Microsoft updates Investor Relations website; viewing financials requires Silverlight software

Microsoft has updated and improved its investor relations page,
and has announced the following:

We are pleased to introduce a new section on the Microsoft Investor Relations website, Investor Central, located at www.microsoft.com/msft/IC/default.aspx.
Investor Central is intended to help shareholders better understand Microsoft's business strategies and our financial results. Please take a tour around the site and send us any feedback that you might have at msft@microsoft.com.

When I went to the new page, I learned that to view the financials, I need to download Microsoft Silverlight. Due to the popularity of this company for student assignments, and general interest, should Silverlight be downloaded on the public computers?

New feature on S&P NetAdvantage: Interactive stock reports

Standard & Poor's has added a new feature, interactive stock reports, to their Net Advantage database.

One feature that will be helpful for students is Analyze This Stock, with four components: company value, peer comparison, risk assessment and company news. An interactive overview is available.

To reach the interactive stock reports, S&P provides these instructions (from their monthly newsletter):

To use this service, go to your S&P NetAdvantage database, and:
* select a company by ticker or name,
* select "Interactive" in the left-hand column listed under
Stock Reports.
* Once the "Interactive" report is open, select from the
left-hand column to move through a step by step
process of analyzing that company (Each link the user
selects opens a new on-screen review of how that
factor influences the analyst's evaluation of that
company.)

Card to sign for Anne Esler is at the reference desk

I have placed a card for former reference librarian Anne Esler at the reference desk. I learned from her that she is having to have some physical therapy on her shoulder as she was hit by a car coming back to the Dartmouth Library after a meeting. Although it happened several months ago, I just recently learned of the accident. Anne wrote that she didn't miss any work but she is undergoing the physical therapy. If you want to sign it, please do so in the next few days. I'll mail it on Tuesday. Thanks, Rita

Wiley and Blackwell platforms to merge

Blackwell Publishing merged with Wiley last year, and this year they are planning to integrated all their holdings into the Wiley platform by July 1, 2008, at which time the Blackwell-synergy platform we've been using will cease to exist. This should be seamless for us but may affect our reference, teaching, and eventually linking.

Information Literacy and Technology

A new British study just released called " Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future", concludes that the idea of the "Google Generation" may be a myth - specifically that the assumption that young people who grew up with the internet are the most savvy and web literate is not true. While young people are more comfortable with computers, they don't necessarily possess the knowledge of how to use them effectively and how to analyze information that they discover:

http://www.bl.uk/news/2008/pressrelease20080116.html

In a a different vein, I think the recent student panel also debunked some of the assumptions about young people and technology. While the students on the panel were comfortable with search engines and had grasped the importance of using the library databases, many of them were unfamiliar with some of the other technologies - they didn't known about RSS feeds or micro blogs, they didn't write their own blogs, they didn't use blackberries, and they weren't sure what a social networking site was until we mentioned a few examples by name (myspace, facebook). While these technologies are promoted by technophiles in the media and other circles, they aren't being embraced by all young people as a matter of course.

Understanding how federated search works

As a member of the committee that was charged with setting up Bearcat Search, one of the things I've wrestled with is understanding how federated search technology actually works. I've still got a lot to learn, but I think making the effort to do so has helped me not only in thinking through the issues involved in implementing Bearcat Search and troubleshooting it but also in giving me a foundation from which I can teach our students and faculty how and when to use the tool.

Here is my mental model that I've pieced together of how Bearcat Search works:

1. User goes to search box on our Bearcat web page that is hosted by Serials Solutions and types in query for a selected set of databases (for discussion's sake, say it's ten databases).
2. Query is passed on to Serials Solutions servers, which then use custom built connectors (more on that later) to translate my query into a formats that can be understood by each of the ten different database vendors.
3. Those translated queries are passed by Serials Solutions on to the servers for each of the ten databases.
4. Each database returns its results Serials Solutions (not the complete set of results, just the first 50, 100, 125 hits depending on the database).
5. Serials Solutions analyzes the first batch of results, removing duplicate records (sometimes but not always), and then passes them on to the web page that the user is on.
6. If the user pages through all of the first batch of results (say 200 out of 5,297 found), then when the user clicks to see the results for 201 and on, Serials Solutions goes back to the ten database vendors to get another set of results; steps 4 and 5 above are repeated if the user continues to page through the end of a given batch of results.

The concept of what a connector is a good thing to understand. There's a great blog appropriately called the Federated Search Blog that offers a nice, short overview of what a connector is and how federated search vendors (like Serials Solutions) have to custom create each one for each library. I also recommend reading the following four posts on that same blog that explain how it is that federated search tools connect to the databases they are aggregating:

• Content access basics - Part I - screen scraping
• Content access basics - Part II - XML
• Content access basics - Part III - OpenSearch
• Content access basics - Part IV - SRU/SRW/Z39.50

For anyone who has ever noted varying response times from Bearcat Search, this post, "How fast is federated search" offers some valuable insights.

Please stop me in hallway or add a comment here to let me know if any of this is useful.

Tribes that in 2008 have no written language?

A student in a communications class is looking for a name of a tribe/group that in 2008 has no written language. Any ideas? If so, please post.

Book appears to be missing--students asking for it

Several students were looking for the book "From Ellis Island to JFK: New York's two greta waves of immigration." JV 7048.F65 2000. It is not in the stacks in the correct place. I will report it missing. The books is assigned for a class.

Hints for articles assigned for Fin 4920

I tried to help a student find some assigned readings for Fin 4920 (Prof. DeLong)
We had trouble finding them by the titles listed on the syllabus. Perhaps the titles were varied on the online or print editions.

on Factiva--we found this article after a keyword search. The syllabus title lacks Politics and Economics

found article:
Politics & Economics: Foreign Companies Slowed Capital Spending in U.S.
The Wall Street Journal, 21 April 2006, 872 words, (English)

Rather than Crackdown in trade, the title on Factiva for the second is:
Kuwait Times: Crackdown on trade in illegal software.
Kuwait Times, 10 April 2006, 472 words, (English)
KUWAIT: Authorities in Kuwait have launched a crackdown in the trade of illegal software by raiding two computer stores and seizing two personal computers loaded with pirated software. The Government of Kuwait in recent years enacted ...

Hope this helps.

Staff copier in Besso Lab moved (a bit)

Because of the renovations underway in the Besso Lab, the staff copier that used to be just outside Lisa's office has moved and can be found closer to Harry's office behind some boxes.

No Value Line access

If you try to access Value Line, you get this message:

Your account has expired or is disabled

Please contact our software support for more information.

Re: CIS 9000 and Harvard Business School cases

I helped a student in CIS 9000: Information Systems for Managers at the reference desk who wondered if we had Harvard Business School cases. I recalled that there are some cases in the Harvard Business Review, but I checked the list and none of the cases he needs are available. They all deal with IT issues in companies. The professor has provided them the link to order the cases.

Interestingly, I noticed this information at the bottom of a case study that is available in the HBR that "Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business School publishing content on Ebscohost is licensed for individual use by authorized Ebscohost patrons at this institution and is not intended for use as assigned course material." So, they really want students to purchase the case studies.

re: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Tradition : a brief introduction to its life and spirituality

There have been calls and email reference questions about this book today. It is available only in Brooklyn College's special collections. Columbia University has it on order. So, I have suggested to the students to request the professor to ask the library to purchase it, try interlibrary loan (checking Worldcat, a few other libraries have the book), and contact Brooklyn College library about access to their special collections. The book's ISBN 83-85368-98-1 doesn't show up as being available on Amazon or Barnes&Noble. It was published in Paris, so purchasing a copy might take some time.

Update:

I heard from the Brooklyn College library about the hours for their special collection.

BB students can make an arrangement with Special collection (718) 951-5346 and use the book at any time convenient for them. Regular hours of Special collection are 9-5pm M-F.

I hope this helps to accommodate the students somehow. The book is part of the Hess Collection. Hess was one of the BC presidents and left a huge donation to the library (his book collection and money gift). His research was on the African countries from the Horn of Africa and Special collection continues collect books on these countries.

The Atlantic Monthly drops its paywall

Last week, The Atlantic Monthly dropped its paywall that only allowed subscribers online access to back issues (1995 to the present). Now, everyone can browse these old issues freely.

FYI, we have long had online access via several databases to issues from 1993 on.

A few weeks ago, I heard rumors about the possibility of WSJ.com opening itself up to, much as the New York Times did last fall. It seems like the business model of relying on advertising revenue instead of online subscriber fees is winning out.

CFA Institute offers free online sources to understand financial reports, hedge funds and pension funds

I learned today that the CFA Institute offers some free webcasts that have been prepared for journalists but I think could be helpful for students, especially those doing Wal-Mart as two of the webcasts cover that company.

From the Certified Financial Analysts's web site, the following information is available:

These webcasts will explain important accounting terms and practices, comment on corporate disclosure practices and potential accounting manipulations, and answer frequently asked questions—all from the perspective of professional financial analysts and portfolio managers who analyze financial statements and potential investments.

* How to Read a 10-Q Like an Investment Professional: Sequel to Wal-Mart Analysis Webcast
* How to Read and Understand Earnings Releases Like an Investment Pro (Case Study: Wal-Mart)

* Seven Investment Habits Every Investor Needs to Know — A Story Idea for the Press

* Buried Treasure: Finding Information Nuggets in 10-Ks and 10-Qs

* How to Read and Understand Earnings Releases Like an Investment Pro
* Hedge Funds 101: What Every Financial Journalist Needs to Know
* Defined-Benefit Pension Plans: What Journalists Need to Know

Clickers

A number of students have been stopping by the desk today asking where to borrow clickers (they should go to the circulation window). I just created a Clickers page in the wiki; please help me flesh it out by adding any information you have about this technology and our policies for borrowing them.

Student printing accounts for spring 2008

If a student is having trouble using their spring printing account today, they should go in person to the BCTC help desk in the 6th floor lab with a copy of their bill for the semester.

Graphing calculators still available

There are still a large number of graphing calculators available. Students should still stop by the circulation desk first to have their account validated and can then go to the 3rd floor desk to borrow one (beginning at 10:30 am). Calculators will be distributed throughout the hours that the desk is open. Ester told me that students can also get the calculators at the circulation desk, as well.

Reports on private equity from World Economic Forum and the Private Equity Council

The Jan. 25 NYT had an article headlined: Study says Private Equity Isn't Big Job Killer. The article mentions two very recent studies:

Economic Impact of Private Equity, by Josh Lerner and Steven J. Davis, which was announced Friday at the World Economoic Forum in Davos. The study runs more than 180pages and is available as a pdf file. Webcast and podcast are available. (As are other sessions from this major forum.)

Private Equity Council's American Jobs and The Impact of Private Equity Transactions. This report was released a week ago by the lobbying group.

Some faculty and students may inquire about the studies.

Update: VITA service to start Feb. 1 Link to information about Baruch's VITA Program for assistance in preparing income taxes

I found this link to the Baruch VITA (Volunteers in Tax Assistance) program, which provides the hours of operations and locations and other information. I found the site through a college news release. I couldn't find when the service starts so I emailed the address provided. I'll let you know.

new information
Them Tran returned my email as he is the Program Coordinator for VITA this year. He wrote : We start on February 1st at Baruch. Rita