Tag Archive for 'databases'

October Feature: Tutorials

Published
by
kyle
on October 1, 2008
in featured resource
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A lot of attention has been drawn towards the fact that today’s students aren’t big fans of reading through pages and pages of instructions to learn how to do something - they’re more visual learners. Instead, the younger generation would rather watch a video than sit through a lecture (I’m not sure that’s a shocker). It also does makes sense given the Millennials’ penchant of creating their own content, mainly digital, and putting it on Flickr, Facebook, or Youtube.

Well, we’ve taken notice of this trend and responded to the call. In addition to the traditional guides on how to use the Library resources for research, we have begun to create online tutorials - short ‘movies’ if you will - demonstrating basic functions of databases. Now you have the ability to sit back and relax while the videos take you through searching and finding information. Although we don’t have tutorials for every resource right now, we will continue to add more in the future.

You can access the Tutorials by going Guides → How to Use… from the library’s home page or directly there with this link.

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.

National Latino Heritage Month

Published
by
Barbara
on September 19, 2008
in campus connection and info.gov
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Sept. 15-Oct. 15 is National Latino Heritage Month. Sept. 15 is the anniversary of independence for several Latin American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua). Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence on Sept. 16th and 18th, respectively. What started as a week-long observation in 1968 was expanded to 31 days in 1988 by Public Law 100-402. The UWW campus is celebrating with a lecture series and an art and cultural exchange with Universidad Autónoma “Benito Juárez” de Oaxaca.

The Library of Congress, in collaboration with many other federal agencies, has a special National Hispanic Heritage Month web site. The U.S. Dept. of State’s America.gov web site, which provides information about American life, culture, and foreign policy, has a photo gallery of Prominent Hispanic Americans in the Arts.

cover of encyclopedia
Your University Library has a lot of relevant material, including reference works, books, and articles. Use the Library Catalog to find titles such as The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States, Latino politics in America, The wind shifts: New Latino poetry, and The mambo kings play songs of love (the first English-language novel by an Hispanic American that was published in the U.S.). Mambo Kings covercover of Wind Shifts
Search Library article databases such as Academic Search Premier or Ethnic NewsWatch to find articles such as “Do You Know Me?” in The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education (vol. 17, no. 2, 2006, pp. 9-11), “Ethnic Identity, Intergroup Contact, and Outgroup Orientation among Diverse Groups of Adolescents on the Internet” in CyberPsychology & Behavior (vol. 11, no. 4, 2008, pp. 459-465), and “Candidates court rising vote: Latinos” in Christian Science Monitor (vol. 100, no. 160, 2008, pp. 1-11).

Latin Politics in America coverPlease ask a reference librarian (262-472-1032) for assistance in finding materials.

  
  

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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!

Elections 2008 lecture series

Published
by
Barbara
on September 12, 2008
in campus connection
. 0 Comments

U.S. FlagThe fall 2008 Fairhaven Lecture Series theme is “Election 2008: Political Processes, Presidents, and Prognostications.”

Lectures are open to the public and free. All take place on Mondays at 3 p.m. at Fairhaven Retirement Community’s Fellowship Hall (435 West Starin Road, Whitewater, WI).

If you can’t attend, podcasts of the lectures will be posted at the series web site.

  • Sept. 15 “North-South Divide: Regional Partisan Divisions in Presidential Elections” by Larry Anderson (Political Science Dept.)
  • Sept. 22 “The Role of New Media on National Elections” by James Kates (Communication Dept.)
  • Sept. 29 “Action on the Front Line: Managing a Local Political Campaign” by Carol Scovotti (Marketing Dept.)
  • Oct. 6 “Direct Democracy: Initiatives/Referendums in the General Election” by Jolly Emrey (Political Science Dept.)
  • Oct. 13 “Comparing the 1968 and 2008 Elections: War, Race, and the Politics of Change” by Richard Haven (Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Communication)
  • Oct. 20 “Politics, Personality, and Hypocrisy: Using Psychology to Understand Political Perceptions, Behavior, and Party Differences” by Dan Stalder (Psychology Dept.)
  • Oct. 27 “Presidential Libraries: Dust Bunnies from the White House Attic” by Richard Haney (Emeritus Professor, History Dept.)
  • Nov. 3 “The Operation and Strategies of the Electoral College” by John Kozlowicz (Emeritus Professor, Political Science Dept.)
  • Nov. 10 “Where Will This Election Lead Us?” by a panel of Faculty from the Political Science Dept.
  • Nov. 17 “How the New Administration Will Treat and Affect the Economy” by Jeffery Heinrich (Economics Dept.)
  • Nov. 24 “International Affairs and the New Administration” by Anne Hamilton (Political Science Dept.)

The University Library has resources for those of you who want to know more.
Generation Digital book cover
For example, if the Sept. 22nd topic interests you, search the Library Catalog for books, and you will find titles such as “Generation digital: Politics, commerce, and childhood in the age of the Internet” and “Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture.” Search article databases such as Academic Search Premier and find articles such as “Flickring here, twittering there” in Economist (8/16/2008 issue on pp. 30-31), which, according to the abstract, “reports on the significant impact the Internet has had on American politics” and examines “[t]he use of the Internet by 2008 presidential candidates Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.” Materials related to other lecture topics are also available. For assistance please contact a Reference librarian (call 262-472-1032 or email refdesk@uww.edu).

September Feature: EbscoHost Upgrades

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

Cinco de Mayo

Published
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Barbara
on May 4, 2008
in campus connection
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Cinco de Mayo celebration in Washington, D.C.

Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is the anniversary of the 1862 Battle of Puebla, in which outnumbered Mexican troops defeated Napoleon III’s invading French army (despite this defeat the French weren’t actually stopped until 1867). The date is observed today by many in the U.S. and other countries as a celebration of pride in Mexican heritage.

UWW observance:
The Interested Ladies of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority will host UWW’s “First Annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration” May 5th, 2008, from 7-8 pm in the UC Summers Auditorium. The UWW community is invited to this opportunity to learn the importance of the events that took place on Cinco de Mayo, 1862 in Mexico. A pinata celebration will follow after the program outside the UC.

More information is available from the University Library:

Latino Holiday cover

Books include The Latino holiday book: from Cinco de Mayo to Dia de los Muertos– the celebrations and traditions of Hispanic-Americans (3rd-floor Main Collection, GT4803 .M45 2000) or The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States (2nd-floor Reference Collection E184 S75 O97 2005, v.1, pp.345-346). For the very serious, there are related books such as The French experience in Mexico, 1821-1861: a history of constant misunderstanding (3rd-floor Main Collection, DC59.8 .M6 B37).

Articles may be found in a variety of library databases, including Academic Search Premier. Here’s an example: “America’s growing observance of Cinco de Mayo” published in the Journal of American Culture (vol. 21, no. 2).

March: Women’s History Month

Published
by
Barbara
on March 20, 2008
in around the world and info.gov
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March is Women’s History Month. If you’re interested in researching a topic related to women’s history, resources are plentiful.

National Women's History Month ribbon

The Library of Congress is providing information and resources online in celebration of women, using materials it has collected over the last 200 years. Resources include lesson plans; images of notable women; a selection of audio/video files, photographs, memoirs of women’s experiences at war from the Veterans History Project; and more.

The National Women’s History Project provides a history of National Women’s History Month.

The National Women’s History Museum has many online exhibits, including “First But Not the Last: Women Who Ran for President.” This exhibit highlights the campaigns of 12 women who announced their intentions to run for the Presidency, out of about 35 known to have done so over the years.

Your University Library has many resources about women’s history also, including reference works such as Encyclopedia of American women in business: from colonial times to the present, circulating books such as Inventing black women: African American women poets and self-representation, 1877-2000, and articles and other materials in various Library databases. Do a subject keyword search in the Library catalog for women history to see a sampling of subject topics on which materials are available, or ask a librarian for assistance in formulating a search to find materials on more specific topics, such as “women political candidates.”

An especially relevant database is Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000. This database includes documents, images, web links, a dictionary of social movements and organizations, a chronology of women’s history in the U.S., and teaching tools such as lesson plans. Learn, for example, about the Guerrilla Girls organization and their efforts to expose sexism in art and film, read excerpts from the hospital diary of Mary E. Shelton (a Civil War era nurse in Nashville), find speeches given at the Congress of Women (held as part of the the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago) such as “Study of Greek Art” and “Progress of Fifty Years,” or research the Hull House of Chicago (a settlement house that attracted many female residents who later became prominent and influential reformers at various levels).

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!

Invest Now, Relax Later!

Published
by
kyle
on February 21, 2008
in around the library and campus connection
. 0 Comments

6 March 2008 – 4 PM
BI Lab (room 2211 in the University Library)

Financial markets – they’re like roller coasters - rocketing up, plunging down, leveling out and any variation in between. For those involved, it can be a gut-wrenching and exhilarating experience. People gamble their entire life savings on a chance to win it big. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. You should make sure to do your homework before beginning any venture to ensure a solid investment decision.

The Library would like to invite faculty and staff to an open session with Professors John Howat and David Porter of the Finance & Business Law Department. Howat and Porter have graciously agreed to share their knowledge of stocks and mutual funds and answer any questions that you may have about investing.

The session will also highlight library resources that help navigate the seemingly complicated financial world, namely Morningstar Library Edition, Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage, and ValueLine Investment Survey. These well-respected investment information sources offer guidance in educating yourself about companies, industries and markets.

So mark your calendars and be sure to join us on March 6 at 4 PM! If you can’t make it right at 4 PM or you can’t stay the whole time, that’s OK too. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kyle Naff, Business Librarian, at naffk@uww.edu or 472.5519.

Please note: This session will not tell you which stocks or funds to choose. Our speakers are very knowledgeable in personal finance, but they are not licensed investment professionals. They may be able to guide you in the right direction, but it’s up to you to decide where you’d like your money to go.

New(er) Stuff Tuesday - January 29

Published
by
kyle
on January 29, 2008
in new stuff tuesdays
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Today’s featured stuff is actually something that we got back in April - ScienceDirect College Edition from Elsevier. Recently (and without much notice or fanfare), our subscription greatly expanded. When we first acquired ScienceDirect, our collection included the most current four years of over 1900 journals. That’s not too shabby, especially since Elsevier published many of the top scholarly journals in a number of areas.

We now have access to all of the articles, in electronic full text format, for those journal titles back to 1995! That means that you can read more than eight million articles online! Wow!

You can get to articles from ScienceDirect by searching the collection directly (go to Find → Databases from the Library’s home page). The articles also come up in searches in EBSCOhost, Proquest and databases from other providers - just use the Find It! link to access them!

Where to Invest in 2008

Published
by
kyle
on December 19, 2007
in around the library and online @ the library
. 1 Comment

When people think of the library, they don’t necessarily think to turn to us for investment advice. While we wouldn’t advise anyone on where to put their money, we can point you to credible and respectable sources for that sort of information. Conveniently enough, Morningstar, one of the top investment analysis firms and financial resource, has released their picks on the stocks and funds that will perform well in the coming year. Reknown for their mutual fund Where to Invest in 2008 contains information on the ‘Four Funds for an IRA,’ the ‘10 Best Companies in the World,’ the ‘Best Funds for 2008,’ and ‘Tune Up Your Portfolio in the New Year.’

To access the Morningstar report, use the following link - the report is linked under Important Articles in the center of the page.

Be on the lookout in March for an upcoming library session about the investing resources that we offer!

Keep Up With Congress: CQ Weekly

Published
by
Barbara
on December 5, 2007
in online @ the library
. 0 Comments

CQ Weekly is a weekly magazine devoted to all things related to the activities of the U.S. Congress (its subtitle is “Congressional Quarterly’s Magazine on Government, Commerce, and Politics”). Get a recap of major actions of the past week, an analysis of major issues currently under consideration or coming up soon, roll-call votes, news about the latest political skirmishes, etc. It’s addicting! Keep up with Congress by reading a new issue every Monday.

How to use it:
The home page features the contents of the latest issue (click on the titles that you want to read). Use the options on the left side to browse other issues (click the “Read Recent Issues” drop-down and select a date), or search for articles or floor votes by keyword(s), topic or date. The advanced search allows a number of options including specifying committees, searching by bill numbers, and changing the way results are ordered. You can set up an account and save searches or create automatic email alerts (start by setting up your profile–another option on the left-side margin).

How far back does it go?
UWW students and faculty/staff have access to articles from this respected publication online starting with October 1983. In the University Library’s Reference Collection is the annual summary volume, Congressional Quarterly Almanac, going back to 1959.

In addition, the Weekly is actually part of a suite of CQ databases available to the UWW community for political research. Go to CQ Electronic Library and search any or all of these components: CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, CQ Congress Collection, CQ Public Affairs Collection, and CQ Voting and Elections Collection.