Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2009

Availability of keyword searches on Thomson Research?

I have been having trouble with some keyword searches of SEC filings in Thomson Research (when one selects the Edgar Free Text Search).  For the past several searches I have tried, I receive a notice that no results were found.  For example, executive compensation recovery in proxy statements.  When I try the same keywords in Edgar Online I-Metrix,  and in proxy statements, I receive a number of results.  Is any one else having problems with Thomson Research on such keyword searches?

Roving Reference with the Satellite Computer Lab

Does anyone have any thoughts about how we might approach roving reference now that the rows of computers on the 2nd floor extend far back into areas that are equally populated by students poring over books at tables and cubicles? Before we had the new computers, you could safely walk by the rows of computers and announce, “Does anyone need help?” to nobody in particular. Now if you do that too far back on the 2nd floor, I wonder if the folks who aren’t on computers but are studying or reading might find it annoying to have someone like me asking aloud if anyone needs help. Maybe we can just rove these areas in the back silently?

EBSCOhost Integrated Search

EBSCO has launched its own federated search, EBSCOhost Integrated Search, and we have a trial. It is in the list of databases under EBSCOhost Integrated Search. At present it is “out of the box” but will probably change as we play with it, but only the databases provided by CUNY are part of this trial. If you have comments or suggestions, or care to compare with Bearcat, that would be appreciated.

Working paper from Baruch’s Center for Nonprofit Strategy re use of the Internet

I received the following announcement this morning and thought it should be shared:

Baruch College’s  Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management of Baruch College has added a new Working Paper that deals with the use of the Internet as a strategy for representing a nonprofit organization’s mission, identity and brand.

The paper, “Static Strategy for a Dynamic Age: Assessing Nonprofit Internet Innovativeness in the 2000s” is by Sarah E. Ryan of the University of Texas at El Paso  The paper may be found at:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/spa/researchcenters/nonprofitstrategy/documents/Ryan_StaticStrategyinaDynamicAge.pdf

Ryan’s study is based on a content analysis of donor-supported nonprofits in New York City as a way to understand  nonprofit Internet communication. Her research reaches the conclusion that “many nonprofits still prominently display static content such as formal mission statements in their Web sites. As such, they have not fully realized the potential for dynamic storytelling in cyberspace.”
Prof.  Ryan was a SPA faculty member until accepting the position in El Paso this fall.

A list of all Baruch CNSM Working Papers is available at:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/spa/researchcenters/nonprofitstrategy/workingpapers.php

This information was from

Susan M. Chambré
Professor of Sociology and Editor, Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management Working Papers [email protected]

Assignment re Katharine Graham

In doing email reference today several students have either chatted or emailed about their communications assignment to find articles about Katharine Graham and her son Donald E. Graham, who have been publishers of the Washington Post.  (Mrs. Graham, now deceased,  took over after her husband’s suicide, and her son succeeded her, after holding several positions at the Washington Post.   Mrs. Graham was the publisher of the Washington Post during the Watergate crisis in the early 1970s.  John Mitchell, the attorney general at the time, made a very famous quote about Mrs. Graham.)   One student was misspelling Mrs. Graham’s first name, which might have been problematic in searching the databases.

I was somewhat surprised when I tried Academic Search Complete and the Communications database and learned if you do a people search or subject search  for Katharine Graham  no results are available.  A search in all text is successful.  There are a number of articles about her after she died.    Another database that can be searched is People on Lexis-Nexis, which has a number of results for either Katharine Graham or Donald E. Graham.   Her son is also referred to as Don Graham sometimes.  Two books, one written by Katharine Graham, are available in our collection.