Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2010

Custom Search Boxes for Bearcat

If you are interested in setting up a custom search box for a cluster of databases in Bearcat (such as all the psychology databases in Bearcat or all the accounting databases in Bearcat), let me know. Saad and I were able to figure out how to get them to work on and off campus. You can see examples of these custom search boxes on the following LibGuides:

  • The Finding Articles page on Louise’s Management guide (look for the box labeled “Bearcat Search for Business and Management”)
  • The Getting Started page on my Literature guide (look for the box labeled “Literature Databases”)
  • The Getting Started page on my Philosophy guide (look for the box labeled “Philosophy Databases”)

The code for these custom search boxes can be embedded in all sorts of places: web pages on the library site, blogs, wikis, etc. As an example, I’ve added the code for Louise’s business and management search box to this post:

Not sure where to start your search? Try Bearcat Search, which searches multiple databases at the same time.

TitleAuthorFull TextKeywordSubjectISSNAny

Search results from:

CORE DATABASES

  • ABI/Inform Global
  • Business Source Complete

RELATED DATABASES

  • Factiva
  • Conference Board
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library
  • PsycINFO
  • JSTOR

Free Seminars at Center for Communication

The Center for Communication sponsors free seminars for college students interested in trends and careers in media/communication related fields. You may want to mention these seminars to students during instructional sessions or to faculty that may want to pass this along to their students. Seminars cover: marketing, digital media, journalism, advertising, film, radio, television, music, books & authors, magazine publishing, design and theater.

The next seminar is Digital Entrepreneurs 2.0 (Tues., March 16), hosted at Forham U.,  113 W.60th St, 6:30-8.

The Center for Communication site has “job tips” (videos of “how to break in” advice from industry professionals ) and “media links“, also.

Small Group Meeeting Rooms at SIBL

A student in the entrepreneurial program asked for a meeting room to accommodate a small group consisting of Baruch and non-Baruch/non-CUNY people.  (He already tried at The Field Center and in Zicklin without success.) Since the library does not have space for such meetings, I recommended the NYPL. For more information on SIBL meeting rooms and for the online request form, go here.

“Small meeting rooms are available at no cost for groups of 2-6 people working on a project together or meeting related to SIBL’s business or science resources. Time slots are for one hour or two hours”.

Spotlighting Digital Reference Services in EBSCOhost

Recently, Mike Waldman and I found a way in EBSCOhost to make our digital reference services much more visible and accessible. This short video I just made highlights our experiments. Please share here any comments you have about this pilot project.

I should give a big note of thanks to Paul Pival, whose post on his Distant Librarian blog a few weeks ago first alerted us to EBSCO’s ability to host embedded chat widgets.

Affordable textbooks

There is guide on the CUNY portal (“How to save Money on Textbooks,” http://portal.cuny.edu/cms/id/cuny/documents/informationpage/TextBook_Savings.pdf) which includes information on renting as well as purchasing used books.  Also, there is a Facebook student group called “Baruch College Textbooks : buy or sell,”  which seemed to be active at the beginning of the semester (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=33732797453).

Forex Policy

While I was at the reference desk this week, a student asked for information about foreign exchange in VietNam.  She had already used Factiva and ISI Emerging Markets.  One other database that covers these financial policy issues very well is Business Monitor Online.  Pick a country from the tabs at the top of the home page and then click on “Country Risk” from the menu at the left.  Exchange rate policy is one of the subdivisions of  their Country Risk coverage.

Catalogue Raisonné

Are you seeking comprehensive, cumulative textual and illustrated, highly detailed information about an artist or his or her particular work? While the Newman Library has many sources useful to the undergraduate reader occasionally another more complex source is needed.

Recently a reader sought information about the ownership of a particular painting. If after a thorough reference interview the reader persists in the request for information about ownership and possibly other questions, try searching “catalogue raisonné” with the name of the artist. If you do not find what you seek, on the off chance that “catalogue” has been Americanized, try “catalog.” Sometimes “raisonné” is instead spelled “raissonné.”

 A catalogue raisonné is a standard scholarly, often very long, detailed, richly illustrated complex advanced work about a particular artist. These works are normally so large and costly that a library serving a strong art program such as Hunter, the New York Public Library, or an art museum library such as the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art will have this type of research resource.

 This type of work includes history of the artist, where his or her works were displayed, the sequence of ownership (provenance), birth, death, education, size of the art object and much more. This is distinct from other monographs or biographies, art databases leading to articles, as well as art databases leading to quantitative and other kinds of qualitative information about the sales of art.