Third floor cleaning project

Jerry reports that the third floor is closed to the public (carpet is drying) UNLESS they need to go there to retrieve books.

Graphing Calculators

Graphing calculators will be available on a first come, first served basis at the third floor service counter at the following times:

Thursday January 26th at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm
Friday January 27th at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm
Saturday January 28th at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm
Sunday January 29th at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm

Students must update their library record for Spring 2006 (at the circulation desk) before they can borrow calculators.

Roving

As much as possible, I will be scheduling three librarians at the reference desk this semester. I encourage everyone to become "roving librarians" again. Please take the opportunity to walk the floors, make yourself visible, and ask users if they need help.

Context and Comparisons Digital Resource-remote access

Context and Comparisons, the digital resource used by Eng 2800 or 2850, is accessible off campus by inputting the 14 digit (21716...) library number. (i.e., restricted access).

Value Line

Value Line is back up.

What should we say to Baruch faculty about the Wikipedia?

This entry is offered as a discussion starter. Over the last couple weeks I have chatted with several colleagues about what position we should take on student use of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. Recent articles in the mass media, including a cover story in the Village Voice, have focused attention on problems related to this product. Many faculty have not heard of the Wikipedia, or if they have, they are not clear on what it really is or how articles are authored, posted, and edited. Last semester two students in my course listed Wikipedia articles in their term paper bibliographies.

The premise of the Wikipedia is that a community of interested people over time can work seriously to edit, fine tune and develop a consensus on the content of encyclopedia articles. However, there are many questions about the credentials of article authors, about the possibility of pranks, hoaxes, inaccuracies, and even intellectual vandalism. The Village Voice reports that author who has contributed the greatest number of entries is 17 years old.

On the other hand, a recent study by Nature found that Wikipedia articles on scientific topics were nearly as accurate as Britannica articles.

We could alert faculty to the controversy about the Wikipedia, point out that students can consult it to get background information, while understanding the questionable authority and constantly changing content. We could point out that at the college level, even Britannica articles and subject encyclopedia articles should be used for background as a point of departure for serious research and not as a source for term papers. We could publish the alert on our web page and request that Dennis Slavin broadcast an email message to faculty.

Here are some links for useful background, which could be included with the alert.What do people think. I suggest putting this on the agenda of an upcoming IS division meeting. Thanks to Stephen Francoeur for his help in gathering links and brainstorming on Wikipedia.

Mondo Wikipedia, Village Voice, Jan. 17, 2006

Can Wikipedia Survive Its Own Success?

Wikipedia is Not Britiannica, but it’s close. Christian Science Monitor. Jan. 5, 2006

Beware the “anticredentialist” Wikipedia Library Journal Dec. 15, 2005

Test of new user name

This is a test of a new user name for Blogger.

Stephen

Value Line is down

Value Line is currently not connecting and I am working with them to get our acccess reinstated.

Beta Testing a Factiva Search 2.0 Interface

It's hard to tell just what Factiva is up to at the moment, but yesterday a button labeled "Try Factiva Search 2.0 Beta" was added in the upper left corner of the search interface. As I learned from this article on the "InfoToday" website, Factiva is testing out an interface aimed at the less-sophisticated researcher. What's not entirely clear to me is what Factiva will do with the results of the beta testing of this new interface. The InfoToday article suggests that some features from the beta may be incorporated into a new Factiva interface:

But, assuming the company responds to users’ comments and suggestions, the preview period should result in welcome improvements. A Factiva spokesperson said the company would not give a specific timeframe for the length of the beta but expects it to last for at least several months. According to a letter sent to customers: “After a larger amount of customer feedback is evaluated, the Beta will conclude and some or all of Search 2.0 will be integrated into various Factiva products. Additionally, other new capabilities that provide our customers with competitive advantages will be introduced via other Beta environments throughout 2006.”

Anyway, give it a test run and send some feedback about it to Factiva.

Psychology: SAGE full-text collection -- Full-text not loading

After clicking on "Full-text PDF" in a record, a target window opens with a "please wait while we contact the provider" message. The window then becomes blank. I have placed a Help Desk request, and notified Mike Waldman.

Ways to improve the catalog

I posted this message on CULIBS last week, but since some of the staff here aren't on CULIBS, I thought I'd cross-post this message. Please excuse any duplication.

Lorcan Dempsey, who is a researcher at OCLC, posted a blog entry recently, "Thinking about the catalog," that may be interesting to anyone who has been thinking about ways to improve CUNY+.

In it, he refers to an interesting new report published the "Bibliographic Task Force" of the University of California Libraries system and he also mentions a new catalog that the libraries at North Carolina State University officially launched yesterday. The NCSU catalog makes effective use of browsing software from Endeca, which also appears on the Barnes and Noble web site.

The UC report is great in that it offers a compelling critique of the dated interface and limited functionality of the current crop of integrated library systems (ours included, I might add). Lorcan directs his readers' attention to the executive report of the UC committee, but I would also like to suggest Appendix E in the main report (p. 45-48). This appendix offers "examples to learn from" and links to all sorts of interesting things libraries are doing to improve access and usability of their systems.

Euromonitor GMID: no remote access for now

Apparently, we need to update the URL we use to link to the database. Saad and Mike have been notified about this.

CUNY+ and SFX down on Jan. 13-14

CUNY+ and SFX will be down from 3 PM today (Friday, Jan. 13) until 5 PM tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 14) due to planned maintenance. In lieu of CUNY+, consider using WorldCat.

New interface for Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life

This was a long time coming. Offers more functionality than old interface. Nicest new feature: if you hover your mouse pointer over something in the search screen, a contextual help box appears.

Company-to-industry comparison reports

If you want to run a report that will compare the ratios of a particular company to those of the industry it is a part of, you can still do that in Factiva. As noted in Louise's posting today about recent changes to Factiva, the content has changed, but some of the same reports can still be run.

Here's the new path in Factiva to the "ratio comparison report."

1. Click "Companies/Markets"
2. On the "Companies/Markets" page that opens, select "Company" from the set of links in the upper left corner (Quotes | Charting | Company).
3. On the "Get Company Snapshot" page, you can search by company name, ticker symbol, or RIC number.
4. Run your search and select the company from your search results (if you search by company name, you are likely to see subsidiaries as well as the parent company).
5. From the company snapshot page that opens, select "Reports" from the vertical list of links on the far left (Snapshot | News| Financial Results | Reports | Build a Report).
6. From the "Reports" page, select "Ratio Comparison Report."
7. You should now see a page with a table comparing the company's ratios to industry ratios.
   
   

Screening for Companies

Now that Factiva has removed company screening from their "Companies/Markets" pages, Standard and Poor's NetAdvantage probably offers the best option for screening for companies based on financial variables. Start by clicking on the "Companies" tab at the top of the page. From the pull down menu under "Advanced Search", choose either the Corporation Records or the Stock Reports. Both of these titles cover public companies listed in the U.S.
NetAdvantage offers three screening filters. The "Basic" filter includes the commonly used criteria of market cap as well as screens for S&P industry and sub-industry sectors. The "Fundamental" filter allows screening by dividend yield, dividend payout ratio and P/E. The "Financial" filter includes EPS, revenues, net profit margin,return on equity,and return on assets. You can choose variables from any one of the filters or search across all of the filters.

For a simple screening of companies based on either sales or number of employees, use the "Advanced Search" with Standard and Poor's Register of Corporations. In NetAdvantage the Register is divided into "Register-Public Companies" and "Register-Private Companies".

Changes to Companies/Markets in Factiva

In December Factiva made significant changes in the information offered in their Companies/Markets pages. They have removed all content from Hoover’s and added content from their joint venture partner, Reuters. What does this mean?

· Private company profiles will no longer be available.
· Public company coverage has been expanded. An additional 5,000 public company profiles have been added from Reuters. Factiva is now a good source for foreign company profiles.
· Datamonitor is providing the business descriptions in the company snapshots.
· Company screening is no longer available.
· Peer group lists are limited to public companies. The peer group is a list of the closest 10 global competitors based on sales.
· Links to company snapshots are available from the peer group lists.
· You can search for company snapshots by RIC code (Reuters Instrument Code) as well as company name or ticker.

Mexican Migration Project

While helping a student recently, I learned of the Mexican Migration Project. This yearly study of Mexican migrants randomly samples households in communities throughout Mexico, gathers social, demographic, economic information and also information about each person's first and last trip to the United States. A year-by-year history is compiled from heads of households regarding migration to the United States, employment, earnings, and use of social services. The student and I located this site in trying to locate information about money sent back to Mexico by Mexicans in the U.S. The Project has centers in Mexico and at Princeton University.

Consumer Expenditure Survey from Census Bureau

The CE is a useful source of data regarding household expenditures in the NY metro area for rent, entertainment and food. Comparisons are available on a regional and national basis.
From a recent press release:

How much Americans spend for health care, groceries, clothing, transportation, housing and other items. The Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey program consists of two separate surveys:
The CE Interview Survey — 7,500 households interviewed once every three months to obtain data on relatively large expenditures and also for those that occur on a regular basis (such as rent and utilities).
The CE Diary Survey — Over the year, another 7,500 households will keep two consecutive one-week diaries of all purchases — including small, frequently purchased items that are normally difficult for respondents to recall later (such as toothpaste, bread or a hamburger from a fast-food restaurant).
Provides a snapshot of our nation’s economy and spending habits. Government economists use the survey results to update a “market basket” of goods and services for the Consumer Price Index, our nation’s single most widely used measure of inflation.
“Data from the CE enable policymakers to evaluate consumer needs, measure the impact of governmental policies on families and track changes in consumer spending trends.”

Student Printing Allocation Update

An explanation of students' printing allocations for delayed final exams and the winter session is posted on the BCTC homepage. You will also find a link to the hours for the lab and the help desk there.