Reference at Newman Library

Tag: Assignments

Assignment to Find Biographical Sketches

In PSY 3064 (Personality and Individual Differences) there is an assignment that students are asking us for help with this week. The students are looking for a single “biographical sketch” of specific psychologists. Some of those psychologists they are looking for are still alive, which can make finding the biographical sketches. Here are some suggestions:

  1. Start with Gale Virtual Reference Library
  2. Move on to the biography databases if GVRL turns up nothing
  3. If all else fails, try a Google search, as it may be that the person being looked for is still alive and that person may have profile page at some university or college where they currently work

Bridge Assignment from Baruch College Campus High School

As discussed this week on our internal mailing list, we’re seeing students from the Baruch College Campus High School asking for help finding books on bridges. I’ve now helped a few students here at the ref desk and have a better sense of what they are doing. They are building bridges out of popsicle sticks and need to research different bridge types and construction methods. In the past year, we had students researching specific bridges. Now, we’re seeing them ask about things like truss bridges and suspension bridges.

One resource that you might want to steer them to is Gale Virtual Reference Library, where are entries in engineering and general science encyclopedias about different kinds of bridge construction. You’ll need to get the students a guest login for the computers so they can search in Gale Virtual Reference Library. They may also find some titles in ebrary.

For off campus research, these high school students can use the library ID number on their Baruch ID card to access CUNY-wide databases from CUNY OLS.

They may also have better luck at NYPL’s SIBL finding works on bridge construction.

Reference Question about Interpersonal Spacing

We’re getting that question again from SPS students who need to find articles on interpersonal spacing. From what I can tell, the students are required to find research articles on interpersonal spacing that were published in the past ten years. Going to PsycINFO and just searching “interpersonal spacing” doesn’t get you far enough, apparently. Instead, recommend to students that they set up the search this way:

Search box 1: type “personal space” and select “SU Subjects” from the search option

Search box 2: type “interpersonal” but leave search option to default setting of “Select a field (optional)”

Here’s a screenshot of the search boxes:

PsycINFO--interpersonal spacing

The trick is not to fall into the trap of assuming that “interpersonal spacing” is the best search. “Personal space” is the subject descriptor that gets used for all the articles that do happen to have “interpersonal spacing.” In the thesaurus, the scope note for “personal space” says the term is defined as “Minimal spatial distance preferred by an individual in his/her relations with others.”

PsycINFO--personal space

By adding “interpersonal” as an additional search word, the results are a bit more focused on the concept of “interpersonal spacing” than if you just found all the articles that have the “personal space” subject descriptor.

After you run the search, change the sort option from “Relevance” to “Date Newest”

PsycINFO--interpersonal spacing--sorting results

 

Big Research Projects in PSY 4012

This spring, you’ll likely be encountering students in reference asking for help with an assignment in PSY 4012 (Evolution of Modern Psychology) where they are expected to write a textbook chapter on one of these five broad sets of questions:

  1. What is consciousness and how have psychologists dealt with it? Does psychology need biology to understand consciousness, or does biology merely provide a distraction and lead us into nonproductive directions about how to understand consciousness? Can psychology deal with both mind and body in a coherent way, or must one be basic and the other subservient? What alternatives have philosophy and psychology provided to deal with the issue?
  2. How important has evolutionary theory been in the history of psychology? Have psychologists really understood evolutionary theory and its implications, or have many of them worked from a distorted idea of what evolution theory is about?
  3. Has psychology been a more productive science when viewed in terms of reductionism or in terms of holism? What has been gained and what has been lost with each of these two competing perspectives? Should psychology finally choose one or the other of these perspectives, or is there an advantage to having a tension between the two among scientific psychologists? What is at stake when someone proposes that psychology should be eclectic and include both perspectives?
  4. Should there be a separate science of psychology, or did the idea of separate science of psychology emerge only because of historical and philosophical conditions in Germany at the time the first psychology lab was opened in 1879? Was this beginning merely an accident of history, or can one explain why such an event would have taken place then? What sense does it make for psychology to be both a science and a collection of applied practices, such as clinical psychology, school psychology, etc. Should we continue with the same set of boundaries between the separate sciences that we have today, or should we re-think the existence of a separate science of psychology that combines both the scientific and the applied?
  5. Does psychology require the assumption of determinism if it is to be a science? Can it include the notion of free will as well as determinism? Can it deal with both determinism and free will at the same time in a coherent way?

I just taught workshops for two of the sections of this class and want to share the strategy I was recommending to them and the handout I gave them:

  • Start with Gale Virtual Reference Library. Look up the big concepts (reductionism, free will, evolutionary psychology,  etc.) in multiple encyclopedias (especially ones in psychology and philosophy) to get intro to the topic, search words, names of leading researchers and theorists.
  • Go next to find literature review articles in PsycINFO. Also browse the Thesaurus in PsycINFO to identify preferred terms and to discover additional related ones.
  • Then search broadly across PsycINFO for articles, etc.

Here is the handout all the students in my workshops received. 

Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to refer any students to see me.

Some sources re: number of sexual reassignment surgeries

I was asked to post this to the blog so that access would be available to more than those on the librarian’s  email list.

A student asked for help at the reference desk  in locating the number of people in the U.S., compared with Europe, who have had sexual reassignment surgery.

While working with the student at the  reference desk, the best we could locate is an estimate of the number of transgendered people in the U.S.  (The Williams Institute, at UCLA, estimates about 700,000, according to a report issued last year, http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/how-many-people-are-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender/.) .  (The Williams Institute is among many organizations providing information and research.)

Realizing that this estimate didn’t address the student’s question,  I took the student’s contact information and told the student I would look into the question further.  After consulting with Mike Waldman for some suggested sources; checking on a number of possible sources, and reading a number of articles, and  websites, I have concluded that there’s no source to answer the student’s question.    (I failed to inquire if the student was interested in a specific age range as I have realized that some sexual reassignment surgeries are done shortly after birth.)  I also learned, through reading, that worldwide many people travel outside their home country for these surgeries, and Thailand is often chosen because of the lower cost.  (The Williams Institute is among many organizations providing information and research.)

The Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People, 7th version., by The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, http://www.wpath.org/documents/Standards%20of%20Care_FullBook_1g-1.pdf,  recognizes that health is dependent upon not only good clinical care but also social and political climates through public policies and legal reforms that promote tolerance and equity for gender and sexual diversity and that eliminate prejudice, discrimination and stigma.   Page 5 of the standards notes, “ Some people experience gender dysphoria at such a level that the distress meets criteria for a formal diagnosis that might be classified as a mental disorder.  Such a diagnosis is not a license for stigmatization or for the deprivation of civil and human rights.”    It’s understandable that anyone could be reluctant to share any type of health or medical information, but especially when, as the standards point out, “in most countries, crossing normative gender boundaries generates moral censure rather than compassion.”

On pages 5-6, of the standards, it is noted that no formal epidemiologic studies on transsexualism specifically or transgender identities have been done.   On page 7, citations to  studies undertaken of those who came for gender-transition-related care at specialist gender clinics in Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Singapore, ranging from 1968 to 2007 are given.  A citation is also provided that De Cuypere and colleagues reviewed these studies and conducted their own, in 2007, and  this review can be found in Principles of Transgender Medicine and Surgery, edited by Randy Ettner.  (Not available within CUNY, but found in WorldCat, the catalog of library catalogs.)

The Standards of Care notes that direct comparisons of these studies are impossible because each used different data collection methods and differed in criteria for documenting a person as transsexual (for example, whether or not a person had undergone genital reconstruction, versus initiating hormone therapy, or seeking medically-supervised transition services.)

I also learned that there are many issues surrounding private pay and Medicaid/Medicare insurance coverage of sexual reassignment surgeries, hormone treatment and other care.

There’s a system of diagnostic codes for procedures, and I learned  ICD-9-CM Code 64.5 “operations for sexual transformation, not elsewhere classified,” is on the list of “never covered” procedures for Medicare. (Source: http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/AcuteInpatientPPS/downloads//cms1428f_i.pdf)

While some states permit Medicaid to pay for sexual reassignment surgery, New York State does not permit this. There are efforts to have this changed by the state legislature. (Source:   http://www.prideagenda.org/Issues-Explained/Transgender-Equality-and-Justice/Medicaid-Coverage-of-Transgender-Healthcare.aspx)

Today, a New Jersey woman, who is transgender, was able to get Aetna Insurance to reverse its earlier decision to deny a claim for a mammogram that was done at a doctor’s recommendation: http://www.glaad.org/blog/tldef-secures-policy-change-aetna-health-care-coverage-transgender-people.  Aetna has announced some changes in coverage for others it insures.

I also think perhaps in the future that the Internal Revenue Service might be a possible source of information on totals of people seeking medical expense deductions for sexual reassignment surgery because of an important 2010 decision  in Rhiannon G. O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner, 134 TC 34.   O’Donnabhain underwent sex reassignment surgery, including breast augmentation surgery, in 2001.    The tax court found that the transgendered taxpayer’s gender identity disorder (GID) qualified as a “disease” for the IRS’s definition of medical expenses, and allowed deductions for hormone therapy and sexual reassignment surgery.  But, breast augmentation surgery, was found to be a nondeductible cosmetic surgery in this case.   The 61-page decision in this case makes many references to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s standards of case.  (You can find the decision on RIA Checkpoint or CCH Intelliconnect, available through the Newman Library’s databases.  There are many news stories about it.)

Although there are many possible resources, I found two recent articles on SSRN that provide some information:

LGBT Taxpayers: A Collision of ‘Others’, Anthony C. Infanti, University of Pittsburgh-School of Law Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, Forthcoming, University of Pittsburgh Legal Studies Research Paper, No. 2011-11.  This comments on the O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner decision.

Removing the Constraints to Coverage of Gender-Confirming Healthcare by State Medicaid Programs
Iowa Law Review, Vol. 97, No. 4, 2012
Nicole Marie True
Iowa Law Review

The True article provides the states, including New York State, that do not allow Medicaid to cover sexual reassignment surgery for transgendered and makes references to the previous mentioned Dutch and Belgium studies providing an estimate of people in The Netherlands and in Belgium who have undergone sexual reassignment surgery.

I’ll show my age but more than 30 years ago, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, the first “sex change” operation done at the University of Iowa Hospital was headline news.  I thought of this when I thought of how easily the student approached me with the reference question seeking comparative data.  I thought it would be available, but for all kinds of reasons, from personal to policy,  it isn’t.

While much progress has been made, much remains to be made in providing health care for all.  I hope this information is helpful.

 

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.

 

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.

Accounting assignment involving revenue recognition

I’ve learned that there have been several inquiries at the reference desk relating to a revenue recognition assignment (2 pages) for an accounting class.  Apparently they need to locate three companies in the same industry and make some comparisons.

Based on this limited information, and a student’s comment that he had an hour to locate the information, I would make the following suggestions:

Revenue recognition is a very broad topic.

The SEC has a topical index of revenue recognition issues at:

http://www.sec.gov/interps/account/sabcodet13.htm

To quickly identify three companies in the same industry with some revenue recognition problems (which would likely provide something to write about), I would suggest:

Go to the Audit Analytics Database

Select restatements in the right column and a text search.

Then, select an industry from choices available in the Industry box.

(If a company has had to restate their earnings, it’s usually a news making event.)

Restatements can occur for many reasons.  All four of these options in Audit Analytics

include revenue recognition as a choice, so the student can select the choice(s) the student wants.  The results can be downloaded and the three companies selected.

Databases such as Factiva, Business Source Complete, ABI Inform Global may have specific articles about the companies identified.  Edgar Online I-Metrix, Metrix, and other resources can be selected for keyword searching of SEC filings relating to revenue recognition by the companies.

Another possible search is on Factiva, limiting the search to specific industries, geographically to the the U.S. and the subject Commodities, Financial Market news, and a specific time period and doing a keyword search like (revenue recognition) and (FASB or SEC), and news articles for companies in the same industry will be retrieved.

The “gift card” assignment that some students have had in the past would be an example of a revenue recognition issue.  Searching ABI Inform Global for “gift cards” and “revenue recognition” brings up 14 articles, some which mention specific companies.

Since most retail companies have some form of gift cards, or customer loyalty programs, it would be easy to identify three retail companies and search their SEC filings as to how they account for them.

I hope that this information is helpful.

BPL 5100 team building exercise

Several students in a BPL 5100 class came by the reference desk tonight. As part of a team building exercise, they have numerous items to locate, including a magazine with a page 36.  It didn’t seem that a print out would be acceptable, although I didn’t inquire directly.  I had a supply of old magazines in my office that satisfied the need.  Some students had expected to be able to take a magazine out of the library.  One inquired about ripping out the needed page, which was of course strongly discouraged.  There may be other requests for a page 36 so I thought I would post this information.