Reference at Newman Library

Author: rormsby

student assignment re MTA collection

FYI- A student who was helped at the reference desk Thursday night said that there is an extra credit paper that everyone in the class may do.  It is on comparing the Dow Theory to the Elliott wave theory.  She plans to use the MTA collection heavily and thought others would too.  These materials need to be paged, per the wiki entry on the MTA collection.

SLA NY event Thursday in Conference Center and guest logins

On this Thursday, the SLA NY chapter is having an Information Forum in the conference center on the 7th floor.  It is one of the events of the SLA’s centennial celebration by the local chapter.  A member emailed me today that he would like to tweet at the conference and would access to the wireless network be available.  I asked Arthur, and he said it would be if the person obtained a guest log in at the reference desk.  So, I replied to the person this information and explained how to obtain a guest log in at the reference desk.   So far, I have had only one request.  The organizers of the event are referring questions to me.  (The person who plans to tweet is a student at Pratt and on the SLA NY Advisory Board.)  I thought I would let everyone know about this person’s inquiry and the response that I received.

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?

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.

question about Simnet exam

Some students came to the desk asking about the Simnet CD that   they had been told by someone from academic advisement they could borrow from the library. (They said someone from academic advisement came to their class.)  Has anyone heard of this?  I told them about access to the Simnet Express on the computers in the library and the 6th floor BCTC.