Reference at Newman Library

Trial to Mental Measurements Yearbook

Database description (from the vendor)

Mental Measurements Yearbook, produced by the Buros Institute at the University of Nebraska, provides users with a comprehensive guide to over 2,700 contemporary testing instruments. Designed for an audience ranging from novice test consumers to experienced professionals, the MMY series contains information essential for a complete evaluation of test products within such diverse areas as psychology, education, business, and leadership. First published by Oscar K. Buros, the MMY series allows users to make knowledgeable judgments and informed selection decisions about the increasingly complex world of testing. MMY provides coverage from Volume 9 to the present. MMY via EBSCOhost now includes the MMY Archive providing all yearbooks from the first edition in 1938, through the 18th yearbook released in 2010 raising the total number of full-text reviews available on the product to over 7,000.

Trial ends

22 February 2015

Access

On and off campus from 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 Look for OneSearch

Today, the CUNY Office of Library Services rolled out a new, fresh look for the OneSearch interface with the following changes:

  • More white space
  • Less cluttered text
  • Options within the search facets on the search results page are now collapsed until you click the + icon
  • When you open up a search facet, you see a handful of options within that facet and a “show more” link. When you click “show more” the additional options are now shown on the same page instead of in a pop up window.
  • Links for the e-shelf, my account, and sign in have moved from the top right to the far left just above the search box
  • The advanced search page now has three boxes instead of five and a cleaner look
  • There’s a new “Browse CUNY Catalog” link on the right side of the main navigation bar

Future enhancements that are likely to show up in the coming weeks:

  • New source type icons that will appear to the left of every item in your search results
  • Clearer display of the help options on the sign in page.

NYC Data Guide Neighborhood Maps using CartoDB

The city maps on the NYC Data neighborhood page allow users to view neighborhood areas and click on them to view data directly from the US Census Bureau. There is a map for PUMAs (census statistical areas that have 100k people and are similar in size and shape to community districts) and a map for ZCTAs (ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which represent USPS ZIP Codes that have a geographic area). The PUMA maps point to the latest 3-year profiles from the American Community Survey (ACS), and the ZCTA maps point to profiles from the 2010 Census and the latest 5-year ACS dataset.

Both maps have just been updated to point to 2013 data that was recently released. They can be viewed within the guide, but can be navigated more easily if you hit the full screen button that’s embedded in the map.

Previously, the maps were overlaid on a Google Maps basemap. Unfortunately Google decided to deprecate the ability for people to overlay KML files stored on webservers over their maps. The alternatives they offer are completely unsatisfactory. So, we are now using a free service from CartoDB, a web-mapping service headquartered right here in the Flatiron district, as our new platform. Many thanks go to Data Services CA Rachel Weinberg for researching and experimenting with CartoDB so we could keep this service up and running!

puma_maps2013

Important Information about Logging in to OneSearch

As soon as you are viewing a set of search results in OneSearch, you get a warning message telling you to sign in so you can see a more complete set of search results:

OneSearch--login message on search results page

That sign in request is asking the user to type in their library ID number–the same system we use for logging in to My Account page in the library catalog. The system is not asking here for a Baruch username and password. This is causing confusion for our users for two reasons:

  1. They have come to associate login requests in database searches to be for their Baruch usernames and passwords (and that still holds true whenever you are off campus and are trying to launch one of our other databases)
  2. They might not have activated their library account at the circ desk yet and don’t get why it isn’t working.

If the user is off campus–and this is essential–and they click on an article link in the search results, they will then get our usual off campus access login page that requires a Baruch username and password. This means that the off campus user needs to be prepared to use one login system–the library ID number–to see all the search results and another login system–the Baruch username and password–to view the full text of content found.

To help clarify what is being asked for in this initial OneSearch login, the CUNY OLS staff have revamped the OneSearch login page with some help information that can be found when you click the question mark button to the right of each entry box:

OneSearch--new login page--2015

Here’s what you see when you click the help button for the barcode:

OneSearch--new login page--barcode help--2015

Here’s what you see when you click the help button for the password:

OneSearch--new login page--password help--2015

 

 

Alternative Access to Databases Pages on January 12

Beginning at 11:30 am on Monday, January 12, all of our LibGuides will become unavailable for up to 24 hours as we switch to the new LibGuides platform. This means that the pages we provide with links to databases will also be unavailable. As an alternative, please use this Google Doc which provides an A-Z list of database links.

To notify our users, we’ll be doing the following:

  • sending out a tweet on the @baruchlibrary Twitter account
  • changing some of the links on the library website that point to the databases pages so that they go to the alternative listing of databases

It is likely that the new LibGuides will be ready in less than 24 hours. As soon as it is up, I’ll send out an email and write a new post here on the reference blog.

 

Need Help Finding Index to NY Post and Daily News

I’m trying to help someone who needs to browse a print index (or even better, search an online index) for articles published in the  late 1960s in the New York Post and in the New York Daily News. At this point, it’s looking like the only remaining option is to plow through the microfilm of daily issues instead. I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas that I haven’t already explored. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Checked for online access to full text in this particular time period:

Checked to see if there are any indexes in print or online that cover this period:

If you have any suggestions, please add a comment to this post.