Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2009

Procedures for Research Consultations

In the reference wiki, I’ve updated the procedures for handling requests for research consultations. Please make sure that you keep me up to date about any appointments you have been forwarded. It is essential that you let me know that you got the request that I forwarded via email and that you take a minute right after the session ends to fill out the online form detailing how the appointment went (that form is linked to within the reference wiki entry on research consultations).

If you want to help publicize the research consultation, feel free to re-use the language in this memo (written with faculty in mind) about the service (you’ll find that memo attached to the reference wiki entry on research consultations).

Descriptions of CCH databases revised

The descriptions to the CCH databases, CCH Capital Changes, CCH Business & Finance and CCH Tax Research have been revised on the Newman Library homepage to reflect the new name of the database to CCH Intelliconnect.

After discussing this change with Mike Waldman, we decided to retain the names of the current databases, CCH Capital Changes, CCH Business  & Finance and CCH Tax Research for awhile and make a reference to see CCH Intelliconnect.  There is also a new listing for CCH Intelliconnect.  (CCH Accounting Research has not been included in the revision of the CCH databases.)

In CCH Intelliconnect:

Users may search all CCH information products to which Baruch subscribes.  (One may not want to do this as thousands of results may be retrieved.  Results may then be filtered.

One can limit one’s searches by selecting from among the Practice Areas, or  the Quick bar (on the left, which allows one to locate specific sources for news, court cases, IRS rulings, and explanations and other practice tools.  I will be doing some workshops next week for graduate students in taxation and after that I will be happy to give demonstrations to any librarian who would like one.  Alternatively,  one can go through the Intelliconnect Quick Start Guide, available on the website.

Resting Printers

Tam (although off-duty) helped me with a student printer today.  After about an hour the new printers go into inactive mode.  If the “ready” light is off, you need to press “stop” on the right button console and then “ok” on the touchscreen in order to print jobs.

Language and “Oral Tradition” or “Oral Heritage”

I had variant of Stephen’s question about language just two days ago–consequently some additional information to Rita’s and Stephen’s comments for the blog. The reader asked for information about the “oral tradition” of the San tribe in Africa which despite changing and now racist and gender biased language is a group also referred to as “bushmen” even in the current literature. The search strategy I shared with the reader was successful and pleased her.

Although this inquiry was so specific or narrow, several general concepts and sources emerge, some of which are already noted. Foremost questions about language, including this, are often multidisciplinary. Answers to this question will require a Boolean search strategy including “oral tradition” or “oral heritage” in addition to “oral culture” (as Stephen mentioned) linked possibly to a place, such as a country or continent and other words.

Second while I dislike federated searching (my bias) a broader search of all the sociology (social sciences), anthropology, humanities, linguistics and multidisciplinary databases is highly productive. For general background about “oral” practices even CUNY+ has a substantial (approximately a dozen+) list of books. Consequently a more thorough list of databases and sources, depending upon depth sought by the inquirer, would include JSTOR, Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, possibly the other unnoted communications databases, the Social Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Full Text, Sociology Index Full Text, Sociology: A Sage Full Text . . . , surprisingly Science Direct (covers the social sciences too) and CUNY+. Emphasizing full-text for easier access is important too though I have listed the above without a hierarchy. I particularly tested JSTOR, Science Direct and Academic Search Premier.

Assignment: Groups/Tribes with No Written Language

We’ve been seeing an assignment this week that has come up in the past (maybe). Since this question is a bit challenging, I am hoping that you’ll add any suggestions you have as comments to this blog post.

The Question

The student I helped asked me for help finding information on an “illiterate” tribe (and that tribe or culture has to be “illiterate” to this day). I’m pretty sure that what he meant (and negotiation of the question didn’t get that far as the student didn’t seem super confident about what he was really after) was a tribe or culture that has no written language. If you have more information on this question (what course it is for, what the real assignment is, etc.) please chime in here.

Who Are the Information Producers?

Any suggestions beyond these?

  • anthropologists
  • linguists
  • communications studies scholars
  • groups devoted to preserving languages or, more broadly, cultural groups (such as Cultural Survival)?

How Do You Identify the Culture or Tribe?

I’m not sure what the official term or phrase is to describe groups that have no written language. Any suggestions beyond these as search words?

  • purely oral society or purely oral culture (is the word “purely” required to distinguish those cultures where there is a written language but most communication takes place orally?)
  • no written language
  • pre-literate (I’m not so sure about this one)

Any ideas about other sources that might work where you can plug in the best search terms besides these?

What Sources Are Best for Researching the Culture or Tribe Identified

This is a bit easier. Here is what I came up with:

Rita and I posted to the blog about this in January 2008. As it has become apparent this week that this is a recurring assignment, I am hopeful that we can get more clarity on the assignment and the best way to identify a tribe or group that fits the bill. Please add your ideas here.

Bus 9551-suggestion for linking to articles in The Economist

While on the reference desk I received a telephone call from a faculty member, working at home, who said when he tried to use the persistent link to an article from The Economist, entitled “Generation Y Goes to Work,”  which he located using ABI Inform Global, for his Blackboard site, he received a message that asked for the ABI Inform Global password.  He wanted to know the password.  I checked with some colleagues, who suggested that he use e-reserve for the article, or scan it and put it up as a pdf.  However, the faculty member said that they were told to use Blackboard.

So, we tried locating the same article, and another Economist article for the same course, Bus 9551, on Business Source Premier.  He was able to successfully use the persistent links in Business Source Premier on Blackboard.

He said that there are many sections of Bus 9551, all with the same readings, so I am offering this information in case others call/email that they have trouble linking from ABI Inform Global.

He also said that some Harvard Business School cases are assigned for this course and the students are being told that they need to buy the cases.