Archive for the 'online @ the library' Category

Import/Export Figures

Published
by
kyle
on July 6, 2009
in around the world and online @ the library
. 0 Comments

Euromonitor has recently bulked up their foreign trade offerings. Our Passport Reference & Markets subscription now contains import/export figures for all sorts of commodities, from fruits to furniture, for approximately 140 countries. Here are a few interesting tidbits that I just learned from looking at the new data:

  • Germany was the world’s biggest exporter of passenger cars in 2008 (US$140,158 million). Forty percent of all of the world’s passenger car exports come from Germany or Japan.
  • The USA was the world’s biggest importer of petroleum and petroleum products in 2008 (US$482,787 million). However, China is rapidly catching up, with growth of 397% in US$ terms between 2003 and 2008.
  • China was the world’s biggest exporter of iron and steel in 2008 (US$65,065 million), exporting 41% more than the second biggest (Germany) with exports growing at an annual average rate of 68% between 2003 and 2008.

To access the new information, click on the Countries link in the main navigational bar – the statistics can be found under the Foreign Trade category to the left.

Discontinued: STAT-USA

Published
by
kyle
on June 22, 2009
in online @ the library
. 2 Comments

The Library will not continue to subscribe to STAT-USA. Our current subscription runs through the end of this month (June). The resource, produced by the US Department of Commerce, provides market research and analysis on international business opportunities.

If you have relied on information from STAT-USA in the past, don’t worry – the Library has a solution. Many of the reports found in STAT-USA are available through Export.gov in their Market Research Library. You can obtain a free account and access as students and researchers. If you’re just looking for the Country Commercial Guides, which explain how to do business in a particular country, those are available without registration.

And you should also not forget Passport Reference & Markets (formerly Global Market Information Database) for another source of excellent international business information.

Art History – best research tools

Published
by
Carol
on June 17, 2009
in around the library and online @ the library
. 0 Comments

Since Google pretty much dominates the search engine world, it seems to set the gold standard for web searching. A recent blog entry mentioned the article that compared the scholarliness of Google Scholar content vs. library database content. “How Scholarly Is Google Scholar? A Comparison to Library Databases” (College and Research Libraries, May 2009) concluded that Google Scholar offers a higher percentage of scholarly material than do library databases.

Art History

But a Master’s thesis by Hannah M. Noll at Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found a different sort of result. She tested Google Scholar against three library databases: Bibliography of the History of Art, Art Full Text/Art Index Retrospective and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. By using a set of 472 articles, she tested which of the databases retrieved the most number of articles.

I won’t give away the punch line. But you can find out for yourself how well the library databases fared in Noll’s thesis, Where Google Scholar Stands on Art: An Evaluation of Content Coverage in Online Databases.

By the way, the Library subscribes to the Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Art Full Text databases.

Switched over?

Published
by
goldsmid
on June 12, 2009
in around the world, info.gov and online @ the library
. 1 Comment

I turned on my TV this morning to find only one channel still working, Milwaukee Public Television-ch. 10, but it had a huge banner running across it saying that as of 9 AM today (June 12, 2009) the signal would be disconnected.  I knew it was coming but it still took me by surprise. 

I did a little searching to find the following article from USA Today.  Interesting stats.  Check it out.

 http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=aph&AN=J0E171778254009&site=ehost-live. 

Were you ready for the switch?  Let me know how your experience was with the switch from analog to digital.  I intend to still use my TV for video games and watching movies.  Hope you are seeing more than snow on your TV.  Well remember to rescan your TV or better yet come to the library and get a book, movie or game.

For more information, go to www.dtv.gov call the FCC at 888-CALL-FCC

The Global Struggle

Published
by
kyle
on June 10, 2009
in around the world and online @ the library
. 0 Comments

I feel like the majority of what I blog about is the economy and trying to come up with synonyms for recession. I guess that as the business librarian, it is expected of me.

America is not alone in the current economic hardship – the rise of globalization and the ever-connected societies of the world have the entire world feeling the pinch. However, some countries are feeling it worse than others. So just how is Italy or Venezuela or [insert favorite country here] dealing with the slowdown?

In response to this question, Euromonitor has published a series of Global Risks and Vulnerabilities briefings as part of Passport Reference & Markets (formerly known as Global Market Information Database). These reports address external sector shocks, real estate, government finance, energy, socio-political shocks and environmental shocks as part of a measure of the country’s economic health.

To get to the documents, click on the Countries link in the main navigational bar and the Country Briefings are located in the upper-right corner.

Search inside reference books

Published
by
Barbara
on February 5, 2009
in online @ the library and tips for research
. 0 Comments

Reference books (e.g., encyclopedias) can be a great place to start research and get a quick background on a topic. But don’t think just Encyclopedia Britannica! I’m talking about specialized reference materials, like the Encyclopedia of archaeology, Berkshire encyclopedia of extreme sports, Encyclopedia of beat literature, Encyclopedia of film noir, Developmental psychopathology, Europe: A continental overview of environmental issues, Elections A to Z, Bilingual education: A reference handbook… and many, many other titles. But how do you find the right reference titles for your topic?

It’s possible to search everything in our Reference Collection at once for your topic, using the Reference Universe database.

For example, a search for gangsta rap will find 13 reference titles with content on this topic. Clicking the link to view index entries shows you which page(s) to look at in the book. Click on the title of a reference work to get its call number and Library location from the Library Catalog (most, but not all, of these titles are in the 2nd-floor Reference Collection). Ask a Librarian for more about this resource.

Reference Universe search result display

Online links in the catalog

Published
by
Barbara
on January 26, 2009
in around the library, info.gov and online @ the library
. 0 Comments

More often than you expect you’ll find online titles in the Library Catalog. How does the catalog let you know if something is online? The link to the title online will be preceded by “Linked Resources.”

Check the location! Sometimes a title’s location is Internet or NetLibrary (NetLibrary books are online books, or “ebooks”). Two examples from the catalog:

Catalog Record for Internet Title

Sometimes the Library has a title in print, but the title is also available online. Here’s an example from the catalog:
 Catalog Record for Internet Title

If you have questions please ask a librarian (email, chat, or call the Reference Desk at 262.472.1032).

September Feature: EbscoHost Upgrades

Published
by
stephenm
on September 10, 2008
in featured resource and online @ the library
. 0 Comments

Upgrades improve functionality and ease!

On & off-campus access to EbscoHost databases is provided for UW-W students, faculty & staff. UWW Only A few EbscoHost databases are available to all Wisconsin residents through BadgerLink. For additional information see About EBSCOhost.

The EbscoHost databases include indexing, abstracts and some full text of articles from journals, magazines, newspapers, dissertations and books. Interlinking of the University Library’s electronic and print collections is provided via the Find It service.

What's New:

  • Create an RSS feed to regularly retrieve results in you blog, email, etc.
  • Hover over magnifying glass to see abstract and reformatted citation information

What’s Updated:

  • Icons larger and easier to identify
  • Layout similar to popular websites like Amazon and Netflix
  • Limit by date or source type right on the search results page

Want Help? Contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat or in person at the Library’s Reference Desk.

This post is part of the Featured Resource, which was previously on the Library’s home page. The Featured Resources Archive contains the past spotlights from December 2002 – Summer 2008.

International Year of Languages

Published
by
Barbara
on August 21, 2008
in around the world, info.gov and online @ the library
. 1 Comment

“On average, a language ceases to be spoken every two weeks.”

That’s what the web page for the UN’s International Year of Languages (2008) says. UNESCO suggests that language policies enable people in linguistic communities to use their first languages as much as possible, including in education, while also learning a national or regional language and an international language. At the same time, dominant-language speakers should be urged to master another national or regional language and one or two international languages.

hello in different languagesUWW offers language classes (Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic), and language study is good preparation for life in a global society, promotes intercultural understanding, and comes in very handy during study abroad too! The University Library has materials that can help, including dictionaries (e.g., Kodansha’s romanized Japanese-English dictionary, 2nd-floor Reference Collection PL679 .V36 1993, and Oxford Reference Online’s bilingual dictionaries), books, and CDs for language practice (e.g., Conversational Japanese, 1st-floor Media Center, Oversize CDs PL535.5 .C66 2005).

  • For a partial listing of some recently-acquired CDs, search the Library Catalog for the keyword pimsleur.
  • For a broader listing of resources search for the keywords “japanese language” and (study or dictionary), substituting the language of your choice in place of japanese. This will list language practice CDs, videos, teaching methods books, K-12 language textbooks, foreign language dictionaries and grammar books, etc.
  • The 1st-floor Periodicals Collection includes some non-English subscriptions, such as Stern Magazine and Die Zeit (German), World Journal (Chinese), and Le Monde (French). Additional major non-English publications from around the world are available through the LexisNexis Academic database.

Of course, for quick and dirty help with translation of text there are translation sites online such as Yahoo! Babel Fish.

But the issue of language preservation/endangerment is much bigger than asking university students to study another language. Language transmits and embodies culture. Loss of linguistic diversity leads to a loss of cultural diversity. For more information see The Rosetta Project, which is “building a publicly accessible online archive of ALL documented human languages,” a National Science Foundation special report on Endangered Languages, and the web site of the Indigenous Language Institute.

Government Printing Office logo

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

Library Hours for Spring Break

Published
by
Barbara
on March 21, 2008
in around the library and online @ the library
. 0 Comments

Please note the University Library’s Spring Break hours:

  • We close at 4:30pm on Fri., Mar. 21st
  • We are closed over the weekend of Mar. 22-23
  • We are open 8am-4:30pm for the week Mar. 24-28
  • We are closed Sat. Mar. 29th
  • We are open only 6pm-midnight on Sun. Mar. 30th

Normal semester hours resume on Monday, March 31st.

Remember that the Library Catalog (which contains many links to online books and government documents) and article databases are available when the Library is closed.

You can renew checked out items online by logging into your “Personal Record” with your 7-digit UWW ID number and your last name. Students may renew items once, unless another patron has requested an item. If you have questions or difficulties with this service, please contact the Circulation Desk (262-472-5511 or email circdesk@uww.edu).