Reference at Newman Library

Tag: New in the Library

New Database: International Encyclopedia of Communication

Because this is on a standalone platform and not part of one that aggregates different reference works in one place (like Gale Virtual Reference Library or Oxford Reference Online), I’ve added this encyclopedia from Wiley-Blackwell as its own listing on the A-Z databases page as well as on the database pages for communication studies and for dictionaries and encyclopedias.

New Database: DSM-5 Library

We now have access to the DSM-5 Library. This database from the American Psychiatric Association provides the full text of the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a standard reference work in the mental health field, as well as a handful of other related reference works.

Links to this database can be found on the A-Z page and the psychology databases page.

Bose noise-cancelling headphones – now available for loan at the Circulation Desk

Hi all,

Starting today, we will be loaning Bose noise-cancelling headphones from the circulation desk.  These will be same-day loans, due back 10 min before the desk closes.

We can offer them to students looking for headphones but I think it’s also a good idea to offer them to folks who are looking for a quiet study space but aren’t a part of a group.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks, Jeff

New Database: Independent Voices

Name: Independent Voices

Description (from the vendor):

 Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

Access: On and off campus via IP authentication (off campus users will get our remote access login page). Added to these database pages on the library website:

  • A-Z list
  • Black Studies – Databsaes
  • History – Databases
  • Journalism – Databses
  • LGBTQ – Databases
  • Women’s Studies – Databases

If there are additional subject database pages we should add this to, please leave a comment on this blog post or email Michael Waldman or Stephen Francoeur.

New Database: Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law

We now have access to “Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law,” a new database from HeinOnline containing primary source legal materials about slavery. Here’s the vendor’s description:

This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.

For more information, check out this quick reference guide (pdf) from HeinOnline.

Links to this database can be found on our A-Z page as well as the following subject database pages: history, black studies, and Caribbean studies.

New Database: Pivot

Aimed at researchers who are looking for funding opportunities, this database lets you set up a profile where you detail your publications and your research interests. Based on your profile, Pivot will suggest sources of funding. Alerts about new opportunities are emailed automatically.

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.

Four New Databases

We now have access to four new databases, all of which use the Web of Science interface. There are now separate listings for each of these on the A-Z databases list:

  • BIOSIS Citation Index
    • Vendor description
      • Find the first mention of plants, organisms, chemicals, or lab techniques in various life sciences fields.
      • Access over 22 million records from journals, books, reports, meetings, and U.S. patents dating 1926 or later
    • Also listed on subject database pages for biology and science
  • Data Citation Index
    • Vendor description
      • Provides a single point of access to quality research data from repositories across disciplines and around the world.
    • Anyone care to suggest what subject database lists this one should be on?
  • Derwent Innovations Index
    • Vendor description
      • Conduct patent and citation searches of inventions in chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering. This resource merges the value-added patent information from Derwent World Patents Index with the patent citation information from Derwent Patent Citation Index. You can use additional descriptive information and coding to quickly grasp a patent’s significance and its relationship to other patents.
    • Also listed on subject database page for law
  • Zoological Record
    • Vendor description
      • World’s oldest continuing database of animal biology. It is considered the world’s leading taxonomic reference, and with coverage back to 1864, has long acted as the world’s unofficial register of animal names. The broad scope of coverage ranges from biodiversity and the environment to taxonomy and veterinary sciences.
    • Also listed on subject database pages for biology and science