Reference at Newman Library

Tag: Databases

LibGuides Down (including A-Z databases page and e-reseves) UPDATED 6 Sept 2017

The vendor for LibGuides, Springshare, is aware of the outage affecting US libraries. All our guides are inaccessible, including the e-reserves system and the A-Z databases page.

As an alternative for database access, please use this list from Feb. 2017 of databases and links:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Jg-QcofaB0ZO5xVltjxL68RPYGQnJC5fJtrCoj1z50c/edit?usp=sharing

For status updates on the LibGuides outage, see the vendor’s Twitter account @springshare.

UPDATE 6 September 2017: All LibGuides came back online later in the evening of September 5.

Database Trial: HeinOnline Government, Politics and Law for Academics

Description (from the vendor)

Coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,400 scholarly journals, all of the world’s constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase.

More info (pdf)

Trial ends

30 September 2017

Access

On and off campus.

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).

Alternative Points of Access to Databases [UPDATED]

UPDATE 28 Feb. 2017, 2:59 pm: LibGuides is working again.

Springshare’s services, which includes LibGuides, are all down (check their Twitter feed for updates).  This means that we can’t get to:

  • research guides
  • database list (both the A-Z list and the subject lists)
  • e-reserves

What still works:

  • OneSearch (and its “View Now” button that links to the full text of articles and ebooks on various database platforms)
  • Access to the set of databases centrally purchased by CUNY: http://www2.cuny.edu/libraries/e-resources/

As soon as service is restored, I’ll share the news here.

By way of context, Springshare is down because they rely on Amazon Web Services, which is having a major outage affecting all sorts of web and mobile services.

New Page to List Databases with Videos

There’s a new database list page that details different ways to get streaming video. For a number of reasons, we’re mostly not able to make the videos in those collections discoverable in the library catalog or in OneSearch. We don’t really expect that most users will go to this video databases page so they can track down a specific video. Instead, it’s designed more as a showcase page to let our users know we have streaming video (from usability studies I did this year, I found many students assume we don’t have any videos in any format, just books).

In the coming years, it’s likely libraries and the vendors we rely on will have solved this problem of how to get all streaming video titles from large collections indexed in discovery tools like Primo. In the meanwhile, we’ve at least got a page that shows you where to go to find most of our video content. If you have any suggestions for databases we already subscribe to that feature a notable number of streaming videos, please let me, Mike, or Amanda know.

Thanks, by the way, to Linda for suggesting this new page.

New Databases Page

On Thursday, July 7, we’ll be launching a moderately redesigned databases page. The most notable change is that the Databases by Name page and the Databases by Subject page will all be on one guide, which simplifies navigation for the user and makes it easier for us to manage the links. With this simplified navigation, it no longer makes sense to provide two different links in the yellow search box (Databases by Name and Databases by Subject). Instead, the search box will feature a single link labeled “Databases.”

The list of subjects on the “databases by subject” section of the new page also features a new design element. Instead of offering an alphabetical list of subjects, they are now chunked into groupings:

  • Business & Economics
  • Humanities & Social Sciences
  • Ethnic & Gender Studies
  • Science & Technology
  • General & Reference

This new design was tested with users by our UX designer, Holly Dowell, and me in May. We found that users had few problems finding a relevant set of databases for a given subject or finding a specific database from the A-Z listings. We did add some additional elements to the design based on comments from our tests, though, such as better header labels on each tab in the A-Z listings and putting each letter’s list in it’s own clearly delineated box.

The decision to simplify the database links in the yellow search box came out of Google Analytics data that showed that the “Databases by Subject” link was clicked far less than the “Databases by Name” link, so much so that removing it was worth doing if only to make the remaining “Databases” link label even more visible on the search bar.

Please share with us any feedback you have or that you hear from our users about this new databases page.

Updates to the ReferenceUSA Historical Data

Over the summer we purchased two files that include all of the businesses and many of their attributes that were in the ReferenceUSA database for 2013 and 2014. Our historical data collection now covers 1997 to 2014. The data is stored in large delimited text files, and current Baruch students, faculty and staff can request extracts from these files here:

https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/confluence/display/geoportal/ReferenceUSA+Historical

There’s also a link to this page from our list of databases, under ReferenceUSA Historical Data.

This resource is for users who want to study historical change in individual business establishments in a given area over time. In most cases users who make these requests need to have experience with working with large datasets. All of the requests I’ve filled to date are from graduate students or faculty.

Patrons who are looking for current data or who have basic requests should use the ReferenceUSA database instead. Patrons who are looking for historical or contemporary summaries of business establishments (i.e. sums or counts of businesses by type and geography instead of lists of individual businesses) can use the Census Bureau’s County or ZIP Code Business Patterns data instead.

New Interface for the Statistical Abstract

Proquest has recently revised the interface to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, making it easier to use. The abstract is a good source for federal statistics that cover a wide range of subjects at the national, regional, and state levels. It’s also useful for determining which agency or department in the government is responsible for publishing a given statistic. Citations with links back to the original sources make it possible to uncover additional data (in particular, for smaller geographic areas like counties and places).

The interface gives you the ability to browse by subject and to drill down to individual topics, which mimic the chapters and tables that appear in the print edition. Alternatively you can search by keywords or phrases across the current or previous Proquest editions of the abstract. Even though the abstract is from 2015 and the first Proquest edition is from 2013, many of the tables contain historic data that stretch back several decades. After doing an initial browse or a search you have the ability to filter the results by date, source, and subject term. Tables can be downloaded in a presentation-friendly PDF format or a data-friendly Excel format.

stat_abstract_interface

The Statistical Abstract was an annual publication that was previously published by the Census Bureau. After over 130 years of continuous publication, the Census Bureau terminated the program for the sake of short-sighted budget cuts. The 2012 Abstract was the last public edition. Proquest acquired the rights to publish the abstract and it has been a proprietary, subscription-based product since 2013. Our subscription includes both the electronic (available via our Databases page) and print (Reference HA 202.A4) editions from Proquest. The Census Bureau still provides access to the older editions they published on their website at http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical_abstract.html.