Reference at Newman Library

Author: Stephen Francoeur

Removal of New York State Newspapers Database

The database link for New York State Newspapers has been removed from our database pages. Recent changes from Gale had left the New York State Newspapers database with just one paper in it, The New York Times, which we already have full text access to within many other Gale databases as well as within ones from ProQuest, Factiva, and Nexis Uni.

If you want to limit a search to just newspapers from New York state, that can be done within Nexis Uni (after running a news search, use the “Location” option in the “Narrow by” section on the left).

Database Trial: CQ Voting and Elections Collection

Description (from the vendor)

This research and reference website is organized into six categories:

Presidential Elections includes explanations of the presidential electoral process, analyses and data for historical and modern presidential elections, modern voting behavior, key events and issues, and biographies.

Congressional Elections provides explanations of the congressional electoral process, including reapportionment and redistricting; data for historical and modern congressional elections; analyses of modern congressional elections; modern voting behavior; modern district profiles; key events and issues; and biographies.

Gubernatorial Elections presents explanations of the gubernatorial electoral process and data for historical and modern gubernatorial elections.

Campaigns and Elections explores the American system of voting and elections, electoral process and reform, media, interest groups, and the impact of money.

Political Parties covers the party system in America, including party strength and control, and profiles Democratic, Republican, and third parties.

Voters and Demographics covers expansion of voting rights, voter turnout, voting behavior, modern county census data, and modern district profiles.

Trial Ends
October 30, 2021

Access
On and off campus. Use the link on the Trials tab on the databases page.

Feedback
Please share with any faculty who might be interested and recommend they use the trial feedback form (also linked to on the Trials tab on the databases page).

New Names for Oxford Art Online and Oxford Music Online

The A-Z database list now features  renamed links that reflect the product branding in the interface and the actual content that we have access to:

  • Grove Art Online
  • Grove Music Online

Until the end of the year, pointer database links will also be found in our A-Z database list for “Oxford Art Online” and “Oxford Music Online” that redirect to the URLs used for the respective Grove databases.

Please note that on the Grove Art Online database, there is a link back to the larger “Oxford Art Online” platform that features content we don’t have access to, notably the Benezit Dictionary of Artists.

Fix for Linking Errors from OneSearch to EBSCO Databases

EBSCO fixed the problem on their end that was causing error messages when users tried to go from links in OneSearch records into EBSCOhost databases for the full text (see last week’s blog post for details). Ex Libris is still updating its system in Alma for handling those links based on changes made by EBSCO, so some residual errors may crop up. If you have any linking problems from OneSearch into any database, please report them ASAP to Mike Waldman or me.

Linking Errors from OneSearch to EBSCOhost Databases (resolved)

Most (if not all) links from OneSearch records that lead into EBSCOhost databases dead end at an “OpenURL Connection” error page from EBSCO that looks like one of these:

Version 1:

Version 1 of error page

Version 2:

Version 2 of error page

This is the same problem that cropped up in June that EBSCO and Ex Libris eventually fixed. It’s now back again. Until the two vendors sort this out (again), here is the workaround:

  1. Look for another database link in the OneSearch record that goes to something other than an EBSCOhost database
  2. Use the A-Z list of databases to get to a link to the relevant EBSCOhost database and then run the search for the article within that database.

LibGuides System Is Down (see update)

Springshare customers in the US are reporting that their LibGuides systems are down. Here at Baruch, this means that we can’t access:

  • research guides
  • e-reserves
  • A-Z list of databases

As an alternative means of access to our A-Z list of databases, there is this Google Docs spreadsheet we can use to get links to all of our databases.

As soon as Springshare resolves the problem, an update will be posted here.

UPDATE (July 27, 2021, 12:17 pm): All LibGuides systems are now working again.

Updated Backup List of Database Links

Every six months, I generate a new backup list of all of our databases that appear on our A-Z database page. This backup exists in case the LibGuides system that hosts our databases page goes down.

The latest version of the backup list (created on 15 July 2021) can be found in the “Databases Overview” page in the Library Services wiki (look near the top of that page for a link to the backup list).