Reference at Newman Library

Tag: New in the Library

New Statistics Databases Page

There is a new subject-specific databases page for statistics. One of the challenges in designing this page was to recognize that when a student asks for “statistics” they usually have some specific topic in mind. This page attempts to steer them to some of the more common areas where our students ask for statistics but does not try to overwhelm them with every last possible topic area where they might be seeking statistics.

Over the summer, I’ll do some usability testing with this page to see if how well it aligns with user expectations. I’ll also be looking at the page statistics in LibGuides to see what links people are actually clicking on (Springshare offers instructions on how to do this for your own guides).

If you have any feedback you’d like to offer, please append it here as a comment to this blog post.

Four New Gale Databases

Now that NOVELNY is picking up the tab for the subscription to Opposing Viewpoints in Context, CUNY has been able to use those funds we had been using for that database for four new Gale databases instead. Here is a list of those new databases, the subject databases page they have been added to, and a brief description:

  • Global Issues in Context
    • Subjects: Current Events, Political Science, Public Affairs
    • Complements the Opposing Viewpoints in Context database. Less about pro/con and more news and reference info. Browsing by region/country yields a quick overview of issues for that location.
  • LitFinder
    • Subjects: English
    • Gale notes that it “includes approximately 140,000 full-text poems, 800,000 poem citations and excerpts, 7,100 full-text short stories and novels, 3,800 full-text essays, 2,000 full-text speeches and 1,700 full-text plays. It also includes biographies, work summaries, photographs and a glossary.”
  • Twayne’s Authors Series
    • Subjects: English
    • Another source of work overviews and criticism of novels, plays, poetry, and short stories.
  • World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean
    • Subjects: Black Studies, Caribbean Studies, History, Hispanic Studies, Latin American Studies
    • Offers primary source materials (especially documents and maps).

New Database for Streaming Video: Kanopy

We now have a subscription to a streaming video collection called Kanopy. At the moment, there are 136 videos in the collection that are mostly in the social sciences but also include some in the arts, sciences, and in business. Videos can be embedded in LibGuides, Blackboard, etc.

In addition to adding it to the A-Z list of databases, you can also find links for it on the following subject database pages:

  • Communication Studies
  • Current Events
  • Journalism
  • Public Affairs
  • Sociology

If you’d like to have it added to other subject database pages, please let Mike or me know.

Two New Primary Source Databases from Gale

We just added two new digital collections of primary sources to our database collections:

  • America in Protest: Records of Anti-Vietnam War Organizations, The Vietnam Veterans Against the War
  • Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League

These two collections join another one we’ve had for a while, The Savings and Loan Crisis: Loss of Public Trust and the Federal Bailout, 1989-1993, as part of the Archives Unbound platform from Gale. You’ll find link to these collections on the main databases page and on the history databases page. If there are other database pages where these should be listed, please let Mike know.

New database: Simmons OneView

We recently acquired Simmons OneView, an online decision-making system intended to assist marketers with determining a wide range of potential marketing considerations through the customization of creating crosstab reports. Surveying US and local populations by asking questions about themselves (demographics and psychographics), products and services used, and media outlets accessed, the system allows marketers to pose a variety of questions to gauge marketing potential.

Aside from Adults, other studies available include Top 10 DMA, Teen, Kids, and Hispanics. With the most recent data being Fall 2010, there is a two year lag behind in data available to academic institutions versus corporate. Please note there is a limit to 5 users at a time.

For quick tutorials on using SimmonsOneView, consult the “Resources” section. Look for an announcement about training sessions to be organized in the coming weeks.

New Database: Statistical Abstract of the United States

We just updated the link on our databases page that is for the Statistical Abstract of the United States. Previously, this link connected to the free version that stopped being published last year. Now, that link goes to an updated version of the publication from ProQuest.

One thing that students may find especially helpful about this version is the inclusion of MLA and APA citations for each table (scroll to the bottom of the table to find these).

 

New Database: Oxford Handbooks Online

We now have access to some of the content in Oxford Handbooks Online, a database that offers authoritative reviews of the literature on different topics (kind of like the Annual Reviews database we also subscribe to). We have access to articles from 2012 in the following areas: psychology, business, management, finance, economics, and political science.

The default search returns results across the whole collection, not just the smaller portion that we actually subscribe to. After you run a search, there is a checkbox you can click to filter your results to the ones we actually have access to:

Oxford Handbooks Online