printer #3

The #2 drawer in this printer is not functioning properly--it always jams--and so we've left it empty all day.

Math students may have trouble logging on to WebWork2

While on the desk this afternoon we tried to help a student, in Math 2207, log on to Webwork2 at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/webwork2/. He was unsuccessful. A call to the help desk informed us that if the students registered for the class after Jan. 20, they are not on the list. They should contact Sherman.Wong@baruch.cuny.edu for the username and password to use. As the student said he wasn't the only one having trouble getting on (there is homework posted on the site) I emailed Prof. Wong on his behalf. The student, a new transfer student, thought he had registered prior to Jan. 20.

New practice room in the 6th floor computing lab

Baruch students who need a room to practice presentations in can now go to the circulation window and ask for the key to the practice room on the 6th floor (room 636). The room has a podium, a projector, a computer, and chairs. I've added an entry about this new room in the reference wiki.

President Obama signs first legislation of his term --Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

President Obama signed the first legislation of his presidency today. Among the attendees at the signing were Lilly Ledbetter

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act extends employees’ opportunity to challenge allegedly discriminatory pay practices under Title VII and other anti-discrimination statutes.

What's important about this Act?

Under the new Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, each allegedly discriminatory paycheck triggers a new 180- or 300-day statute of limitations, thus extending employees’ opportunity to sue to the entire duration of their employment.

It basically reverses the result of a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Ms. Ledbetter. The decision stated that employees were required to file an EEOC charge within 180 or 300 days (depending on the state) of the first time an allegedly discriminatory pay decision was made.

(Ms. Ledbetter, a 20-year employee of Goodyear Tire Co. for 20 years, had sued her employer in 1998 after she discovered she was paid less than her male counterparts for similar work. She had not learned of the possible discrimination over the years years because Goodyear employees were not allowed to discuss their salaries.
Although a jury awarded Ms. Ledbetter more than $3 million in damages, the Supreme Court overruled that decision because it said she waited too long to file her case.)

I found this information on the White House site, in news articles in Factiva, and was alerted to it through a listserv.

IMF on financial stability

The IMF has developed a section of their website to put together resources that deal with the analysis and assessment of key financial stability issues, in a global, regional, or country context.

Copyright and Harvard Business School Press Case Studies

Given the somewhat frequent requests we get for Case Studies from Harvard Business School Press, I thought you might want to read about the various ruses the publisher has come up with to control access to print and electronic editions. The author of the post, Jonathan Rochkind, is a systems librarian at Johns Hopkins University, and is currently one of my favorite blogging librarians.

Helping with student printing accounts

With Christian Keck's permission, I am reposting an email he sent to Saad today about student printing accounts and why some students are unable to print. Saad forwarded the message to our BBLIB listserv, but I thought it would also be useful to share here, too.

Please keep in mind just because a student can log into the computers, does not mean they can print.

If the student has not paid their bill; or just paid their bill; or is not taking classes at Baruch this semester they will not be able to print. If they just paid their bill they can come to help desk and we can activate their account after verifying that they paid their bill. 75% of the calls/walk ins to the helpdesk have been that they forgot
their password and the rest of the calls have been they did not pay their bill or just paid their bill and they were not taking classes this semester.

The other issue if they have forgotten their password they will receive the message log in failed and they will need to come to the help desk to have their password reset.

The other item we have observed if the file is extremely large it will take some time to print. We have the same issue upstairs here with students as well and is not a
unique issue to the second floor.

Capstone research subject: 25 pages on Madonna

I helped a student this morning who said her capstone class is requiring a 25-page paper on different aspects of Madonna (the singer). She said Madonna and her producers was already taken. She didn't know what aspect she wanted to research. I showed her some of our databases and Bearcat search and also suggested the NYPL Library for the Performing Arts. Madonna's original surname was Ciccone, which is helpful in searching some of the databases.

Re: Prof. Victoria Stone's Anthro 1001 reading assignment

I helped a student in Prof. Victoria Stone's Anthropology 1001 class who was looking for an article that the syllabus said was on e reserve. Perhaps the professor meant in our databases as no listing for Prof. Stone was found, and we also searched the other Anthro classes to see if the article was listed and it wasn't. The article is available through JSTOR. The article is in American Anthropologist Second series, (1956) Vol 58, No. 3, pages 503-507. It is by Horace Miner and the title begins Body Ritual.

NYT announces API for best sellers' book lists

The New York Times today launched an Application Programming Interface (API) for the books that have appeared on the publication's best sellers' lists since June 2008. In future months the NYT plans to add lists going back to 1930. Information currently available includes ranking information and links to NYT reviews and excerpts, according to the announcement.

New York Academy of Medicine changes its access policy

Users are now being requested to call ahead for an appointment. No one will be turned away. Appointments may be scheduled by calling 212-822-7315 or emailing the library.

Syllabus for Spanish course given to security

I turned into security the syllabus that a student in Prof. Cuesta's Spanish class left at the reference desk. I emailed Prof. Cuesta who responded that she will notify the student.

Testing email forwarding of blog posts

Please ignore this test post. Just checking how email of blog posts is working these days.

Baruch Geoserver Provides GIS Data

The library now has a server to provide GIS datasets, static maps, and information about GIS facilities and educational opportunities on campus. All academic libraries that seriously provide GIS services have sites or repositories similar to this one, to provide data and information. The server can be accessed anywhere on campus from machines that are hardwired to the network (it cannot be accessed via wireless or from off campus). While the datasets can be downloaded from anywhere on campus, patrons will need access to GIS software to actually use them. The site provides a list of locations on campus where patrons can find the software.

The Baruch Geoserver is listed on the library's databases page, and can also be accessed on campus at http://gserv. The site also has an RSS feed that users can subscribe to for news and updates. The feed is available from on or off campus.

Most of the information on the geoserver supercedes the content of the Geography / GIS subject guide. The subject guide will be pared down significantly and there will be a link from the guide to the geoserver.

Please pass the news along to anyone who may be interested. I have already contacted about twelve faculty members who use GIS or demographic datasets to let them know that this resource is available. Feel free to contact me or post to the blog if you have any questions.

Library Journal evaluates e-business resources

The article looks at ABI/Inform, Business Source Complete, EconLit, Mergent Online, Proquest Entrepreneurship, and briefly goes over a few others.

LJ, v.134, no. 1, Jan. 2009, s16-s22

Trial: Guide to Reference

Formerly Guide to Reference Books, this new online edition incorporates online resources as well. The trial runs until March 26, 2009 and requires a username and password, which are on the database page. The trial is available on campus only.

Please post any comments you may have.

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) at Hunter College

If faculty inquire about journal rankings (impact factor) within a discipline, please let them know about the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) module available within Web of Science at Hunter College. I have confirmed this is available with a librarian at Hunter. Unfortunately, we do not subscribe to the JCR module at Baruch. They will be able to use the computer terminals at the Hunter Library (they are not required to ask for a username/password).

New Reference Titles in Demography

We've received two new reference titles in demography. Both are handbooks / encyclopedic type works that cover concepts and issues in demography, such as: statistic sources and collection, types of stats (counts, estimates, surveys, projections) population distribution (age, gender, race, ethnicity), components of population change (natality, mortality, migration), and health and education.

The Methods and Materials of Demography, 2nd ed. Siegel and Swanson. Ref HB 849.4 .M484 2004

Handbook of Population, Poston and Micklin. Ref HB 871 .H3447 2006

Both books are available in the reference section, 2nd floor.

Calculators

Calculators will be distributed next week, the first week of the semester, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm at the third floor service desk.

Help desk request filed for Quicktime 6 installation on reference desk computers

I have made a help desk request, #3205, regarding the need to have QuickTime 6 installed on the reference desk computers in order to launch media such as Accounting Cycle One in the Digital Media Collection. Some students have been asking about these accounting tutorials and currently they can't be launched from the reference desk computers, although it used to be possible.