Reference at Newman Library

Tag: New Interfaces

New Interface: Business Expert Press

The ebook collection from Business Expert Press is on a new platform: iG Publishing. As ProQuest is shuttering its ebrary service, Business Expert Press had to find a new home for its collection of ebooks. The link for Business Expert Press on the databases page and the links for ebook records in OneSearch should take you to the new iG Publishing platform.

Please let me know if you encounter any access issues, as remote access proved to be challenging to get set up.

New Books Search Options in the Search Bar

Today, the search bar features a new set of options for book searches. If you want to find print and ebooks at the same time, use the first option, “Books (print + ebooks).” Searches run from this option will go to OneSearch, where all of our print and ebooks records can be found. If you want to limit your search to just print books, you’ll want to use the second option, “Books (print).” The second option sends search queries to the catalog, which no longer includes records for most of our ebook collections.

New search bar menu options

Over the coming months, we’ll be running usability tests and conducting other forms of user research to assess how this change is being received by our students and faculty. If you receive feedback from our users, please pass it along to Michael Waldman or me.

LexisNexis Academic Is Now Called Nexis Uni

LexisNexis is shutting down its LexisNexis Academic platform this month and migrating us over to the new Nexis Uni interface. There is now a link to “Nexis Uni” on the A-Z databases page. The existing link for “LexisNexis Academic” has been relabeled as “LexisNexis Academic is now Nexis Uni” and redirected to point to the Nexis Uni interface; we’ll leave this set of dual links in place for the rest of the year.

If you’d like to dive in to the documentation from LexisNexis about the new interface, try these:

If you’ve got links to LexisNexis in a LibGuide you authored and you re-used the official database link, it will automatically get updated to the new URL. If, though, you have typed out in text somewhere on your guide the name “LexisNexis” you will want to change that to “Nexis Uni.” Here is a search in the LibGuides system of all pages where the word “Lexis” appears. Please review these search results and update any mentions of LexisNexis to reflect the new name, Nexis Uni.

 

New Interface for MathSciNet

We’ve long had access to MathSciNet on the American Mathematical Society’s own platform. This week, we were able to add another access point to the same database: EBSCOhost. If you browse the list of math databases or the main databases page, you’ll now see a separate link for “MathSciNet (EBSCOhost interface).”

Records from MathSciNet are also discoverable in OneSearch; if you click to view the full text from a record in OneSearch, you’ll likely be taken to the article on the American Mathematical Society platform.

New Interface and Name for Advertising REDBOOKS

Advertising REDBOOKS has overhauled the interface recently and rebranded the site as just “REDBOOKS.” If you haven’t been in REDBOOKS for a while, it’s worth taking a peek at what you can find there. If you look up a company, such as Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, you can find:

  • a list of the agencies that provided media buying, brand strategy, marketing, digital media planning, etc.
  • media spend amounts by category (cable TV, spot TV, outdoor, newspapers, etc.)
  • business summary and financials
  • its SIC and NAICS classifications
  • a list of its competitors
  • recent company news

On the A-Z list of databases, there is now a pointer link in the “A-B” tab that says “Advertising REDBOOKS is now called ‘REDBOOKS‘” (the link resolves to the new interface for REDBOOKS) and link in the “Q-R” tab that says “REDBOOKS formerly known as ‘Advertising REDBOOKS.‘” We’ll keep that pointer link until the end of the calendar year.

MRI+ Mediamark Reporter Is Now Called GfK MRI University Reporter

If you go to MRI+ Mediamark Reporter, you’ll see that it has a new interface and new branding as GfK MRI University Report. Following feedback from some of our colleagues, Mike and I have decided to update the database links as follows:

  • The link labeled “MRI+ Mediamark Reporter” has been relabeled to “GfK MRI University Reporter (formerly MRI+ Mediamark Reporter)”. This link is now found on the G-H tab of the databases page. At the end of the year, this link will be shortened to just “GfK MRI University Reporter.”
  • A new link labeled “MRI+ Mediamark Reporter” has been added to the M-N tab of the databases page. At the end of this year, this link will be removed.

UK Census and US Election Data in the Social Explorer

The Social Explorer has recently added some new datasets. US Demography is still their primary module, which includes historical and current US Census data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. But if you were looking for UK Census data, you’re now in luck! The United Kingdom 2011 Census is available for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The UK module works the same way as the US one; you can make good-looking web maps using a variety of different geographies, and download census reports.

UK Census Data

Just in time for the upcoming 2016 election, they’ve added a US Election Data module. You can create maps of voter registration and actual election outcomes for presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections at the state and county level for the past decade or so. Unfortunately you can’t download any of the underlying data; they’ve partnered with Dave Leip’s and his Atlas of Presidential Elections, and he holds a virtual monopoly on this information. There are public and free alternatives for voter registration and federal election data at the state level, but they are from two different sources: the Census Current Population Survey for the former and the Federal Election Commission for the latter. A central, reliable, public source for county-level data is non-existent. Despite this large shortcoming, the Social Explorer module is still useful for exploring and visualizing election data.

US Election Data

The Social Explorer is available via our databases page, and you can access each of the modules under the Maps heading. Scroll down and pick the one you’d like.

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.