Reference at Newman Library

Author: rormsby

Accounting assignment re: New Century Financial Corporation

An accounting class is assigned the Harvard Business School case re New Century Financial Corporation.

As we know, this must be purchased from The Harvard Business School cases, and the link is: http://hbr.org/product/new-century-financial-corporation/an/109034-PDF-ENG?Ntt=%2520new%2520century%2520financial.  (Some students mistakenly think the library has the case.)

Students are also asked to read the final report by Missal.  This 294-page report  can be found at http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/ca/newcentury01_0327.pdf.

If students ask what other resources have information about this company’s failure, ABI Inform Global, Business Source Complete, Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, and SSRN can be recommended for news stories as well as coverage in professional and academic publications.  It received a great deal of coverage.

If a student needs more assistance, he/she can contact me for a research consultation.  However, I think the above information should be enough for the students.  They need not contact me directly to learn that the Harvard Business School case needs to be purchased.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

LibGuide for MGT 9495 capstone project

I’ve done a LibGuide for Prof. Leibowitz’s MGT 9495 class.  Students are working on a capstone project in which they are making an employment handbook on some current aspect of employees’ rights, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical and Leave Act, Veterans’ rights in employment, workplace privacy and sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace.  (Some of these topics have more legal protections than others.)

The guide has links to federal administrative agencies; legal databases available through the Newman Library homepage, and databases offering secondary sources–such as ABI Inform Global, Business Source Complete, and SSRN,  which have articles regarding complying with the different requirements of the laws and regulations.  I hope it is helpful.  Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.  Prof. Leibowitz has reviewed it.

LibGuide on CPA exam review resources updated

I have updated the LibGuide on CPA exam review resources to show 2012 resources.  The 4-volume sets from Bisk and Wiley are available in Reserves.  Books 24×7 also has some resources, including access to older material. 

Because there were many changes made to the exam in 2011 the older volumes of review books, found in reference and in the stacks, have been removed from the collection. Please encourage students to use the most recent materials.  The LibGuide has other information about the exam.

Baruch’s  accountancy department is sponsoring a session on the CPA exam Feb. 4th.  They also offer assistance throughout the year in explaining what needs to be done to register for the exam and prepare for it.

New research from Federal Reserve Bank of NY re impact of recession on New York’s school district finances

I thought the following report, new from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, might be of interest:  “The Impact of the Great Recession on School District Finances: Evidence from New York,” Rajashri Chakrabarti and Elizabeth Setren (no. 534, December 2011)
JEL codes: H40, I21, I28

This summary was prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank:
Despite education’s fundamental role in human capital formation and growth, there is no research that examines the effect of the Great Recession (or any other recession) on schools. The authors’ paper begins to fill this gap. Exploiting detailed data on school finance indicators and an analysis of trend shifts, they examine how the Great Recession affected school funding in New York State. While Chakrabarti and Setren find no evidence of effects on either total revenue or expenditure, there were important compositional changes to both. There is strong evidence of substitution of funds on the revenue side–the infusion of funds from the federal stimulus occurred simultaneously with statistically and economically significant cuts in state and local financing, especially the former. On the expenditure side, instructional expenditure was maintained, while other categories such as transportation, student activities, and utilities suffered. Important heterogeneities in experiences are also observed by poverty level, metropolitan area, school district size, and urban status. Affluent districts were hurt the most; the New York City metro area, especially Nassau County, sustained the largest losses in terms of both revenue and expenditure. The authors findings promise to facilitate an understanding of how recessions affect schools and of the role policy can play in mitigating the consequences.
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr534.html

Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index issues yearly report; expands coverage of LGBT health benefits

A new Corporate Equality Index report  recently issued by the Human Rights Campaign has expanded the criteria for LGBT health benefits offered by employers.  The report covers 850 businesses, including law firms. Of these, 190 received top scores of 100. Rankings include “Best Places to Work” and Top Law Firms for Equality.

The Human Rights Campaign is currently undertaking the Jewish Organization Equality Index (JOEI), one of its newest projects. It is a first-of-its-kind effort to analyze and rate U.S. Jewish non-profits on their policies, practices and programs as they are pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and members.

 

Room numbers for 2nd floor restrooms

The correct room number for the Women’s room on the second floor is H-241/East side, and the Men’s room is H-237/EAST side.  (There are no numbers posted near the rooms.  So, if you need to request work from Buildings and Grounds, be sure to include these numbers in the request.)  I’ll add this to the wiki too.

The door to the handicapped stall in the second floor women’s restroom, H-241/East was replaced earlier today by staff from buildings and grounds.  I learned yesterday there had been some confusion about my initial request because of the lack of the correct room number.

Information about two English 2100 classes and assignment to set up alert

I have done lectures and prepare LIBGUIDES for students of  two English 2100 professors, Prof. Grumet and Prof. Entes.  Prof. Entes has asked her students to set up an alert in a database and to bring in confirmation of the alert being set up.  Alerts are features that can be set up on the Ebsco and Proquest databases, as well as others.  I showed the classes how to do an alert on Ebsco.  You first have to establish an accout and then do a search in a database.  You can then select to have an alert sent by email or RSS feed, and the emails with alerts to new articles are either received daily, weekly or monthly.  If no new articles are found, you receive an email that no articles were added with your search terms.  I thought I would share this request in case students come to the reference desk for help.  If you need any help with the alerts, please let me know.

Qualtrics available for surveys

A faculty member contacted me wondering if we had access to Survey Monkey for classes as he wanted students to create a survey.  I contacted BCTC and learned the following:

The college uses Qualtrics.

Here is the link :

https:\\Baruch.qualtrics.com

Log on with Baruch username and password.  (One needs to then create one’s own account.)

John Choonoo, of the institutional research office,  emailed me that this is a more flexible product than Survey Monkey.

I’ve added this information to the Reference Wiki.