America's Best Graduate Schools Ref. Book

Has anyone seen America's Best Graduate Schools? (Reference Desk 2nd Floor Ref LB 2371.4 .A64 2007) It hasn't been on the shelf for a few days ... or for who knows how long.

-Linda

Video about the lives of our students

David Lankes alerted me in this blog post to a cool video from Kansas State University that captures some of the feelings of today's students about what it is like to be in college.



Link to video on YouTube

No remote access to JAMA

I was unable to get into JAMA from off campus just now. I used the link available from a Serials Solutions search and then got this error message:

EZproxy Server Error
Please tell your server administrator to check
ezproxy.msg for a MaxVirtualHosts error

Credo Reference (formerly Xrefer) not accessible remotely

I just failed to access Credo Reference from home (please note that this database was formerly known as Xrefer). After going through our EZ Proxy authentication screen, I was given a Credo home page that asked me for user name/password info, which I shouldn't see if authentication worked.

SDC, part II

Got it. I logged her into the other work computer. So, the one that works okay is on the south side of the desk.

sdc

I'm trying to log a student on to the sdc at the ref desk work computer, and after booting up, it remains stuck on the "connection status" window....
Paul

Using LexisNexis for Accounting

The reference practicum discussed accounting databases at our meeting this week. The new LexisNexis interface hides the accounting search. Here's how to find it. Clicking on the "Business" tab defaults to the Company Dossier, but on the right of the screen various "Business Searches" are available including accounting. The LexisNexis accounting library includes both the Wiley GAAP series and the GAAP Guide Levels A, B, and C (the former Miller GAAP Guides). GAAP Guides discuss the FASB standards and give practical examples of how to apply specific accounting principles.

student printer 1 not working

STudent printer 1 is continually jamming and the message is to clear the paper on the right side door. I did this about 20 times and it is jamming. I called Annette about it.

Rita

New Students Library Tutorial Instructions

Some students who are in the Learning Communities did not receive instructions for taking the quiz. I have put the instructions in the file cabinet at the reference desk.

Intro to GIS for Librarians

I will be giving a presentation entitled "Introduction to GIS for Librarians and Information Professionals" that is open to all Newman Library faculty and staff who are interested in learning about Geographic Information Systems. The presentation will be held in Room 135. You can choose from one of two dates:

Fri Oct 26th from 1pm to 2pm

Tue Oct 30th from 10am to 11am

Please email me to let me know which session you would like to attend: francis_donnelly@baruch.cuny.edu.

Student Resource

Guidelines for Illustrated Presentations

An excellent set of guidelines for students--and possibly faculty--presenting illustrated lectures is now on the web as a short (ten minute video). See Philip Bourne, “Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations.” SciVee. http://www.scivee.tv/node/2903. (Accessed October 11, 2007).

Ulrich's down on Sat-Sun Oct. 13-14

Per Proquest, Ulrich's will be down from Saturday, October 13, 3pm EST to about 3pm Sunday October 14.

Proquest Newsstand

Our access to Proquest Newsstand/Newspapers is gone - it was originally a trial that was never turned off, and the price to keep it was prohibitive.

UC Berkeley offering classes on YouTube

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that over 200 clips have been uploaded representing 8 semester-long classes.

The article can be found at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/04/BUJ0SJ9JS.DTL

The videos:
http://youtube.com/ucberkeley

Unfortunately you can't any course credits!

Free Online GIS Courses Now Available

As part of CUNY's license agreement with ESRI, the producers of ArcGIS software, current memebers of the CUNY community are entitled to take a number of online, self-paced, and free GIS courses offered through ESRI's Virtual Campus network. I have received permission to act as an administrator for these courses for the Baruch community.

Current students, faculty, and staff members of the Baruch community can get information about the requirements and procedures for registering for the courses, as well as a list of available courses, from the ESRI Virtual Campus Courses at Baruch page on the library's website. Feel free to refer interested Baruch patrons to this resource.

To take the courses, you would create an ESRI training account on their website and then follow the instructions on the Courses at Baruch page for requesting courses from me: francis_donnelly@baruch.cuny.edu. I will email the course codes so you can register through the ESRI training website. To take take the courses, you need access to the ArcGIS software (students can access it from several labs on campus) and media for storing the data files used in the courses.

For more information on GIS at Baruch, and resources for GIS education and data, visit the recently updated Geography and GIS Subject Guide.

- Frank

Background info on world cultures

In a workshop for one of the sections of the Learning Communities, I pointed the students toward a reference set called the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life to help them in their research on traditional clothing of various groups. There are entries on over 500 groups from around the world. Each 2-3 page entry has the same sections:

• introduction
• location and homeland
• language
• folklore
• religion
• major holidays
• rites of passage
• interpersonal relations
• living conditions
• family life
• clothing
• food
• education
• cultural heritage
• work
• sports
• entertainment and recreation
• folk arts, crafts and hobbies
• social problems
• bibliography

To give you a sense of the depth of cultures covered, here's a list of some of the entries from the volume on Asia and Oceania:

• Acehnese
• Afghanis
• Ahirs
• Ainu
• 'Alawis
• Ambonese
• Andamese
• Andhras
• Anglo Australians
• Anglo Indians
• Asmat
• Assamese
• Australian Aborigines
• etc.
  

Have you tested WARC?

We have a trial to WARC.com, a database used extensively by advertising agencies, market research companies and media agencies. Peggy Teich has worked with the database and wrote a nice summary of its features. I'll post some of her general comments here but be sure to look for her full report on the shared drive in the "Databases" folder.

Unique Content: WARC contains information not available elsewhere. Examples are transcripts and reports from advertising research organization conferences from Europe (ESOMAR - World Association of Opinion and Marketing Research Professionals, formerly European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) and the United States (ARF or Advertising Research Foundation). Also included are transcripts and reports from related advertising associations such as POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising International). In addition, numerous periodicals, many of them British, are available in the full text here and unavailable elsewhere.

All Subjects Index: Allows employment of drill down technique and is, in many cases, the most effective use of the database. This may be the best search method when looking for broad or conceptual information (like advertising effectiveness or the long or short term effects of advertising, for example).

Case Studies: Click "find a case study" - allows selection of criteria by industry, by medium, target group and by advertising technique. Example: How have food companies targeted children on the internet? This search will yield information on companies that have effectively advertised and what that campaign entailed (medium used, frequency of advertising, length of campaign, etc.)

Classics: WARC will allow you to search for classics or alternatively, will denote on the results page which articles are classics.

D&B Million Dollar Database

It's back on.

D & B Million Dollar Database Down?

The D & B database is "misbehaving." I reported the problem to Michael Waldman a few minutes ago leaving a message on his telephone machine.

He's resolving the matter now.

Problem with searching for databases by subject & type

**This seems to be resolved now. (10/1/2007) **

When using "Search for a Database by Subjects & Type" on the databases page, you may be directed to a fake Google-looking page (Coooqle) promoting prescription drug Tramadol-- instead of a getting a list of Newman Library databases. I placed a Helpdesk request.

This happened to me during a workshop on Sunday. I assumed it was fixed since it was working fine earlier today, but it is happening again.

-Linda