Gale Virtual Reference unavailable

Gale Virtual Reference is not working. Gale is aware of this and working to solve the problem.

Additional alternatives to Investext investment reports

Other sources of analyst reports are:

IS Emerging Markets has analyst reports, including some Thomson Investext reports. Because this database focuses on the "emerging markets" this might be most helpful for those doing international research. A few years ago, a professor was impressed with the reports available from India on Indian companies.

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage..The Interactive Stock reports offer independent research by S&P analysts. The interactive choice lets you study the stock "like an analyst." The Stock Picks and Pans provides very short reactions by analysts to the news/events of the day.

Morningstar and ValueLine also have analyst reports. These may provide some help for students, although they are not the same caliber as investment reports from investment banks. Probably most helpful to beginning researchers.

Alternatives to Investext

We have access to two databases with investement reports that can be used instead of Investext. The best option is Thomson One Analytics since it has the most complete coverage including fixed income, equities,economic and country reports. It covers U.S. and international securities. All the "bulge bracket" banks are contributors including Goldman, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. And since Thomson One is a "real time" platform, reports are added daily without a long embargo. The drawback for our students is that Thomson One is not available from off campus. Students can use the database in the Subotnick Center or at the Reuters terminal at the reference desk. Students can not print from these terminals but must e-mail the reports to themselves.

Another alternative to Investext is the investement reports in Business and Company Resource Center. They come from Reuters Research on Demand. But none of the "name" banks are contributors; rather the reports are from boutique firms that focus on earnings forecasts, technical analysis and various investment strategies. (For more detail on the contributors, see my blog post of July 29th). Reports in BCRC are only available on companies, not on industries.

Investext

In the breakup between Gale and Thomson, Gale lost Investext. At this point our subscription has run out and I have removed it from our database list. It would be great if people could post here alternative sources for that information so we all can get a refresher.

Naxos: New interface coming

Naxos will be upgrading to a the new Naxos Music Library 2.0 between Tuesday, September 9th through Friday, September 12th, from 10:00 P.M. to 12:00 AM, each evening. The database might be unavailable at that time.

Researching Foreign Companies

I've had several students taking BPL5100 contact me wanting to know if it's a good idea to do their presentation on a foreign company. If you are helping a student with this question, they need to do some research to answer these questions:

1. Is it a public company and where is it listed?
2. Does it have a website with financial filings and other "Investor Relations" data?
3. Is it big enough to be covered by the U.S. business media and investment research firms?
4. Are its operations global?

If you can answer yes to all these questions, there is a good chance that there will be enough authoritative information that is current and in English to complete the assignment.

Students Discuss the Wikipedia

The 15 minute video from Prof. Bornstein's LIB 3040 class is now available in the Digital Media Library. It is described as "Excerpts of a class discussion on Wikipedia.Questions include: "What is Wikipedia?," "What is the controversy over Wikipedia?'" and "What is the policy for the use of Wikipedia when doing research and writing term papers?"

Better wording for "Title Request" in CUNY+

Eric Neubacher will be going to the CUNY committee next Tuesday that meets to discuss the catalog interface. At a recent IS meeting, it was proposed that we let Eric know of our recommendation for better wording for the "Title Request" link that lets users have books shipped from one CUNY library to another:

(screenshot of a holdings info page in CUNY+)

If anyone would like to suggest some better wording, please add a comment to this blog post by Monday (Sept. 8).

Anchorage Daily News's stories re Sarah Palin

The Anchorage Daily News announced this morning that all their stories on Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain choice for his running mate, are now available on the paper's website. This is the largest daily newspaper in Alaska.

Printing Guest Logins at Reference Desk

Use IE to print out guest logins at the Reference Desk. For some reason guest accounts sent to the printer from Mozilla come out as gobbledegook.

Google Chrome and ebrary

Yesterday, I installed on my PC at home the brand new browser from Google: Chrome. I was amazed by how much faster it is than any other browser I've ever used; it's a noticeable difference. It's Windows-only software, for now, but Google promises that it will work on Macs, Linux, etc. in the near future.

For what it's worth, just want to note here that I was able to use Chrome to log in remotely to Factiva using Chrome and that I was able to pose as a patron in the QuestionPoint chat software. When I tried to read an e-book in ebrary, Chrome had some real issues. I was able to load pages and move through the book, but the screen flickered in portion of the page that offers a clickable table of contents. It may be worth trying out other databases in Chrome to see if there are any compatibility issues we should be aware of.

IRS Code and Treasury Regs

Students in TAX9878 have specific citations and need to find those sections of the IRS Code and Treasury Regulations. In CCH Tax Research, you will find the Current Internal Revenue Code and Federal Tax Regulations (in the grouping of Primary Sources). Choose one and then click on "Find by Citation" under the search box.

Problem: Students using id cards in photocopy machines

During the past weekend three students tried to use their Baruch ID cards in the photocopy machines, which resulted in no copies and the need to use tweezers to get the cards out of the machine. I would like to suggest that the notice on the machines be changed to make references to the need for a photocopy card (showing the card that can be purchased in Room 309) and that Baruch ID cards are not to be used. For new students, the reference to not using the old photocopy card holds no meaning.

JSTOR reported problem with PDF and Mac Preview

This is the message they sent out:

We have recently become aware that certain versions of Mac Preview are incompatible with the newest generation of JSTOR PDFs. For some users, this means that only the cover page is displaying. Other users have reported that the downloaded article appears to be missing the first portion of the article—it begins somewhere after the first 10 pages of the article. The article is in fact intact and complete, but some pages are not displayed properly. We are working to fix this and plan to continue to support the use of Preview with JSTOR PDFs. We apologize for the problems that this is causing for Mac users.

For now, the quickest workaround is to download the latest free copy of Adobe Reader, available on the Adobe web site:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html

Once Adobe Reader is downloaded, please check to make sure that the default PDF viewer is set to Adobe Reader rather than the original PDF viewer installed on your Mac.

The default viewer for PDF documents in Mac OS X is Preview. To change the file association for PDF files:

Select any PDF file and choose File > Get Info.
Choose the application that you want to open PDF files from the Open With menu.
Click Change All, and then click Continue.
You will also want to make sure that the popup blocker is turned off for the JSTOR site. The new PDF files are set to open in a new window and popup blockers may affect this.

Student jobs in the library

This is the time of the year when we get a lot of requests from students interested in working in the library. If a student asks about a library job when the chief librarian's office is open, direct the student up to see Annette Ruiz, who will answer all their questions and let them know about any openings. If it is an evening or weekend when you get the request, have the student fill out the application form (kept in the file cabinet drawer at the reference desk); then, you should find a way to get that completed form to Annette (via interoffice mail, drop it off yourself, etc.)

Exhibit on Advertising Personalities at SIBL

SIBL is presenting an exhibit on "The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue and Their Impact on American Culture" that runs through September 26th. It is accompanied by a reading list compiled by John Ganly that includes a chronology of key titles covering decades from 1860 to the present.

Lockers

Students are inquiring about locker rentals. Please direct them to this URL:

https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/Lockers/

Bureau of Labor Statistics Site

The BLS has completely revamped their website. Instead of being immediately confronted with a list of every statistic they collect, everything is now nicely buried under a number of menus and submenus. So if you had a favorite page or link that you've come to rely on, you'll want to surf around the site and see where it went:

http://www.bls.gov/

IDEA to replace EDGAR

The SEC announced last week in a press release and hour long webcast that the EDGAR depository of corporate filings will be replaced by IDEA. The IDEA acronym stands for Interactive Data, Electronic Applications and will be the platform for interactive filings based on XBRL tagging. The SEC did not unveil a new database, they simply announced the new name and logo, so expect more details before the end of the year.

The SEC did say that they expect IDEA to be fully functional in three years at which time EDGAR will become an archive for historical documents. The first filers are expected to be Fortune 500 companies filing their 10-K for the 2008 year.

Thank You

Thanks to all for a successful first day of the semester, especially everyone who pitched in when we were busy. The team work was fantastic. I saw five librarians working the desk at 4 PM. We managed to keep the lines moving and the students satisfied.