Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2011

When We Don’t Have the Book

If a user at the reference desk asks us for a specific book that we don’t own a copy of, we should make a note of it so we can look into ordering a copy for our collection.

There is now an online form that you can fill out; completed entries go straight to Mike Waldman. The form can be found in three different places:

  1. The LibGuide for reference that Ellen Kaufman put together (see screenshot).

  2. The reference blog (see screenshot)

  3. At Google Docs (there will eventually be a link from the browser toolbars on reference desk comptuers).

Introduction to GIS Practicum

This semester I will be running a day-long workshop entitled “Introduction to GIS using Open Source Software”. GIS is software that you can use for doing geographic analysis (study neighborhoods, target markets, visualize data geographically) and making maps.

The workshop is open to Baruch students (undergraduate, graduate, and CAPS), faculty and staff, and CUNY graduate students, faculty, and staff. The software we’ll be using is free and open source, which means it runs on any operating system and will be easily accessible to everyone before, during, and after the workshop.

The workshop will be offered three times this semester, 20 seats per session. They’ll be on Fridays from 9am to 4:30pm on:

March 4th (register by Feb 28th)
April 1st (register by March 28th)
May 6th (register by May 2nd)

Registration is $30 and includes a comprehensive tutorial booklet and light breakfast. The workshop will be offered in library room 135.

A course description, a link to the registration page, and course material is available in the GIS LibGuide. The registration page is hosted on the CAPS website.

AAA accounting journals database discontinued

Access to the American Accounting Association (AAA) database of accounting journals has been discontinued through the Newman Library databases.  Mike Waldman removed it from the database list today.

Why was this change made?  Originally, the database was obtained because the AAA started an embargo of one year of their journals on database providers.

However, last year I noticed that this embargo had ended. Most of the journals, including the current issues,  are available on other subscription databases.  The main journals are Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, and Issues in Accounting Education, all of which are available in a number of our databases.  Many accountancy faculty are AAA members and can access the journals via personal log-ins.  So, without the embargo, and the availability of the journals elsewhere, it seemed like a means to save some funds for other needed purposes.

New 2010 Census Maps

The Census Bureau has created some slick looking maps and charts with new 2010 Census data. There’s a national map that shows change in population, change in congressional apportionment, and population density by state, along with population change charts for the past 100 years.

There are also state level maps that show change in population between 2000 and 2010 at the county level for total population and population by race and Hispanic / Latino origin. As of this post there are only 4 states available (New York isn’t ready yet, but you can check out Jersey); all the state level maps should be released by April 1st.

These maps were designed to be used as “widgets”. There’s some html code below each one that you can copy and paste into a web page, allowing you to embed a particular map on your web site. This blog doesn’t support the particular code; otherwise I’d embed one here. It does work in LibGuides however, if you’re using a wide page layout (two columns instead of three).

Take a look here: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/

Jan. 1, 2011 changes to Uniform CPA Exam

Some major changes became effective for the Uniform CPA Exam on Jan. 1, 2011, which is one of the reasons I did the LibGuide.  In my opinion, students should not be using the old review guides, and most have been removed from our collection.  Along with Bisk and Wiley guides in print at reserve, and a CD, available for one day loan, Books24x7 has copies of the 4 Wiley 2011 CPA review volumes.

Libguide on FASB Codification is being revised

The FASB made some minor changes to its webpage about the Codification over the weekend so I will need to revise my guide a bit.

Just to make it clear:

The accountancy department pays for Professional Level access to the FASB Codification for accountancy students and faculty.  Access is by password, obtained only from accountancy faculty.

Everyone can access, if he/she signs up for it, the free Basic View of the Codification on the FASB homepage.  Searching and printing limitations exist.

All Baruch students and faculty have access to the FASB Codification on CCH Accounting Research Manager, which also offers interpretations and examples (nonauthoritative literature.)

Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks, Rita

Newly Published LibGuides

Here’s a quick roundup of some LibGuides that have been published in the past few months:

Correct title for federal taxation textbook

Last night on the reference desk my co-worker and I had trouble helping a student locate a textbook for a tax class that was listed on the syllabus as West Federal Taxation 2011 Comprehensive

We discovered that it is not West but South-Western Federal Taxation 2011 Comprehensive volume 2011.  There are three copies on reserve.  This title is used by a number of tax classes so it will most likely be requested a lot.

It can also be found by keywords: federal taxation 2011 comprehensive

Hope this helps.