Air Baruch in the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

And more about colleges and cellphone services, at:

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i12/12a03201.htm

LACUNY Directory 2005-2006

The latest print edition of the LACUNY Directory, the 38th edition for 2005-2006, is now at the reference desk. Additions and changes will be added monthly to the Members page at the LACUNY Website.

Library Instruction Wiki

Librarians in Oregon have launched a Library Instruction Wiki that includes handouts, presentations, outlines, and much more.

Methodology Limiters in PsychINFO

I just want to post to the blog a question and answer about PsychINFO that was on CULIBS-L this morning.

A psychology faculty member has pointed out that the ability to limit a
search with the "Content/Form" option has disappeared. For example, one
could do a search for a topic and limit it to a literature review by adding
CT 1300 to the search.

It looks like EBSCO has just broken them out into a new bundle of limiters. The to limit to "Literature Review" field is now in a set of limiters called "Methodology." The full list of limiters in this "Methodology" drop down is as follows:

- Clinical Case Study
- Empirical Case Study
- Experimental Replication
- Followup Study
- Longitudinal Study
- Prospective Study
- Retrospective Study
- Field Study
- Literature Review
- Mathematical Modeling
- Meta Analysis
- Nonclinical Case Study
- Qualitative Study
- Quantitative Study
- Treatment Outcome/Clinical Trial

inquisitor ~ instant search

There's an interesting new search engine that is in beta right now. inquisitor ~ instant search offers you search results as you type.

New York Stock Exchange glossary of investment terms

As I mentioned at the IS division meeting on Monday, the New York Stock Exchange web site has a glossary of investment terms. (Click on Glossary and you then navigate it. I like it but there are many others available on the Internet, such as TIAA-CREF. Some of the sites have a great deal of advertising.

The European Library

I was recently reminded of this project ...
"The European Library webservice is a portal which offers access to the combined resources (books, magazines, journals.... - both digital and non-digital) of the 43 national libraries of Europe. It offers free searching and delivers digital objects - some free, some priced."
Please note that it is a beta/pilot version.

http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org

The Gabriel (GAteway and BRIdge to Europe's National Libraries) site used to provide access to these libraries. It has been integrated into the European Library site. The Gabriel site is no longer online.

"Advanced Search allows you to modify which collections to search, if you desire. The "Online books, images, maps, etc..." has amazing materials, but only from four libraries -- for now. (I retrieved images of WWI US posters, full-text scientific materials, and more. I found full-text from the 1600s to current materials.) There is also a section called "Treasures", which has scanned images of special collections from many national libraries.

Strategic Plan Committee Reports

The Committee Reports have been placed in a binder at the Reference Desk, and can be searched in CUNY+ under Baruch College strategic plan, 2006-2011 : committee reports.
Call Number: LD 5171 .N49 B34 2005.

Evening Support from BCTC

In case you have not heard already, this semester the BCTC help desk extended its regular hours to 9:00 p.m. (Mon-Thurs.), 7:00 (Friday) and 6:00 (Sunday). In addition, the lab has added a full-time evening supervisor, Edwin Melendez. If you have a problem that cannot wait until the morning, such as a printing failure, Edwin may be able to help.

The DaVinci Institute - The Future of Libraries

This is a paper that the biblioblogosphere (the world of blogs by librarians) has been talking about lately: The DaVinci Institute - The Future of Libraries.

Workshop Handouts, Exercises and PPTs

At today's IS division meeting we discussed sharing workshop materials. There are two folders, one for "Handouts & Exercises" and another for "Powerpoint Presentations", on the shared drive at Shared\Divisions\IS\Workshops. I have posted my handouts for the Company workshop and the Annual Reports workshop there. Please let us know what you are sharing.

Reference Handbook

As I noted at today's Information Services Division meeting, the Reference Handbook is now live on the web as a wiki. There is a link to it on on the right side of this blog. I will also add a button to it on the toolbar of the browsers on the four staff PCs at the reference desk.

If you want to see what kind of pages are already in the handbook, you might want to take a look at the "All Pages" page, which has an A-Z list of every page in the wiki. As you can see from the link in the previous sentence, you can create links to any page in the handbook.

If you forget the password for the wiki or have any other questions about it, please contact me.

New York Law School Library

The Mendik Library of the New York Law School in downtown Manhattan will move to temporary quarters and store most of their collection at an off-site facility while a new library is being built. Construction is expected to start in December and take up to two years. During certain periods they will be completely closed to outside users. They have asked that before we send Metro Yellow Card users to the library we verify that the library is open and the desired items are available.

America is Aging

I was looking at the latest issue of the Milken Institute Review and their Charticle on "America is Aging Fast" when I noticed that William Frey is now a fellow of the Institute. Frey is a noted demographer and has his own Website, U.S. Demographics: Data, Analysis, Interpretation. His website has a database of area profiles (state or metro area) of population change and migration data. He was also involved in developing CensusScope , a free Web database for charting, mapping and ranking data from the 2000 Census.

Attendance at Sunday Workshops

Our experiment offering Sunday workshops was a success. Ten students (including three walk-ins) attended the Industry workshop and 11 students (including five walk-ins) attended the Company workshop.

Books 24X7

Mike reports that bibliographic records for titles in Books 24x7 have been added to CUNY+ and will link directly to the e-book.

Searching by the keyword "books24x7.com" will bring up the list of titles.

DOI's in OECD Publications

Diane, Mike, Rita and I met with Joachim Doll of OECD on Monday. One of the new initiatives the OECD is working on is to imbed Digital Object Identifiers (DOI's) in their publications. To see how these work, open SourceOECD from our Information Resources page and click on the tab marked "At a Glance" to find an online copy of the OECD Factbook . Choose one of the sections on economic, social or environmental indicators. The chapters on each indicator include definitions, data collection policy, a summary of long-term trends, links to sources, data (exportable to Excel), charts, and a link to the full chapter in PDF format. When you use the PDF version of the Factbook all the tables and charts will have DOI's (OECD calls them StatLinks). Clicking on the StatLink for any chart will open a spreadsheet with the chart and the data behind it.

Van Gogh draughtsman exhibit book

I have placed my copy of the Van Gogh draughtsman The Masterpieces exhibit book at the reference desk in case you want to look at it. It could also be used by students who have an assignment to write about something that they have viewed at a museum. The exhibit of his drawings recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum; I saw the exhibit when I was visiting my Dutch friends. I found the exhibit so interesting that I bought the book and I plan to go again now that it is just a subway ride away. Many of the drawings are rarely exhibited because of their fragile condition. I hope that here they have a video presentation in which the pages of his original small sketch book are shown.

More on Wars

To follow-up on the question about the number of wars in the world, I stumbled on to this database at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management. Based on a book A Story of Crisis, the International Crisis Behavior Online database provides summaries of over 440 world crises from the period 1918 to 2002. The database also includes a detailed history of each conflict.

Accessing FASB-FARS literature for accounting students #2

• One of the reasons that the accounting students have the "FARS" assignment is that the new, online CPA exam has several questions in which students need to demonstrate the ability to search official accounting literature and, hopefully, find the correct answer to the questions. (In the exam, I am told that there is a "correct answer"; however, as we know "standards" can be interpreted in different ways. Last year I found that many students did not recognize the difference between the word "may" (which is permissive) and "should"or "shall" (meaning required.) Of course, the CPA exam is just the start of their careers and these generally accepted accounting standards will be used throughout their careers, and are revised as conditions change.

For the assignments, the students will most likely need to search the following:

• the Original Pronouncements, as amended, arranged by date issued or by subject.
• the Current Text, which has general standards applicable to all companies, and industry standards applicable to specific industries, which incorporates the applicable sections of pronoucements as amended. In the current text, the original source of the information is cited, to the paragraph, such as (FAS 132R).
• EITF Abstracts are the work of the Emerging Issues Task Force.
• Topical Index--searches all other parts of the database. If a student doesn't know the issue or statement needed, the topical index is the place I would start. Keyword searching is how to start.

The Implementation Guides may be needed and the Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities probably are not going to be needed.

If one searches the Original Pronouncements, the Original Pronouncements as amended will need to be searched.

Here is how the students may access the FARS literature, which is the same as the FASB literature:

• New this year --Students with the latest edition (summer 2005) of the Intermediate Accounting book by Kieso will have a password in the book to access supplemental material including online access to FARS by Wiley. I have done a two part Powerpoint presentation on how to search this version and I will a print out of it at the reference desk. Not all students have this version. The copies on reserve do not have password access. In addition to the Powerpoint explanation, there is a 22 page guide which I have printed out and placed in the folder in the reference desk.

Other means of accessing this literature. (I have listed them in what I think is the easiest to use and best to use.)

• RIA Checkpoint--available in Information Resources. The default needs to be changed from Federal Tax to WG&L Financial Reporting. The easiest way to access the FASB literature is to go to the Table of Contents, then drill down in the WG&L Financial Resources Library, to the FRM Source Materials, then to FASB. This will result in a list including the Original Pronouncements, EITF, Topical Index, the same materials as FARS by Wiley. (If you search from the initial opening screen of the database, it just says FASB and you don't know what you are searching. So, going through the Table of Contents is a good way to start, especially for newcomers.) Search by keyword.
• Advantages of this database: Remote access and many internal hyperlinks, which reduce the number of searches that a student may need to make. Results may be e-mailed, printed or saved.
• CCH Business & Finance. Click on Securities tab. Scroll down to SEC Accountants' Module and then click on Financial Accounting Standards Board. This will bring up a list of documents, just like in RIA, and FARS by Wiley. Search by keyword or by citation, if known. Results may be e-mailed (new feature), printed or saved. Advantage of this database: remote access and ability to e-mail. Disadvantage: Lacks the internal hyperlinks of RIA, so students will need to do new searches to get to referenced documents.
• FARS discs--available at Reference desk and Reserve. Unfortunately, the 2005 disc is back ordered from Wiley. (We aren't the only ones.) The 2005 disc is current as of June 2005. The 2004 discs, which we have, are current as of June 2004. So, if students use these discs, they need to check the FASB web site, www.fasb.org, or use RIA or CCH to see if there is any more current information. There is a print out how to search the FARS disc from last year in the reference desk drawer.
• FASB website, www.fasb.org. Advantages: It's free. It's where the information is updated most rapidly as it is FASB official site. You can set up an e-mail alert for any announcements, etc.
• Disadvantages: can't search through the documents easily if you don't know what document you need. Another disadvantage: the current text is not available so if there have been revisions of any sort one would need to consult the individual documents and incorporate the changes. My advice: use this for checking to see if you are dealing with the most current information and search using any of the other options.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Rita