Anyone know where the sign is that indicates that the reference desk is closed? I am just finishing up a 6-9 shift here and can’t find it.
Connection Failures in Chat Reference
Recently, the QuestionPoint service has had technical problems that will frequently give you a “connection failed” message on your screen while you are in the middle of a chat session. If this happens, just wait it out, as things will usually sort themselves out in a minute or so and you’ll find yourself reconnected to the patron you were chatting with. You may find, though, that your last message was not transmitted to the patron and will have to be retyped.
I have reported this problem to QuestionPoint and noted that other libraries using the software are seeing the same problems.
Conference Board Report on Survivor Syndrome
From Rita:
At a recent SLA NY meeting, a June report by the Conference Board, “What Every Leader Should Know about Survivor Sydrome” was highly recommended. It can be accessed and downloaded from the Conference Board database available through the Newman Library.
student printer problems
I have alerted systems that students are having trouble printing this morning. All students who reported problems have previously been Baruch students and are students for this summer school session.
Some information I learned at the SLA conference
Like Louise, I attended the SLA conference in D.C. two weeks ago.
Harry, Ryan and I did a poster session on Lessons Learned relating to a workshop we arranged and conducted for Prof. Cherny’s auditing class last fall relating to lessons learned from one of nine audit failures. This poster session, organized for the first time at the conference, by librarian Karen McDonald, was very well received and the B& F division plans to make it an annual event. The different presentations, dealing with information literacy and business information, are available at http://units.sla.org/division/dbf/conferences/2009postersession.html.
I moderated a session on Tuesday morning in which Nell Minow, the co-founder of The Corporate Library, spoke on corporate governance issues, particularly executive compensation. These contracts are required to be filed with the SEC. Among her comments were that one should check the media releases about the contracts against the actual filings, which may be made several weeks following the media releases. The session was well received by those who attended. Ms. Minow had testified before a congressional committee on executive compensation the week prior to the conference.
Some news from some vendors:
CCH will soon offer a new format to their web based resources, IntelliConnect. One will be able to do a federated search of all subscribed CCH products. Initially, this change will not include the CCH Accounting Research Manager, which will be incorporated into the new scheme in few months. The change will take place before the fall semester begins. I will keep you posted. I think unless students select specific titles or laws or codes, that the results retrieved may be very overwhelming. However, the results are separated into categories…such as regulations, case law, explanations, etc.
Audit Analytics was a first time vendor at the SLA conference. Baruch College is one of the largest academic users of this product. They recently added SEC comment letters to their service for an additional $4,000 a year.
A demonstration of Advertising Database was very interesting as this product focuses on brands and where they are advertised, with ad spending data and titles, email addresses and direct phone numbers for brand and ad agency decision makers. Advertising Database is located in NYC. I will pass the information on to Lisa.
Elsevier is offering a reaxys for chemists. Information about this product is available at http://www.info.reaxys.com/about_overview. In a vendor demonstration of this product, a chemist could find links to reactions of various chemicals, vendors for the chemicals, and links to research via Scopus that mentions the chemicals, all within reaxys. I will confess to knowing very little about chemistry but this demonstration was impressive.
A number of vendors expressed thanks for business with Baruch and with CUNY.
Other information:
On Thursday morning, a “tour day”, I visited the National Archives downtown. I had not visited since a remodeling was completed several years ago. The National Archives is 75 years old this year. The major documents–the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc., have been reincased. They have very interesting exhibits on what the National Archives hold in the entry level to the rotunda where the documents are on display. (Since you can’t take luggage into the National Archives, it is good to know that you can check luggage only at the 4th St. entrance to the National Gallery of Art, where your luggage will also be x-rayed. This entrance is not far from the Archives.)
One of the special exhibits at the National Gallery of Art is the still lives of the Spanish painter Luis Melendez. I learned from a guide that he was one of the first painters to show chocolate in his paintings. At the time, according to the guide, the English thought ending a meal with sweets was not acceptable and referred to such a practice as being “very French,” an insult to the Spanish. Thankfully, ideas have changed. The National Gallery also has an exhibit of Judith Leyster’s paintings, http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/leysterinfo.shtm. She was born 400 years ago in the Netherlands.
Vendor Copy Card machine is out of order
The copy card dispenser is down again. I have put a note on the dispenser informing students to go either to the Reference desk or the 3rd floor Service Counter to get copy cards if they need one. I have left cards at both counters for distribution to students who need to buy a copy card. The note also informs students that they can add more money to their copy cards on copy machine #5. The technician (Felix) from Continental will order a part that is needed to fix the machine. It will be sent Fedex. I will check tomorrow to see what the status of the part is and when we can expect the copy card dispenser to be up and running. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Have a great evening.
Update/Reminder on Besso Lab (Room320A)
Keys for the door and for the instructor workstation are now stored in the drawer at the reference desk.
Please be sure to schedule committee meetings or class sessions on the new electronic calendar to avoid conflicts in the use of the room.
Jerry
WRDS for Librarians at SLA
For the first time WRDS offered a session at SLA for college and university librarians and they showed off their new Website and its new interface. Go to http://wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu and have a look. You will like it.
The best new feature is the Tools tab where you can do a search for any variable across all WRDS databases and find not only which databases to use but also which files to use.
There is also a suite of E-Learning videos that cover each database, downloading and other technical applications, and how to use stat packages like SAS with WRDS files.
WRDS also offers sample programs and research applications where they show how to perform frequently used operations like building portfolios and how to replicate “classic” studies.
WRDS is also planning to add a Librarian category in the WRDS Forums. I use the forums a lot so this should be useful.
WRDS also announced that they hope to offer monthly updates for Compustat soon.
What I Learned at the SLA Exhibits
Mergent Online will be introducing a new interface before September and before year end expects to have its Municipal and Government Manuals in an online format. This will complete the historical archive of the former Moody’s Manuals that we subscribe to in Mergent WebReports.
RefWorks will be at CUNY sometime in August or September to offer training sessions for librarians. The location has not yet been decided but it could be Baruch.
The Copyright Clearance Center now offers an annual licensing service specifically for academic libraries.
Euromonitor has added a new print title Emerging Consumer Markets which covers the BRIC economies –Brazil, Russia, China and India- along with Mexico and South Africa. A table of contents for this title is here.
Business Monitor has added coverage of several more industries including freight transport, water, power, mining and shipping.Reports in these sectors focus on emerging market countries rather than North America.
S&P NetAdvantage is featuring links to its Compustat data more prominently.
Qualtrics Training 6/24
I have a scheduled a Qualtrics training sesssion for Wednesday, June 24 at 2:00. If you need the log in information for this webinar please let me know.