Reference at Newman Library

Tag: Trials

Database Trials: PsycTESTS and PsycEXTRA

Until October 16, we have access to a couple of CUNY-wide trials of databases on the EBSCOhost platform:

PsycTESTS: Access to psychological tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about the test and its development and administration.

PsycEXTRA: Technical, annual and government reports, conference papers, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, consumer brochures and more.

Links to these and other databases we have on trial can be found on the Trials tab of the main databases page. Feedback can be added as a comment to this blog post, emailed to Mike Waldman, or sent using this online form.

 

Testing a New Interface for WorldCat

We’ve volunteered to be beta testers for a new FirstSearch interface for WorldCat. Mike and I had been discussing swapping out the link on our databases page for WorldCat that points to the old, clunky FirstSearch interface with the cleaner free version at WorldCat.org, which some of our users may have actually encountered and which offers lots of nice features for our patrons.

Today, a link to the beta interface for WorldCat has been added to the Trials tab of the databases page. Feedback about the new interface and how it compares to the WorldCat.org version will help us decide whether we should go ahead with linking to the new FirstSearch version or the WorldCat.org one. Please use the database trials form or comments to this blog post to share your thoughts. Feel free to pass along this request for comments to students and faculty you work with.

If you want to learn more about the new FirstSearch interface, OCLC has archived a webinar about it on YouTube. The best parts are:

Trial: LGBT Life with Full-Text

We have a CUNY-wide trial to this resource until May 23rd.

This full-text database contains all of the content available in LGBT Life as well as full text for hundreds of the most important and historically significant LGBT journals, magazines and regional newspapers including The Advocate, Gay Parent Magazine, Girlfriends, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies, James White Review, ISNA News, Ladder, Lesbian Tide, New York Blade, ONE, Tangents, as well as over 150 full-text monographs and books. The database contains comprehensive indexing and abstract coverage as well as a specializes LGBT Thesaurus containing over 6,400 terms.

You can find the trial here.

I am interested in all and any feedback and please feel free to let interested faculty know about it as well.

TRIAL: Oxford Handbooks

We have a trial to the new redesigned Oxford Handbooks. It runs until March 6. It is available on campus only.

Oxford Handbooks Online brings together the world’s leading scholars to write review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate. 14 subjects are available:

Archaeology
Business and Management
Classical Studies
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Economics and Finance
History
Law
Linguistics
Literature
Music
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Religion

I am very interested in any feedback you may have. Please fill out our new form, leave a comment below or email me directly.

Trial: Statistical Abstract of the United States

Proquest is now offering the Statistical Abstract of the United States in electronic format.

The online ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. includes monthly updates to tables, deep searching at the line-item level, powerful facets for narrowing search results, image and spreadsheet versions of all current and historical tables, along with links to provider sites.

Proquest has published a LibGuide with searching and other information that might be useful as you evaluate this databases.

 

I am very interested in any feedback you may have. Please fill out our new form, leave a comment below or email me directly.

 

Trials: new look and new trials

With the new website, we have implemented a new way to share our trials. They can be found in a separate tab in the alphabetical Databases listing. We have a couple of current trials going on.

Historical Periodicals:

African American Historical Serials Collection

Gateway to North America: People, Places, and Organizations of 19th-Century New York

Revolutionary War Era Orderly Books from the New-York Historical Society

These are from EBSCO. These are potential purchases, not subscriptions.

 

Psychology:

PsycCRITIQUES and PsycEXTRA offer book reviews, technical reports, government documents and other such material relating to Psychology. Also on the EBSCO platform. This is a subscription.

 

It would be very helpful if you could let me know here or via email if you think these can be used to support the curriculum and how they would fit within our current holdings.

 

TRIAL: Proquest Historical Annual Reports

We have a trial to Proquest Historical Annual Reports until January 11, 2013. Access is available on campus only for the trial.

This database contains the annual reports (1844-current) available for over 800 companies, 43,000 reports, 1.3M pages. Searchable PDF images with indexed data such as: financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor and related companies. It can also be browsed by company name, related names, industry or date.

It is also cross-searchable with the other Proquest databases (except the statistical ones currently on trial).

Trial to Two Statistics Databases from ProQuest

The trial to Statistical Insight and Statistical DataSets lasts only until December 15, so we’ll need to gather feedback fast. Please add your thoughts as a comment on this post or email Mike Waldman.

Statistical Insight includes the Statistical Abstract of the United States as well as thousands of other sources. ProQuest says that Statistical DataSets:

includes interactive data, such as EASI Demographical data, so students can easily search and retrieve detailed statistics, such as data for every zip code in the country. Plus, they can customize charts or tables to their needs, and easily drop them into a paper or PowerPoint presentation. Half of the data in Statistical DataSets is not on the open Web because it is licensed content or because the entire dataset is too large for standard web navigation.

With the trial, we were only given one URL to use for both products. If you select either database from the Database page in the library website, you are taken to the Statistical Insight database. If you want to get to Statistical DataSets, you’ll need to select it from the drop-down menu that says “Related Subscriptions.”

For an overview from ProQuest about these two databases, see the ProQuest LibGuide page for them or check out the company’s video overviews on YouTube.

Trial: WordsAnalytics

We have a trial of WordsAnalytics until December 15.

WordsAnalytics treats each paragraph  of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing as a separate document, enabling searches of keywords or specific phrases in the filings.  Short instructional videos under “Help” provide demonstrations of searches including keyword; section; “most discussed topics,”  “redline” comparison of prior filing using the “compare tool” and how to compare several companies.

Please contact Rita Ormsby for more information on the database; please send me any feedback.