modems. Download QuickTime free software to view, if you don't already have this software on your computer."
Example titles: "Legal Strategies for Small Business", "Pricing Your Product or Service", "Market Research", "Tips for Opening and Running a Restaurant in NYC".

Problem with accessing Learning Express

I've reported a problem of logging onto Learning Express to Mike. The problem was also reported by an accounting professor. Anyone else having a problem?

SPSS and SAS

SPSS and SAS are statistical analysis software packages available on the library's Graduate Workstations and in some of the BCTC labs. Due to increased pricing and a contractual dispute with SPSS, the most current version of SPSS on campus is 11.5 (the most recent release is 15.0). The SPA lab in 17 Lex used to have v.14.0, but had to roll back to v.11.5 due to the dispute. (I checked the SPA lab computers.) We are not sure when the disupte will be solved. This is a CUNY wide issue, and a committee is working on access to a more up to date version.

The Graduate Workstations have SAS v.8, but it has recently expired. I sent a Help Desk request to update to v.9, and hope this will happen soon. SAS v.9 is available in the 6th floor library building lab and the CIS lab.

SPSS 11.5 is also on the newer 3 day and hour laptops (thank you to Eric for sending this info.).

EBSCO experiencing problems

From EBSCO:

EBSCOhost is currently experiencing intermittent access issues, which could cause connectivity delays for some users.
If you experience problems logging in to EBSCOhost, please log out and attempt to access again. This highly unusual situation is currently under investigation by our network specialists.
We expect to resolve the problem quickly, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

CUNY Proficiency Exam

CUNY just announced some new online resources for students about to take the CUNY Proficiency Exam.

E-reserves for CUNY Online BA Students

Please note that in Docutek all CUNY Online BA courses are grouped together as if the CUNY Online BA program were its own department. Look for it in the dropdown menu.

The CUNY Online BA program offers classes in different disciplines (Psychology, Math, History, Computer Scicence, etc..) but these classes are not listed under any of these departments in Dokutek.

FRO (Freshman Orientation)

For the benefit of those who were not able to attend today's IS Division meeting, I thought I'd recap what Aisha Peña had to say about the library's participation in the FRO (Freshman Orientation) program. I've also added in some additional info from the Baruch web site.

First, according to the Baruch faculty handbook, FRE is:

A required 12-week non-credit course for freshmen...[that] offers students an opportunity to engage in the Baruch community during the initial, and sometimes unsettling, first semester on campus. Led by a faculty or staff member and a trained upperclassman, freshmen seminars provide information about college life and the College. The program helps students learn and adopt methods to be successful in college. Structured class exercises encourage participation and provide an avenue for interactions with the students. Seminar leaders play a vital role in helping students adjust and in influencing their educational objectives.

This fall, there will be close to 2000 freshmen in FRO seminars. Starting in the next week or so, they will be taking the "New Students Library Tutorial" by following these steps:

1. With the instruction sheet provided to them by the instructors in their FRO sections (we have extra copies at the reference desk), the students will come pick up three paper handouts from the library (#1 is at the reference desk, #2 is at the circulation desk, and #3 is at the 3rd floor service desk) and one electonic handout (#4) that is available as a PDF via a link on the Ask a Librarian page of the library web site.
2. After getting the handouts, students will log into Blackboard, go to the FRO course page (students in the Learning Communities will see a course labeled "2006 Freshman Learning Communities" and everyone else will see "All Fro 1000 Fall 2006"), click the appropriate course listing, then click "Assignments" on the FRO page, and take the quiz.
3. Students must get an 80 on the quiz for it to count as successfully completed. Students may retake it as many times as they need to.

If a student reports being locked out of the quiz (i.e., the student can get into Blackboard and onto the Assignments page with the quiz but they can't actually launch the quiz), then tell them that the problem will be fixed by the next day (we have to manually "unlock" those quizzes that have been so frozen and will do so on a daily basis).

A smaller subset of students in the FRO seminars are part of the Learning Communities, which the faculty handbook describes as follows:

Faculty who participate in Learning Communities build on the advantages of block programming by highlighting intellectual links between courses and by scheduling co-curricular activities that complement course material. In a Baruch learning community, faculty members develop their courses collaboratively and confer regularly with each other and with their students, both in person and on line.They also create a range of other activities that supplement in-class instruction, increase engagement, and reinforce the collegial ideal of students and faculty working together on the common project of education.

The Learning Communities sections of FRO have to do a second tutorial and quiz:

1. In the "Assignments" section of their FRO course page in Blackboard, students should look for a link for the "Newman Library Help" tutorial (the direct URL for this is http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/help/tutorial/home.htm)
2. After reviewing the tutorial, they should go back to Blackboard and do the "Exercise" that is linked to on the Assignments page (it's another Blackboard quiz).

As with the quiz for the "New Students Library Orientation," students may find themselves locked out of the quiz (particuarly if they abandon the quiz without completing it). Just tell students in this situation that the quiz will be unlocked by the next business day.

If you have further comments or clarifications, please post a comment to this blog entry. If you have further questions, you may want to contact Aisha Peña directly.

Updated map of NYC emergency incidents

The NYC-themed blog, Gothamist, offers a new mapping service that locates on a Google map recent emergency incidents (fires, bank robberies, motor vehicle accidents) in near real-time.

Quick Start Guides for ebrary

Copies of ebrary "Quick Start Guides" are available at the reference desk to give to students. I will also put some copies in the stand next to the desk.