Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2015

New Interface for Statistical Abstract of the U.S.

On June 1, ProQuest will switch to a new interface for the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. According to ProQuest’s announcement, we can expect the following changes:

  • Responsive design providing a smooth experience on any device from laptop to mobile

  • A cleaner and more readable interface for a faster, more enjoyable experience with better in-line preview for tables and an improved document view experience

  • A reorganized screen with the more heavily used features easier to find and use

  • Enhanced after-search experience leaving the entire left side navigation for filtering and refining results, and putting the Table of Contents up near the search box

OneSearch: The New Way to Find Physical Items on Reserve

Monique Prince has news detailing a new, improved way to find print books and other physical items on reserve:

OneSearch now offers the opportunity to search for course reserve textbooks in a variety of ways, including by discipline, course number, faculty name, and book title. From the OneSearch interface, users can select “Reserves” to narrow their search to Reserve textbooks at Baruch. Typing in a course number or faculty name initiates a keyword search to get started, and then there are options on the left of the screen which enables you to narrow your search for more precise results.

Click on “Details” to identify the course number if that is unknown. Click on see whether it is available to borrow (it is, if you see “Available” and under “Status” you see “Look on Shelf”).

One great new feature is the “Browse Shelf” capability, which looks for books at Baruch with similar call numbers. This is especially helpful if students would be interested in an older edition of the book, located in the stacks and available for an extended loan. It can also be helpful if you want to see what other books with similar subjects might be available.

Hopefully this will be a helpful way of assisting students to see exactly what is on reserve for their course. Keep in mind that there is a difference between general course textbooks and textbooks that are reserved for a specific professor’s course. So, if Intermediate Accounting is used by multiple sections of ACC 3000, you will not also find it listed by searching for a professor’s name unless they specifically requested it. You could find it by doing a keyword search for the discipline, course number, or book title.

New Database: Mental Measurements Yearbook

We now have access to Mental Measurements Yearbook on the EBSCOhost platform. Access to it can be found on the main A-Z list of databases as well as on the list of psychology databases. This database is unique in providing detailed descriptions of tests and measures used in psychology and other social sciences. Please note that the actual tests and measures are not available in this database, just the descriptions of them.

Suggested uses:

  • need to find a measure for a specific behavior, trait, condition, disorder
  • looking to compare different measures
  • trying to identify the publisher of a specific measure so a copy of the measure can be purchased or licensed

Research Guide for 2015-2016 Freshman Text

The freshman text for next year will be Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. At the request of Randy, who’s on the committee that selected the book, I’ve put together a research guide for it. Since the readership for the guide will be freshman, I thought that it might be useful to put links to encyclopedia entries and to articles in proper MLA style as a way of modeling what what those citations should look like.

If you see something on this guide that doesn’t look right, please let me know.

OneSearch Excels at Finding Book Reviews

While working on a research guide for the 2015-2016 freshman text (Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves), I discovered that OneSearch does a much better job of finding book reviews than the database that is supposedly specialized for this task: Book Review Digest Plus. OneSearch found the same 8 reviews that Book Review Digest has but also located dozens more, including one from a scholarly journal. From now on, OneSearch is going to be my starting point for locating book reviews.

LexisNexis Is Very Eager for Our Feedback on the “New” Platform

Yesterday, Harry and I met briefly with the LexisNexis rep who got us set up on the beta version of the new platform. The rep was very eager to have us give him feedback on the platform, which is really the corporate version of “Nexis.” There are some notable things to be aware of with this platform:

  1. The platform is branded “Nexis.” It’s not clear if that is what the company will go with in the. If we feel that the name should remain “LexisNexis Academic” or at least “LexisNexis,” this is our moment to let the company know.
  2. There is some content and features on that are only temporarily there: the public records content and the “my documents” feature. These aren’t intended to be a part of the final version of this platform.

LexisNexis Academic--beta version of Nexis platform

Please email me or Mike Waldman with any feedback you have (or post comments here).

Beta Testing the Forthcoming LexisNexis Academic Platform

LexisNexis is asking us for feedback on the new platform that we’ll be moving to later this year. I’ve added a second LexisNexis Academic link to the A-Z databases page. The link to the beta version is clearly labeled as such:

LexisNexis Academic--link to beta version

 

There is also a link to this beta version on the Trials tab of the databases page.

I’m planning to send news of this beta version to the journalism department faculty for feedback. Any comments I get will get passed on to LexisNexis. Feel free to forward your comments or comments you’ve gotten from faculty you work with to Mike Waldman or me.

Problem with OneSearch on Library Home Page

UPDATE 13 May 2015 5:00 pm: This problem is now fixed.

 

If you run a search in OneSearch using the yellow search bar on the library website, you’ll get an error on the search results page that says “An unexpected error has occured” and looks like this:

OneSearch--error message after widget search

 

If you re-run the search within the OneSearch interface, it’ll be fine. The CUNY Office of Library Service is looking into this problem with search widgets embedded in library web pages.