Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2012

3-Part “Life of a Dataset” Webcast Series from ICPSR

ICPSR is sponsoring a 3 part series on the “Life of a Dataset”. Please note you must register to each one individually. This is free and open to the Baruch community. Questions? Contact Michael Waldman.

Life of a Dataset Part I: The Deposit – Wednesday, January 16, 2013, at 1 pm EST

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/962668858

This stage in a dataset’s life will discuss and describe the opening steps it takes on the path to dissemination through the Web site at www.icpsr.umich.edu. We’ll cover the method of identifying data for acquisition, depositing of study materials (ingest), and the technical support that the Acquisitions unit provides to researchers. Tools for the researcher will be reviewed and the tools that are used by this unit will also be shown.

Life of a Dataset Part II: The Process of Processing – Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at 1 pm EST

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/776530618

This stage in a dataset’s life will describe the process of how the data are reviewed, cleaned, archived, and prepared for dissemination. The working relationship between the processor and the processing supervisor to ensure the confidentiality of respondents will be examined. The tools used by the processor to insure data security and accuracy in processing will be discussed.

Life of a Dataset Part III: Discovery & Dissemination – Wednesday, January 30, 2013, at 1 pm EST

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/804318458

This stage in a dataset’s life will relate how the study’s description is built and the metadata are enriched to aid discovery. We’ll consider how the codebook and other materials are created, and what final steps are taken to preserve the digital data in advance of their release. Finally, we will talk about how the study is released, announced, and disseminated through the ICPSR Web site

Catalog down from 12/24/12 6am to 12/25/12 12pm

Starting Christmas Eve December 24, 2012, at 6 AM until Tuesday, December 25, 2012, at 12 PM (noon) the online catalog will not be available for anyone to search for, renew, or request items.

This is due to scheduled maintenance for the Aleph Library Catalog during the coming holiday break. (The maintenance may be completed in less time than expected.)

A notice will appear in advance on the Web OPAC informing people of the above plans.

 

TRIAL: Proquest Historical Annual Reports

We have a trial to Proquest Historical Annual Reports until January 11, 2013. Access is available on campus only for the trial.

This database contains the annual reports (1844-current) available for over 800 companies, 43,000 reports, 1.3M pages. Searchable PDF images with indexed data such as: financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor and related companies. It can also be browsed by company name, related names, industry or date.

It is also cross-searchable with the other Proquest databases (except the statistical ones currently on trial).

Trial to Two Statistics Databases from ProQuest

The trial to Statistical Insight and Statistical DataSets lasts only until December 15, so we’ll need to gather feedback fast. Please add your thoughts as a comment on this post or email Mike Waldman.

Statistical Insight includes the Statistical Abstract of the United States as well as thousands of other sources. ProQuest says that Statistical DataSets:

includes interactive data, such as EASI Demographical data, so students can easily search and retrieve detailed statistics, such as data for every zip code in the country. Plus, they can customize charts or tables to their needs, and easily drop them into a paper or PowerPoint presentation. Half of the data in Statistical DataSets is not on the open Web because it is licensed content or because the entire dataset is too large for standard web navigation.

With the trial, we were only given one URL to use for both products. If you select either database from the Database page in the library website, you are taken to the Statistical Insight database. If you want to get to Statistical DataSets, you’ll need to select it from the drop-down menu that says “Related Subscriptions.”

For an overview from ProQuest about these two databases, see the ProQuest LibGuide page for them or check out the company’s video overviews on YouTube.

Financial Segment Data for Multinationals

Students in MGT4880 are writing papers about crises faced by multinational companies. As part of this assignment they need to collect data on the geographical and business segments of their companies over the the time before, during, and after the crisis event. The best database to use for these revenue statistics is ThomsonOne.  Students should search for their company and then use the “Fundamentals” tab (at the top of the screen).  The Reuters Fundamentals cover multiple years with data that can be downloaded to Excel. Geographical segments often include country-level as well as a regional breakout of revenues.

ThomsonOne also includes historical company filings for international companies that can help students put the financial data in context.

ThomsonOne is available from the Library’s databases page as well as the Subotnick Center.

Trial: WordsAnalytics

We have a trial of WordsAnalytics until December 15.

WordsAnalytics treats each paragraph  of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing as a separate document, enabling searches of keywords or specific phrases in the filings.  Short instructional videos under “Help” provide demonstrations of searches including keyword; section; “most discussed topics,”  “redline” comparison of prior filing using the “compare tool” and how to compare several companies.

Please contact Rita Ormsby for more information on the database; please send me any feedback.