Tag Archive for 'research'

A hot issue every week…

Published
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Barbara
on March 1, 2010
in around the library, online @ the library and tips for research
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Whether you are casting about for a topic for a research paper, or doing research on a topic you’ve already selected, this resource may help you:

CQ Reseacher banner
CQ Researcher explores a potentially controversial, “hot” topic in each weekly issue. You will find statistics, history, a chronology of relevant events, maps, legislative actions, and experts supporting their side of a pro/con question related to the issue of the week.

For example, the Feb. 26 issue explores cybersecurity. The leading article is “Are U.S. military and civilian computer systems safe?” The pro/con question is “Should the government regulate private-sector cybersecurity?” The issue includes a discussion of legislation over the years to deal with increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, starting with “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — the first federal legislation specifically dealing with computer security.” Other sections of the issue discuss the current situation and the outlook for the future. There is also a bibliography of sources.

Other recent topics have been sleep deprivation, press freedom, animal rights, sex scandals, modernizing the grid, and professional football.

Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Sources

Published
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Barbara
on February 26, 2010
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Have you been told by your professor to use scholarly or peer-reviewed articles for your research paper? Wondering what that means and how to get them?

Peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals send submitted manuscripts to other experts in the same discipline so that they can assess the quality of the potential article before it’s accepted for publication.

Many article databases offer a check box that limits results to scholarly/peer-reviewed publications. However, the results may include book reviews, etc., that you would not want even though they were published in scholarly journals.screenshot from article database showing peer review limit box

Look for the characteristics of a scholarly article, which are listed on the Library’s guide “Scholarly Journal vs. Popular Magazine Articles.” There’s a YouTube video from another library called “Magazines vs. Scholarly Journals” to view: YouTube Preview Image

You also can look up a publication’s title in UlrichsWeb, which describes journals, magazines, etc.screenshot from Ulrichsweb database showing peer review info about a journal

If in doubt, ask a librarian for help!

The future of being human

Published
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Barbara
on December 3, 2009
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What’s to become of us? Read “Future Humans: Four Ways We May, or May Not, Evolve” by James Owens (National Geographic News, November 24, 2009). The four possibilities it briefly explores:

  • Humans are done evolving
  • Humans are still evolving
  • Transhumanism awaits (humans improved through science & technology)
  • Humans migrate to the stars, and then become affected by new, alien environments in ways we can’t predict

Our Posthuman Future coverInterested in learning more? Search library catalogs such as HALCat, Andersen Library’s catalog, and article databases. You can find books such as Our posthuman future: Consequences of the biotechnology revolution (3rd-floor Main Collection, TP248.2 .F84 2002) and Ending aging: The rejuvenation breakthroughs that could reverse human aging in our lifetime (available from UW-Milwaukee or UW-Oshkosh via the free Universal Borrowing service). You can find articles such as “Immortality 2.0” (Futurist, 2009, vol.43, no.1, pp. 34-41) and “On market forces and human evolution” (Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2007, vol. 247, no. 3, pp. 397-412).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

Celebrate faculty/staff works

Published
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Barbara
on November 23, 2009
in campus connection
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SCA graphicCelebrate the scholarship & creative achievements of UWW faculty and staff at the 22nd annual reception and exhibit in the Crossman Gallery (Greenhill Center of the Arts)! The exhibit is open on Tuesday, Nov. 24. The reception takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 25, between 10:30 and noon.

Articles, artwork, books, and presentations produced by staff and faculty of the University during the period July 2008-June 2009 will be on display. Refreshments will be available during the reception.

This event is co-sponsored by the Chancellor, Andersen Library, Crossman Gallery, Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, and University Marketing and Media Relations.

Autism

Published
by
Barbara
on October 7, 2009
in around the world and info.gov
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Earlier this week two government studies indicating increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in children in the U.S. were in the news, including “Autism is more widespread, U.S. studies show, but why?” in USA Today.

The first study, “Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007,” was published online by Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, on Oct. 5.

In response, the Centers for Disease Control issued a statement that similar findings will appear in a report from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network later in the year, and “these data affirm that a concerted and substantial national response is warranted.” CDC recommended the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) web site for more information, such as its “Summary of advances in autism spectrum disoder research: Calendar year 2008.”

Students With Autism coverIn addition, Andersen Library has materials on autism. Search HALCat (Andersen Library’s catalog) to find books titles such as Healing and preventing autism: A complete guide (2nd-floor Browsing Books, RJ506.A9 M4252 2009), Autism spectrum disorders: Psychological theory and research (3rd-floor Main Collection, RC553.A88 B694 2007), and Students with autism spectrum disorders: Effective instructional practices (3rd-floor Main Collection, RJ506.A9 H42 2007). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders coverSearch article databases to find articles such as “Trends in autism spectrum disorder diagnoses: 1994–2007″ (Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, Aug. 2009, v.39, no.8, pp. 1099-1111) and “Timing of identification among children with an autism spectrum disorder: Findings from a population-based surveillance study” (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, May 2009, v.48, no.5, pp. 474-483).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with 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!

Presidential campaign TV commercials, 1952-2008

Published
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Ronna
on May 4, 2009
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I know, I know, after the recent presidential election, we’ve probably all had our fill of campaign commercials. But this web site is worth a few minutes of your time, I promise. The Museum of the Moving Image put together The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008. You can watch campaign commercials starting with the Dwight D. Eisenhower v Adlai Stevenson contest of 1952, all the way up to Barack Obama v John McCain in 2008.

The site is easy to browse. Just choose the year for the campaign you are interested in and at the bottom of the screen, thumbnails of the commercials appear, divided into Democrat and Republican. Click the one you want to view, and voila, you’re watching the commercial. You can even watch the “Peace Little Girl (Daisy)” commercial from Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign, called by this web site: “the most celebrated and perhaps most notorious of all political commercials.” It aired only once, and was so controversial it even made the cover of Time.

Besides the pure entertainment value, what I really liked is the additional information provided by the site. The credits and a transcript for each commercial chosen are easily accessible, and tabs to the right of the commercial provide information on the campaign, each candidate, and the results of the election (including the number of popular votes, states, and electoral votes won by each candidate).

So take a moment and check out this site. It’s cool, it’s funny–and who knows what you might learn along the way?

World Digital Library: Cultural treasures, at your fingertips

Published
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Ronna
on April 23, 2009
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On April 21, 2009, the World Digital Library debuted. Its mission: “[to make] available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.”

Developed by the Library of Congress with the support of UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), and many other partner institutions, the WDL contains books, journals, manuscripts, maps, motion pictures, prints and photographs, and sound recordings. At its launch, the site contained contributions from 25 institutions in 19 countries.

You can browse the site by place, time, topic, type of item, or by institution. The movable timeline at the bottom of the home page starts at 8000 BC, and runs up to the present time. Keyword searching is also available. Both browsing and searching can be done in seven different languages: Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Russian. Many more languages are found in the actual materials, which are shown in their original languages.

Browsing by type of item, I found and listened to a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace, played on bagpipes by a military band from Scotland in 1972 (contributed by the Library of Congress). Browsing by place, I looked at the pages of The Four Books in Chapter and Verse with Collected Commentaries (in Chinese), created in China in 1217 (contributed by the National Library of China). And finally, I browsed by time, and studied a 1775 Latin map of the world (contributed by the National Library of Brazil).

As you can see, there are lots of fascinating cultural treasures in this online library, and it will continue to grow. Take a look, and see what treasures you can find!

Research on student research habits

Published
by
Barbara
on April 13, 2009
in around the world
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The University of Washington’s Information School has been investigating how university & college students conduct research, and among the preliminary findings are:

  • Wikipedia was a common starting point for “presearch,” getting background on a topic and some search words to use in article databases. Many students were aware of concerns about relying on Wikipedia for research, but “most students depended on and used Wikipedia for information cited in papers, but just never included Wikipedia entries on their Works Cited page.”
  • Students often started research near the deadline. Eight out of 10 students were “self-described procrastinators.” Students at larger institutions started later than students at smaller institutions because they were more confident of finding plenty of usable material at the last minute. Students at smaller institutions were more likely to start weeks before their research was due, to allow time for obtaining materials from beyond the campus.
  • Students expressed several frustrations with conducting research, such as seeking relevant resources among too many irrelevant items, needing access to relevant materials not locally available (e.g., a full-text article not in the library’s databases, or a book not on the shelf), and difficulties with language–both in coming up with appropriate search words and in interpreting the language in resources found.

Interested in learning more? See the Project Information Literacy web site.

Thank you, Ronna, for alerting your colleagues to this research on one of our favorite subjects (students)!

States ranked for personality traits

Published
by
Barbara
on March 25, 2009
in around the world
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I read something recently that claimed North Dakota was ranked first among the 50 states for having the most agreeable people. Huh. I decided this was research I had to find, since I was curious about how Wisconsin fared. You can read it too, and see how the states are ranked for the extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness of their citizens. Wisconsin, by the way, was ranked 5th for agreeableness and 2nd for extraversion.

journal cover imageThis research is explained and reported in the article:
Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). A theory of the emergence, persistence, and expression of geographic variation in psychological characteristics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 339-369.

Science.gov expands

Published
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Barbara
on September 18, 2008
in info.gov
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Science.gov version 5.0 was launched Sept. 15th, providing access to collections of reliable science and technology information from 17 organizations within 13 federal government science agencies. In all, researchers are provided access to over 200 million pages of scientific information.

New additions to the content of Science.gov include doepatents (patents resulting from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development), comprehensive and peer-reviewed toxicology data for thousands of chemicals in the HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank,  a digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature (PubMed Central), and cancer-related information  (Cancer.gov).

The content may be searched for keywords or browsed by topics such as “astronomy & space” or “natural resources.” Science.gov also provides links to related EurekAlert! Science News and Wikipedia, and provides the capability to download research results into personal files or citation software.

Science.gov is hosted by DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), within DOE’s Office of Science.  In addition to DOE, Science.gov is supported by contributing members of the Science.gov Alliance, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Government Printing Office, the Library of Congress, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science  Foundation, with support from the National Archives and Records Administration.

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!